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Schmelzer wrote the ballet music for about 40 opera’s by Draghi and other composers. He also wrote church music (e.g. "Missa Nuptialis"), as well as instrumental sonatas and trumpet fanfares. His music was influenced by the Eastern European folk music he picked up from the many different nationalities at the army quarters where he grew up.

Schmelzer’s father was an officer during the Thirty Years War. So Austrian composer Johann Schmelzer grew up in the military camps of the Austrian army. Because he was an excellent violin player, he was engaged at the Viennese court of the Habsburg emperor, Leopold I, in 1649. He was assistant conductor from 1671 and was appointed first conductor from 1679, the first non-Italian conductor at the court!