A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Baron, Ernst

by Franz Gehring

BARON, Ernst Theophilus, a famous lute player, born at Breslau Feb. 27, 1696. His first instruction was obtained from Kohatt, a Bohemian, in 1710, next in the Collegium Elizabethanum at Breslau; and he afterwards studied law and philosophy at Leipsic. After residing in Halle, Cöthen, Zeitz, Saalfold, and Rudolstadt, he appeared in Jena in 1720, whence he made an artistic tour to Cassel, Fulda, Würzburg, Nuremberg, and Regensburg, meeting everywhere with brilliant success. In Nuremberg he made some stay, and there published his 'Historisch-theoretisch und practische Untersmchung des Instruments der Lauten' (J. F. Rüdeger, 1727), to which he afterwards added an appendix in Marpurg's 'Historisch-kritischen Beiträge,' etc. In 1727 Meusel, lutenist at the court of Gotha, died, and Baron obtained the post, which however he quitted in 1732, after the death of the duke, to join the court band at Eisenach; there he remained till 1737, when he undertook a tour by Merseburg and Cöthen to Berlin, and was engaged by King Friedrich Wilhelm I. as theorbist, though he possessed no theorbo, and was compelled to obtain leave to procure one in Dresden. Weiss, the great theorbist, was at that time living in Dresden, and from him, Hofer, Kropfgans, and Belgratzky, a born Circassian, Baron soon learnt the instrument. After this he remained in Berlin till his death, April 20, 1760; and published there a great number of short papers on his instrument and music in general. Many of his compositions for the lute were published by Breitkopfs.

[ F. G. ]