Cornelius Gurlitt (composer)

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Gustav Cornelius Gurlitt , painting by Wilhelm Kümpel , 1848

Gustav Cornelius Gurlitt (born February 10, 1820 in Altona ; † June 17, 1901 there ) was a German composer .

Life

Gurlitt received his first music lessons from the Altona organist Johann Friedrich Grönland (1777–1834). Later, until 1840, he studied with Johann Rudolf Reinecke , the father of his classmate and friend Carl Reinecke, for six years .

After his first public appearance at the age of seventeen, Gurlitt continued his education in Copenhagen . There he studied organ playing with Johan Ernst Hartmann (1770–1844), piano playing with Bernhard Courlænder (1815–1898) and composition with Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse . He also met Niels Wilhelm Gade and remained friends with him until his death.

In 1841 Gurlitt settled in Hirschholm near Copenhagen as a music teacher. His six songs for voice and piano accompaniment, Op. 2, were published in print in 1844 , and in March 1845, like Gade and Carl Reinicke two years earlier, he received a royal scholarship. With this he traveled via Altona to Leipzig, where Gade was now leading the concerts of the Gewandhaus . He then traveled to Rome , where his brother Louis Gurlitt , a well-known painter , was studying. Cornelius Gurlitt's skills as a musician were quickly recognized in Rome. The papal Accademia di Santa Cecilia made him an honorary member and in 1855 awarded him the honorary title of Professor of Music . During his stay in Rome, he also successfully studied painting .

After his return to Altona in 1848, Christian August , Duke of Augustenburg , hired him as a teacher for three of his daughters. During the Schleswig-Holstein uprising (1848-1851) he served as an officer in the military music of the Danish army . In contrast, he was military bandmaster on the German side in the German-Danish War in 1864.

In 1866 Gurlitt became organist at Altona's main church St. Trinitatis , in 1873 royal music director of Altona, in 1879 teacher of choral singing at the Hamburg Conservatory and in 1887 an honorary member of the Hamburg Tonkünstlerverein. He died in his hometown of Altona in 1901. The tomb for him and his wife Anna geb. Otto (born January 28, 1842, † January 19, 1906) is preserved in the Norderreihe cemetery .

As a composer, Cornelius Gurlitt was extraordinarily productive and versatile. Among other things, he composed numerous songs , two operettas , an opera , symphonies , chamber music and studies . However, he is best known for his achievements as a music theorist and for his piano compositions as well as easy pieces, which are still published today as textbooks for piano beginners.

In 1847 he became a member of the Altona Masonic Lodge Carl zum Felsen .

literature

Web links

Commons : Cornelius Gurlitt  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johann Friedrich Grönland (1777–1834) is often confused with his brother Peter Grönland (1761–1825), who lived in Copenhagen from 1787 denstoredanske.dk , apparently also from Kurt Stephenson in NDB.
  2. ^ Bertil H. Van Boer: Historical Dictionary of Music of the Classical Period. Scarecrow Press, 2012, ISBN 978-0-810-87183-0 , p. 263 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  3. ^ Gallery of Musical Celebrities, 1909, books.google , books.google ; see also https://books.google.de/books?id=kvsTAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA589&dq=Courlænder
  4. ↑ http://imslp.org/wiki/6_Songs,_Op.2_(Gurlitt,_Cornelius)
  5. ^ Carl Dahlhaus: North German and North European Music . Bärenreiter, 1965 ( limited preview in Google book search).
personal data
SURNAME Gurlitt, Cornelius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gurlitt, Gustav Cornelius (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Altona
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 1901
Place of death Altona