Hans Schmidt (musician)

Hans Schmidt (born September 6, 1854 in Fellin ; † August 29, 1923 in Riga ) was a German musician ( composer , pianist and accompanist) and poet .

Life

Its musical origins go back to the music teacher Adolph Mumme. Mumme taught at the Schmidt'schen Anstalt founded by Schmidt's father in Neu-Tennasilm in Fellin. Raimund von Zur Mühlen , the later celebrated song interpreter, to whom Hans Schmidt was very closely associated throughout his life , also went to this school .

From 1875 to 1878 Schmidt studied at the Leipzig Conservatory with Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel , Karl Piutti , Hermann Kretzschmar , Carl Reinecke , and Salomon Jadassohn .

He was his companion at the debut of Raimund von Zur Mühlen in Riga in 1878. As a result, he gave a large number of concerts in Germany and the Baltic provinces with Zur Mühlen .

He returned home via Berlin, where he was tutor to the violinist Joachim around 1878/79 , Münster, Vienna (intensive collaboration with Johannes Brahms ) and Frankfurt (encounters and friendships with Julius Stockhausen and Clara Schumann ) . There he worked first as an organist in Arensburg and as a music teacher and from 1885 in Riga as a music advisor for the Rigaische Zeitung and the Petersburger Zeitung . He remained in great demand as a piano accompanist at concerts by well-known artists in Riga. As a music critic and educator, he also had a great influence on the next generation of musicians from the Baltic states.

His compositional work is largely about songs (role models Schumann and Brahms). As a poet, his main focus was on poetry. He also translated Latvian, Russian and Norwegian literature. Together with Rūdolfs Blaumanis, he arranged for the poetry of the Latvian texts from the collection of compositions by Jāzeps Vītol's 200 Latvian Folk Tunes with Piano Accompaniment , published in 1906 by Paul Neldner Verlag, Riga.

He met Monika Hunnius , singer, writer and singing teacher, in 1883 or 1884 when he accompanied her at a concert in Arensburg. She became his student, from which a friendship developed that lasted until the end of his life.

Johannes Brahms set four of his poems to music:

• op. 84 No. 1 - Summer evening (“Go to sleep, daughter”), 1881
• op. 84 No. 2 - The wreath ("Mother, help me poor daughter"), 1881
• op. 84 No. 3 - In the berries ("Singe, Mädchen, bright and clear"), 1881
• op. 94 No. 4 - Sapphic Ode (“I broke roses at night”), 1883/84

Compositions (selection)

• op. 1 - Eight children's songs , Offenbach: André 1878
• op. 2 - Six songs , Offenbach: André 1879
• op. 3 - From the early days. A series of small character pieces for piano, Offenbach: André 1882

literature

• Heike Müns (Ed.), Music and Migration in East Central Europe (= writings of the Federal Institute for Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe. Vol. 23). Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-57640-2 .
• Monika Hunnius , My way to art. Salzer, Heilbronn 1925.
• Helmut Scheuchen, Lexicon of German Baltic Music. Harro von Hirschheydt publishing house, Wedemark-Elze 2002. ISBN 3-7777-0730-9 . Pp. 225-227
• Carola L. Gottzmann , Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . De Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 , p. 1153-1155 .
• Beatrix Borchard , voice and violin. Amalie and Joseph Joachim , 2nd edition, Vienna 2007, pp. 280, 417, 429, 434, 459, 470

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johannes Brahms in correspondence with Joseph Joachim , ed. by Andreas Moser, 2nd edition Berlin 1912, Volume 2, p. 184 f.

Web links

• Schmidt, Hans . In: East German Biography (Kulturportal West-Ost)
• Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Hans Schmidt. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
• Sheet music and audio files by Hans Schmidt (musician) in the International Music Score Library Project