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Like many of the contemporary musicians he had started his music education as a choirboy under Jesuit guidance in Vienna, where he also became good friend with Michael Haydn and J. Albrechtsberger. In 1753 he joined the St. Florian Monastery of the St. Augustin order, where he also received appointment of "Chorus Regni" (director of music) in 1755. Later in 1757 he became an ordained priest in St. Florian, and remained there for the rest of his life. Many of his works are preserved in St. Florian to this day.

Contemporaries have shown high regard for his contrapuntal skills and Anton Bruckner himself was interested in his compositions as he diligently studied some them. Aumann's early works were written in the late Baroque idiom and the later ones show influences of the Venetian and Neapolitan schools. Given that he held a position in the monastery, many of his works are of sacral type. Yet he has also contributed to the genre of Singspiel and had written even some symphonies. His instrumental music is not so well known today although he can be credited for composing some of the earliest string quartets.

For the study of Viennese bass music he is interesting as he worked in the area which in geographic and period terms neatly covers the Viennese Tuning tradition. His chamber works bear the usual titles of Cassatio and Partia, that are common to the Viennese bass use, and he indicates the basso part as Violone which was also a common designation for the Viennese bass in the early classic period. It is generally recognized that all chamber pieces which feature the brass or woodwind instruments along with a single bass part, were employing the Viennese bass instead of smaller bass instruments.

The present selection of compositions featured in the Works section is likely to be augmented by the future research which will cover Aumann's entire instrumental opus, including his sacral compositions.

 

Music Samples:

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Bibliography:

Dormann, Peter. Franz Joseph Aumann (1728-1797) : ein Meister in St. Florian vor Anton Bruckner, mit thematischem Katalog der Werke (Studien zur Landes- und Sozialgeschichte der Musik ; Bd. 6). München : Musikverlag E. Katzbichler, 1985.