Anton Cajetan Adlgasser

Anton Cajetan Adlgasser (born at Niederachen, near Inzell, Upper Bavaria, on 1 October 1729; died in Salzburg on 22 December 1777) was a German composer and organist active at the court and cathedral of Salzburg during the transition between the generation of J. E. Eberlin and Leopold Mozart and that of Michael Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His career illustrates well the musical life of an eighteenth-century ecclesiastical capital, where the court musician was also a versatile performer and teacher.

His father, Ulrich Adlgasser, was a schoolmaster and organist. In 1744 Anton enrolled at the University of Salzburg and that same year joined the court chapel as a chorister. During his student years he sang and performed in several Schuldramen, including seven by J. E. Eberlin, from whom he probably also received composition lessons, alongside training in organ and violin. In 1750 he was appointed court and cathedral organist, shortly after Eberlin had been promoted to Hofkapellmeister. According to Leopold Mozart's account, his duties included accompanying chamber music at the court on the harpsichord and composing for both the court and the cathedral. After 1760 he also held the organ post at the Dreifaltigkeitskirche and taught keyboard at the choir school.

In 1764 Archbishop Schrattenbach sent him to Italy for a year to broaden his knowledge of Italian music. There he associated with Giuseppe Colla and G. B. Martini, who wrote him a letter of recommendation. His only opera, La Nitteti, was premiered in 1766, the year after his return. He was married three times: his second wife, Maria Barbara Schwab, died in 1768, and his third, Maria Anna Fesemayr, was a court singer who had accompanied him to Venice. His death, probably caused by a stroke while playing vespers in the cathedral, was described in detail by Leopold Mozart. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart succeeded him as cathedral organist.

His instrumental output includes ten symphonies, four harpsichord concertos and works for keyboard and organ. According to Rainer (1963), the five surviving symphonies preserved in Regensburg are related to the Italian opera sinfonia, though with the traditional Salzburg instrumentation. However, he was above all a composer of sacred music, which was widely disseminated in the eighteenth century, including masses, requiems, vespers and numerous motets. His stage works, performed mainly at the Benedictine university or in the archbishop's residence, encompass Latin Schuldramen, oratorios and German religious singspiels, with collaborations with Mozart and Michael Haydn in several works of the 1760s and 1770s.

His legacy rests on the solid contrapuntal and vocal tradition of mid-century Salzburg. His theoretical treatises, one of them written together with Michael Haydn, were used in teaching and form part of the Salzburg organ tradition. In 1776 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart praised him, alongside Michael Haydn, as "bravissimi contrapuntisti".