Like many musicians who achieved fame and fortune in eighteenth-century Vienna, Florian Leopold Gassmann was of Bohemian origin. Little is known about his early years.It seems that Gassmann ran away and after a period spent living precariously in Karlsbad made his way south to Italy, where he may have studied with the celebrated theorist Padre Martini. By 1757 Gassmann was well enough established as a composer to secure a commission to compose an opera, Merope, which was produced for the carnival season at the Teatro S. Moisè in Venice. The work was well received and he was invited to compose a new opera annually for the next five years. Although he was initially engaged to compose ballet music, Gassmann also undertook to compose operas for the Viennese theatre. Although Gassmann is thought of primarily as a composer of operas and perhaps to a lesser extent of church music, he also composed in other genres including chamber music. Gassmann’s appointment as Hofkapellmeister in March 1772 marked the summit of his professional career. He owed his appointment in part to his reputation as a composer but also perhaps to his recent initiative in founding the Tonkünstler-Societät for one of whose first public performances (19 March 1772) he composed the oratorio La Betulia liberata.
| Year of birth | 1729 |
| Year of death | 1774 |
| Nationality | Czech Republic |
| Period | Baroque |