Introduction

Biography

Naumann was the hus­band of Ca­ta­ri­na von Grodt­schill­ing, daugh­ter of a Dan­ish vice-ad­mir­al (mar­ried 1792), and grand­father of com­pos­er Ernst Nau­mann (1832–1910).

He re­ceived his mu­sic­al train­ing in his town school, where he learned pi­ano and or­gan. Lat­er, he stu­died at the Kreuz­schule in Dres­den and was a mem­ber of the Dres­den Kreuz­chor.

In Dres­den, he learned from the or­gan­ist and can­tor of the Kreuz­schule, Gott­fried Au­gust Ho­mi­li­us, a stu­dent of Bach.

In May 1757, he tra­veled to It­aly with Swed­ish vio­lin­ist An­ders Wes­ström. Com­pos­er Giu­sep­pe Tar­ti­ni en­coun­tered Nau­mann in 1762 and took an in­ter­est in his work.

Later that year, Nau­mann made his de­but as an op­era com­pos­er in Ven­ice with Il Te­so­ro In­si­di­a­to. Af­ter his suc­cess­ful 1764 pro­duct­ion of Li Cr­edu­ti Spir­i­ti, he was en­gaged as the se­cond church com­pos­er at the Dres­den court, on the re­com­mend­a­tion of com­pos­er Jo­hann Adolf Has­se.

In 1777, as a re­sult of ne­go­ti­a­tions by Swed­ish dip­lo­mat Count Lö­wen­hjelm, Nau­mann was ap­point­ed to re­form the Stock­holm Hov­ka­pell and help King Gus­tav­us III in his op­era plans. His work in Swe­den led to the 1782 pro­duct­ion of his op­era Co­ra och Alon­zo at the in­au­gu­ra­tion of the new op­era house in Stock­holm, and the 1786 pro­duct­ion of Gus­taf Wa­sa, based on an idea of the king for a Roy­al Swed­ish Op­e­ra.

After a pe­ri­od as guest com­pos­er in Co­pen­ha­gen (1785–86), he re­turned to Dres­den, where he be­came Ober­ka­pell­meis­ter.