Jan Nepomucen Bobrowicz

John Nepomucen Bobrowicz ( born May 12, 1805 in Krakow, † November 2, 1881 in Dresden) was a Polish composer, virtuoso guitarist and publisher.

Life

Bobrowicz was born in May 1805 in Krakow and baptized as Feliks Jan, but used his first name never. His parents Jan and Marianna were from Kovno. Since they belonged to the nobility, Bobrowicz later published under the name de Bobrowicz. Father Jan was a member of the Society of Friends of Music in Cracow and at times responsible for their concert organization.

Little is known about Bobrowicz ' early musical education, by its own account, he began with three years of playing the guitar. He probably went from 1816 to 1818 after Vienna to guitar lessons with Mauro Giuliani ( probably the most important guitar virtuosos of his time ) and composition lessons from Carl Czerny ( a student of Ludwig van Beethoven and teacher of Liszt ) or Johann Nepomuk Hummel (temporarily as Kapellmeister of the Prince Esterhazy direct descendant of Joseph Haydn ) to get.

1829 Bobrowicz entered the Senate service in Krakow and was actively involved in the November Uprising 1830/31. After the end of the revolt went Bobrowicz, now decorated officer, with the defeated troops of General Rybiński to Prussia. From there he tried, like many of his compatriots, next to go to Western Europe and crossed the beginning of 1832 under the name Tamulewicz the border with the kingdom of Saxony, but had to stay because of an illness in Leipzig. Since he had entered illegally and under false names, he was under constant observation of the Saxon police and was arrested in November 1834 even for some time. He managed to get a job with Breitkopf & Härtel. The Hartel family supported Bobrowicz over again, so by writing to the security authorities in which it political neutrality and disinterest has been certified to political matters. These representations were obviously intended to reassure the authorities Bobrowicz was actually a committed supporter of the Polish national cause.

Bobrowicz also worked as a teacher, Konzertant and composer. But in his concerts, he usually played not his own works but classics of Paganini, Giuliani, Hummel or Moscheles, often in arrangements of Giuliani.

1836 or 1837 married Bobrowicz Friederike Henriette Petit Victorie from an immigrant from France merchant family. The couple had four sons ( Feliks Oskar (1838 ), Jozef Władysław (1840 ), Jan Stanisław Adam (1843 ), Karol Mirosław Klemens (1848 ) ) and four daughters ( Zofia Helena (1841 ), Wiktoria Maria Wanda (1842 ), Aleksandra Jadwiga Malvina (1844 ), Maria Casimire (1846 ) ).

Bobrowicz was naturalized in 1848 and opened his own publishing business, the étrangère Librairie, were issued in the hundreds in the following years works mainly Polish literature. However, the business did not run successfully, so that Bobrowicz 1858 moved to Dresden, where he still worked as a publisher and in 1881 died of a stroke at the age of 76 years.

Compositions

The first recorded composition Bobrowicz 'is the Op 1826 F. Piller published in Lvov. 6 appeared the last recorded output in 1837 by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig ( Op. 30). In total, the compositional work:

Most of his guitar works are written as a theme with variations. Ophee describes his composition work as a connection to the technical qualities of Giuliani with the harmonic language of Chopin.