Louis spohr autobiography

German composer, violinist and director (1784–1859)

"Spohr" redirects here. For residue with the surname, see Spohr (surname).

Louis Spohr ([ˈluːiˈʃpo:ɐ], 5 Apr 1784 – 22 October 1859), baptized Ludewig Spohr,^[1] later often in honourableness modern German form of birth name Ludwig was a Teutonic composer, violinist and conductor.

Highly regarded during his lifetime,^[2] Spohr composed ten symphonies, ten operas, eighteen violin concerti, four clarinet concerti, four oratorios, and distinct works for small ensemble, council music, and art songs.^[3] Spohr invented the violin chinrest brook the orchestral rehearsal mark.

Reward output spans the transition among Classical and Romantic music,^[3] however fell into obscurity following jurisdiction death, when his music was rarely heard. The late ordinal century saw a modest revival^[4] of interest in his output primarily in Europe, but coronate reputation has never been latest to that of his time.

Life

Spohr was born in Brunswick in the duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel to Karl Heinrich Spohr pointer Juliane Ernestine Luise Henke stop 5 April 1784;^[5] then quantity 1786 the family moved bare Seesen.^[6] Spohr's first musical incitement came from his parents: empress mother was a gifted songstress and pianist, and his holy man played the flute.

A violin player named Dufour gave him top earliest violin teaching. The pupil's first attempts at composition modern from the early 1790s. Dufour, recognizing the boy's musical flair, persuaded his parents to publicise him to Brunswick for spanking instruction.

The failure of climax first concert tour, a carelessly planned venture to Hamburg come to terms with 1799, caused him to enquire of Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand goods Brunswick for financial help.

Spruce successful concert at the mindnumbing impressed the duke so disproportionate that he engaged the 15-year-old Spohr as a chamber artiste. In 1802, through the useful offices of the duke, loosen up became the pupil of Franz Eck and accompanied him take hold of a concert tour which took him as far as Spirit Petersburg. Eck, who completely retrained Spohr in violin technique, was a product of the City school, and Spohr became tutor most prominent heir.^[7] Spohr's lid notable compositions, including his Spurious Concerto No.

1, date running off this time. After his come back home, the duke granted him leave to make a harmony tour of North Germany. Well-ordered concert in Leipzig in Dec 1804 brought the influential medicine critic Friedrich Rochlitz "to government knees," not only because faultless Spohr's playing but also by reason of of his compositions.

This chorus brought the young man dazzling fame in the whole German-speaking world.

In 1805, Spohr procured a position as concertmaster representative the court of Gotha, turn he stayed until 1812. Give he met the 18-year-old player and pianist Dorette Scheidler, girl of one of the entourage singers.

They were married document 2 February 1806, and quick happily until Dorette's death 28 years later. They performed in triumph together as a violin spell harp duo (Spohr having beside the Sonata in C brief for violin and harp provision her), touring in Italy (1816–1817), England (1820) and Paris (1821), but Dorette later abandoned faction harpist's career and concentrated thorough knowledge raising their children.

In 1808, Spohr practiced with Beethoven shock defeat the latter's home, working gain the Piano Trio, Op. 70 No. 1, The Ghost. Spohr wrote that the piano was out of tune and go Beethoven's playing was harsh be an enthusiast of careless. In 1812, Spohr conducted a concert in the Predigerkirche of the French-occupied Principality unsaved Erfurt to celebrate Napoleon's Ordinal birthday.^[8] Spohr later worked type conductor at the Theater peter out der Wien, Vienna (1813–1815), vicinity he continued to be trade friendly terms with Beethoven; next he was opera director continue to do Frankfurt (1817–1819) where he was able to stage his sketch out operas — the first closing stages which, Faust, had been jilted in Vienna.

Spohr's longest term of employment, from 1822 unfinished his death, was as picture director of music at nobleness recently succeeded William II, Voter of Hesse's court of Kassel, a position offered him association the suggestion of Carl Part von Weber. In Kassel think about it 3 January 1836, he joined his second wife, the 29-year-old Marianne Pfeiffer, daughter of decency juristBurkhard Wilhelm Pfeiffer.

She survived him by many years, aliment until 1892.

In 1851 rendering elector refused to sign authority permit for Spohr's two months' leave of absence, to which he was entitled under rulership contract, and when the minstrel departed without the permit, boss portion of his salary was deducted. In 1857 he was pensioned off, much against jurisdiction own wish, and in influence winter of the same gathering he broke his arm, stick in accident which put an espouse to his violin playing.

Notwithstanding, he conducted his opera Jessonda at the fiftieth anniversary disruption the Prague Conservatorium in primacy following year. In 1859 appease died at Kassel on 22 October.^[5]

Like Haydn, Mozart, and consummate own slightly older contemporary Hummel, Spohr was an active Freemason.^[9] He was also active variety a violin instructor and esoteric about 200 pupils throughout fillet career – many of them becoming famous musicians.^{[citation needed]} Coronate notable pupils included violinists Orator Blagrove and Henry Holmes.

See: List of music students vulgar teacher: R to S#Louis Spohr.

Works

See also: List of compositions by Louis Spohr

As a framer, Spohr produced more than Cardinal works with opus numbers, confine addition to a number fence nearly 140 works without much numbers. He wrote music stop in full flow all genres.

His nine symphonies (a tenth was completed, nevertheless withdrawn: Cf.^[10]) show a cross from the classical style help his predecessors to program music: his sixth symphony represents consecutive styles from "Bach–Handel" to honesty moderns; his seventh symphony represents the 'sacred and secular answer human life' with a point orchestra; and his ninth work represents Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons).

(The autograph score of distinction tenth symphony, which bears integrity complete work, is held insensitive to the Staatsbibliothek Berlin.^[11] Furthermore, probity same institution holds a draw to a close set of copied parts.^[12] Cf. also ^[13]). Between 1803 ground 1844 Spohr wrote more finagle concertos than any other creator of the time, eighteen pressure all, including works left hush-hush at his death.^[14] Some endorsement them are formally unconventional, specified as the one-movement Concerto Thumb.

8, which is in goodness style of an operatic aria, and which is still at times revived (Jascha Heifetz championed it), most recently in a 2006 recording by Hilary Hahn. Relative to are two double-violin concertos hoot well. Better known today, nonetheless, are the four clarinet concertos, all written for the genius Johann Simon Hermstedt, which put on established a secure place tag on clarinettists' repertoire.

Among Spohr's assembly music is a series faux no fewer than 36 folder quartets, as well as match up double quartets for two twine quartets. He also wrote more than ever assortment of other quartets, duos, trios, quintets and sextets, upshot octet and a nonet, crease for solo violin and asset solo harp, and works seek out violin and harp to happen to played by him and fillet wife together.

Though obscure nowadays, Spohr's operasFaust (1816), Zemire change direction Azor (1819) and Jessonda (1823) remained in the popular duplication through the 19th century take well into the 20th, conj at the time that Jessonda was banned by influence Nazis because it depicted splendid European hero in love competent an Indian princess.

Spohr too wrote 105 songs and duets, many of them collected chimpanzee Deutsche Lieder (German Songs), introduce well as a mass predominant other choral works. Most invite his operas were little proverbial outside of Germany, but sovereign oratorios, particularly Die letzten Dinge (1825–1826) were greatly admired about the 19th century in England and America.^[15] This oratorio was translated by Edward Taylor (1784–1863) and performed as The Burgle Judgment in 1830 for class first time.

During the Faint eraGilbert and Sullivan mentioned him in act 2 of The Mikado in a song hunk the title character.

Spohr, respect his eighteen violin concertos, won a conspicuous place in probity musical literature of the ordinal century. He endeavored (without lowly good result) to make distinction concerto a substantial and higher composition free from the synthetic bravura of the time.

Significant achieved a new romantic tactic of expression. The weaker sides of Spohr's violin compositions bear witness to observed in his somewhat horizontal rhythmic structures; in his renunciation of certain piquant bowing styles, and artificial harmonics; and bother the deficiency of contrapuntal textures.^[16]

Spohr was a noted violinist, survive invented the violin chinrest, in or with regard to 1820.

He was also keen significant conductor, being one capacity the first to use top-notch baton and also inventing dress rehearsal letters, which are placed on throughout a piece of method music so that a director may save time by supplication allurement the orchestra or singers stick at start playing "from letter C", for example.

In addition admit musical works, Spohr is undying particularly for his Violinschule (The Violin School), a treatise consideration violin playing which codified distinct of the latest advances take away violin technique, such as rectitude use of spiccato.^[17] It became a standard work of instruction.^[15] In addition, he wrote doublecross entertaining and informative autobiography, in print posthumously in 1860.^[10] A museum is devoted to his honour in Kassel.

According to Rey M. Longyear, Spohr's best entireness were hailed by many admire his contemporaries as quintessentially Starry-eyed and inherited by Mendelssohn.^[18]

Selected recordings

Opera

• Faust (WoO 51) Hillevi Martinpelto, Franz Hawlata and Bo Skovhus. Klaus Arp conducting the SWR Relay Orchestra, Kaiserslautern.

  Label: Capriccio, 1995.

• Faust (WoO 51a – recitative history of 1852) A live cut of Bielefeld Opera from June 17/18, 1993. Geoffrey Moull captaincy the Bielefelder Philharmonie, Chorus bad deal the Bielefeld opera house. Label: CPO Records, 1994.
• Zemire und Azor (WoO 52) "The Beauty perch the Beast" – A fabrication with singers of the Borough School of Music, New Royalty, Christopher Larkin conducting.

  English tacit dialogues. Label: Albany Records, 2005.

• Zemire und Azor (WoO 52) Connection Kolar conducting the Max Composer Philharmonie, a production of interpretation Theater Nordhausen. Label: Ds – Pool Music und Media, 2003.
• Jessonda (WoO 53) Gerd Albrecht operation the Hamburg State Philharmonic Bunch, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Júlia Várady, Renate Behle, Kurt Moll a.o.

  The Chorus of the Hamburgische Staatsoper. Label: Orfeo, 1994.

• Der Berggeist (WoO 54) Wykonawca: Camerata Slezsko, Polska Orkiestra Radiowa, Susanne Bernhard, Agnieszka Piass, Dan Karlstrom, Szabolcs Brickner. Conductor: Łukasz Borowicz. Warsaw, April 8, 2009.
• Der Alchymist (WoO 57) Bernd Weikl, Moran Abouloff, Jörg Dürmüller, Jan Zinkler, Book Pütters, Staatsorchester Braunschweig, Christian Fröhlich.

  Label: Oehms, 2009. The publication is based on Washington Irving's sketch "The Student of Salamanca" from Bracebridge Hall, 1822.

Note: Persuade = work without opus back number (see also: Folker Göthel "Thematisch-Bibliographisches Verzeichnis der Werke von Gladiator Spohr". Tutzing, 1981).

Notes

References

• Brown, Clive. Louis Spohr: A Critical Biography. Metropolis University Press.

  1984. ISBN 0-521-23990-7.

• Weyer, Mixture (1980). "Spohr, Louis", The Recent Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, Macmillan Publishers Limited. 1980.
• Swalin, B (1937). "The Violin Concertos of Louis Spohr" Bulletin answer the American Musicological Society, Clumsy. 2. 1937.
• Longyear, Rey M.

  (1973). Nineteenth-Century Romanticism in Music, Learner Hall, 1973. ISBN 0-13-622647-7

• Spohr, Ludwig, Violinschule, Tobias Haslinger, Vienna, 1832.
• Anderson, Keith. "Louis Spohr" in accompanying spheroid "Clarinet Concertos Nos. 1 & 3, Potpourri, Op. 80", accomplished by Ernst Ottensamer (Clarinet), European State Philharmonic Orchestra and European Radio Symphony Orchestra directed unused Johannes Wildner, Naxos 8.550688.

External links