Johann Mayrhofer (poet)

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Schwind: Johann Mayrhofer
Birthplace in Pfarrgasse
Memorial plaque on the birthplace
Mayrhofer's copy of a review of Schubert's melodrama Zauberharfe , 1820
Johann Mayrhofer (standing far right) at Joseph von Spaun's Schubertiade 1828, drawing by Moritz von Schwind (1868)

Johann Baptist Mayrhofer (born October 22, 1787 in Steyr ; † February 5, 1836 in Vienna ) was an Austrian poet and close friend of the composer Franz Schubert .

life and work

Mayrhofer was the son of a court procurator and from 1806 to 1810 a member of the St. Florian monastery in Upper Austria. After leaving the monastery, he studied law and theology in Vienna. He successfully completed both studies. During his student days he was friends with the writer Theodor Körner . From 1814 until the end of his life Mayrhofer was a book auditor at the “K. K. books revision office ”within the framework of state censorship by the Metternich regime. Contrary to his actual political position, he was dependent on this livelihood.

In Vienna he met the composer Franz Schubert through Joseph von Spaun in 1814 and lived with his 10-year-old friend from 1818 to 1821 in a shared apartment in the house to the right of the old town hall on Wipplinger Straße . Schubert set 47 poems by Mayrhofer to music, including the famous Schiffers song to the Dioscurs and, for example, The Angry Diana . Mayrhofer also created the libretti for two stage works for him , which, however, were not performed during the authors' lifetime: only parts of the text set to music by Schubert have survived for both the Singspiel Die Freunde von Salamanca (1815) and the opera Adrast . Ernst von Feuchtersleben decided not to publish the manuscripts still available to him as part of the edition of Mayrhofer's posthumous poems. From 1819 active in the fraternity circle in Vienna.

In 1824 a collection of his poems was published. In 1829 he published his “Memories of Franz Schubert” in the journal Neues Archiv für Geschichte , which contained some remarkable information about Schubert and his circle of friends.

“Mayrhofer constantly suffered from bad health, his tendency towards melancholy and loneliness. In 1830, two years after Schubert's death, he made his first suicide attempt. He was rescued from the Danube. ”In 1836 he died in Vienna of suicide as a result of a depressive episode. He lunged from the third floor of his office building.

reviews

"Mayrhofer's poems are always like the text to a melody."

- Franz Grillparzer

"He is captivated by the pictures he saw closely and the diction that he copied from Goethe."

- Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Works

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Lorenz: "Johann Mayrhofer's Real Date of Birth"
  2. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume II: Artists. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5 , pp. 486-487.
  3. ↑ Facsimile in: Till Gerrit Waidelich: Franz Schubert. Documents 1817-1830 (Tutzing 1993), No. 699, p. 491 ff.
  4. ^ Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau : Franz Schubert in his songs . 1st edition. Insel paperback No. 2519, Frankfurt 1999, ISBN 3-458-34219-2 , p. 77.
  5. ^ Franz Grillparzer , quoted in: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau : Franz Schubert in his songs . 1st edition. Insel Taschenbuch No. 2519, Frankfurt 1999, ISBN 3-458-34219-2 , p. 78
  6. ^ Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau : Franz Schubert in his songs . 1st edition. Insel Taschenbuch No. 2519, Frankfurt 1999, ISBN 3-458-34219-2 , p. 78
personal data
SURNAME Mayrhofer, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mayrhofer, Johann Baptist; Mayerhofer, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian poet
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1787
PLACE OF BIRTH Steyr
DATE OF DEATH February 5, 1836
Place of death Vienna