The son of a soldier in the service of Count Franz Anton von Rottal, Franz Xaver Richter’s career as a musician seems to have started by his appointment as a bass singer in the Stuttgart Court Chapel in 1736. This was followed, after a short period in the service of a nobleman, by service as director musices to the Benedictine Ritterakademie at Ettal. In 1740 he became vice-Kapellmeister to the Prince Abbot Anselm von Reichlin-Meldegg at Kempten, later to be promoted to the position of Kapellmeister. In 1746 he moved to join the musical establishment of the Elector Palatine at Mannheim as a singer and then as a composer. He was able to travel on concert tours and in 1769 became Kapellmeister at Strasbourg Cathedral.

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