George Berg

George Berg (or Georg, according to some sources) was a composer and organist active in London during the second half of the eighteenth century. His German origin places him within the considerable community of Central European musicians who worked in the British capital at that time.

The date of his birth, probably in the 1730s, is approximate, and his death in London in 1775 is the most secure fact of his biography. It has also been suggested that he may have dabbled in chemistry and in experiments with making musical glass, although this has not been confirmed.

His early activity is linked to the Ranelagh Gardens, where he probably played the organ or the violin in the late 1750s. There he published six books of Ranelagh songs, many of them written for the tenor John Beard. His Concerti grossi op. 1 also seem to have been composed for that setting, and the idiomatic writing for violin suggests that he was a composer-performer. Around 1763 he was admitted to the Royal Society of Musicians and was advertised as a harpsichord teacher in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1771 he held the post of organist at St Mary-at-Hill, in the City of London, and from then on he ceased to publish music. After his death, his music library was auctioned together with the effects of Samuel Gillespy, a maker of keyboard instruments.

Almost nothing survives of his stage and sacred output: his operas, the oratorio The Cure of Saul and the ode The Invitation have disappeared. Some glees do survive, and in 1763 he won a prize for one of them, On softest beds. His Sonatas op. 7, published for harpsichord or pianoforte, count among the first printed for both instruments, although their galant style, with numerous Alberti basses, is less innovative than the title suggests. The more traditional sonatas have greater personality. His legacy is considered modest, but it illustrates London's musical life of his time and the transition from the harpsichord to the pianoforte.