Franz Schneeweiss

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Franz Sales Maximilian Ignatz Alois Schneeweiss (born January 29, 1831 in Eisenerz ( Styria ), † May 1888 in New Brunswick , New Jersey ) was an Austrian-American clergyman , organist , choir director and composer .

Life

Franz Schneeweiss was the older brother of the singer Amalie Joachim , b. Snow white. He came to Vienna in 1848 and fought against Austria on the Hungarian side during the revolution of 1848/49 . In 1849 he became a cadet in the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment " Graf von Beck-Rzikowsky " No. 47, which was stationed in Italy . From there he deserted in September 1850 and embarked on the USS Lexington , with which he reached New York on January 12, 1851 .

From 1852 to 1855 he studied theology at Rutgers College in New Brunswick. He then became a pastor at the Third Reformed Church in town and married Mary Parsell on October 24, 1855, with whom he had several children.

In 1858 he moved to New York, where in the same year he founded a “Society for the Advancement of German Sciences”. He also worked in Brooklyn as a city missionary for the German population there.

In 1860 he gave up his pastoral work and returned to New Brunswick, where he founded the music association "Septemvirs" that same year. In addition, he was active in the city as a music teacher, organist and choir director and organized concerts in which he also performed his own works.

In the summer of 1872 he visited his sister in Berlin , who for many years had believed that he had died in 1848/49. He then went on a trip through Great Britain , the Netherlands and Switzerland . In 1881 he came back to Berlin and helped his sister divorce the violinist Joseph Joachim .

Franz Schneeweiss campaigned for the spread of German-Austrian culture in New Brunswick and, in particular, had a lasting impact on the city's musical life.

estate

His estate is in the Rutgers University library . It includes a diary kept from 1849 to 1855 as well as numerous letters that he received from 1854 to 1888, especially from his sister and mother.

literature

  • F. Gunther Eyck, Franz Schneeweiss: A '48er in New Brunswick , in: The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries , Vol. 19 (1956), pp. 37-48 ( online )
  • Herbert F. Smith, A Guide to the Manuscript Collection of the Rutgers University Library , New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1964, pp. 66f.
  • Beatrix Borchard , voice and violin. Amalie Joachim and Joseph Joachim - biography and history of interpretation , 2nd edition, Vienna 2007

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Joseph Joachim to Johannes Brahms , Berlin, October 10, 1872, in: Johannes Brahms in correspondence with Joseph Joachim , ed. by Andreas Moser, Berlin 1912, Volume 2, p. 68
personal data
SURNAME Schneeweiss, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schneeweiss, Franz Sales Maximilian Ignatz Alois (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American theologian, organist, choir director and composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Iron ore ( Styria )
DATE OF DEATH May 1888
Place of death New Brunswick , New Jersey