Franz Benda
Franz Benda (also: František Benda, baptized November 22, 1709 in Benatek on the Iser, † March 7, 1786 in Potsdam) was a Bohemian violinist, composer and conductor.
Life
Franz Benda was the oldest of six surviving children of the linen weaver Johann Georg Benda and his wife Dorothea, born Brixi, the daughter of a village cantor. The first musical fundamentals he learned from his father, who ruled the oboe, the shawm and the dulcimer, and was the cantor Alexius in New Benatek, the organist, composer and singer. In his early childhood Benda attended a Jesuit school in Prague, but fell at the age of ten years to Dresden, where he served as choir boy of the Catholic Hofkirche. During this time he began to learn the violin and viola play.
After the age of 12 lost his boy soprano, he went back to his Bohemian homeland. At 14, he began composing his own pieces. Around the age of 18 came at the behest of Count Kleinau Benda, whose serf he was involuntarily to Vienna, where he was employed as valet 1726-1730. The Lakaiendiensten he withdrew himself by, the violinist Georg Czarth 1730 fled with his colleagues to Warsaw.
He was shortly after his arrival a member of the Chapel of the Eastern Star Suchaquewsky, in which he soon became the first violinist Kapellmeister. A little later he became a royal musician to the Polish chapel of the Saxon Elector and Polish King August II, called " the Strong", to Warsaw. Probably here he became acquainted with his future colleague, the Klavieristen and composer Christoph Schaffrath as well as the composer and flautist Johann Joachim Quantz.
The Dresden concertmaster Johann Georg Benda Pisendel owed some artistic stimulation. After he converted to Protestantism, he had to go through numerous hostile. Therefore, he followed in 1733, after the death of Augustus the Strong, a recommendation Quantz ' to the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick, who in Ruppin built up its own chapel. Franz Benda was one of the first Kapell- musicians, his first colleagues here, the brothers Johann Gottlieb Graun and Carl Heinrich Graun were.
On the very day of his arrival in Ruppin Benda was, together with the Crown Prince, who mastered the flute, a concert. In Frederick's chapel, he took up the position of first violinist. In Ruppin and later in Rheinberg Benda it was possible thanks to the support of Quantz and the Graun brothers to develop his compositional skills. On May 31, 1740 Frederick became king of Prussia and his entire band moved to Berlin and Potsdam.
1739 Benda married Eleonora Step Hein, a daughter of the customs inspector in Kolobrzeg. His wife died in 1758. Four years later he married his wife, Carolina Step Hein 's sister. With two wives he had eight children together.
1742 enabled the king Benda family, also to come to Berlin. His youngest brothers Joseph and Georg Benda gave violin lessons, his sister Anna Franziska he taught in song. Soon Franz Benda brothers John, George and Joseph were taken with the court chapel. A progressive gout meant that he could no longer occur as a soloist from 1767. After the death of Johann Gottlieb Graun in 1771 Benda was appointed to succeed him as leader. After the death of Quantz's in 1773 he became the first adviser of Frederick II in musical matters. Both items had Benda held until his death on March 7, 1786.
Work
Benda wrote mainly works for the violin. In his compositions, there are elements of baroque and gallant and emotional style. Time and content it is therefore between the Baroque and Viennese Classicism.
In addition, Benda had a very good reputation as a violin teacher. Many of his students (about his brothers Joseph and Georg Anton Benda Benda and Friedrich Wilhelm Rust, Johann Friedrich Reichardt and Christian Friedrich Georg Berwald ) came later to remarkable fame.
Progeny
His son was the chamber musician Friedrich Benda. His daughter Maria Carolina married the Weimar composer Ernst Wilhelm Wolf, his daughter Juliane married in 1777 the Berlin songs creator Johann Friedrich Reichardt. The Benda family is still active in the music scene.