Christian Rummel

Christian Rummel 1787–1849

Christian Franz Ludwig Friedrich Alexander Rummel (born November 27, 1787 in Gollachostheim , † February 13, 1849 in Wiesbaden ) was a German music teacher, pianist, composer, clarinetist, violinist.

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Christian Rummel (also Chretién Rummel) was born as the sixth child of the teacher Johann Matthias Rummel in Gollachostheim. Mostly Prichsenstadt is incorrectly stated. A few weeks after his birth, the family moved to Prichsenstadt, as the father was given the teaching post for the girls' school there. Probably in 1802 Rummel became a student of violinist Heinrich Ritter and Kapellmeister Karl Jakob Wagner (1772–1822) in Mannheim , he also received advice from Abbé Georg Joseph Vogler , who also worked as a music teacher. In 1806 he became military bandmaster in the 2nd Nassau Infantry Regiment and took part in the war in Spain since 1808. There he married Maria Carmen del Gonzales (1792-1857). On May 12, 1812 his daughter Josephine was born in Manzanaresi. In 1813 he was released from captivity. He ended his military career on April 17, 1816 in Waterloo and moved to Wiesbaden, since General August von Kruse gave him a job as a music teacher at the local pedagogy.

The city planner Christian Zais not only sympathized with well-known outstanding artists, but also made it his business to support talented and ambitious musicians as much as possible and to bring them forward. The Hofkapellmeister Rummel should be mentioned as an example. After the Napoleonic economy in Spain had come to an end, he came to Wiesbaden with the Nassauer regiment, along with his small, fat wife, who casually remarked that she was very jealous (Rummel was a handsome, handsome man with blue eyes and black hair) after he had said goodbye as director of the regimental music, as he found no satisfaction in this position. Christian Zais, who recognized him as an ambitious musician, gave him an apartment in the back building of the Hotel “Zais”, whereas he had to give the children piano lessons. The scores for “Six Waltzes”, which Rummel dedicated to Christian Zais and which can still be viewed in the State Library in Wiesbaden, have been preserved.

Duke Wilhelm von Nassau-Orange asked him to found and lead a court orchestra in Biebrich. "This band soon became one of the most renowned in Germany, both because of the abilities of the musicians and because of their excellent performances under the direction of Rummel". Duke Wilhelm was very fond of his Kapellmeister and on September 12, 1828 he prompted: "Kapellmeister Rummel is to be given the assurance that the exhibition decree that I have carried out will benefit him from the pensionable servant."

In 1842 the court orchestra was dissolved and Rummel took over from Theodore Eisfeld (1816–1882) his post as theater conductor . His health was already very bad, which is why he was often represented by Conradin Kreutzer .

Rummel was a versatile practitioner: conscientious conductor, capable pianist, violinist and clarinetist, wanted as a teacher and recognized as a virtuoso in Germany, Switzerland and Holland. Occasionally on a trip to Vienna with the Duke's entourage, the Schott publishing house recommended the 37-year-old, whose main intention was “the urge for perfection in the study of composition”, in a letter dated April 19, 1824 Beethoven's “friendship and benevolence by being alone will show the right path, which as an art disciple he has to walk ”. It is no longer possible to determine whether Beethoven was “portait la plus vive amitié á hype”. His compositions, which were widely played at the time, show little of Beethoven's influence, which was once brilliantly quoted in the Concert militaire, since they did not go beyond the taste of the time. Schumann , who later touched the well-known more sharply, attributes him kinship to the Parisian spirit: "What he lacks in French finesse, he replaces with a natural German good-naturedness and cosiness, which is why I always like him."

Children of Christian and Maria Gonzales Rummel

• Josephine Rummel (born May 12, 1812 in Manzanaresi, † December 19, 1877 in Wiesbaden): She had a good name as a pianist at home and abroad.
• Joseph Rummel (born October 6, 1818 in Wiesbaden, † March 25, 1880 in London): trained in many ways by his father, worked for the Duke of Oldenburg for a while, lived in Paris from 1842 and 1847 to 1870 and from then on in London. He too was an able pianist and clarinetist. He delivered compositions, mostly arrangements, for Escudier in Paris and Schott in Mainz.
• Franziska Rummel (born February 4, 1821 in Wiesbaden, † unknown): student of her father, then of Marco Bordogni in Paris and Lamberti in Milan, was the prima donna of the Wiesbaden Opera in 1843. She also went on concert tours with her father. She married the music publisher Peter Schott in Brussels.

Works

"Six Waltzes", dedicated to Christian Zais

Title page of a composition by Christian Rummel, around 1830

Examples for piano for 2 hands:

• Six waltzes for pianoforte, dedicated to Christian Zais
• Memories of S. Heinefetter op.79
• Fantasy and Variations (Donizetti) op.80
• Exercices instructifs op. 19 u. op 43
• Concert militaire with orchestra op.68

Examples for piano for 4 hands:

• Sonatas op. 20 a. op. 59
• many variations

Various:

• Wind quintet op. 41 and 42
• Musique militaire, 6 H., without opus
• 6 horn quartets op.69
• Concertino for clarinet and orchestra op.58

Individual evidence

1. ↑ such as B. from Christian Rummel at Bayerischesmusikender Lexikon Online (BMLO), version from November 20, 2012
2. ↑ Volker Erhard in: Frankenland, magazine for Franconian regional studies and cultural care , ed. Frankenbund e. V., 1988, p. 68 f.
3. ^ Eduard Zais , memorial sheet of the Zais family
4. ^ ^{A b} François-Joseph Fétis, Biographie universelle des musiciens , Paris 1881
5. ^ Robert Schumann, Collected Writings , 2 volumes, Leipzig 1914
6. ↑ Alexander W. Thayer, Ludwig van Beethoven's Life , Part 5, Leipzig 1908
7. ↑ Hildegard Ey, Christian Rummel , in: Das Erbe der Mattiaca, Personalities of the City History of Wiesbaden , 1992
8. ↑ Hans Engel, The Development of the German Piano Concerto from Mozart to Liszt , Leipzig 1927
9. ^ Sophie Drinker Institute
10. ↑ Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung (AmZ) 45, 1843, p. 819

literature

• Christian Rummel . In: Bavarian Musicians Lexicon Online (BMLO), ed. by Josef Focht, (online)
• Thomas Grass, Dietrich Demus: The basset horn, its development and its music. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2004, ISBN 3-8311-4411-7