Johann Caspar Vogler (23 May 1696 – 3 June 1763) was a Germanorganist andcomposer taught byJohann Sebastian Bach.
He was born inHausen, nearArnstadt; from 1706 he studied withJohann Sebastian Bach, who was organist there between 1703 and 1707. He also taught, inRudolstadt, byP. H. Erlebach andNicolaus Vetter. He moved toWeimar to study further with Bach from 1710 to 1715, during which time he copiedJacques Boyvin's twolivres d'orgue. He was appointed organist at Stadtilm in 1715, leaving in May 1721 to take up Bach's former post of organist to the Weimar court.
He failed in two applications in 1729 for organ posts at theNikolaikirche,Leipzig, and Sts Peter und Paul,Görlitz, which were filled by Bach pupilsJohann Schneider andDavid Nicolai. The Leipzig judges remarked that he 'played too fast and confused the congregation'; this did not deter him from boasting of his 'swiftness of hand and feet' in the second application.
He was selected for the post of organist of theMarktkirche inHanover in 1735, but forbidden from leaving Weimar by DukeErnst August, the same prohibition that DukeWilhelm Ernst had imposed years before on Bach. Nevertheless, he became deputymayor of Weimar as some consolation, and mayor two years later; he remained there for the rest of his life.
He composed aSt MarkPassion which is now lost, and only three of his works, all organchorales, are now known. His setting ofJesu Leiden, Pein und Tod,BWV Anh. 57 (modelled onO Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß,BWV 622, in Bach'sOrgelbüchlein) is one of the most elaborately decorated chorales in the whole repertoire, with the chorale melody embellished byhemidemisemiquavers and even shorter notes. He published the two other chorales asVermischte musikalische Choral-Gedanken (Weimar, 1737; inIncognita organo XXXVI, Hilversum, 1988); they are of a similar style to Bach's 'Arnstadt' chorales with expressive, improvisational interludes to a full harmonised chorale; there are other features resembling Bach's'Leipzig' chorales, BWV 651–668.
There are some copies of Bach's compositions in Vogler's hand; he was formerly known in the Bach literature as 'Anonymous 18' before his identity was established. The copy he made of thePrelude andFughetta in C major,BWV 870a, is valued inperformance practice studies, for its written-outfingerings.
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