Max Bruch

Max Christian Friedrich Bruch ( born January 6, 1838 in Cologne, † October 2, 1920 in Berlin) was a German composer and conductor.

He is known especially for his first Violin Concerto and the Scottish imagination.

4.1 Stage Works 4.1.1 operas

4.4.1 Sacred choral works
4.4.2 Secular Choral works with solo parts
4.4.3 Secular choral works without Solo Voices
4.4.4 songs

Life

Childhood (1838-1847)

Max Bruch was ( 6 January) of 1838 born in Cologne on Twelfth Night, the son of the royal council and police Deputy Commissioner August Karl Friedrich Bruch and his wife, the soprano Wilhelmine, born Almenräder, Richmodis in - house. A plaque at the rebuilt tower in the Richmodstraße am Neumarkt bears the following inscription: " birthplace of the composer's Rhine and singer Max Bruch - January 6, 1838 ". Why break is also described as a singer, is unclear.

Fraction characterized his father in his childhood memories as follows:

He adds in the same article or an interesting especially for musical posterity anecdote:

He received his first music and piano lessons from his mother. They, too, he describes in the memories of youth:

About his sister Mathilde, called Till, he writes:

Between the ages 7 and 10 years of age developed break a talent for drawing, so his relatives called him the " second Raphael ". To practice, he copied revered His works The landing of Ferdinand Cortez off the coast of Mexico, The Ascension of Elijah, St. Boniface the sacred oak of Hesse precipitating and others known to him as illustrations from children's books, Bibles and study of World History were.

Youth (1848-1857)

At the age of 9 years, he wrote his first composition, a song to the birthday of the mother. From then on, the music was his passion, which was encouraged by his parents to forces. So in a sudden outbreak of many small creative works such as motets, psalm settings, piano pieces, violin sonatas, a string quartet and even orchestral works like the prelude to a planned opera Joan of Arc. Few of these early works have survived.

The first music theory lesson was broken in 1849 in Bonn by Professor Heinrich Carl Breidenstein, a friend of his father. At this time he was also the first time the Hedgehog yard, a good in Bergisch Gladbach, on which he wrote much of his music. The farm belonged to the lawyer and notary NEISSEN, who lived in it with his unmarried sister. Later, the estate of the family Zanders was purchased, which had a large paper mill. On hikes and post- carriage rides there, the boy was taught by his father in French and English conversation. In the later years Mary Zanders gave him as a friend and patron of the suitable environment for his work in the Villa Zanders.

Also the critical gaze of the awakened boy was trained early on by the family. From a coffee invitation at the Weber family friend he writes to his mother after Hedgehog court:

In the same letter he also reported from the course of his studies:

The age of eleven he went public with larger compositions. In March 1852 his first symphony in F minor was performed by the Philharmonic Society in Cologne. With a string quartet in 1852, he won a four-year scholarship from the Frankfurt Mozart Foundation. This scholarship allowed him from 1853 to 1857 to study composition with Ferdinand Hiller and piano studies with Carl Reinecke and Ferdinand Breunung in Cologne.

Hiller had the young fraction in 1850 know what a diary entry dated 8 April is: "Visit of breakage and Son." He further reports of a sonata for four hands, which brought him Max. In the following years he heard several pieces of young talent, as " the birthday of the mother of the Son of a string quartet ," a trio in 1851, a motet and a sonata. On November 30, 1852, he finally heard from one of several visits to the family home, a " sonata with violin " and a piano quintet. Meanwhile he had used in the Mozart Foundation in Frankfurt for a scholarship for Max, for which he thanked the boy in a letter:

The Foundation asked Hiller also explicitly concerned with " educate the new Mozart pupil to a brave musician and composer ".

Already on March 12, 1852 was published in the Rheinische Zeitung music an article about Max, where you compared him to Mozart and Mendelssohn. He is described as " a dear, open, cheerful, childlike uninhibited boy who, although he lives and moves, nonetheless shows for other items of skill and competence only in tones ." At the end of the article you give him the best wishes along the way:

Hiller thought highly of fracture and dedicated to his work more attention than that of his other students. In his diaries, most unpublished breakdown of early works as well as his first published compositions are mentioned. He was also instrumental in the printing of the op 1 of his pupil, by one hand, and made recommendations on the other hand was circulated a subscription list in Cologne among music lovers and friends. This list was drawn within a few days and allowed as 1857, the publication of the opera from the publisher Senff in Leipzig.

Later life years (from 1858)

Then he held temporarily in Leipzig, Bonn and Mannheim. In 1865 he obtained the post of music director in Koblenz, where he wrote his most famous work, the First Violin Concerto. Two years later he moved to Sondershausen, where he worked as court music director until 1870. In the following years he lived first as a music teacher in Berlin, and from 1873 as a freelance composer in Bonn. He established at this time contacts with the most important musicians of his time, so to Johannes Brahms, Joseph Joachim and Pablo de Sarasate.

1878 took a position at break again, the management of the Stern Choral Society in Berlin. From 1880 to 1883 he led the Philharmonic Society in Liverpool and married on January 3, 1881, the singer Clara Tuczek (* February 15, 1854; † August 26, 1919 ), with whom he had four children. After a trip to the U.S. he took over the management of the Orchestral Association, a position he held until 1891 in the same year. 1891 was breaking a master class in composition at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. Among his pupils was there besides the operetta composer Oscar Straus and Eduard Künneke, Fartein Valen, the Polish organ composer Feliks Nowowiejski, the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and the Japanese composer Kosaku Yamada. In appearance, he also worked as arranger of popular songs for the so-called " Emperor Song Book ", first published in 1906 for the Volksliederbuch for male choir.

He was buried alongside his wife predeceased in an honorary grave in the old St. Matthew's Cemetery in Berlin -Schöneberg. Fracture received many awards, including in 1893 an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University, he returned in 1914, and in 1918 an honorary doctorate from the Berlin Friedrich- Wilhelms-Universität.

Compositional style

Fracture ideals were already fixed at the beginning of his compositional career, and should not even change until his death to some extent. There is no mistaking a high regard for Felix Mendelssohn and his friend Johannes Brahms. However, Much to his chagrin, he was always in the shadow of the overpowering Brahms, with whom he had to compare his life. There is also a lively interest in the German folk song. In contrast, he fought from the beginning to the New German School to Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. His works are evidence of a sense of catchy melodies and traditional form of thinking. Although fracture very interested in vocal music, his strongest works rather in the field of instrumental music ( symphonies, concertos ) to find.

Even his life was distinguished from what is reality until today: The public perception of the composer fraction is largely confined to his first Violin Concerto - a fact that bitter break and let him become a misanthrope. The reasons for the relative indifference that is given its diverse oeuvre, are multiple:

Although a considerable number of his compositions has in its formal system quite unconventional and progressive traits, fracture was a conservative composer who was stamped around the turn of the century mainly because of its rather little advanced harmonies to Anachronisten basically. He defended his romantic conception of art as the only true and got into additional criticism by his violent attacks on Richard Strauss and Max Reger. Throughout his life he opposed any musical innovations that have been referred to by him as "musical social democracy ". Since he disappeared as a supposed Jew during the Nazi era because of his Kol Nidrei (op. 47) of the program plans, his works were largely forgotten in German speaking countries.

Honors

Honorary citizen of Bergisch Gladbach since January 6, 1918.
Between 1908 and 1918, has been paid to him in Bergisch Gladbach a road.
1924 created by the sculptor Wolfgang Wallner a monument to Max Bruch in Bergisch Gladbach on Margaret height.
In the center of Bergisch Gladbach player has placed a monument to him and other deserving individuals.

Works

Stage Works

Operas

Scherz, List und Rache op 1 ( Premiere: January 14, 1858, Cologne)
The Loreley Opus 16 (1863 )
Hermione op 40 ( Premiere: March 21, 1872, Berlin)

Orchestral works

Symphony No. 1 in E flat major, Op 28 (1868 )
Symphony No. 2 in F minor, Op 36 (1870 )
Symphony No. 3 in E- flat major, Op 51 (1882, rev. 1886)
Swedish Dances, Op 63 (arranged for orchestra, 1892)
Suite on Russian folk melodies op.79b (1903 )
Suite No. 2 for Swedish Folk Melodies (1906, originally North Country Suite)
Suite No. 3 for Orchestra and Organ, Op 88b (1909, rev., 1912 )
Serenade for Swedish Folk Melodies for String Orchestra, WoO

Concerts and concert pieces

Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op 26 ( 1865-67 )
Romance for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op 42
Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op 44 (1877 )
Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra in E flat major, Op 46 (1879 /80)
Kol nidrei, Concert Piece for Cello and Orchestra in D minor, Op 47 (1880 /81)
Canzone for Cello and Orchestra in B flat major Op. 55
Adagio on Celtic Melodies for Cello and Orchestra, Op 56
Adagio appassionato, Concert Piece for Violin and Orchestra, Op 57
Violin Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op 58 (1891 )
Ave Maria for cello (or violin) and orchestra Op. 61
Swedish Dances for Violin and Orchestra, Op 63
In Memoriam for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op 65
Serenade for Violin and Orchestra, Op 75 (1899/1900)
Concert Piece for Violin and Orchestra in F sharp minor, Op 84 (1910 )
Romance for Viola and Orchestra in F major, Op 85 ( 1912 )
Concerto for Clarinet, Viola and Orchestra in E minor, Op 88 (1911 )
Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra in A flat minor, Op 88a (1915, after the Suite No. 3)

Vocal music

Sacred choral works

Jubilate and Amen op 3
The Flight of the Holy Family, cantata, Op 20
Song of the Three Holy Kings, Op 21
Rorate coeli, Op 29
Morning hour, Op 31, No. 2
Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, Op 35
Greeting to the Holy Night, Op 62
Anthem, cantata, Op 64
Moses, Oratorio op.67 (1893 /94)
Be faithful until death, Op 69
Easter Cantata, Op 81
The Wessobrunner prayer, Op 82
Christ Child Songs, Op 92

Secular choral works with soloists

The birches and alders, cantata based on a poem from the forest songs of Pfarrius op 8
Frithjof, cantata for scenes from the Frithjof Saga by Esaias Tegnér op.23 (1860, rev. 1864)
Nice Ellen op 24
Salamis, Battle Hymn of the Greeks, Op 25
Frithjof on his father's grave mound, Op 27
Normannenzug op 32
Dithyrambe op 39
Odysseus, oratorio, Op 41 (1871 /72)
Arminius, oratorio, Op 43 (1875 )
The bell, oratorio The Song of the Bell of Friedrich Schiller, op 45 (1872 )
Achilles, oratorio based on motives of the Iliad by Heinrich Bulthaupt op 50
The Fire Cross, cantata, Op 52
Three Hebrew Songs, WoO
Leonidas, oratorio, Op 66
Gustav Adolf, oratorio, Op 73
Damanjanti, scenes from the Indian seal Nala and Damanjanti op 78
The power of song op 87

Secular choral works without Solo Voices

Four men Choirs with Orchestra, Op 19
Five Songs, Op 22
Roman funeral, Op 34
The song by the German Emperor, Op 37
Five Songs, Op 38
Four male choirs, Op 48
Two men choirs op 53
Nine Songs, Op 60
Three new men's choirs, Op 68
Seven Songs, Op 71
On the night op 72
Duke Moritz, war song of the Magdeburg against Duke Moritz of Saxony, Op 74
The last farewell of the people op 76
Six Songs, Op 86
Heldenfeier op 89
Five Songs, Op 90
The voice of Mother Earth, Op 91

Songs

Three Duets for Soprano, Alto and Piano, Op 4
Seven Songs for 2 - and 3 -voice women's voices and piano, Op 6
Six Songs, Op 7
Anthem for soprano (or alto) and piano op 13
Four Songs for solo voice and piano, Op 15
Ten Songs, Op 17
Four Songs for baritone and piano, Op 18
Twelve Scottish Folksongs, WoO
The priestess of Isis in Rome, cantata, Op 30
Four Songs, Op 33
Songs and Romances, Op 49
Siechen consolation Op 54 songs
Five Songs for Baritone, Op 59
Scene of Marfa from Schiller's Demetrius op 80
Five Songs, Op 97

Chamber Music

Septet in E flat major for clarinet, horn, bassoon, 2 violins, cello and double bass, WoO (August 28, 1849 Goethe's 100th birthday )
Quintet for Piano and Strings WoO (1852 )
String Quartet (1852 )
Trio in C minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op 5 ( 1857)
String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op 9 (1856 )
String Quartet No. 2 in E major, Op 10 (1860 )
Swedish Dances for Violin and Piano, Op 63
Four Pieces for Cello and Piano, Op 70
Songs and Dances of Russian and Swedish Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op 79
Eight Pieces for clarinet, viola and piano or violin, violoncello and piano, Op 83 ( 1908/ 09)
Spring Song for two violins, piano, and harmonium ad lib., WoO
Abide with your grace for brass, WoO

Piano music

Capriccio in F sharp minor for piano four hands, Op 2
Fantasia in D minor, Op 11
Six Piano Pieces, Op 12
Two Piano Pieces, Op 14
Swedish Dances, Op 63, arranged for piano 2 hands
Swedish Dances, Op 63, arranged for piano, 4 hands

Organ Works

Little Prelude, WoO

Miscellaneous

Chants at the wedding Else Tuczek and Franz von Ankert on March 24, 1897
Guardian song on New Year's night, WoO
The Song of the Germans in Austria, WoO
Military marches, WoO
Guardian song on New Year's night, WoO

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