Gottfried August Homilius The Lord is my shepherd

Gottfried August Homilius, the son of a pastor, was born in Rosenthal (Saxony) on 2 February 1714. In May 1735 he enrolled as a law student at Leipzig University. Likewise, it was probably at this time that Homilius was a pupil of Johann Sebastian Bach; the latter fact had been attested to by Johann Adam Hiller. Apart from Bach, Homilius also had contact with Johann Schneider, a Bach pupil and organist at the Nicolaikirche, for whom he also substituted. After unsuccesfully applying for a post as organist in Bautzen, Homilius was appointed organist at the Dresden Frauenkirche in 1742. In 1755 Homilius succeeded Theodor Christlieb Reinhold as Kreuzkantor and music director of the three main churches in Dresden, a position that he occupied until his death on 2 June 1785. Personal details

Hermann Max studied church music at the Berlin Musikhochschule, and musicology, art history and archaeology at Cologne University . His work together with his ensembles has focussed primarily on European music of the 17th to 19th centuries. Many concerts and broadcasts on Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Cologne have concentrated on works not only by Johann Sebastian Bach himself, but above all, as in the present CD, on works by members of his family, his pupils and contemporaries, his predecessors and successors in office. Thus, this represents an important contribution to the rediscovery of Bach and his musical surroundings. Hermann Max is active as a guest conductor in Germany and elsewhere, and regularly he teaches courses in the interpretation of early music. With his ensembles he performs throughout Europe, in the USA and Israel. In 1991 he was offered the position of Thomaskantor in Leipzig, but he did not accept it. In 1998 he was awarded the Telemann Prize of the town of Magdeburg for “outstanding service in the interpretation, cultivation and research into the life and work of Georg Philipp Telemann.” Since 1991 Hermann Max has been the artistic director of the annual Early Music Festival at Knechtsteden. Personal details