Johann Philipp Kirnberger was a composer and music writer. He learned to play the organ from Johann Peter Kellner and Heinrich Nicolaus Gerber. He also studied violin with Meil in Sondershausen. Most importantly, from 1739 to 1741, he studied how to perform and compose music with Johann Sebastian Bach. Between 1741 and 1751, Kirnberger worked for several noblemen in Poland and at a Benedictine monastery in Lviv. While there, he gathered Polish national dances and wrote about them in his book called Die Charaktere der Tänze. In 1751, he joined the court of Frederick the Great as a violinist and later became the music director for Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia, a position he kept until he died. Kirnberger greatly admired J.S. Bach. He helped publish Bach's Clavierübungen and saved many of Bach's music manuscripts. He wrote an important music theory work called Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik. He also created special tuning systems known as Kirnberger II and Kirnberger III. One of his own pieces is the Fuga in C-dur for organ, which was at first thought to be by J.S. Bach and then by Bach's son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.