Wenzel Thomas Matiegka (1773 – 1830) Sheet Music

Wenzel Thomas Matiegka

Biography

Wenzel Thomas Matiegka (1773 – 1830) was a Czech composer, guitarist, teacher, and performer. 

From 1817 until his death in 1830, Matiegka worked, like many 19th-century guitar composers, in the musical metropolis of Vienna. He gained support from many of his musical contemporaries, like Schubert, who wrote a cello part for Matiegka’s Notturno Op.21, originally scored for flute, viola, and guitar. In Vienna Matiegka was among the major composers involved in the “Viennese Guitar School,” along with Simon Molitor, Mauro Giuliani, Leonhard von Call, and others. 

Matiegka was known to be a great teacher and he wrote many pieces for students. The best examples are Op.20, a set of 24 Progressive Pieces for students, Op.24, a Method for guitar, and Op.31, a set of six “progressive” sonatas.

His most important works were a series of larger sonatas, all of which are written in the Classical sonata form defined by the age of Haydn. But he also wrote an impressive number of chamber pieces, including guitar and other instruments, transcriptions, and lieder.

Matiegka died at 57 from consumption.