Johann Friedrich Reichardt
Johann Friedrich Reichardt (* November 25, 1752 in Königsberg in Prussia, † June 27, 1814 in Giebichenstein in Halle) was a German composer, music writer and critic.
Biography
Reichardt was the son of the town musician Johann Reichardt and was trained from childhood in music and especially in violin playing. When he was ten years old, his father took with his " boy wonder " concert tours in East Prussia. At the instigation of Kant, he studied from 1769 to 1771 in his hometown and in Leipzig jurisprudence and philosophy. 1771, however, he escaped a civil career choices through a under " Sturm und Drang " sign Virtuoso travel. In 1774 he returned to Königsberg and was chamber secretary in Ragnit. 1775 appointed him Frederick II, whom he had sent his opera Le solid galanti as a sample, to Johann Friedrich Agricola place for royal Prussian court music. After only two years he retired, married the singer, pianist and Liederkomponistin Juliane Benda ( born May 14, 1752 in Berlin, † May 9, 1783 same place ) and focused on the writing and composing songs and instrumental works.
On the way back from his first trip to Italy in 1783, he worked in Vienna, where he met Emperor Joseph II and Gluck. Other art trips to France and England did not lead to the hoped-for lasting appeal - reluctantly, he returned to Berlin. From 1786, he developed a closer relationship with Goethe, Herder, Schiller and Hamann. Further experiments (1788 ), to gain a foothold in Paris, failed, however, Reichardt was thrilled by the ideas of the revolution. After the appearance of his confidants Letters (1792 ) he was discharged in 1794 as a revolutionary sympathizer without pension from his position as Kapellmeister and lived until then in Hamburg, where he edited the journal France, then since 1794 in Giebichenstein in Halle ( Saale). In 1796 he was pardoned and appointed Saline director in Halle, where he often went to Berlin to conduct performances of his compositions.
The acquired from him " Kästnersche Kossätengut " to Giebichenstein became the " hostel of romance ." Another trip to Paris ( 1803) dampened his enthusiasm for the French and their policy significantly: Reichardt was an opponent of Napoleon. Four years later, his estate was plundered by French troops, he fled to Danzig and was a patriot and freedom fighter. Napoleon's brother Jérôme in Kassel in 1807 appointed the impoverished returnees to the theater director. This interlude lasted only about nine months. In November 1809, he sought success in Vienna. The experience of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven made him - too late - open for the Viennese Classicism. He retired soon after Giebichenstein, where he died lonely on June 27, 1814 the effects of a stomach ailment. His grave is in the yard of the Church of St. Bartholomew in Halle.
Reichardt was constantly traveling: 1783 in Italy, Switzerland, Vienna and Hamburg; 1785 and in London in 1792; 1785/86/87, 1792, 1802/ 03 in Paris; 1790 in Italy; 1793 in Copenhagen and Stockholm. Contemporaries forgot him and his work quickly.
Family
He was married twice. His first wife Juliane Benda was the daughter of the composer and music director Franz Benda and a famous singer. The couple had two sons and two daughters. The first son, William (1777-1782) passed away in the morning, the second also. The daughter Louise Reichardt (* April 11, 1779 in Berlin, † November 17, 1826 in Hamburg ) was also known by songs compositions.
After his first wife died in childbirth, he married her in 1783 Johanna Alberti ( 1755-1827 ). She was the daughter of the deacon and poet Julius Gustav Alberti (1723-1772) from Hannover. It was also the second marriage of his wife, who in her first marriage with lawyer and poet Peter William Hensler (1742-1779) was married and a son and two daughters brought into the marriage. In marriage it 5 children were born:
- Johanna ( 1784 - after 1848 ) ∞ Heinrich Steffens ( 1773-1845 ), philosopher and naturalist
- Friederike (1790-1869) ∞ Councillor Charles of Raumer (1783-1865) geologist, geographer and educator
- Sophie (1795-1838) ∞ Ernst Wilhelm Jacob Radecke (1790-1873) Superintendent in Wernigerode
A son, Hermann, accident (1801 ) as a high school student in Magdeburg skating, another, Carl Friedrich ( 1803-1871 ), architect in Hamburg, survived the father. The stepson August Wilhelm (Richard) Hensler ( 1772-1835 ) was a French colonel who stepdaughter Charlotte Hensler ( 1776-1850 ) married the Postrat Carl Philipp Heinrich Pistor ( 1778-1847 ), the other Wilhelmine Hensler ( 1777 to 1851 ) the Privy Carl Alberti ( 1763-1829 ).
Work
Komponistenruf Reichardt has particularly gained through his compositions to Goethe's songs, in which he could develop his individuality with full freedom, but no less by his singing games, a genre that he also with Goethe's assistance in its Claudine von Villa Bella (1789 ), Erwin und Elmire (1790), Jery and Bätely has known how to ennoble (1790). He composed the music for 49 songs JG Herder. With the First Addendum to appendix songs in the collection of free men and adopted Maurer ( 1780) he published Masonic songs. His composition are already stained the forests in 1799 is now one of the most famous German folk songs.
His literary works are all of lasting value, namely the letters of an observant traveler on the music (1774-1776); About the German comische Opera (1774 ); Musical Art Magazine (1781-1792); Studies for Musicians and Music Lovers (1793 ); Familiar letters from Paris (1804 ); Familiar letters from Vienna (1810 ) and others.
The poem collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim is - dedicated Reichardt - in the epilogue. This probably in the expectation that Reichardt will sound to the texts. There, however, never came.
List of there by Hanns Dennerlein (1929, piano works, DENR, Brook 1038 ), Rolf Pröpper (1965, stage works, PröR, Brook 1039 ) and Swantje Köhnecke (1998, songs, Köhr, Brook deest ).