Heinrich Carl Breidenstein

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Heinrich Carl Breidenstein, marble medallion by Albert Küppers in the old cemetery in Bonn

Heinrich Carl Breidenstein (born February 28, 1796 in Steinau an der Strasse , † July 12, 1876 in Bonn ; also Heinrich Karl Breidenstein ) was a German musicologist .

Life

Heinrich Carl Breidenstein was born in Steinau on February 28, 1796 as the son of the teacher and organist Friedrich Ernst Breidenstein (son of Georg Breidenstein, who also worked as a teacher) and his wife Juliane Jakobine Wagner (daughter of the pharmacist Johann Heinrich Wagner). After attending grammar school in Hanau , he studied law , classical philology and philosophy at the universities of Berlin and Heidelberg from 1815 . In 1817/18 he was the private tutor of Count Wintzingerode in Stuttgart , then music teacher at a grammar school and the university in Heidelberg .

After 1821 with the essay "On the Beautiful in Music" at the University of Giessen to Doctor of Philosophy PhD was, he held lectures at the University of Cologne . In 1822 he became music director of the University of Bonn , in 1823 after a lecture “On the current state of musicology” lecturer and in 1826 as an associate professor there, he held the first musicological chair in modern German university history . In 1827 he gave lectures at the Berlin University, but returned to the one in Bonn.

In 1834 he founded the “City Academic Music Association at the Reading and Recreation Society” in Bonn, with which he performed an abundance of oratorios and other choral works until 1853, and since his founding of the “Orchestervereinigung” in 1843 there also performed a wide variety of symphonic works.

Since the death of Beethoven he had planned the erection of a monument in his honor and in 1835 founded a committee to collect funds for it, of which he became chairman. After Franz Liszt had donated 10,000 francs , a three-day Beethoven Festival was held in Bonn in 1845 for the inauguration of the monument (by E. Hähnel) as the first international manifestation of the composer's world significance , despite extraordinary difficulties . Breidenstein engaged Ludwig Spohr , who is highly regarded as a violin virtuoso and conductor, to conduct Beethoven's “ Missa solemnis ” and his “ Ninth Symphony ” for the performance of the Piano Concerto in E flat major, Franz Liszt. Breidenstein himself conducted Beethoven's C major Mass and his own cantata. Guests of honor were among others Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, Queen Victoria of England, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Hector Berlioz .

After much hostility, especially from the conservative classical philologist Friedrich Heimsoeth , Breidenstein withdrew from public musical life in 1854. He died on July 12, 1876 in Bonn at the age of 80.

Breidenstein only occasionally emerged as a composer . In addition to the “Festkantata for the inauguration of the Beethoven monument”, he wrote, among other things, organ - variations on “A strong castle is our God”, motets (including “Blessed are the dead”) as well as songs and romances about poems by Novalis .

Heinrich Carl Breidenstein is the author of a number of articles about music and musicians in the “General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts” . His "Practical Singing School" appeared in 1831; his unfinished organ theory came into the possession of Hugo Riemann .

A portrait of HC Breidenstein in oil by C. Tischbein from 1825 is in the possession of the Bonn Reading Society.

Works

  • Blessed are the dead (Motet, Leipzig approx. 1820)
  • If I only had him (motet poem by Friedrich von Hardenberg [Novalis], Leipzig 1825)
  • What shimmers so beautifully on the mountain (choir song, own poetry)
  • Romances and songs for alto and piano (Frankfurt a. M. 1834)
  • Festive cantata for the inauguration of the Beethoven monument for mixed choir and orchestra (Bonn 1845)
  • Variations on "A solid castle" for organ (Erfurt and Leipzig approx. 1855)
  • Practical Singing School , 6 booklets (Bonn 1831)
  • About the beautiful in music (dissertation, University of Gießen 1821)
  • Article about music and musicians in the "General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts" (Halle / Leipzig 1818 ff.)

literature

personal data
SURNAME Breidenstein, Heinrich Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Breidenstein, Heinrich Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH Steinau an der Straße
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1876
Place of death Bonn