Johann Gottlieb Naumann

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Painting from 1780, painted by his brother Friedrich Gotthard Naumann

Johann Gottlieb Naumann (born April 17, 1741 in Blasewitz , † October 23, 1801 in Dresden ) was a German composer , conductor and Kapellmeister of the classical music.

Life

Johann Gottlieb Naumann was the eldest son of the cottager and Landesaccise -Einnehmers Johann Georg Naumann and his wife Anna Rosina, born Ebert. Johann Gottlieb Naumann received the musical foundations from a teacher at the rural school in Loschwitz , who taught him piano and organ. At the age of 13 he took up an apprenticeship as a locksmith at short notice, after which he was a student at one of the three Latin schools in Dresden and was able to continue his musical training. It is uncertain whether it was the Kreuzschule and whether Naumann enjoyed lessons from Gottfried August Homilius . In 1757 the Swedish violinist Anders Wesström took him on a trip to Italy.

From 1759 to 1763 Naumann took lessons from Giuseppe Tartini in Padua , from Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna and from Johann Adolph Hasse in Venice . During this time his first compositions were written. For the carnival in 1763 he performed his first opera Il tesoro insidiato at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice. In the same year he left Italy and returned to Dresden.

Memorial stone for Naumann in the Seifersdorfer valley with the inscription: “The singer of the valley. Naumann. "

On August 1, 1764, on the recommendation of Hasse and Giovanni Battista Ferrandini, he was employed as a "church composer" at the Dresden court. In the following year, together with his younger colleagues Joseph Schuster and Franz Seydelmann, he made a second trip to Italy to carry out further studies. In the spring of 1768 he wrote his first Italian Holy Week oratorio La passione di Gesù Cristo for Palermo and was accepted into the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna. In the same year he was called back to Dresden because he was responsible for the upcoming wedding of the young Elector Friedrich August III. was to compose the opera La clemenza di Tito . Another trip took him from 1772 to 1774 via Munich to Italy, where he wrote a total of five operas for Venice and Padua. After success as an opera composer in Italy and the rejection of an offer to Berlin, he became Dresden court conductor in 1776 . In 1777 an invitation to the Swedish court of King Gustav III followed. , where he worked on his plans for the Royal Swedish Opera and reformed the local court orchestra (Kungliga Hovkapellet) . The opera Gustav Wasa , composed in 1786, was very successful in Sweden and was considered the Swedish national opera for decades. In the same year Naumann received a very advantageous contract for life in Dresden.

Johann Gottlieb Naumann's grave in the Elias cemetery in Dresden. The relief on the stone slab probably comes from Franz Pettrich .

He also worked as a guest conductor and opera composer in Copenhagen (1785–1786) and Berlin (1788–1789). After his stay in Berlin he returned to Dresden. In 1792 he married Catharina von Grodtschilling, the daughter of a Danish vice admiral. The marriage had four children. At the same time, due to increasing hearing loss and other illnesses, he began to withdraw from the opera stage. He died in 1801 and was buried in the Elias cemetery in Dresden in field D 5-6.

Johann Gottlieb Naumann was a brother of the painter Friedrich Gotthard Naumann , the father of the mineralogist Carl Friedrich Naumann and the physician Moritz Naumann and the grandfather of the composer and music writer Emil Naumann .

Surname

Naumann was baptized with the name Johann Gottlieb, but following the fashion of the time, he latinized it as Johann Amadeus. All first prints of his works appeared under the name Johann (or Giovanni) Amadeus Naumann, if the first name was mentioned.

plant

Johann Gottlieb Naumann was a very productive composer. The number of his compositions is in the hundreds. He mainly wrote operas , oratorios , Latin and German church music , songs and chamber music . Highly valued during his lifetime, he was largely forgotten after his death. Only in the 20th century did his works experience a renaissance.

Johann Gottlieb Naumann is one of the last representatives of "Italian opera" in Germany. After Hasse, who worked at the Saxon court until 1763, Naumann was the most important musical personality in Dresden, where his Latin church music was performed in an unbroken tradition until the 1930s. In Sweden and Denmark he is considered to be the reformer of musical life there and is much better known there than in Germany.

In the following selection of his works, years in brackets indicate the year of completion; complete dates with location and date of the premiere. A year number preceded by "ed." Without brackets indicates the year of the first publication.

Stage works

  • Il tesoro insidiato , Intermezzo, 2 parts (December 28, 1762, Venice)
  • Li creduti spiriti , dramma giocoso, 3 acts (February 18, 1764, Venice)
  • L'Achille in Sciro , dramma per musica, 3 acts (September 5, 1767, Palermo, Teatro Santa Cecilia)
  • Alessandro nelle Indie , dramma per musica, 3 acts (not listed; composed for Venice in 1768)
  • La clemenza di Tito , dramma per musica, 3 acts (February 1, 1769, Dresden)
  • Il vilano geloso , dramma giocoso, 3 acts (November 20, 1770, Dresden)
  • Solimano , dramma per musica, 3 acts (Carnival 1773, Venice)
  • L'isola disabitata , azione per musica, 2 parts (February 1773, Venice)
  • Armida , dramma per musica, 3 acts (June 13, 1773, Padua)
  • La villanella incostante , dramma giocoso, 3 acts (autumn 1773, Venice)
    • performed again as Le nozze disturbate (November 16, 1774, Dresden)
  • Ipermestra , dramma per musica, 3 acts (February 1, 1774, Venice)
  • L'Ipocondriaco , dramma giocoso, 3 acts (March 13, 1776, Dresden)
  • Amphion , opéra-ballet, 1 act (January 24, 1778, Stockholm)
  • Cora och Alonzo , tragédie lyrique, 3 acts (September 30, 1782, Stockholm)
  • Elisa , dramma per musica, 2 acts (April 21, 1781, Dresden)
  • Osiride , dramma per musica, 2 acts (October 27, 1781, Dresden)
  • Tutto per amore , dramma giocoso, 2 acts (March 5, 1785, Dresden)
  • Gustaf Wasa , tragédie lyrique, 3 acts (January 19, 1786, Stockholm)
  • Orpheus and Eurydice , 3 acts (January 31, 1786, Copenhagen)
  • La reggia d'Imeneo , festa teatrale, 1 act (October 21, 1787, Dresden)
  • Medea in Colchide , dramma per musica, 3 acts (October 16, 1788, Berlin)
  • Protesilao , dramma per musica, 2 acts (1st act by Johann Friedrich Reichardt ; January 26, 1789, Berlin)
    • with post-composed 1st act by Naumann (February 1793, Berlin)
  • La dama soldato , dramma giocoso, 2 acts (March 30, 1791, Dresden)
  • Amore giustificato , festa teatrale, 1 act (May 12, 1792, Dresden)
  • Aci e Galatea, ossia I ciclopi amanti , dramma giocoso, 2 acts (April 25, 1801, Dresden)

Vocal music

Latin church music

  • Measuring: The traditional counting of 21 completed mass settings is, according to recent research (Bemmann 2008), a construction of the 19th century. As a rule, Naumann put the five-movement Ordinarium missae together again and again from his inventory of individual mass sentences for the performances in the Dresden Court Church . According to Bemmann (2008), however, 8 masses can be reconstructed, which were always listed as closed cycles; These are the following works (old numbering in brackets):
    • Mass 1 (No. 1) in D minor (1767)
    • Mass 2 (No. 5) in F major (1774)
    • Mass 3 (No. 14) in A major (1782)
    • Mass 4 (No. 16) in D minor (1786)
    • Mass 5 (No. 17) in A minor (1791)
    • Mass 6 (No. 18) in D minor (1794)
    • Mass 7 (No. 19) A flat major (1791)
    • Mass 8 (No. 20) in A major (first version of Kyrie, Gloria and Credo: 1774–1779; final version as a cycle: 1798)
  • Individual measuring sets (this also includes the sets of the “constructed” masses not listed above): 15 Kyrie (between 1766 and 1801); 13 Gloria (between 1766 and 1799); 14 Credo (between 1766 and 1789); 18 Sanctus (between 1766 and 1801); 17 Agnus Dei (between 1769 and 1801)
  • 20 offers (between 1765 and 1797)
  • 9 Vespers cycles (between 1764 and 1799), several individual Vesper psalms
  • 18 Marian antiphons ( Alma redemptoris mater , Salve regina , Regina coeli , Ave regina coelorum ) and other liturgical compositions

Italian oratorios

German church music

  • The 96th Psalm (1779)
  • Time and Eternity (1783)
  • Our brothers (1785)
  • The 103rd Psalm , Praise the Lord, My Soul (1790) for soloists, choir and orchestra. Berliner Chormusik-Verlag / Edition Musica Rinata , 2014
  • God's Ways (1794)
  • The 111th Psalm (1796)
  • “Moons walk around earth”, with Our Father (1799?), Ed. 1823

Secular vocal music

  • Approx. 20 secular cantatas
  • Several duets, trios and canons
  • [12] Masonic songs with new melodies , ed. 1775; more Masonic chants
  • Collection of [36] songs to sing at the piano , ed. 1784; other collections of songs with similar content
  • Arietas and canzonets
  • The ideals of Schiller and Naumann not for many , ed. 1797
  • Cantatina an die Tonkunst , ed. 1799

Instrumental music (selection)

  • 2 collections of 6 sonatas for glass harmonica , ed. 1785 and 1790
  • 6 divertimenti for 2 violins and viola
  • 2 trios for 2 violins and violoncello (autograph)

Music for keyboard instruments

  • Concerto for harpsichord / piano, two violins, two oboes, two horns, viola da gamba and bass, ed. 1793
  • Four sonatas for harpsichord
  • Sonatinas for harpsichord with wind accompaniment
  • Trios for harpsichord or piano, violin and bass; for two violins and viola; for two violins and violoncello; for two violins and bass
  • Duos for 2 violins; for violin and harpsichord
  • Two piano sonatinas
  • Concerto for two pianos in B flat major
  • Six Quatuors pour le Clavecin ou Piano Forte avec l'Accompagnement d'une Flute, Violon et Basse (publisher JJ Hummel, Berlin, Oeuvre Premier)
  • Six Sonates pour le Clavecin avec l'Accompagenement d'un Violon (Editor JJ Hummel, Berlin, Oeuvre II)
  • Six Sonates pour le Forte Piano ou l'Harmonica (editor JJ Hummel, Berlin, Oeuvre IV)
  • Six Sonates pour l'Harmonica qui peuvent servir aussi pour le Piano Forte (publisher Hilscher, Dresden)
  • Prelude and Fugue in D major for organ
  • Trois Sonates pour le orgue
  • Divertimento in E flat major for organ
  • Tre pezzi a gusto italiano per la organa
  • Swedish suite for organ (editor Sproesser, Blasewitz bey Dresden)
  • Prelude and Fugue in B flat major for organ
  • Trois Sonates pour le clarinettino d'amore et orgue

estate

Part of the compositional estate of Johann Gottlieb Naumann is kept in the music department of the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library (signature: Mus.3480-…). It includes around 500 catalog numbers (around 140 music autographs, as well as numerous copies and prints).

The Naumann Society under the direction of Franns-Wilfrid von Promnitz

That the musical work of Naumann has not been completely forgotten nowadays is among other things. a. Thanks to the Dresden conductor, organist and pianist Franns-Wilfrid von Promnitz , who founded the musical Naumann Society in 1991. This sees itself initially as an executive circle of friends of Naumann's music. Since 1995 the Naumann Society has been operating as an e. V. led. Von Promnitz viewed and reconstructed more than 75 works by the composer Johann Amadeus Naumann and directed several Naumann premieres. Particularly noteworthy are the opera productions, in which numerous renowned singers took on the main roles.

  • May 30, 1992: Cora (director: Justus Carrière)
  • May 22, 1993: Amphion
  • May 14, 1994: Orpheus (Choreography: Bea Beck)
  • May 27, 1995: Titus
  • May 31, 1996: The Lady as a Soldier (Director: Claus Martin)
  • June 6, 1999: Medea, world premiere of the German version of the text at Theater Meißen (production: Annette Jahns, stage design: Arne Walther, costume: Marina Zydek, technical director: Ulrich Bahrmann)
  • June 14, 2001: Abel's death , performance in the Military History Museum in Dresden with the participation of the Dresden Kapellknaben

From 1991, under the direction of Franns-Wilfrid von Promnitz, the Naumann Society used various historical performance venues in the Seifersdorfer Tal landscape park as well as numerous churches and castles in Dresden and its surroundings for its performances and concerts . In addition, the artist is still striving to fill unusual concert venues with Naumann's music. On April 16, 2016, the eve of Naumann's 275th birthday, a musical Naumann tribute took place in the historic cross vault at Promnitz Castle on the Elbe. In addition to numerous piano compositions, Naumann's works for glass harmonica, his favorite instrument, were played. With the support of the city of Dresden, the Naumann Society performed a concert matinee on the composer's 275th birthday in the historic Naumann monastery in Dresden-Blasewitz.

Von Promnitz also created transcriptions of instrumental music by Johann Amadeus Naumann for organ, which he has played regularly in organ concerts at home and abroad.

Honors

Memorial plaque on the town hall (today city district office) of Blasewitz in Naumannstrasse 5
Memorial stele on the square of Naumann's former home

The town of Blasewitz (incorporated into Dresden in 1921) named Naumannstraße after him (today between Schillerplatz and Barteldesplatz; at that time also today's Goetheallee all the way to the confluence with Prellerstraße).

A memorial stele has been set up at the location of his last house, on today's south-western forecourt of the Schillergalerie shopping arcade not far from Schillerplatz.

The 63rd primary school in Dresden-Blasewitz bears Naumann's name and has a memorial plaque dedicated to him in the foyer. Another plaque commemorates him since 1902 (today a copy) on the facade of the former Blasewitz town hall . This was designed by Kurt Diestel . In the Seifersdorfer Tal there is a memorial in his honor with the inscription "The singer of the valley - Naumann".

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Gottlieb Naumann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Bemmann (2008), p. 55.
  2. ↑ List of stage works by Johann Gottlieb Naumann from Operone , accessed on September 26, 2014.
  3. ↑ Alfonso Zesi (May 17, 1799 in Milan - 1861 in Milan). Bass singer a. a. in Dresden.
personal data
SURNAME Naumann, Johann Gottlieb
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Naumann, Johann Amadeus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Blasewitz near Dresden
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 1801
Place of death Dresden