David waiter

David Kellner (* 1670 in Liebertwolkwitz near Leipzig ; † April 6, 1748 ) was a German lawyer , poet , organist , carilloneur , music theorist and composer .

Origin and family

David Kellner was born in the village of Liebertwolkwitz (near Leipzig), probably as the youngest son of the teacher Philipp Kellner. He will have received his first musical lessons from his father, as the teachers at that time were often also active as cantors and organists.

The second oldest brother Christian can be traced back to 1680 as organist at Turku Cathedral in Finland (then Sweden). The eldest brother Philip moved to the city of Dorpat (Tartu) in Estonia (Livonia) around 1682 , where he worked as a "notary", member of the city council and from 1693 to 1708 as "city secretary". In 1719 Philipp became mayor of Dorpat and held this post until his death in 1728. The third oldest brother, Johannes, followed in 1691 to Dorpat, where he became an apprentice pharmacist, greengrocer and in 1698 head of the “great guild ”. He too was councilor from 1703 to 1704, but then had to flee from the Russians via Riga to Stockholm.

Training and first job

David Kellner came to Turku in 1693 and enrolled at the university there. Presumably he assisted his brother Christian on the organ , because in a letter from the Bishop of Turku from 1699, David Kellner's art in organ playing is mentioned. However, he stayed barely a year and a half. On June 27, 1694, David Kellner enrolled in Dorpat. The scholarship applied for on September 15, 1694 was rejected by the Senate. On February 11, 1697, Kellner was appointed "advocatus" and deputy city prosecutor at the district court. He was granted citizenship for Dorpat on June 14, 1698. In the same year he married the widow Dorothea Schwarz, a daughter of the mayor Matthias Ladou, who was also the sister of the wife of his brother Philipp Kellners. Dorothea brought a girl, Regina Gertrud, into the marriage.

David Kellner applied twice for a position as organist, once in 1696 in Dorpat and a second time in 1698/99 in Turku, because his brother Christian, who was organist there, had left the city in 1697 and had been organist in Stockholm ever since German church. Both times, David Kellner did not get the job.

Military time

In 1700 the Great Northern War (1700–1721) broke out. Estonia (Livonia) was his first battlefield. David Kellner was also recruited and stationed in Tallinn , which was initially relatively peaceful. From May 1701 to July 1702 waiter was in Reval , where he also worked as an organist at the St. Nicolaus Church. Until 1704 there is no evidence of Kellner's whereabouts. Possibly he was involved in combat operations in General Wollmar von Schlippenbach's army, which suffered a defeat at Sagnitz and Hummelhof in July 1702. On August 1, 1704, David Kellner was appointed quartermaster of the newly established Livonian battalion under Johan Fredrik von Liphardt. The information and news about Kellner's wartime life is very sketchy. On April 20, 1708 he became quartermaster of the Saxon battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Eberhard von Straelborn. From 1709 a dispute with officials of the supply station in Viborg ( Wyborg ) in Finland over tobacco rations is known. Kellner can be traced back to Stockholm from November 1709 to January 1710. At the end of January, Kellner became a Danish prisoner of war after a battle between Danes and Swedes. He only returned to Sweden in October 1710. He was probably in Stockholm for the rest of the year. In March 1711 Kellner was appointed captain of a German infantry battalion, but never took up this position. His military career was over. On February 20, 1730, Kellner asked the military authorities to dismiss him as captain. However, he was allowed to use his title for the rest of his life.

Church musician and organist

Between August 1710 and April 1711, the bubonic plague raged in Stockholm , which also fell victim to Reinhard de Croll, carilloneur (bell player) at St. Gertrud's Church and organist at St. Jacob's Church . On January 19, 1711, Kellner was appointed carillon player and a few days later, on January 25, 1711, organist. Kellner applied once (before 1720) for a post as judicial assessor at the Livonian District Court. He did not get this post and remained in Stockholm until the end of his life. The organist position was presumably unsatisfactory for the waiter. The organ was not in good condition and when the church council wanted to cut Kellner's salary by 20% for economic reasons (he initially received an annual salary of 750 copper thalers), a protracted dispute broke out. The church council tried to find another organist to work for the lower salary, but was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, Kellner's dismissal was prepared so that in the end (1718/19) he had to accept the lower salary. He remained organist until 1745, although there was probably little for him to do between 1741 and 1745 as a new organ was installed. Until 1747 he held the position of carillon player, only to hand it over to a successor whom he had trained himself because he felt old and weak, as he wrote in a letter to the church administration.

On July 18, 1720, the performance of a larger work ( The exultant Parnassus ) can be verified. Further concerts with lutes and strings were limited to festive services, for example on Trinity in 1720 or in 1723 a musical devotion with a cantata, three arias and a recitative.

Teacher

Kellner also worked as a teacher. Presumably he gave music lessons to his stepdaughter Regina from 1697 to 1700. He also boasts of teaching the Swedish child prodigy Ernst Johan Londicer.

With his stepdaughter Regina Gertrud Schwarz, who came to Hamburg via Riga, married Johann Ulrich von König there and moved to Dresden with him (1720), David Kellner remained in contact throughout his life. Kellner got information about German musical life from her. Regina herself was musically gifted, which is documented by various sources. In 1715 she took part in church music conducted by Johann Mattheson in Hamburg and in Dresden she probably took part in several operas. Regina not only provided her stepfather with information about current musical life in Germany, but also sent him German music books, including Mattheson's writings. Kellner then contacted Mattheson in writing.

Author and lute composer

Kellner has been working on a theoretical work on figured bass since the late 1720s , which he completed in 1732. It was published in Hamburg in the same year with an edition of 2000 copies. The full title is:

Faithful instruction in general bass, in which all expansiveness is avoided, and yet all sorts of newly invented advantages are given in a very clear and complicated manner, which one can fully understand in a short time everything that belongs to this science , not only of those who practice the general bass, but also of all other instrumentists and vocalists who are eager to lay a real reason in music, published by DK Hamburg to be found in the Kissnerische Buchladen. 1732

The first edition was out of print within a year, despite the acidic anonymous criticism (presumably from Mattheson) on June 26, 1732 in the Nieder-Sächsische Nachrichten von Schehrten neue Zeiten . The second edition did not appear until 1737 and was published by Christian Herold in Hamburg. The foreword comes from Georg Philipp Telemann and praises the author for having a special talent for briefly presenting wide-ranging topics. In an afterword, the criticism by Mattheson is dealt with, whereby it can be assumed that the afterword does not come from Kellner, but also from Telemann. A Swedish edition appeared in 1739. Kellner's book was also the first ever music theory work in Sweden. In 1741 there was a Dutch edition. Further editions of this book appeared so that it can be assumed that it was very popular: the fourth German edition in 1749, the second Dutch edition in 1751, and almost thirty years later, in 1773 the fifth German edition; The sixth edition in 1782 and the seventh edition in 1787, supplemented by 14 melodies by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach . In 1791 there was even a Russian edition. A copy of Kellner's work was also found in Joseph Haydn's estate, with numerous annotations, so that it can be assumed that this great composer worked with it.

Although Kellner had played keyboard instruments all his life and only used lutes in connection with his concert Der frohelockende Parnassus (1720) , he published Collection XVI in 1747 (Hamburg) . exquisite lute pieces consisting of Fantasias, Chaconnen, Rondeau, Giga, Pastorel, Passe Pied, Campanella, Sarabande, Aria & Gavotte . The volume has 48 pages and is intended for an 11-course lute in D minor. The pieces are notated in French tablature . In terms of style and instrumentation, however, these pieces no longer corresponded to contemporary tastes. Sylvius Leopold Weiss already used a 13-course lute. Composers and lutenists such as Adam Falckenhagen and Bernhard Joachim Hagen already oriented themselves towards the gallant style, which Kellner hardly takes into account in his lute pieces.

David Kellner as a poet

Kellner first appeared as a poet on January 11, 1697 in Dorpat (Tartu). On the occasion of the death of Baroness Christina Elisabeth Taube, he published the elegy lament and consolation poem . Another opportunity arose on April 5, 1697, when the Swedish King Charles XI. died. Kellner wrote of the most painful death of the Glorious King Caroli XI . In 1699 a book Poetic Poems by Kellner was published in Dorpat , but no copy has survived. During his stay in Stockholm at the end of 1710, Kellner finished a book of religious poems ( The Noth Flag of Prayer ), which processed the experiences of the war in about thirty poems. When in November 1714 the Swedish King Charles XII. returned from Turkey, Kellner again wrote a poem of praise, which consisted of six arias with a recitative . The music that probably belongs to it has been lost. He wrote another poem of praise on the occasion of the wedding of Crown Princess Ulrika Eleonora with Friedrich von Hessen on June 9, 1715 in Stockholm.

death

David Kellner died on April 6, 1748 at the age of 78. He was buried on April 10th and left his wife (and grandchildren, he did not have his own) a house worth 12,000 copper thalers and 77,500 copper thalers in cash. In addition, a claver (a keyboard instrument that can no longer be determined in retrospect), a lute with a case and a flute were found in the estate. A little later, on July 14, 1748, his wife, Dorothea Kellner, was buried.

plant

• David Kellner: XVI selected lute pieces: consisting of Fantasies, Chaconnen, Rondeau, Giga, Pastorel, Passepied, Campanella, Sarabande, Aria & Gavotte. Bey Christian Wilhelm Brandt, Hamburg 1747. (Reprint: Minkoff Editeur, Genéve 1985, ISBN 2-8266-0525-9 )
• David Kellner: Faithful lessons in general bass. 2nd Edition. Hamburg 1737 together with a preface by Hn. Georg Philipp Telemann. (Reprint of the 2nd edition: published by Eitelfriedrich Thom, Kultur- und Forschungsstätte Michaelstein, 1985 - with a comment by Wolf Hobohm)

literature

• Kenneth Sparr: David Kellner: A Biographical Overview Part 1. In: Guitar & Lute. 6/1992, p. 13 ff.
• Kenneth Sparr: David Kellner: A Biographical Overview Part 2: David Kellner as a church musician and praise writer of the lute playing. In: Guitar & Lute. 1/1993, p. 17 ff.
• Kenneth Sparr: David Kellner: A Biographical Overview Part 3: Kellner's Years as a Successful Author and Lute Composer. In: Guitar & Lute. 2/1993, p. 17 ff.
• Kenneth Sparr: The art of Silvius Leopold Weiß as reflected in contemporary literature. In: Guitar & Laute 9, 1987, No. 6, pp. 15-17; here: p. 16 f.
• David waiter. In: Josef Zuth : Handbook of the lute and guitar. Vienna 1926/28. (Reprint: Olms, 2003, ISBN 3-487-04290-8 , p. 154)
• Carola L. Gottzmann / Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . 3 volumes; Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 . Volume 2, pp. 655-658.

Web links

• Updated articles by Kenneth Sparr (English)
• Tabs by David Kellner ( Memento from June 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. Jump up ↑ Jacob Adlung: Instructions for musical knowledge. Erfurt 1758. Facsimile reprint Kassel and Basel 1953, p. 634.