Johann Gottlieb Naumann was born on 17 April 1741 at Blasewitz near Dresden and was taught piano and organ by the masters of his town school before going on to the Kreuzschule in Dresden, singing in the Kreuzchor and studying with its cantor Gottfried August Homilius, a pupil of Bach. In May 1757 he travelled to Italy with the Swedish violinist Anders Wesström; Tartini took an interest in him in 1762, and later that year he made his operatic debut in Venice with Il tesoro insidiato. After the success of Li creduti spiriti in 1764 he was appointed second church composer at the Dresden court on Hasse’s recommendation. He married Catarina von Grodtschilling, a Danish vice-admiral’s daughter, in 1792, and died in Dresden on 23 October 1801 at sixty.

He wrote the chord sequence known as the Dresden amen for the Court Church, and it spread through Saxon churches, Catholic and Lutheran alike, before being taken up by Mendelssohn in the Reformation Symphony and by Wagner in Parsifal. In 1777, after negotiations by the Swedish diplomat Count Löwenhjelm, he was sent to reform the Stockholm Hovkapell and help Gustav III with his operatic plans: Cora och Alonzo opened the new Stockholm opera house in 1782, and Gustaf Wasa, on an idea of the king’s, followed in 1786 for the Royal Swedish Opera. After a spell in Copenhagen he returned to Dresden as Oberkapellmeister. His catalogue includes more than twenty operas, twenty-one masses, twelve oratorios, psalm settings, twelve symphonies, chamber works and music for masonic ritual.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottlieb_Naumann
• https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q213927