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Johann Ludwig Krebs
October 12, 1713 - January 1, 1780
born in Buttelstedt, composed during the Classical period
Biography
Johann Ludwig Krebs was a composer whose career spanned the end of the Baroque and beginning of the Classical era. In many respects, it typifies the problems many musicians had in coping with the drastic change of style this implies. Since he was an exceptionally skilled writer of counterpoint, he might have ended up with considerably wider fame if he had been born 20 years earlier.

Johann Ludwig was the son of Johann Tobias Krebs, the organist of Buttelstedt, near Weimar, who had studied with Bach. Father taught son organ, harmony, theory, and counterpoint. The lad was sent to enter the Thomasschule in Leipzig, where Bach was music director. Krebs general studies and lessons in singing, lute, violin, and keyboard. He remained a singer in Bach's choir until 1730.

Krebs attended the University of Leipzig from 1735 to 1737, took part on an as-needed basis in Bach's choir at the Thomaskirche and was the harpsichord player in the university's collegium musicum, which was also directed by Bach. Krebs left Leipzig in 1737 to take a position as organist of the Marienkirche in Zwickau, an ill-paid job playing an equally ill-maintained organ. While there, he met and married Johanna Sophie Nackens, daughter of a civil servant there.