Anselm Hüttenbrenner

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Anselm Hüttenbrenner, lithograph by Josef Eduard Teltscher , 1825
Johann Baptist Jenger , Hüttenbrenner and Schubert, lithograph by Teltscher

Anselm Hüttenbrenner (born October 13, 1794 in Graz , † June 5, 1868 in Graz-Oberandritz ) was an Austrian composer and music critic .

Life

Hüttenbrenner received musical training on the piano and organ while he was still at school in Graz . During his law studies, which he successfully completed in Graz and Vienna , he became a student of Antonio Salieri in Vienna in 1815 , with whom he studied singing and composition. At Salieri he also met Franz Schubert , with whom he soon became a warm friend and with whom he occasionally appeared in public.

Around 1815 he made the acquaintance of Ludwig van Beethoven , who received him with the unusual words: “I am not worth your visit.” He happened to be there on March 26, 1827 when Beethoven died. Besides him, only the housekeeper Sali was at Beethoven's deathbed. As a souvenir, Hüttenbrenner cut a lock of Beethoven's hair, which is now in the Universalmuseum Joanneum in Graz together with his studbook . In addition, the Johann Joseph Fux Conservatory Graz also owns Beethoven's hair from Hüttenbrenner's possession.

In 1821 he returned to Graz, where he - now married to Elise von Pichler - worked as a composer and music critic. Here he was one of the guests in Marie Pachler-Koschak's salon . From 1824 to 1839 he was director of the Styrian Music Society in Graz. After the death of his wife, Hüttenbrenner moved to Radkersburg in 1852 and lived partly in Lower Styria , namely in Pettau (Ptuj) , Marburg (Maribor) and Cilli (Celje) as well as in Ober-Andritz near Graz. He spent the last fifteen years of his life in quiet seclusion, preoccupied with mystical-theological considerations, the fruits of an intimate friendship with the mystic Jakob Lorber and his monumental revelation, which was almost unknown at the time.

Hüttenbrenner owned the original score of Schubert's Unfinished , which he kept under lock and key until 1865, so that it could only be performed afterwards. One version says that Schubert is said to have given him this score as a thank you for Schubert's honorary membership in the Styrian Music Association , which Hüttenbrenner arranged for him. The alleged certificate of dedication to Schubert was exposed decades ago as a clumsy forgery. The Requiem in C minor was performed as a funeral mass on the occasion of the deaths of Salieri (1825), Beethoven (1827) and Schubert (1828).

The Hüttenbrenner family should also mention Anselm's brothers Joseph Vinzenz (1796–1873), the temporary mayor of Graz Andreas (1797–1869) and the ambitious literary Heinrich (1799–1830). Only the two eldest brothers had intensive contact with Schubert, Anselm was one of the few composer friends along with Franz Lachner , Ignaz Assmayer and Benedikt Randhartinger . Joseph, on the other hand, who was never used in the Schubert circle, acted with a more or less fortunate hand as a kind of secretary, making copies of works and running errands. His ambitions to work journalistically through Schubert were not taken into account in contemporary periodicals.

In 1895 in Graz ( Jakomini , 6th district), in 1907 in Wien- Landstrasse (3rd district) the Hüttenbrennergasse was named after the composer.

Works (incomplete)

Anselm Hüttenbrenner

Some of Hüttenbrenner's works have been lost, but the majority remained in the family property of his descendants and has been kept in the university library of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz / Styria / Austria since 2007, where it can be used on site; all titles are searchable in the online catalog of the university library. His works are considered very rich in melodies, somewhat operatic and in some ways close to Weber's musical idiom . To this day, Hüttenbrenner's work awaits a precise musical review and evaluation.

  • 27 sacred works: including 6 masses, 3 requiums
  • 4 operas: including “Lenore” and “Oedip zu Colonos” completely preserved
  • 258 songs
    • Hüttenbrenner, Anselm: Songs for a voice with piano accompaniment: Vol. 1, edited by Ulf Bästlein , Alice and Michael Aschauer, 2008, Accolade Musikverlag (www.accolade.de): ACC.1209a
    • Hüttenbrenner, Anselm: Songs for a voice with piano accompaniment: Vol. 2, edited by Ulf Bästlein , Alice and Michael Aschauer, 2008, Accolade Musikverlag (www.accolade.de): ACC.1209b
  • 133 men's quartets
  • 159 male choirs
  • 20 orchestral works: including 2 symphonies
  • 13 chamber music works: including 2 string quartets, 1 string quintet
  • 60 works for piano for 2 hands
  • 23 works for piano 4 hands
  • 8 adaptations of other works

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Klaus Martin Kopitz , Rainer Cadenbach (Ed.) And a .: Beethoven from the point of view of his contemporaries in diaries, letters, poems and memories. Volume 1: Adamberger - Kuffner. Edited by the Beethoven Research Center at the Berlin University of the Arts. Henle, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-87328-120-2 , pp. 478-486.
  2. ↑ See Konrad Stekl, Beethoven-Haar in Graz. In: Mitteilungen des Steirischer Tonkünstlerbundes , No. 31/32, Graz 1967 and the like, on the documentation of the Beethoven and Schubert locks in Graz. In: Blätter für Heimatkunde , Heft 1, Graz 1967.
  3. ↑ Kubintzky, Wentner: Grazerstraße name. P. 203.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hüttenbrenner, Anselm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian composer and music critic
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1794
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1868
Place of death Graz-Oberandritz