Friedrich Niecks

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Friedrich Maternus Niecks (born February 3, 1845 in Düsseldorf , † June 24, 1924 in Edinburgh ) was a German music teacher and music writer who spent most of his life in Scotland . He was best known for his biographies by Frédéric Chopin and Robert Schumann .

biography

Friedrich Maternus Niecks was born in Düsseldorf as the son of a conductor and teacher. His grandfather was also a musician by profession. He studied music with his father and later with Leopold Auer and others ( violin ) and with Julius Tausch ( piano and composition ). At the age of 13 he made his debut with the Violin Concerto No. 2 by Charles-Auguste de Bériot . He joined the orchestra of the Musikverein at the age of 21.

In 1868 he wanted to go to Great Britain . Alexander Mackenzie invited him to settle in Scotland , where he became viola player in Mackenzie's string quartet in Edinburgh and organist and teacher in Dumfries . In 1879 he became a regular writer for the Musical Times .

In 1884 he published a Concise Dictionary of Musical Terms in two editions. In 1888 he published his most important work, Frédéric Chopin as a man and a musician , with a German edition that appeared in 1889. This was Chopin's first comprehensive biography.

In 1891 he was appointed Reid Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh , a position he held until 1914. His activities included conducting a string quartet and a series of concerts in historical performance practice, in addition to his lectures and teaching duties. His published music-related papers included The Flat, the Sharp and the Natural ; The Teaching of Musical History ; A History of Program Music from the 16th Century to the Present Time ; and The Nature and Capacity of Modern Music (“The Bb Keys, the Sharp Keys, and the Natural Keys”, “The Teaching of Music History”, “A History of Programmatic Music from the 16th Century to the Present”, “Nature and the ability to play modern music ”).

Niecks received his doctorate in musicology from the University of Dublin in 1898 . In 1907, at the age of 62, he married the daughter of Sir John Struthers, Secretary of the Scottish Department of Education.

In 1914, when the Second World War broke out, he was forced to return to Germany. Donald Tovey succeeded him as a Reid professor . Niecks later returned to Edinburgh, where he died in 1924 at the age of 79. His widow Christina Niecks edited his biography of Robert Schumann and published it the year after Niecks death. She died in 1944. She bequeathed her collection of Chopin collectibles, including letters from Chopin, Franz Liszt and Clara Schumann, to the University Library of Edinburgh .

reputation

Niecks' reputation as a connoisseur of Chopin was initially strong in the 19th century but was challenged in later years. The magazine Monthly Musical Record wrote in 1915: "His whole professional life has been one long big accident [including] the manner in which he first came to be regarded as the greatest living authority on Chopin". ("His entire professional life has been one great misfortune, including his way of being initially regarded as the greatest living authority on the Chopin affair.")

Most recently, it was particularly criticized that Friedrich Niecks' sections about the period 1841–1849 and the years after Chopin's death are filled with half-truths, hearsay, omissions, hints and punishments, which were copied and continued to spread by other authors.

In any case, in 2011 the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw , Poland , published a Polish version of Niecks' biography of Chopin.

Works

  • Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician. 2 volumes, 3rd edition. 1902 (online)
  • Friedrich Chopin as a person and musician. Reproduced by the author and translated from English by Wilhelm Langhans. Leuckart, Leipzig 1890.
  • Robert Schumann. Dent et al., London 1925.

literature

  • Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 5th edition. Volume 6, 1954, pp. 83f.
  • Frederick Niecks. In: The Musical Times. Volume 40, No. 679 of September 1, 1899, pp. 585-593 ( online )

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b jstor
  2. ↑ a b c Edinburgh University Library
  3. ↑ a b Icons of Europe
  4. ^ Fryderyk Chopin jako człowiek i muzyk. Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina, Warsaw 2011, ISBN 978-83-61142-30-0 . Cf. [1]
personal data
SURNAME Niecks, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Niecks, Friederich Maternus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German music teacher and author
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH June 24, 1924
Place of death Edinburgh , UK