Wolff Jakob Lauffensteiner (1676–1754) was a lutenist who served at the Bavarian court, spending much of his career in Munich in the service of the Elector of Bavaria. Several of Lauffensteiner’s lute compositions have survived.
Lauffensteiner was born in Steyr. Only his baptismal date is known—April 28, 1676. He died in Munich on March 26, 1754. His father, also named Wolff Jakob Lauffensteiner, was a tower watchman in Steyr.
Around 1709, he obtained a position as a lutenist in Graz, and from 1712 onward, he was in the service of the Bavarian court. In 1715, he entered the private service of Duke Ferdinand. After the Duke’s death, he received a pension in 1739. Later, he was appointed a court chamberlain by Duke Clemens August, Archbishop of Cologne, for his services to the Electorate of Bavaria.
Lauffensteiner’s surviving works for lute and chamber ensemble are generally in the form of a suite or partita. His music is typically highly idiomatic for the lute, in the German style (i.e., it combines traditional French forms, textures, and ornamentation with Italianate, cantabile melody over a basso continuo line). In total, over 100 movements survive.
Lauffensteiner is considered a stylistic precursor of Silvius Leopold Weiss, to whom his music is frequently erroneously attributed in manuscript sources—a testament to the high quality his contemporaries appreciated.