Heinrich Panofka

Heinrich Panofka, lithograph by Marie-Alexandre Alophe

Heinrich Panofka (born October 3, 1807 in Breslau , † November 18, 1887 in Karlsruhe ) was a German violinist, composer, singing teacher and music writer.

Life

Panofka received his first musical training in his hometown of Wroclaw and performed publicly as a boy. In 1824, at the request of his father, he began to study law at the University of Breslau, but was finally able to move to Vienna , where he became a student of the famous violinist Joseph Mayseder . In 1827 he performed with great success in Vienna and went on a concert tour to Munich and Berlin . When he inherited a large fortune in 1831 through the death of his father, he gave up his virtuoso career and settled in Berlin as a music writer. In 1832 he went on another trip with the pianist Wenzeslaus Hauck , but found no pleasure in the wandering life, so that he returned to Berlin in 1833. In 1834 he moved to Paris , where, stimulated by the achievements of the singers working there at the Italian Opera, he turned more and more to artistic singing and studied this subject so diligently under Marco Bordogni that he was soon one of the most sought-after teachers alongside him could. Appointed by Lumley in 1847 as artistic advisor to the management of the Italian Theater in London , he also found extensive work here as a singing teacher. However, with the beginning of the Second Empire he returned to Paris and worked there in the same capacity until 1866, when he retired to Florence .

Panofka was one of the first employees of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, founded by Robert Schumann in 1834 . He has published a number of valuable violin compositions, but particularly encouraged singing studies through his singing textbooks L'art de chanter (also published in German and Italian in Leipzig and Milan) and Vademecum du chanteur . As a critic, he has also achieved something worthy of recognition. His estate is in the Berlin State Library .

His studbook, in which numerous important musicians have registered, including Ludwig van Beethoven , Franz Schubert , Hector Berlioz , Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms, is of importance for musicology .

literature

• Robert Eitner :  Panofka, Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 25, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 124 f.
• Heinrich Panofka: A musical family book. Facsimile , 2 volumes, ed. by Eva-Brit Fanger, Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 2007
• Alfred Baumgartner: Propylaea World of Music - The Composers - A lexicon in five volumes . tape 4 . Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-549-07830-7 , pp. 250 .