Moritz Brosig

Despite his Roman Catholic faith, he wrote more than thirty chorale preludes, working in a musical genre more traditionally associated with Lutheran worship.

[6][7] When Brosig was just three his father died: his mother sold the family lands and moved with her son to Breslau,[7] which is where Moritz grew to adulthood and, indeed, where he lived for the rest of his life.

[3] According to his biographer Rudolf Walter, Brosig was no prodigy, but he made up for any deficiency in flair with an exceptionally industrious approach to practicing.

During this period he deputised with growing frequency for his teacher-mentor,[3] who combined his teaching responsibilities with a role as principal cathedral organist on the north side of the river.

After Brosig's death, in 1899 Carl Thiel published a fourth edition, now with a new title, as the "Handbuch der Harmonielehre und Modulation".

During the 1880s he found he could no longer manage the stairs, and during the final part of his career his duties in the organ loft were increasingly delegated to his assistant Adolf Greulich.

The cheerfulness arising from dance rhythms along with the anthrocentric self-portrayal and theatricality reminiscent of operatic arias were a particular concern for many of the early proponents of what became known as the Cecilian Movement.

[3] The name of the movement came most directly from the national "General Cecilian Association for Germany" ("Allgemeiner Cäcilien-Verband für Deutschland"), founded in Bamberg in October 1868.

[7] In his 1880 work on the reintroduction of sixteenth and seventeenth century church music to Catholic liturgy[b] Brosig quoted with evident approval the verdict of the polymath-musicologist Emil von Schafhäutl:[11] Brosig very quickly distanced himself from the association, however, not wishing to make common cause with the more extremist calls for a return to an imagined musical tradition characterised by pre-enlightenment purity.

[3][7] In 1880 Brosig published his own opinions of the Cecilian controversy in his treatise "Über die alten Kirchenkompositionen und ihre Wiedereinführung" (approximately, "On the old ecclesiastical compositions and their reintroduction").

[11] Brosig's compositions resonated most strongly with the church music community in Silesia, and in Catholic southern Germany more broadly, as well as in the German speaking lands of Austro-Hungary (Cisleithania).

[8] An essay appeared in the 1869 edition of the "Zeitschrift für katholische Kirchenmusik" ("Journal of Catholic Church Music") commending his work: "The principal body of the choir is given due recognition.

"[c][10] Distancing his approach from what had become the traditional classical and indeed at times operatic orchestrally accompanied masses, while at the same time firmly rejecting radical Cecilian exclusion of any orchestral involvement within the cathedral building, Brosig tried to respect the liturgical circumstances with his compositions and to produce music that respected contemporary norms without compromising on quality.