Franz Ignaz Beck

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Franz Ignaz Beck

Franz Ignaz Aloys Beck (baptized February 20, 1734 in Mannheim ; † December 31, 1809 in Bordeaux ) was a German composer and musician .

Life

According to the biographical notes of his pupil Henri-Louis Blanchard (1778–1858), Franz Beck received his first musical training from his father Franz Aloys Beck, who a. a. worked as court oboist in the court chapel of Elector Carl Theodor . After the sudden death of his father (1742) the lessons were presumably continued by a court musician, possibly even by Johann Stamitz . In the years from 1745 to 1746 Beck, who has meanwhile become an orphan, is recorded as a treble player in the choir of the Heiliggeistkirche in Heidelberg . After a duel that ended with the faked death of his opponent, he fled to Italy. Via Venice , where he studied composition with Baldassare Galuppi , he traveled to France via Naples . There he was initially in Paris , since three of his symphonies were played there for the first time in the Concert spirituel in autumn 1757 . Shortly afterwards the first collective print of six symphonies appeared, which shows him on the title page as a student of Johann Stamitz.

After a brief position as concert master in Marseille , Franz Beck came to Bordeaux in 1761 or 1762 , where he was entrusted with the direction of the opera orchestra. As "Maître de musique" he was not only responsible for the theater performances and concerts until his dismissal in 1798, but also had to compose for these occasions and to arrange foreign works for the performances. In the following decades, Franz Beck had a lasting impact on the city's musical life. From 1774 to 1788 he was also active as organist at the cathedral chapter of Saint-Seurin, in 1786 the newly founded society Musée (later: Société Philomathique ) elected him to its "Commissaire du Comité de musique". Under his leadership, the regularly held concerts became a permanent, professional and nationally recognized musical institution. In the varied concert programs Beck introduced the citizens of Bordeaux to the works of the most important contemporary composers, including well-known representatives of the Mannheim school . When the entire theater company was arrested in the turmoil of the French Revolution on November 28, 1793, Franz Beck also had to answer before the tribunal, which he fortunately was able to convince of his innocence and was thus released on January 6, 1794.

Beck's musical areas of responsibility also included composition and instrumental lessons. The versatile musician was considered a master of the violin, organ and piano. Representatives of his numerous students include Henri-Louis Blanchard, Pierre-Jean Garat , Pierre Gaveaux , Bernard Germain Lacépède , Prosper-Charles Simon and Robert Nicolas-Charles Bochsa .

The composer spent the last years of his life in seclusion with his family. In 1801 Beck moved to his son Jean-François-Auguste in the rue des Religieuses (today: rue Thiac), where he died on the evening of December 31, 1809.

Franz Beck is one of the representatives of the so-called Mannheim School , which is both experimental and pioneering for the “classical” compositions of the 19th and 20th centuries. Their influences can be found in his compositions as well as those of the Italian and French musical culture of his time. His melodrama Pandore & Prométhée and the overture to La Mort d'Orphée received national attention . Both works were also successfully performed in Paris, the latter is said to have temporarily preceded the French version of the opera Orphée et Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck and Étienne-Nicolas Méhul's Le jeune Henri .

Works (selection)

Works with opus number

  • Op. 1: Sei Overture a più Stromenti (Paris, 1758)
  • Op. 2: Six Simphonies a quatre Parties et Cors de Chasse ad Libitum (Paris, 1760)
  • Op. 3: Sei Sinfonie a piu Stromenti (Paris, 1762)
  • Op. 4: Six Sinfonies a plusieurs Instruments (Paris, 1766)
  • Op. 5: Six Symphonies a quatre Parties obligées avec Hautbois ou Fluttes , et Cors de Chasses composées de differents Auteurs (Paris) (only No. 5 by Beck)
  • Op. 5: 18 Sonates pour le clavecin ou le piano (Paris, 1772 or earlier)
  • Op. 10: Sei Sinfonie a più Stromenti composte da vari Autori (Paris) (only No. 2 by Beck)

Sacred vocal music

  • Stabat Mater for solos, choir and orchestra (1782; Paris, April 25 and 26, 1783)
  • Te Deum (1790)

Opera / melodrama

  • La Belle Jardinière (Bordeaux, August 24, 1767)
  • L'isle déserte (1779)
  • La Loterie d'amour (Bordeaux, June 4, 1789)
  • Pandore & Prométhée , melodrama (Bordeaux, February 11, 1786; Paris, July 2, 1789)

Incidental music

  • Athalie Choirs (Bordeaux, November 11th 1775)
  • Concert arias for Les Trois Sultanes ou Soliman second (comp. In the period from 1775 to 1786)
  • Belphégor ou La descente d'Arlequin aux enfers (Bordeaux, February 9, 1789)
  • Le Comte de Comminges ou Les Amants malheureux (Bordeaux, December 20, 1790)
  • Les Peuples et les Rois (1793)

Ballet music

  • Les plaisirs du printemps (1784)
  • Le coq du village (1784)
  • La Mort d'Orphée (Bordeaux, October 27, 1784)

Literature (selection)

  • Rudolf Elvers :  Beck, Franz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 701 ( digitized version ).
  • Anneliese Downs: Art. "Beck, Franz Ignaz", in: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , ed. by Stanley Sadie , 2nd vol., London a. a. 1980, pp. 333f., ISBN 0-333-23111-2 .
  • Bärbel Pelker: Art. "Beck, Franz (Ignaz Aloys)", in: The music in past and present , person part 2, ed. by Ludwig Finscher , Kassel a. a. 1999, Sp. 606-609, ISBN 3-7618-1112-8 .
  • Pierre Bernadau: "Nécrologie" and "Biographie", in: Bulletin polymathique du Muséum d'instruction publique, de Bordeaux, ou Jounal littéraire , Bordeaux 1810, pp. 53–58.
  • Jean-Eléazar L'Hospital: Éloge de F. Beck , Bordeaux 1810.
  • [Jean-Baptiste Pelauque]: "Nécrologie", in: L'Indicateur. Journal du département de la Gironde , January 7, 1810, pp. 2-3.
  • Henri Blanchard: Essais biographiques. I. Francesco Beck " , in: Revue et Gazette musicale , 12 (1845), pp. 212-214, 218-221, 225-28, 241-244.
  • Paul Courteault (ed.), Archives historiques du Département de la Gironde , 35th vol., Bordeaux 1900.
  • Raymond Céleste: "Les sociétés de Bordeaux", in: Revue Philomathique de Bordeaux et du Sud-Ouest , Bordeaux 1900, pp. 433–454.
  • Robert Sondheimer: "Franz Beck's symphonies", in: Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft , 4 (1921/22), pp. 323–484.
  • Georges de Saint-Foix: "Le symphoniste Franz Beck et le pianoforte", in: Revue de Musicologie , 13 (1932), pp. 24–28.
  • ML Pereyra: "Franz Beck", in: Revue de Musicologie , Vol. 15 (1934), pp. 79–85; 16: 34-39 (1935).
  • Burton Stimson Carrow: The Relationship between the Mannheim School and the Music of Franz Beck, Henri Blanchard and Pierre Gaveaux , 2 vols., Diss. New York 1956, Ann Arbor (Mich.) 1969.
  • Donald H. Foster: "Franz Beck's Compositions for The Theater in Bordeaux", in: Current Musicology , 33 (1982), pp. 7-35.
  • Anneliese Callen-Downes: "Biographical Sketch and Thematic Index", in: Foreign Composers in France, 1750–1790 (= The Symphony, 1720–1840 , D II), New York and London 1984, LI – LII, LXI – LXVIII.
  • Uwe Martin: "Revolution in German Music?", In: Germany and the French Revolution, 1789/1989 [exhibition catalog], ed. by Franz Dumont, Stuttgart 1989, pp. 197-213.
  • Marguerite Stahl: Franz Beck, un élève de Stamitz à Bordeaux , Bordeaux 1991.
  • Bärbel Pelker: "Franz Beck", in: Solo works for soprano and orchestra (= music of the Mannheim court orchestra 2), Stuttgart 1999, spec. Pp. XIII-XVIII.

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Baptismal register entry: Baptismal register of the Catholic parish church Mannheim St. Sebastian 1685–1736. Other sources give February 15, 1723.
  2. ^ Karlsruhe, Badisches Generallandesarchiv, Sign .: 204/1372
  3. ↑ Mercure de France , Sept. 1757, p. 190
  4. ↑ Print advertisements: Mercure de France , Jan. 1758, p. 150; Annonce, Affiches , Feb. 2, 1758, p. 77
  5. ^ Courteault, Archives historiques du Département de la Gironde , 1900, p. 257
  6. ^ Céleste, "Les sociétés de Bordeaux", 1900, p. 445
  7. ↑ Vivie, Histoire de la Terreur à Bordeaux , 2nd volume, Bordeaux 1877, p. 150
  8. ^ Stahl, Franz Beck , p. 59
  9. ↑ L'Hospital, Éloge , p. 14; Bernadau, "Nécrologie", p. 56; Blanchard, "Essais biographiques," p. 227
personal data
SURNAME Beck, Franz Ignaz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beck, Franz Ignaz Aloys
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical composer
DATE OF BIRTH baptized February 20, 1734
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1809
Place of death Bordeaux