Joseph Moralt

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Joseph Moralt (born August 5, 1775 in Schwetzingen , † November 13, 1855 in Munich ) was a German musician.

Life

After his first lessons with his father and the town musician Karl Geller , Moralt received violin lessons from the violinist Lops, a chamber musician of Duke Clemens of Bavaria . He then received the "finishing touch" from the well-known Munich bandmaster and composer Peter Winter . In 1788, at the age of 13, Moralt was accepted into the electoral court music as an accessist and was soon promoted to court musician.

Around 1811 Moralt founded the Musical Academy in Munich together with his brother Philipp , where he often performed as a conductor. The Moralt brothers Joseph, Johann Baptist, Jakob and Philipp founded the Moralt Quartet , a string quartet , which was very successful from the start . Great concert tours through Germany and abroad followed, for example through Switzerland via Geneva to Lyon and Paris in 1800 or back to Lyon in 1806 and then through all of Germany.

At the age of 18, Moralt played a violin concerto by his teacher Peter Winter in the Treizième Concert de Mrs. Les Amateurs in Munich on March 24, 1793 and in the following years often appeared as a soloist in concerts in musical societies such as "Harmonia" or "Frohsinn" Munich, whose orchestra he later also directed. He had particular success as a conductor for the first time when he conducted Haydn's “Creation” in a concert - apparently ordered for the French occupation troops - in 1800 and also attracted the attention of the French Supreme General Jean Victor Moreau , Commander in Chief of the Rhine Army and victor of Hohenlinden .

On May 10, 1800, when he was not yet 25 years old, he was promoted to electoral concertmaster as the successor to Ignaz Fränzl, who had become instrumental music director. With his appointment as concertmaster of court music, years of great success and general goodwill began for Moralt. In this position he had to rehearse the operas on the national theater repertoire, since from 1828 he was also the instrumental director of the royal court theater.

Moralt was also one of the founders of the "Munich Music Academy", which was approved by King Max Joseph I on November 9, 1811 through a cabinet order . From its founding, he was one of the directors of the academy for decades and remained loyal to it until his death.

After internal disputes about the distribution of tasks, in which King Ludwig I (Bavaria) intervened, it was decided in October 1827 that Joseph Hartmann Stuntz would remain vocal conductor; King Joseph Moralt was appointed orchestra director with the title and rank of court music -Instrumental Director . His clearly defined tasks included directing the orchestra in quartet and orchestral rehearsals, as well as in performances with the obligation to “be on friendly terms” with the vocal conductor in good time and before the rehearsals , as the opera rehearsed the tempi to take and the solos to be fixed.

This satisfied the will of the king and, from November 1, 1827, Moralt was also conductor of the court theater orchestra. But it cannot be denied that this appointment represented a special honor for Joseph Moralt.

Joseph Moralt, hitherto a bachelor, married his sister-in-law Maria Theresia Moralt born on October 17, 1827. Raab, the widow of his late brother Jakob Moralt, who after the death of her husband got on badly with her six children and a modest pension.

At home, the conductor, supported by the benevolence of the audience and above all his king, awaited the tranquility of bourgeois domesticity, first at Rindermarkt No. 618 via two stairs, then in Schönthurmstrasse No. 1029 via three stairs, later at Karmelitenplatz No. 1447 and finally at Pfandhausstrasse No. 3 (new). In the meantime his wife Theresia had given him a son in addition to the six stepchildren.

In a report dated November 9, 1835, the Intendant lists the disadvantages of the double occupation and suggests a conductor for the opera, a capable Kapellmeister of stature who should take over the functions of the previous conductor. It sounds a bit strange how he judges in his report about the previous opera conductors and other deserving orchestra members: Moralt has now become old and dull - he was just 60 years old - Stuntz, who has proven his inability, has no longer been interested since him the instrumental direction has been taken and is best retired. Moralt could be retained as an assistant for the opera management.

As a result, Lachner Opera Kapellmeister and Moralt were limited to the temporary opera management. Moralt stated at the time that he “would be attacked by the same pen which, at the expense of the orchestra direction I led early, praised the change brought about by the royal court theater directorship, while such means are not required, the fame of a man how to enlarge Kapellmeister Lachner, whose services as composer and orchestra director I myself pay the greatest admiration and who took over an orchestra from me, whose direction was my greatest honor and whose achievements both in performances of the operas and in those the oratorios and concerts have always enjoyed the most excellent recognition from the highest court and the local public ” .

But it is all the more understandable that the aging music director no longer felt at home in the new atmosphere of the court theater. Although he repeatedly took over the representation of Lachner in the court opera, he withdrew more and more to his actual field of work in court music. When he had once again conducted the opera “The Barber of Seville”, he sat down and wrote to the court theater management a request for exemption from theater service.

“Regardless of my glasses, the weakness of my eyes makes it almost impossible for me to read the small written notes of the scores, and my hearing has deteriorated to such an extent that I can often not understand the singers' words, which easily disrupts the performance of the opera He wrote on November 8, 1836. Should such a disturbance ever occur, it would be reported in the domestic and foreign newspapers, regardless of his old age and his previous achievements, and his honor as an artist would suffer. Now SM the King, although only last May testified that he was extremely satisfied with his performance, but also very graciously told him personally on the occasion of the first academy concert that he probably deserved the rest with regard to his theater services.

Moralt was retired as director of the orchestra in the royal court theater with effect from August 1, 1836 , "showing the utmost satisfaction with his previous service" . King Ludwig I awarded him the golden medal of honor of the Royal Ludwig Order. On November 13, 1855, he died in Munich at the age of 81, after a serious illness had tied him to bed for three months. He was buried on November 15th with great sympathy.

Joseph Moralt's widow, Maria Theresia Moralt b. Raab, who lived with her son, the court musician Anton Moralt, on Pfandhausstrasse, survived her husband for barely two years and died on December 20, 1857.

family

Her parents were the musician Adam Moralt (1748–1811) and Maria Anna Kramer. He had at least eight siblings:

His brother-in-law was the opera singer Julius Pellegrini (1806-1858).

literature

  • Albert Aschl : The Moralt  : Life Pictures of a Family ". - sl: Privatdr., 1960

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Moralt, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musician and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1775
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwetzingen
DATE OF DEATH November 13, 1855
Place of death Munich