He was the harpsichord player in the university's collegium musicum, also directed by Bach. Krebs left Leipzig in 1737 to take a position as organist of the Marienkirche in Zwickau, an ill-paying job with an equally ill-maintained organ. While there, he met and married Johanna Sophie Nackens, daughter of a civil servant there. Soon, they had the first of their children, Johann Gottfried Krebs (1741-1814), who subsequently became an organist writing a large number of cantatas in his long-standing tenure as Mittelorganist or Stadtkantor of Altenberg. In 1744, Johann Ludwig Krebs moved to Zeitz to become organist at the Schlosskirche there. He tried unsuccessfully to become Bach's successor. In 1756, he accepted a position as organist to the court of Prince Friedrich of Gotha-Altenberg. The organ was better (Heinrich Trost builder), and the court was more exalted, but the pay was little improvement. One story has it that he was paid in food, because by this time his family numbered eight children! A second wife also entered the picture after the death of Johanna. Krebs continued to get by, however, and retained the post until his death on February 1, 1780. Family finances were somewhat helped when son Johann Gottfried became his assistant organist during last years when his eyesight was failing.

Many of Johann Ludwig Krebs' works, especially his organ compositions, are very much like those of Bach, with his own intriguing chromaticism sometimes sneaking in. He obviously took some of JSB's free organ works as models for his own preludes, fugues, fantasias, and toccatas. These prolific organ works, nearly 50 per cent of his extant output, reveal him to be a composer of surprising breadth, with a highly developed understanding of the idiom of his instrument. The 46 free works - Preludes and Fugues, Toccatas and Fugues, 19 Trio movements, many smaller Preludes, Fantasias, Fugues--and the c. 85 chorale-based works known to us may be rightfully regarded as the principal segment of late Baroque organ literature in Germany after Bach. The Prelude and Fugue in C Major that we hear today is commonly known as the Postillion due to its very distinctive fugue subject. This subject is said to be similar to the horn tune that the postman would blow as he approached the city to deliver the mail. Krebs' postman must have been a very talented horn player, as the subject (and the whole fugue) is very complicated - and extremely joyous! This prelude and fugue presents much fun for the player, and hopefully for the listener as well!

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger was born 17 March 1839, in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, and died 25 November 1901, in Munich. His father was the treasurer for Aloys II, Prince of Liechtenstein. Josef showed exceptional musical talent at an early age. At only seven years of age, he was already serving as organist of the Vaduz parish church, with a special pedalboard constructed! His first composition, a mass for three voices, was performed the following year.

In 1851, his father, who had initially been resistant to his son's desire to pursue a musical career, allowed him to enter the Munich Conservatorium, where he later became professor of piano and subsequently professor of composition. When this first version of the Munich Conservatorium was dissolved, he was appointed r�p�titeur at the Court Theatre, from which he resigned in 1867.

Rheinberger married his former pupil, the poetess and socialite Franziska von Hoffnaass (eight years his senior) in 1867. The couple remained childless, but the marriage was happy. Franziska wrote the texts for much of her husband's vocal work.

The stylistic influences on Rheinberger ranged from contemporaries such as Brahms to composers from earlier times, such as Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert and, above all, Bach. He was also an enthusiast for painting and literature (especially English and German).

In 1877 he was appointed court conductor, responsible for the music in the royal chapel. He was later awarded an honorary doctorate by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. A distinguished teacher, he numbered many Americans among his pupils, including Horatio Parker, William Berwald, George Whitefield Chadwick, Bruno Klein and Henry Holden Huss. Other pupils of his included important figures from Europe: Italian composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, and German composers Engelbert Humperdinck and Wilhelm Furtw�ngler (the latter much better known as a conductor). When the second (and present) Munich Conservatorium was founded, Rheinberger was appointed Royal Professor of organ and composition, a post he held for the rest of his life.

Rheinberger was a prolific composer. His religious works include twelve Masses (one for double chorus, three for four voices a cappella, three for women's voices and organ, two for men's voices and one with orchestra), a Requiem and a Stabat Mater. His other works include several operas, symphonies, chamber music, and choral works.

Today he is remembered primarily for his elaborate and challenging organ compositions; these include two concertos, 20 sonatas in 20 different keys (of a projected set of 24 sonatas in all the keys), 22 trios, and 36 solo pieces. His organ sonatas were once declared to be undoubtedly the most valuable addition to organ music since the time of Mendelssohn. They are characterized by a happy blending of the modern Romantic spirit with masterly counterpoint and dignified organ style. We hear Sonata 20 today, dedicated to the PEACE FESTIVAL, although scholarship does not make clear what they were celebrating!