Cornelius Heinrich Dretzel (18 September 1697 (bapt.) – 7 May 1775) was a German organist and composer. He was born in Nuremberg, where he appears to have spent his whole life in various organists' posts, including:

• St. Egidien, Nuremberg 1719–1743
• St. Lorenz, Nuremberg 1743–1764
• St. Sebaldus Church, Nuremberg 1764–1775

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (March 2020)

He may have studied with J.S. Bach in Weimar (1716–1717), and his compositions reveal points of contact with Bach. They include a concerto for harpsichord solo, perhaps modelled on the Italian Concerto. A variant of the slow movement of this solo concerto [] was once thought to be by Bach: it was published as a Prelude by Bach in the 19th-century Bach-Gesellschaft edition, and listed in the first edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV) as the first movement of BWV 897 (BWV 897/1).[1]

References

Sources

• Ahlgrimm, Isolde (1969). "Cornelius Heinrich Dretzel, der Autor des J. S. Bach zugeschriebenen Klavierwerkes BWV 897" [Cornelius Heinrich Dretzel, the composer of the keyboard piece BWV 897, ascribed to J. S. Bach]. In Dürr, Alfred; Neumann, Werner (eds.). Bach-Jahrbuch 1969 [Bach Yearbook 1969]. Bach-Jahrbuch (in German). Vol. 55. Neue Bachgesellschaft. Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt. pp. 67–77. doi:10.13141/bjb.v1969.
• Oxford Composer Companions, J.S. Bach, 1999, p. 142

Further reading

• Dunning, Brian (September 28, 2021). "Skeptoid #799: On the Authorship of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor: The most famous organ work in history has a surprising mystery – we're not really sure who composed it!". Skeptoid. – reviews speculation that J.S. Bach did not compose the work.

External links

• Free scores by Cornelius Heinrich Dretzel at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)