Friedrich Starke

Friedrich Starke (born March 30, 1774 in Elsterwerda ; † December 18, 1835 in Döbling near Vienna) was a German horn player, conductor and composer.

Life

The musician was apprenticed to a town musician in Großenhain for five years before traveling through Saxony for some time . From 1798 on he was regimental bandmaster under Archduke Ferdinand and experienced campaigns in Switzerland, Swabia and on the Rhine. Starke finished his musical training at an early age.

After his training as a horn player, he is said to have lived a five-year wandering life in various cities in Saxony and, after two years as a conductor at an equestrian society, worked as a musician in Salzburg. However, the reliability of this information has to be put into perspective under the aspect of Starke's self-description from 1821: "For 40 years in Vienna". As Kapellmeister of the 33rd Infantry Regiment, Starke took part in all campaigns until 1814.

Then he studied in Vienna with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and devoted himself to the composition of military and chamber music as well as the publication of a journal for military music. Probably in 1812 Starke made the acquaintance of Ludwig van Beethoven and in 1815 gave his nephew Karl piano lessons. There was no evidence that Beethoven found him a job at the court opera. In 1816 Starke was music director of the 33rd Infantry Regiment "Colloredo-Mansfeld" and organized Akkadien in the Great Redoutensaal.

Between 1819 and 1821 he published a Viennese pianoforte school in three sections, for which Beethoven, who in this work is referred to as “a star of the first magnitude in the music sky”, published five “little things” (the Bagatelles Op. 119, No. 7 –11) and two movements from op. 28 with their own fingerings. Beethoven's other contributions were a “concert finale” for piano (an independent piece derived from the abbreviated coda of op. 37) and fingerings for variations by Archduke Rudolph. The first movement of op. 109 probably originated from a bagatelle intended for Starke. Strong Pianoforte School is of great importance for understanding the Viennese piano style and the technical development of piano music in the early 19th century. It provides an insight into Beethoven's pianistic style, fingering and intonation as well as his artistic goal “not only to practice the art, but also to penetrate into it” (GA, vol. 2, no. 585). Strong statement based on Goethe's Faust (Section I, p. 15) "Only what comes from the heart can go back to the heart." Beethoven could have inspired the motto of op. 123. Starke wrote enlightening memoirs about the composer.

Although Starke had owned a house in Oberdöbling since 1824 , he died in poverty.

literature

• Friedrich Starke, Viennese Pianoforte School , 3 departments, Vienna 1819–21. (in Section I a “Concise Singing Method”).
• Ludwig Nohl , Beethoven based on the descriptions of his contemporaries , in: Harmonicon , 2, 1824, 11.
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Strong, Friedrich . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 37th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1878, p. 223 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Charles Howard Jones, The Wiener Pianoforte-Schule of Friedrich Starke: A Translation and Commentary , Diss. University of Texas 1990.
• Peter Clive, Beethoven and His World. A Biographical Dictionary , Oxford University Press 2001.
• Michael Lorenz , article "Starke, Friedrich" in: Das Beethoven-Lexikon , Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2008.
• Rita Steblin , Beethoven Mentions in Documents of the Viennese Tonkünstler-Societät . in: Bonner Beethoven Studies 10, 2012, pp. 139–188.

Web links

Sheet music and audio files from Starke in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Date of birth on Strong Tomb in Vienna's Central Cemetery
2. ^ Friedrich Kerst : The memories of Beethoven , Stuttgart 1913