Carl Hanke

Johann Carl Hanke (baptized December 5, 1749 (not 1750) in Markt Roßwald ; † June 10, 1803 in Flensburg ) was a German composer and conductor.

Live and act

Carl Hanke was a son of the Roßwalder market citizens Anton and Maria Magdalena Hanke. He came from a family whose name can often be found in the Silesian-Moravian border area. Some of the namesake worked as cantors and organists.

Hanke's childhood and youth is almost undocumented. Count Albert Joseph von Hoditz gave him a place in the boys' orchestra at Rosswald Castle. For this reason, it can be assumed that he received violin lessons at a young age. Famous theater and opera performances took place at the castle during this time, often directed by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf .

When Friedrich II. Of Prussia visited Rosswald Castle in 1770 , Hanke wrote a cantata in his honor. Count von Hoditz made a trip to Vienna possible for him , where he learned from Johann Gottlieb Graun and from 1772 to 1775 especially from Christoph Willibald Gluck . Here he decided to pursue a career as a professional musician.

From 1776 to 1778 Hanke took over the management of the Roßwald court orchestra. There he created many occasional cantatas, ballets, orchestral works and chamber music. In 1778 he married Anna Maria Stormke (* 1760) in Roßwald, with whom he had a daughter. Her father and rent manager Franz Joseph Stormke was married to Anna Rosina, née Just from Roßwald.

After the count died in 1778, the Roßwalder Hofkapelle was closed. In 1779 Hanke got a job as music director at the Brno City Theater , which his wife also engaged. In 1781 he moved with his wife to the Warsaw National Theater , whose ensemble consisted almost exclusively of Polish musicians. The fact that Hanke received such a reputation as a foreigner is an indication that he was a widely respected artist. His Singspiel “Robert und Hannchen” was first performed in Warsaw with great success. He received a personal award from King Stanislaus II August Poniatowski . The period over which Hanke performed in Warsaw is not precisely documented.

In 1782 the Warsaw National Theater went bankrupt. Hanke and his wife then worked for some time at the Breslau Opera and then in Berlin in 1782 . Director Abel Seyler brought Hanke and his wife to the Ackermannsche Schauspielhaus in Hamburg in 1783 . As music director, he offered self-written drama music, ballets and two operas. The incidental music “Chants and Choirs for the Funny Days or the Marriage of Figaro”, first performed in 1785, became his greatest success.

In 1786, Hanke received a call from Landgrave Carl von Hessen as music director of the Gottorf Court Theater in Schleswig . As a conductor, he conducted Italian and French operas and the self-composed musical plays “Doktor Fausts Leibgürtel” and “Hüon und Amande” with a libretto by Friederike Sophie Seyler based on “Oberon” by Christoph Martin Wieland . His wife performed in operas and received positive reviews from audiences and professionals. The high point of his work in Schleswig was the wedding of the Danish heir to the throne Friedrich VI. At the celebrations of this event he performed with his own occasional music.

Hanke's wife died on April 20, 1789. He honored her in his first collection of songs, “Gesänge beym Clavier, for connoisseurs and lovers”, published in 1790. Hanke had a relationship with Maria Schmidt, whose father Johann Schmidt worked as a blacksmith in Hadersleben and who gave birth to a son in February 1791. In order to cover up the extramarital conception, the son was given the surname "Eknah", which was an anagram of his own surname. If the affair had become public, Hanke would certainly have lost his job in Schleswig.

On June 13, 1791, Hanke married Christian Sophia Berwald in Schleswig (born July 11, 1757 in Schleswig; February 27, 1843 presumably in Husum). She was a Mecklenburg-Schwerin court singer in Ludwigslust until 1791 . From this marriage came two sons, including Carl Friedrich Ferdinand (born April 15, 1793 in Flensburg; July 12, 1863) in Schleswig. He worked as a higher and regional court advocate in Schleswig and co-founded the Schleswig Choral Society from 1839.

Hanke then submitted an application to be the town musician of Flensburg , probably to secure himself in old age . The council agreed, subject to the conditions, that Hanke should found a singing school and that it should take care of church music. In Flensburg he not only worked as a town and official musician, but also as a music teacher. In 1794 he had a concert hall built at his own expense, in which subscription concert series took place. At the Flensburg Theater he conducted works by Mozart in particular and composed many occasional works for public occasions, such as the birthdays of kings and patriotic celebrations.

After the death of the cantor of St. Mary's Church in 1796, Hanke also took over his duties free of charge, as per contract. He wrote many sacred works, such as an important funeral music for a wife of the Flensburg mayor. In 1795/97 he published a new collection of songs. He used poems by Johann Heinrich Voss , Matthias Claudius and Heinrich Harries as texts . Masonic songs and “fragments” of sacred compositions can also be found in the collection.

Although Hanke filled numerous positions, he had financial problems, which resulted in particular from the high expenses for the construction of the concert hall. He initially made profits with the concerts, but they fell. In 1795 he also received competition with the newly opened Flensburg Theater. He opened a pub with a billiard table next to his concert hall and tried to make a profit elsewhere. Other problems caused him new civil guards, who provided musical entertainment at their celebrations, as well as free musicians. Hanke appealed to his privilege as town musician and asked the Flensburg Council, which did not really support him, constantly for increases in salary.

Hanke died of a stroke.

Works

As a composer, Hanke worked extremely diverse and flexible. He managed to cope with the different requirements that his numerous changes of location and tasks brought with it. The well-known stage pieces worked simply, clearly and expressively. He was influenced by Gluck and the Leipzig tradition of the Singspiel. On his songs he worked like Johann Abraham Peter Schulz . His symphony in E flat major has a slow introduction and is reminiscent of works by Mozart. In his “Serenade” in F major, he was probably inspired by Dittersdorf.

Most of Hanke's work did not go to press. Due to the composers Mozart and Haydn, who were popular at the time, he was soon forgotten.

• Robert and Hannchen or Die the Devil brought (originally The Desire of Some Girls ) ( Karl Martin Plümicke ), comic Singspiel, 2 acts, Warsaw 1781
• Chants and choirs for a fun day or The Marriage of Figaro , Hamburg 1785
• Xaphire ( Bernhard Christoph d'Arien ), great romantic opera, Hamburg 1786
• Dr. Faust's waist belt (Bernhard Christoph d'Arien after Rousseau and Mylius), comic opera 2 acts, approx. 1786; Flensburg 1794
• Hüon and Amande ( Friederike Sophie Seyler after Wielands Oberon), romantic opera, Schleswig 1789/1790

literature

• Cornelius Kellner:  Hanke, Carl. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 8 (Gribenski - Hilverding). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2002, ISBN 3-7618-1118-7  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
• Cornelius Kellner: Hanke, Carl . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pages 159-162.

Web links

• List of the stage works by Carl Hanke based on the MGG at Operone

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Cornelius Kellner: Hanke, Carl . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 159.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Cornelius Kellner: Hanke, Carl . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 160.
3. ↑ Cornelius Kellner: Hanke, Carl . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pages 160-161.
4. ↑ Cornelius Kellner: Hanke, Carl . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pages 159 and 161.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Cornelius Kellner: Hanke, Carl . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 161.
6. ↑ Cornelius Kellner: Hanke, Carl . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pages 161-162.
7. ↑ Cornelius Kellner: Hanke, Carl . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 162.