DESCRIPTION:
A Division on a Ground

Composer: Gottfried Finger (~1655-1730)
Performers: Emma-Jane Murphy (recorder) & David Miller (theorbo)

Finger was born in the Moravian town of Olomouc in approximately 1655, and died in Mannheim in 1730, so he was about a generation ahead of J.S. Bach. He was a virtuoso gambist himself, and wrote extensively for that instrument.
For centuries, Prague has been called the Conservatory of Europe because it exports so many skilled and talented musicians, and Gottfried Finger was one of them. Much of his career was spent in London, first in the court of James II, and then as a freelance composer and performer.
His career there ended when a contest to find the best opera composer in London was held, and, despite - or perhaps because of - his considerable success in the field, he came in fourth. He was mortally offended and left London in disgust, even though the contest was judged by the general public and not by his peers. He went on to work courts in Vienna, Berlin, Breslau (now Wroclaw), and Mannheim, where his work helped form the foundations of what came to be known as the Mannheim school of composition.
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/70193