Josepha Auernhammer

Josepha Barbara Auernhammer (born September 25, 1758 in Vienna ; † January 30, 1820 there ) was an Austrian pianist and composer , the eleventh child of Johann Michael (not "von") Auernhammer and Elisabeth Timmer.

Live and act

Josepha Barbara Auernhammer studied with Georg Friedrich Richter, Leopold Anton Kozeluch and from 1781 with Mozart , with whom she fell in love. On June 27, 1781 Mozart wrote about her: “ I go to H: v: Auerhammer's after dinner almost every day; - Freulle is a horror! - but plays to delight; only she misses the true, subtle, singing taste in the Cantabile ; she plucks everything. “This year Mozart dedicated his sonatas for piano and violin KV 296 and KV 376–380 to her. (The dedication to Auernhammer on the edition of the piano variations "Ah, vous dirais je, maman" KV 265 was added by the publisher Christoph Torricella in 1785. )

Auernhammer corrected the prints of several of Mozart's sonatas, and her piano playing with Mozart was enthusiastically described by Abbé Stadler . On the occasion of a house concert in Vienna's Passauerhof on November 23, 1781, she played the sonata for two pianos KV 448 and the double concerto KV 365 with Mozart. Further concert appearances took place in January 1782 and on May 26, 1782. After the death of her father, Mozart arranged for Auernhammer to stay with Baroness Waldstätten in Leopoldstadt .

On May 23, 1786 she married the civil servant Johann Bessenig (approx. 1752–1837), with whom she had four children. She continued to appear regularly in private circles and at concerts in the Burgtheater . Already on 25 March 1801 where he played the Piano Concerto in C major, Op. 15 by Ludwig van Beethoven had appeared that only a few days before. She gave her last public concert on March 21, 1813 together with her daughter Marianna, who also made a name for herself as a singing teacher and pianist under the name Auenheim.

Auernhammer wrote mainly piano music, especially variations that testify to extensive knowledge of pianistic techniques and skillful use of the instrument. She published "around 10 booklets piano variations". Six German songs (1790) were distributed in manuscripts.

Her grave is in the Sankt Marxer Friedhof .

Works (selection)

Dix Variations composées et dediées a Madame la Baronne de Braun par Madame Jos. Aurnhammer , Op. 63

literature

Constantin von Wurzbach : Bad honey, Josepha . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 2nd part. Publishing house of the typographic-literary-artistic establishment (L. C. Zamarski, C. Dittmarsch & Comp.), Vienna 1857, p. 24 ( digitized version ).
Constantin von Wurzbach : Bessenig, Josepha Barbara . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 26th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1874, p. 369 ( digitized version ).
Hiroko Hirasawa, Josepha Barbara von Auernhammer. Student of Mozart, pianist, composer , Vienna 1993, diploma thesis at the University of Vienna
Regina Nopp, female composers at the time of the Wiener Klassik , Linz 1996
Michael Lorenz , New and Old Documents Concerning Mozart's Pupils Barbara Ployer and Josepha Auernhammer , in: Eighteenth-Century Music , Vol. 3 (2006), No. 2, pp. 311-322
Melanie Unseld , "Studying [...] and making a job of it". Mozart's pupils Josepha Auernhammer and Babette Ployer , in: “An inexhaustible wealth of ideas…” female composers at the time of Mozart , ed. by Elena Ostleitner and Gabriele Dorffner (= Frauentöne , Volume 6), Strasshof / Vienna / Bad Aibling: 4/4 Verlag 2006, pp. 41–52

Web links

Media from and about Josepha Auernhammer in the catalog of the German National Library
Biographical article in the Lexicon of European Female Instrumentalists of the 18th and 19th Centuries , Sophie Drinker Institute, Bremen
Lexical article in "Music and Gender on the Internet" (MUGI)

Individual evidence

↑ Rita Seblin: "A Problem Solved: The Identity of Georg Friedrich Richter" , Newsletter of the Mozart Society of America , Volume XIII, Number 2, 27 August 2009. p 5-8
↑ See Robert Münster : Accompanying text on women composers from three centuries. Exhibition by the Bayerische Vereinsbank in cooperation with the music collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. (~ 1970)

personal data
SURNAME	Auernhammer, Josepha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Auernhammer, Josepha Barbara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH	September 25, 1758
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vienna
DATE OF DEATH	January 30, 1820
Place of death	Vienna

[1] Rita Seblin: "A Problem Solved: The Identity of Georg Friedrich Richter" , Newsletter of the Mozart Society of America , Volume XIII, Number 2, 27 August 2009. p 5-8

[2] See Robert Münster : Accompanying text on women composers from three centuries. Exhibition by the Bayerische Vereinsbank in cooperation with the music collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. (~ 1970)