Marianne Kirchgessner

Marianne Kirchgeßner ( born June 5, 1769 in Bruchsal, † December 9, 1808 in Schaffhausen ) was the most successful and most important glass harmonica virtuoso their time.

Life

At the age of four years, Marianne Kirchgeßner became blind as a result of smallpox. At age eleven, she came to the Karlsruhe Kapellmeister Joseph Aloys Schmitt Baur, who strove for her musical education. In early 1791, she launched a concert tour that lasted several years. She came to Linz and Vienna, and made the acquaintance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Quintet for Glass Harmonica, Flute, Oboe, Viola and Cello, K. 617 and the Adagio KV 356/617a composed for her for glass harmonica solo. In addition, he also used in his Singspiel Die Zauberflöte out of reverence and homage to Marianne Kirchgeßner a glass harmonica, which gives the sound of Papageno's glockenspiel today.

In addition, they visited during the tour 1792 Prague, Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin, Hamburg and Magdeburg. Two and a half years she lived from 1794 to 1796 in London and then took another concert tours 1796-1800 to Hamburg, Copenhagen, Gdansk, Kaliningrad and St Petersburg. In 1800 she settled down in Gohlis near Leipzig. However, they continued to continued touring and giving concerts in Hannover and Frankfurt / Main ( 1801), Stuttgart, Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna and Prague ( 1802-1808 ) and Carlsbad, where she met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Carlsbad in the summer of 1808. She died during a concert tour, coming from Stuttgart, after an accident by stagecoach in Schaffhausen.

Quotes

Bruno Hoffmann writes in "A Life for the glass harp ":