Joseph Gusikow
Michael Joseph Gusikow (born September 2, 1806 in Schklou ; † October 21, 1837 in Aachen ) was a Jewish klezmer and virtuoso xylophone player who at his Europe-wide concerts - he also played in front of the Emperor and Prince Metternich - experts and the general public alike enthusiastic.
He was born in Schklou in what was then the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire in a family of klezmers. At first he learned to play the flute like his father, but because of a weak lungs he looked for another instrument. In 1831 he constructed what he called a wood-and-straw instrument that was reminiscent of a straw fiddle . It is essentially a xylophone in the form of a cymbal , with a range of two and a half chromatic octaves , with the wooden bars on straw rolls to achieve a fuller sound. On this instrument he developed an extraordinary virtuosity and in 1834 gave concerts in Moscow , Kiev and Odessa . Karol Lipiński heard him in Odessa , and with the support of this Polish musician and the French poet Lamartine , he went on concert tours in Western Europe from 1835, where he appeared in traditional Jewish clothing and aroused the admiration of many contemporaries. For example, the pianist Friedrich Kalkbrenner appeared as a guest soloist at a concert with Gusikow in the Palais des Tuileries in Paris . Although was Franz Liszt not impressed by Xylophonisten and described him as Paganini of the boulevards . On the other hand, Ferdinand Hiller gave him a written recommendation to Giacomo Meyerbeer , and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy wrote a letter to his family who was enthusiastic about Gusikov's virtuosity and his instrument. The music critic François-Joseph Fétis , who had met him in Brussels and had expressed himself quite condescendingly about the 16-year-old Liszt, described him in a detailed article in which he also went into the tuning details of the instrument.
Sick of tuberculosis at an early age, Gusikow died at the age of 31 during a concert in Aachen with mallets in hand. He had never learned sheet music and mainly played his own compositions, as well as arrangements of Paganini's La Campanella and other well-known piano and violin works.
literature
- Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians : Guzikow, Michal Józef. Second Edition, Volume 10, Pages 608-609
- Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography. Volume II, page 562
- Rita Ottens, Joel Rubin : Klezmer music. Munich 1999.
- Heike Müns : Music and Migration in East Central Europe. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005, ISBN 9783486576405
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gusikow, Joseph |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gusikow, Michael Joseph (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Xylophone player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 2, 1806 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sklow |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 21, 1837 |
| Place of death | Aachen |