Bernhard Klein

Bernhard Joseph Klein ( born March 6, 1793 in Cologne, † September 9, 1832 in Berlin) was a German composer.

Family

Klein married Lili Parthey ( born October 2, 1800 in Berlin, † August 13, 1829 ). She was the sister of Gustav Parthey (1798-1872) and the granddaughter of the Berlin Enlightenment Friedrich Nicolai ( 1733-1811 ). Her daughter Elisabeth Klein (1828-1899) married on July 5, 1846 Egyptologist Richard Lepsius, Carl ( 1810-1883 ). The Honeymoon led to Rome; here studied small, sponsored by Santini, eagerly a cappella music.

Career

Klein was director of music at the Cologne Cathedral after attending the Conservatoire in Paris. In 1819 he came at the instigation of Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin, where he joined in the same year in the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, where he remained until his death in 1832 and 1820 composition teacher was at the Royal Institute for Church Music and Director of Music at the University of Berlin. Together with his friend, the writer and music critic Ludwig Rellstab of Zelter student was among the founders of the Second Berlin Liedertafel.

Klein composed oratorios, a mass, a Magnificat, a cantata, psalms, hymns and motets, and three operas, songs and piano music. His conservative compositional style was influenced by the ideas of the writer Anton Friedrich Justus Thibaut music.

He is buried in the graveyard of St. Hedwig's Church.

Quote

About Klein writes Heinrich Heine in his travel images I ( Letters from Berlin, second letter, March 16, 1822): "Of the local composers I mention right after Spontini our Bernhard Klein, who has made long ago by some gloriously beautiful compositions known and whose great opera " Dido " is expected by the whole audience with longing. This opera is, according to the saying of all connoisseurs, which the composer told some of it containing the most wonderful beauty and be a brilliant German national work. Klein's music is entirely original. It is quite different from the music of the above discussed two masters [= Weber and Spontini ], as in addition to the faces of the same forms the serene, pleasant, fun-loving face of the pleasant Rheinlander a striking contrast. Klein is a Cologne-based and can be considered the pride of his native town to be considered. "

Works

  • Ariadne, opera, 1824
  • The 23rd Psalm for mixed choir 4stimmigen
  • Dido by Ludwig Rellstab, opera, 1821 (premiere: Berlin, 1823)
  • Irene, opera (unfinished)
  • Job, Oratorio ( Cantata ), 1820
  • Jephtha, Op 29, oratorio, 1828
  • David Op 34, oratorio, 1829
  • Athalia, oratorio

Pictures of Bernhard Klein

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