Johann Friedrich Gräfe (7 May 1711 – 5 or 8 February 1787) was a German civil servant and an amateur composer, whose works are still known today.
Life and career He was born in Braunschweig and baptized on 7 May 1711 in Nauen. Gräfe studied law and spent most of his life in Braunschweig, except for brief stays in Halle and Leipzig. While a dilettante of music, he may have studied under Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch and Carl Heinrich Graun. He was a (court councillor), a member of the court of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. He was quite recognized at the time as an amateur composer. Gräfe was also a poet. His daughter Louise Gräfe married the writer Johann Arnold Ebert.
Gräfe composed several lied collections, cantatas, some instrumental pieces, and an opera (). The attribution of his works is not always certain.
Hermann Abert attributed in 1922 most of the works in Leopold Mozart's , including an "Angloise", to Gräfe. – via Wolfgang Plath showed in 1973 to be a forgery.
Stage works Herkules auf dem Oeta (1782), Singspiel in one act; text by Benjamin Michaelis Michaelis. (also attributed to Anton Schweitzer and Joseph Aloys Schmittbaur)
Selected works . (1737, 1739, 1741, 1743) 4 works in 1 volume, Hildesheim: Olms 2008 (Dokumentation zur Geschichte des deutschen Liedes 13). . Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1744. . Leipzig, 1755; Facsimile Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1919. . Braunschweig: Fürstl. Waysenhaus. Buchhandlung; Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1760.
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