Friedrich Ludwig Benda

Friedrich Ludwig Benda (baptized September 4, 1752 in Gotha ; † March 20 or 27, 1792 in Königsberg ) was a German violinist and composer . He was the eldest son of the composer Georg Anton Benda .

Life

Benda received his basic musical education through his family: violin lessons and composition lessons from his father, the well-known composer Georg Benda, and from his uncle, the violinist at the Gotha court, Dismas Hataš ; he was the husband of the Gotha court singer Anna Franziska Benda , his father's sister. Due to the friendship between his family and the ducal family, Benda received special support by enabling him to attend the Gotha high school, then the pedagogy in Ilfeld and then start studying law in Göttingen. After about three semesters he returned to his parents' house and in 1775 he joined the Seyler's Society , which had moved to Gotha after the theater fire in Weimar . With this he was concertmaster and soloist on trips to Leipzig, Dresden, Frankfurt, Mainz, Mannheim, Cologne and Hanau.

In 1778 the accompanying singer Felicitas Agnesia Ritz (born March 11, 1757) made her debut in Mannheim , and he married her that same year. Even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , admirer of his father melodramas GA Benda, holding 1778 in Mannheim. The fact that (FL) Benda and Mozart met is suspected because of thematic similarities in Benda's violin concertos.

In 1779 the Seylersche Gesellschaft in Frankfurt disbanded due to financial difficulties, and the Benda couple went to Northern Germany, where they both performed as "chamber virtuoso" (violin) and singers at the Hamburg theater from 1780 to spring 1782 . Both of their art was initially very much appreciated, but there were disputes between "Mad. Benda", her colleagues and the audience. This led to the termination of her theater performances.

From May 1782, both Benda as “court violinist and cammer composer” and his wife as a singer found an engagement at the court of Ludwigslust . The couple made extensive concert tours and repeatedly visited the stages in Hamburg, Lübeck, Gotha, Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin. Her absence from Ludwigslust, sometimes lasting several months, was always appreciated and served the reputation of the court.

The couple always received a lot of applause on stage; Benda's soulful violin playing resembled that of his famous uncle Franz Benda , the "royal violinist" and concertmaster of Frederick the Great. "Mad. Benda's “powerful voice was particularly admired by Christoph Willibald Gluck and was often accompanied by her husband. In 1788, after a very successful tour to the east, Benda's success led him to be offered the post of director in Königsberg. When he stayed in Konigsberg longer than planned, he was dismissed from the court in Ludwigslust for an unauthorized absence. Then the couple divorced.

Friedrich Ludwig Benda was able to fully develop his musical talent in Königsberg, aided by supporting theater people and wealthy subscribers. He created his most important compositions here and worked with the lyricist Friedrich Ernst Jester . He died after four years, in 1792, at the age of thirty-nine, allegedly of the consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle.

family

Four FL Benda siblings have also had a career on German stages:

• Heinrich Benda (1754 – before 1806), violinist initially also with the Seyler Society, later at the Döbbelin Theater in Berlin
• Catharina Justina Benda (1757–1815), widowed Zimdar , married Blanchard, actress and singer, in Hamburg, Schleswig, most recently in Breslau for many years
• Hermann Christian Benda (1759–1805), singer and actor, in Hamburg, Berlin, most recently at the Weimar court theater under Goethe
• Carl Ernst Eberhard Benda (1764–1824), initially as an actor and singer in Berlin at the Döbbelin Theater, then for many years at the court theater there

See also

• Benda (families)

Ludwigslust, altar painting in the castle church by Johann Dietrich Findorff

Title page The Barber of Seville 1790

rehabilitation

Authors copying from each other, even in short articles about FL Benda, considered the reference to his dishonorable dismissal to be worth mentioning, right down to CD booklets. Both Clemens Meyer and Franz Lorenz have critical thoughts on “Mad. Benda ”flow into their writings.

Works (selection)

Cantatas

mainly during the Ludwigslust period, 1782–1788:

• “God descends”, 1784

This Christmas cantata is also attributed to the father Georg Anton Benda, especially after the “looted return” of notes from the Crimea to the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin in 1999. The authorship could, however, be with the son Friedrich in view of the special altarpiece in the Ludwigslust castle church Ludwig lie. .

• "Our father"
• "The death"
• "The Religion", around 1788 (partly already from Königsberg)

The text for the three cantatas was created in collaboration with the theologian Heinrich Julius Tode, who worked in Pritzier at Ludwigslust

Singing games

Early work (for the Seylersche Gesellschaft)

• “The Barber of Seville”, 1776/79

and mainly during the Königsberg period 1788–1792:

• “The engagement”, 1790
• "Louise", 1791
• "Mariechen", 1791/92

Instrumental music

• Violin Concertos in D major and E flat major, 1778/79 (CDs)

Because of several Bendas with the first name Friedrich , the authorship could be unclear, made more difficult by abbreviations such as F. Benda and Fr. Benda, which could also indicate Franz Benda.

literature

• The music in past and present (MGG), second, revised edition, edited by Ludwig Finscher, person part 2, Bag-Bi, Bärenreiter Kassel, 1999, column 1072.
• EA Hagen: History of the theater in Prussia, especially the stages in Königsberg and Danzig. EJ Dalkowski, Koenigsberg 1854.
• Ernst Wilhelm Wolf: Also a journey but only a small musical one. Carl Ludolf Hoffmann's blessed widow and heirs, Weimar 1884.
• Clemens Meyer : History of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court orchestra . Publishing house Ludwig Davids, Schwerin 1913.
• Hermann Güttler: Königsberg's musical culture in the 18th century. Koenigsberg 1925.
• Franz Lorenz: The Benda family of musicians . tape 2 : Franz Benda . de Gruyter, Berlin 1967, ISBN 3-11-003568-5 , p. 115-129 .
• Herman Marggraff, Carl Herlosssohn: General Theater-Lexikon, first volume , p. 279, editor Robert Blum, Verlag HA Pierer, Altenburg and Leipzig, 1839.
• The collection of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin . Part 1: oratorios, masses, sacred and secular cantatas, arias and songs. KG Sauer Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-598-34471-8 , p. 61 and 62 .

Web links

• Works by and about Friedrich Ludwig Benda in the catalog of the German National Library
• Sheet music and audio files by Friedrich Ludwig Benda in the International Music Score Library Project
• Works by and about Friedrich Ludwig Benda  in the German Digital Library

References and comments

1. ↑ Franz Lorenz: The Benda family of musicians. P. 115. (Baptism in the castle church)
2. ↑ see her portrait on page 81 in Lorenz's biography about Georg Anton Benda
3. ↑ see Lorenz 'biography, pages 121 and 122 with references
4. ↑ see State Main Archives Schwerin : (Personal files ) 2.26-1 Grand Ducal Cabinet, Court Chapel, No. 6956 (1783), No. 631 (1785) and No. 12635 (1788)
5. ↑ see page 279 in the Allgemeine Theater-Lexikon at Google Books
6. ↑ see Lorenz 'biography on page 128
7. ↑ Hofmusik in Mecklenburg , Vol. 1 and 2, RBM Musikproduktion GmbH
8. ↑ In the booklet accompanying the CD Uns is a child is born (Collegium Instrumentale Brugense under Patrick Peire, 1998 (!), Eufoda, No. 1272) the cantata Friedrich Ludwig Benda is assigned with “(?)”. A manuscript (inventory no. 745) from the Brusselse Conversatoriumsbibliotheek is named as the source
9. ^ Preussisches Archiv, Königsberg 1792, p. 600 at uni.goettingen.de
10. ^ Full text at Digital Collections Munich
11. ^ Full text at Digital Collections Munich
12. ^ Full text at Digital Collections Munich
13. ↑ see MGG columns 1071 and 1073