Johann Baptist Schenk

Johann Baptist Schenk

Johann Baptist Schenk (also Schenck ) (born November 30, 1753 , † December 29, 1836 in Vienna ) was an Austrian composer .

Life

Johann Schenk was baptized as Joannes Evangelist on December 1, 1753 in the main parish of Wiener Neustadt . He was trained as a choirboy by Antonio Tomaselli before he came to Anton Stoll in Baden (Lower Austria) , who gave him basso , violin and wind instrument lessons. From 1773 to 1779 he was in Vienna by Georg Christoph Wagenseil in composition taught here he learned the works of Palestrina , Galuppi , hatred and Handel know and piano lessons the works of Bach and Handel.

In 1780 a mass was performed by Schenk in St. Stephen's Cathedral and in 1779 his Stabat mater . During this time he began a successful career as a composer of musical plays and popular operas. Numerous instrumental compositions were written at the end of the 1780s. Schenk earned his living primarily as a piano and composition teacher.

Schenk's most important student was the young Ludwig van Beethoven , to whom he gave counterpoint lessons in 1793 . He gave detailed information about the lessons in his autobiographical sketch from 1830, the original of which is owned by the Göttweig Benedictine Abbey .

Of his numerous works in this genre, which are distinguished by their sparkling humor and flow of melodies, the stage works that belong to the genre of the German Singspiel, as they flourished through reform efforts of Emperor Joseph II, deserve to be emphasized, including Der Dorfbarbier (1795) Prague performance was directed by Carl Maria von Weber , Der Bettelstudent (1796) and Der Faßbinder (1802). The attempt at an opera based on Gluck's model failed. Schenk's final resting place is the Sankt Marxer Friedhof in Vienna.

Works (selection)

• Church music (2 masses, Stabat Mater, 2 litanies, Miserere)
• Several cantatas
• About 20 Singspiele (some of which were not performed)
• 10 symphonies
• Overtures
• 3 concerts for pedal harp
• 5 string quartets and other chamber music
• "Principles of figured bass explained by examples" (autobiographical sketch, 1830)

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Schenk, Johann . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 29th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1875, pp. 198–201 ( digitized version ).
• Hans Michael Schletterer :  Schenk, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 31, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, pp. 52-56.
• Friedrich K. Rieger: Johann Schenk. An old master of the German Singspiel . Newspaper publisher, St. Pölten 1944.
• Midori Takeishi: Singspiele by Johann Baptist Schenk . Academic Music Publ., Tokyo 1996, ISBN 4-87017-065-5 (also dissertation, University of Tokyo 1991).
• Theophil Antonicek:  Schenk Johann Bapt .. In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815-1950 (ÖBL). Volume 10, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2186-5 , p. 78.

Web links

• Works by and about Johann Baptist Schenk in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Johann Baptist Schenk in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Entry on Johann Baptist Schenk in the database of the state's memory for the history of the state of Lower Austria ( Museum Niederösterreich )
• Sheet music and audio files by Johann Baptist Schenk in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Barbara Boisits:  Schenk, Johann Baptist. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 14 (Riccati - Schönstein). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2005, ISBN 3-7618-1134-9  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
2. ↑ Baptism entry published online at Matricula . See also: Theophil Antonicek:  Schenk Johann Bapt .. In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 10, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2186-5 , p. 78..
3. ^ Anton Stoll: The Baden schoolmaster and his friend Mozart. Church choir Baden St. Stephan, accessed on November 1, 2017 . 
4. ↑ See Klaus Martin Kopitz , Rainer Cadenbach (Ed.) And a .: Beethoven from the point of view of his contemporaries in diaries, letters, poems and memories. Volume 2: Lachner - Zmeskall. Edited by the Beethoven Research Center at the Berlin University of the Arts. Henle, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-87328-120-2 , pp. 763-766.