A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Mizler, Lorenz

by George Grove

MIZLER (Mitsler), Lorenz Christoph, born at Heidenheim, Wurtemberg, July 25, 1711, died at Warsaw March 1778; was educated at the Gymnasium of Anspach and the University of Leipzig. He was one of Bach's scholars. In 1734 he became a magistrate, and was generally a cultivated and prominent person. His claim to perpetuity is his connexion with the 'Association for Musical Science,' which he founded at Leipzig in 1738 and kept together. Amongst its members were Handel, Bach, and Graun. Bach composed a 6-part Canon and the Canonical Variations on 'Vom Himmel hoch,' as his diploma pieces. Mizler wrote a treatise on Thorough Bass (Generalbasslehre), in which he seems to have pushed the connexion of music and mathematics to absurdity. (See Spitta, Bach, ii. 502–506. [App. p.719 "iii. 22–25"])

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