Ernst von Gemmingen-Hornberg (composer)

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Ernst von Gemmingen-Hornberg
Gravestone of Ernst von Gemmingen-Hornberg and his wife Henriette († 1814) and daughter Henriette († 1813) in the cemetery in Angelbachtal-Michelfeld

Ernst von Gemmingen-Hornberg (born February 11, 1759 in Celle ; † March 3, 1813 in Mannheim ) was a German composer , diplomat and last director of the knightly canton of Kraichgau . He comes from the family of the Lords of Gemmingen .

Life

Ernst von Gemmingen was born on February 11, 1759 in Celle as the son of the royal British and Electorate of Hanover Higher Appeal Judge and Vice President Ludwig von Gemmingen-Hornberg (1694-1771). He grew up mostly in Heilbronn and was raised by his mother after the death of his father. According to the family chronicle, he had "special abilities for music, and it was the violin on which he acquired significant skills".

From 1777 to 1781 he studied at Göttingen University , followed by trips and stays in France, England, Scotland and the Netherlands. Finally he entered the service of Margrave Karl Alexander von Brandenburg a . a. as director of the court music. In 1786 he was diplomatic in Berlin , followed by a longer stay in Heilbronn . Here he married Henriette von Holle (1771-1814) in 1792 with whom he had six children. As the owner of Hornberg Castle and lord of the castle in Neckarzimmern , he was elected knight director of the Kraichgau canton in 1795 and remained so until the canton was dissolved. After the dissolution of the empire in 1806, he moved to Mannheim and died there on March 3, 1813. He is buried in the cemetery in Angelbachtal- Michelfeld, where the tomb for him, his wife Henriette and the daughter of the same name, Henriette, who died in 1813, has been preserved.

Musical work

In his time in Heilbronn after 1790 he composed his first and second violin concertos. This was followed by the third in 1800 and the fourth in 1802. Through his uncle and close Mozart friend Otto Heinrich von Gemmingen-Hornberg (1755–1836), who was about the same age , he met Mozart and is said to have been friends with him as well. He was also musically influenced by him, which brought him the name "Mozart of the Neckar Valley" during his lifetime. Together with Johann Andreas Amon he shaped the lively musical life of the imperial city of Heilbronn around 1800 . Later, however, his works were forgotten. It was not until 1994 that four autograph scores by Ernst von Gemmingen-Hornberg were surprisingly discovered in the music library in the archives of Hornberg Castle , which was largely made by him and which experts often use terms such as “impressive” or “remarkable”. These show him to be a knowledgeable and skilled composer with formal skills and melodic ingenuity, although nothing is known of a professional music education. In terms of their violinistic claims, his works are comparable to the concerts of Giovanni Battista Viotti . To this day nothing is known about any further complete compositions by him. However, his son Ernst made the local professional world sit up and take notice with his own compositions at the age of 12.

family

He was married to Henriette von Holle (1771-1814) from 1792. The marriage had six children:

literature

  • Monuments for Music, Edition 7105. Strube Verlag, Munich-Berlin 1999.
  • Carl Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig Stocker : Family chronicle of the barons of Gemmingen. Heidelberg 1895, pp. 279-281.
  • Ernst von Gemmingen-Hornberg, Four Concertos for Violin and Orchestra, presented by Andreas Traub , 1994

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gemmingen-Hornberg, Ernst von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, diplomat and imperial knight
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1759
PLACE OF BIRTH Celle
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1813
Place of death Mannheim