Biography
Little is known of Fischer’s formative years. An announcement marking the birth of his son supplies the earliest surviving mention of the composer. His first documented musical appointment came in 1695, when he assumed the role of Hofkapellmeister to the Margrave of Baden; numerous compositions were subsequently inscribed to the Margrave, the Margrave’s consort, or their offspring. When the court relocated to Rastatt in 1716, Fischer remained there for the remainder of his life. His output embraced instrumental suites, preludes and fugues, and assorted sacred vocal works. The collection “Pieces de clavessin” stands as his principal achievement; within its pages he expanded the conventional suite format by inserting French dances such as the minuet, gavotte, passepied, and canaries in place of the usual allemande-courante-sarabande sequence, with the number and sequence of movements differing from one suite to the next. Another publication, “Ariadne,” offered a set of preludes and fugues traversing every key and thereby probed the tuning possibilities of keyboard instruments. This volume anticipated and influenced J. S. Bach, whose “Well Tempered Clavier” and “Die Kunst der Fuge” likewise examined tonal orientation and thematic elaboration.