Philipp Christoph Kayser

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Philipp Christoph Kayser (10 March 1755 – 24 December 1823) was a German pianist, composer, orchestra musician, music teacher and poet. He was a close friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Kayser was born in Frankfurt on 10 March 1755, the son of the organist of the St. Catherine's Church, Frankfurt. His father gave him his first music lessons. He studied music theory with Georg Andreas Sorge. Already at grammar school, Kayser became friends with Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, who was three years older and later became the most successful playwright of the Sturm und Drang movement. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe also joined him later, as did the Strasbourg poet Heinrich Leopold Wagner and the Livonian Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, who lived in Strasbourg and visited Frankfurt from time to time. In 1774, Kayser became a freemason in the Zurich lodge Modestia cum libertate.[1] In 1775, Kayser moved to Zurich. Goethe paid him a visit there in 1775 and 1779. Goethe was so enthusiastic about his songs, that he sent him his Singspiel "Jery und Bäteli" for setting to music. First Kayser refused. However, this did not harm Goethe - he still stood by him as his chosen composer. "What I appreciate most about things is precisely this chastity, the certainty of being able to achieve a lot with a little," he wrote to him. In 1780, Kayser's Christmas cantata was published by his publisher Füssli in Zurich. Two sonatas for violin, piano and horns appeared shortly afterwards, but without datin

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