Weiss, Sylvius Leopold (1686-1750)

German lutenist and composer. He was a both a virtuoso player and a prolific composer, writing nearly 600 pieces of music for solo lute, including over 70 partitas. He also wrote sonatas and concertos for combinations of instruments including the lute.

Weiss was in the service of the Polish Prince Alexander Sobieski, with whom he went to Rome about 1708, later at the courts of Hesse-Kassel, Düsseldorf, and from 1718 at Dresden, where he worked with Lotti, Hasse, Porpora, Hebenstreit, Pisendel, and others; he was sent to Vienna with a visiting Saxon orchestra that year. In 1723 he played in Prague with Quantz and H Graun in Fux's coronation opera Costanza e fortezza.