Jiří Antonín Benda

Georg Anton Benda ( Jiří Antonín; baptized June 30, 1722 in Old Benatek on the Iser, Bohemia, † November 6, 1795 in Koestritz ) was a Bohemian composer and conductor.

Life

Benda was the third son of Johann Georg Benda and Dorothea Brixi. His older brother was the composer Franz Benda. 1735, he was in Piaristen College in Kosmanos Jung - Boleslawiec and 1739-1742 seminarian at the Jesuit College in Jičín. As Benda was brought in 1742 by Frederick II on the recommendation of his brother Francis and his family to Potsdam, he started there with twenty years of his musical career. He got a job as a violinist in the royal orchestra. Besides, he also learned the piano and Oboespielen.

In 1750 he was court music of Duke Friedrich III. of Saxe- Gotha (1699-1772) and earned the title of 1770 Kapelldirektors. He held until 1778 this office. In the years 1765/66 Benda undertook a scholarship of his employer a six-month study tour of Italy. Also, Hamburg and Vienna, he visited for the purpose of training.

With 57 years he went in 1779 retired and settled in George Thal near Gotha. He later moved to Ohrdruf. He spent his last years in Koestritz, where he died at the age of 73 years on November 6, 1795.

The composer Friedrich Ludwig Benda, the Berlin violinist Heinrich Benda, the actress and singer Justina Catharina ( Justel ) Benda ( Zimdar / Blanchard), the Weimar singer and actor Hermann Christian Benda, as well as the Berlin court actor and singer Carl Eberhard Ernst Benda were his children.

Georg Benda had particular with a special type of musical stage works great successes, the melodrama. In 1774, the troupe of the Swiss Abel Seyler Gotha reached. For them, Benda wrote the very successful melodrame Ariadne on Naxos, Medea and Pygmalion. Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Carl Maria von Weber admired these works and were very inspired by them ( Mozart's " Zaide " fragment of Beethoven dungeon scene in " Fidelio " of Weber's Wolf's Glen scene in " Freischütz ").

In 2002, several pieces of music from Benda's Singspiel The village fair as soundtrack for the movie " Vive la joie! - Baroque Festival of the Gotha court " used the play at that time, as Benda court music of Duke Friedrich III. was of Saxe- Gotha.

In addition, Benda created many instrumental works. The National Symphony Orchestra of Thuringia Gotha played a Benda's works for CD releases.

Works

  • Ariadne auf Naxos ( 1775), melodrama
  • The Village Fair (1775 ), opera in one act
  • Il buon marito ( The Good Husband ) (1766), Intermezzo in two acts
  • The Holzhauer ( 1778)
  • Julie and Romeo (1776 ), opera
  • Medea (1775 ), melodrama
  • Pygmalion (1779 ), melodrama
  • The Tatar Law (1780 )
  • Church Music
  • Vocal works
  • Harpsichord Sonatas
  • 30 symphonies
  • 10 Harpsichord Concerts
  • 11 violin concertos

Late findings

Piarists Kolleg Kosmonosy Mladá Boleslav Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg Georgenthal Constantin von Wurzbach Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Neue Deutsche Biographie Integrated Authority File
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