Joseph Paul Ziegler

Joseph Paul Ziegler was born and died in Vienna, in 1722 and 1767 respectively, and belongs to Austrian musical life of the eighteenth century. Before establishing his career as a performer and composer, he taught violin at the city's Jesuit seminary, which provides a useful starting point for understanding his training and his role as a teacher.

His career later took him to St Stephen's Cathedral, where he worked as a musician, and to the court chapel, where he also played. Around 1753 he gave violin lessons to Dittersdorf, who later remembered him as a notable violinist and a competent, trustworthy composer of chamber music. Thanks to his recommendation, Dittersdorf obtained his first musical post.

In Vienna his chamber and sacred works were highly esteemed, and as a virtuoso he was respected by weighty contemporaries such as Albrechtsberger and the Haydn brothers, who praised his manner of playing. His legacy today survives mainly in manuscript: masses, litanies, motets and a violin concerto are preserved in manuscript sources, and his importance lies in his role as a teacher and in the recognition his colleagues gave him.