Franz Xaver Murschhauser

Who was Franz Xaver Murschhauser?

Franz Xaver Murschhauser was a German composer and theorist.

He was born in Saverne, Alsace, but he is first mentioned as a singer and instrumentalist at St Peter’s School in Munich, in 1676. He studied music with the Kantor, Siegmund Auer and, from 1683 to his death in 1693, Johann Caspar Kerll. Murchhauser was appointed music director of the Munich Frauenkirche in 1691, where he remained until his death.

He published two collections of organ music in the tradition of the South German school, intended for use with the Catholic liturgy; these consist of toccatas, fantasies and fugues written using the psalm tones and plainchant melodies. The first collection is entitled Octi-tonium novum organicum, octo tonis ecclesiasticis, ad Psalmos, & magnificat, and contains eighty-nine pieces. The second collection is in two parts of 34 pieces each, entitled Prototypon longo-breve organicum;. Both may be found in Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern XXX, Jg.xviii. There are other keyboard works in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, and the Berlin Singakademie. A surviving accompanied vocal work, Vespertinus latriae et hyperduliae cultus, contains ten psalms and one laudate.