Johann Joachim Quantz was a German flutist, flute maker, music theorist and composer.
Background
Quantz was born in Oberscheden, near Göttingen, Germany, the fifth child of a blacksmith. After the death of both parents (1702 and 1707), a boy brought up by his uncle - Justus Quantz, who was a musician in town Merseburg and organist Johann Friedrich Kiesewetter. His uncle died too soon, and Quantz continued his studies with his successor Johann Flyayshhak.
Education
By age eight, Quantz was already playing double bass in village festivals. When he was 10, upon his blacksmith-father's death, he was apprenticed to his uncle, a town musician in Merseburg, and then his uncle's son-in-law. He studied string and wind instruments and also took lessons on the harpsichord. During this period he came to know the works of the major Baroque composers of the preceeding and present generations. This apprenticeship led Quantz to proficiency on oboe, trumpet, and most string instruments. He studied composition extensively and pored over scores of the masters to adopt their style. From 1714 went to study at the city orchestra Pirna, where he learned to play the flute, oboe, trumpet and several other instruments. On graduation in 1716, won a seat oboist and flutist in the orchestra of the city of Dresden Chapel. From 1717 he studied composition with Jan Zelenka and Johann Fuchs in Vienna in 1718, he took lessons from flutist Pierre Gabriel Byuffarden.
Quantz was taught by Fux, Gasparini, and Zelenka. He studied counterpoint in Vienna.
Career
Quantz began his career as member of the Dresden orchestra in 1716. He spent some time in the Dresden town band, and in 1717 studied counterpoint in Vienna with Jan Dismas Zelenka. The following year he became oboist in the Polish chapel of Augustus II, King of Poland, spending time in both Warsaw and Dresden. But in 1719, realizing how few opportunities for promotion he faced as an oboist, Quantz took up the transverse flute.
The following years found Quantz traveling through Europe in the entourage of Augustus II, performing and studying counterpoint when he could. As a composer he was already strongly influenced by the concertos of Vivaldi. In 1728, the same year he became a member of the Dresden court chapel, Quantz was engaged to teach Crown Prince Friedrich in Berlin. He commuted between Berlin and Dresden, where he also made flutes starting in 1739. He built as many as eighteen instruments for Frederick the Great during his employment.
When the Crown Prince became King of Prussia in 1740, he soon summoned Quantz to Berlin to supervise private evening concerts and continue serving as his flute teacher. Quantz's salary was increased by 150 percent, and he received extra payment for each flute and composition he produced. (He was also the only person authorized to criticize the king's flute playing.)