Robert Franz

Robert Franz, actually Robert Franz Julius Knauth ( born June 28, 1815 in Halle ( Saale), † October 24, 1892 in Dessau ) was a German composer and conductor. He has earned as head of the Robert -Franz -Sing Academy with own arrangements of Handel's oratorios like Mozart and Mendelssohn Bartholdy great contributions to the establishment of the works of George Frideric Handel in Germany.

Life

Robert Franz visited in 1828 in his hometown of the Latina of the Francke Foundations. Here he stood out as musically gifted. The singing teacher of the foundations, the cantor Carl Gottlob Abela (1803-1841), the samples of let him accompany " singer choir of the main Latin School" on the piano. ( The Stadtsingechor to Hall, the oldest boys' choir in central Germany, which was native to the foundations since 1808, he never belonged to. ) From 1835 to 1837 he studied composition with Friedrich Schneider at Dessau and returned to hall afterwards. 1841 Robert Franz organist at the church Ulrich, 1842 conductor of the Singing Academy Hall and 1859 University Music Director of the Martin -Luther- University Halle- Wittenberg. After Robert Franz was in 1843 went public with its twelve songs for solo voice with piano accompaniment, op 1, Robert Schumann dedicated these songs a meeting at the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.

What Schumann himself had some years previously recognized as a need of the hour, he saw in the songs of Franz realized: the thoughtful work of art as a counter to the prevailing taste of the time, when the artistic musical response to " the fabrizierende roundly songwriting ". And further in the Schumanesque Article:

Franz cultivated friendships with, among others, Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt. In 1867 he was on leave because of a hearing and nervous suffering, and finally had to give up all his offices. He is buried in the town cemetery in Hall.

Work

Franz wrote over 350 art songs, of which about a quarter after Heinrich Heine and many after Karl Wilhelm Osterwald, choral works (including the 117th Psalm Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles for two four-part choirs, Op 19 on behalf of the Berlin Cathedral Choir ) and numerous rearrangements of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.

His works are now performed only rarely. Some of his songs can however be found to this day in anthologies.

  • Compositions in: Düsseldorf Songs Album: 6 songs with piano accompaniment. Arnz, Dusseldorf 1851. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf

There is also a band with songs chosen by Edition Peters.

Best known are choral songs such as:

  • Six Songs op.24
  • Ave Maria op.45, 1
  • In May, op.47, 1
  • It is he! op.53, 2

All written for four-part mixed choir.

Honors

1885 Robert Franz was awarded his 70th birthday by the City Council the honorary citizenship of the city hall. Another award in 1903 by the erection of a monument at the University ring and a street naming. In addition, the Academy of Music Hall in 1907 was named after him and founded the School of Music Robert Franz.

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