Anton Urspruch

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Anton Urspruch, photo from 1895

Anton Originaluch (born February 17, 1850 in Frankfurt am Main ; † January 11, 1907 there ) was a German composer and a representative of German late romanticism in Frankfurt.

Life

Anton Urspruch was born as the son of the lawyer and writer Carl Theodor Urspruch and his wife Anna Elisabeth, b. Born singer. He received a high school education and showed a talent for music and painting very early on, but soon turned exclusively to music. Martin Wallenstein, Ignaz Lachner and Joachim Raff took over his musical training in Frankfurt . In 1871 Anton came to Weimar to join Franz Liszt at the age of 21 , which had a decisive influence on his career. He became one of Liszt's favorite pupils. Over the next few years, Urspruch's position as a teacher built up. In 1878 he was appointed to the Hoch Conservatory founded a year earlier as a teacher for piano and composition alongside Clara Schumann . The Hoch Conservatory, of which Joachim Raff was director, had famous teachers and attracted students from all over the world.

At the end of the 1870s, the band formed with the music publisher Alwin August Cranz in Hamburg. In 1880 von Cranz's wife and daughter Emmy were in Bad Nauheim to relax , and Anton Urspruch came from nearby Frankfurt to pay his respects. In March 1881, Emmy Cranz and Anton Urspruch were married in Wandsbek. He dedicated his Symphony op. 14 in E flat major to his bride, the premiere of which took place in Wiesbaden in September 1891. The marriage has four daughters.

After Raff's death in 1882, Bernhard Scholz took over the management of the Hoch Conservatory. The best teachers, among them Anton Urspruch, left the conservatory and founded the Raff Conservatory, at which Urspruch taught until his death. In March 1906, Urspruch fulfilled a long-cherished wish to travel to Italy with his family. Here he enjoyed meeting important musicians such as Sgambati , Dom Pothier, Dom Janssens and P. de Santi Perosi. Cardinal Resphighi had presented Pope Pius X with an Italian translation of Urspruch's work on chant. The Pope granted him a long audience as an authority, during which an hour was spent on reforms and the implementation of the chant. His importance as a German composer was recognized by the fact that he was proposed as a member of the Roman Arcadians, an honor that Mozart and Goethe had also received. However, heart attacks clouded the year.

Nevertheless, he made every effort to at least complete the opera The Saint Cäcilie . But only the first act is orchestrated ready for performance, the other two are available in the piano reduction. At the end of 1906, the Berlin choir conductor and friend Siegfried Ochs visited him in Frankfurt, and Urspruch - barely recovered from the last heart attack - discussed a performance of this part as an oratorio on a long walk with his friend . However, that did not happen. On January 11, 1907, Anton Urspruch died of another heart attack.

During his lifetime, Urspruch was an internationally highly valued German representative of late romanticism. After his untimely death he was quickly forgotten.

Originuch, whose ancestors were Protestant on his father's side and Jewish on his mother's side (the mother was baptized Christian in 1845), was a member of the Masonic lodge "Zum Frankfurter Adler", which was visited almost exclusively by Jewish citizens .

plant

In addition to teaching, a broad-based compositional work for piano, solo and choral singing , chamber music through to large orchestral works and two operas was created . Much of it has been performed successfully, including a. in Berlin , Hamburg , Cologne , Leipzig and Frankfurt. In the last years of his life, Urspruch played a key role in the revival of Gregorian chant (including contacts with the Benedectine monastery of Beuron and the Maria Laach monastery ).

swell

  • Theodora Kircher-Urspruch: Commemorative publication for the 125th birthday of Anton Urspruch February 17, 1850 - January 11, 1907. Life and work sketch of a composer around the turn of the century. Zurich n.d. [1975], OCLC 712965165 .

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Originuch, Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1907
Place of death Frankfurt am Main