Johann Simon Hermstedt

Johann Simon Hermstedt (born December 29, 1778 in Langensalza ; †  August 10, 1846 ) was an important clarinet virtuoso in Germany in the first half of the 19th century and, as court conductor, had a decisive influence on the development of today's Loh Orchestra in Sondershausen .

Johann Simon Hermstedt

Life

On December 29, 1778, Johann Simon Hermstedt was born in Langensalza as the son of Johann Heinrich Ludwig Hermenstedt, music director in a Chursächsischen regiment, who came from Bellstedt in Schwarzburg . From February 1788 Johann Simon attended the Soldiers' Boys Institute in Annaburg . There he received instruction on all the instruments commonly used at the time. He continued his training in 1794 with the town musicians Knoblauch in Waldheim and Bär in Colditzaway. In 1799 he was accepted into the “Prince Clemens” regiment of the Electorate of Saxony, in which his father also served. His special abilities as a clarinetist already emerged there. As part of the regiment, he had the opportunity to use the cultural possibilities of Dresden for his musical training .

In 1801 he followed the call to Sondershausen, in order to found the Guards Hautboistencorps there by order of Prince Günther Friedrich Carl I. It was a harmony corps with a double line-up of oboes , clarinets, bassoons , horns and trumpets and a single line-up of bass horn and trombone . It also served to strengthen the Princely Chapel, the forerunner of the later Loh Orchestra. As Premier Hautboist Hermstedt headed the Hautboistencorps from 1802. He was also responsible for the program of the concerts in collaboration with the court organist Ernst Ludwig Gerber . In 1803 Hermstedt married the daughter of the special house pharmacist Gerlach. The only son later became a councilor.

The Lohhalle at Lohplatz

Since 1806 there have been regular open-air concerts in Lohpark, which were very popular with the population because of the free entry. First, the orchestra played on the south side of the square in a concert shell , also known as the half moon. In 1837 the concert hall designed by Carl Scheppig (1803-1885) called the Lohhalle was built on the west side of the Lohpark . The important band masters were named on a frieze, with the name Hermstedt in the first place. Since the concert business almost stopped in the winter half-year, Hermstedt had the opportunity as a clarinetist to travel all over Germany from 1808 to 1841. At that time he was considered the most successful in his field. Hermstedt's friendship with Louis Spohr (1784-1859) from Gotha prompted him to compose clarinet concerts for him. Hermstedt also had an influence on the technical development of the instrument. The metal mouthpiece came into use as an innovation in the clarinet.

In Sondershausen Hermstedt became Kapellmeister in 1824 and Hofkapellmeister in January 1839, as the Guard Hautboistencorps had been dissolved in 1835. But in the same year of his appointment, he retired on November 9, 1839 of his own accord due to disagreements with the court concertmaster. On August 10, 1846, he died of a sore throat in Sondershausen.
His grave site on the Alten Gottesacker in Sondershausen was rebuilt in 1987.

meaning

Hermstedt had the reputation of the greatest clarinet virtuoso of his time. As Kapellmeister he had a decisive influence on the development of the court orchestra into the later Loh orchestra.

Contemporary judgments:

Leipzig, 1809:
Not often has a virtuoso so delighted the numerous auditorium, and perhaps never a virtuoso on the wind instrument. But Herr Hermstedt is also most probably the most excellent of all clarinettists living now. Not only that he overcomes difficulties on his instrument, and with the greatest ease, security and grace ... also his wonderful tone, capable of all modifications, the niceness and perfection of what he does, and the character and expression with which he makes the compositions great Master lectures ... ..

Dresden, 1810:
Mr. Hermstedt's clarinet concerto from Sondershausen deserves an award. We have never heard this instrument in such perfection.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Bad Tennstedt, 1816:
I also have to praise what an excellent pleasure a Hermstadt concert and private exhibition gave me, since I have been removed from musical friends for a long time and almost alienated from this wonderful element of art and nature.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Bad Tennstedt, 1816:
The music director Hermstedt von Sondershausen blows the clarinet very well. He had all the harmony; that means: brought over a dozen blowing artists with them, on whom the prince pays a lot, they do their job very well.

swell

Letters from Johann Simon Hermstedt are in the holdings of the Leipzig music publisher CF Peters in the Leipzig State Archives .

literature

• Hans Eberhardt: Johann Simon Hermstedt (1778-1846). His importance as a clarinet virtuoso. In: Messages from the Association for German History and Antiquity in Sondershausen. Issue 10, 1940. pp. 95-143. (Reprinted in Hans Eberhardt: Musikleben. Collected essays on Thuringian music and music history. Ed. Volker Wahl. Rudolstadt 2000. ISBN 3898070166 , pp. 55–92 and 145–151.)
• Hans Eberhardt:  Hermstedt, Johann Simon. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 674 ( digitized version ).
• Robert Eitner:  Hermstedt, Johann Simon . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, p. 201.
• Helmut Köhler: Johann Simon Hermstedt (1778-1846) . Series: Personalities in Sondershausen. Cultural Office of the City of Sondershausen, 1996.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. the figure .
2. ↑ quoted from Eberhardt 1940.