Julius Stern (musician)

Julius Stern

Julius (aka Isaiah Isaak) Stern (born August 8, 1820 in Breslau ; † February 27, 1883 in Berlin ) was a German music teacher and composer of the Jewish faith.

Life

Stern was the son of the music dealer Moritz Stern (1778 – after 1858) and his wife Taubchen, born in Berlin. Together with his sister and his parents came Stern in 1832 to Berlin, he initially began an apprenticeship in a silk factory, before the apprentice was accepted at the music section of the Berlin Academy of Arts and was able to study composition.

Between 1838 and 1854 he corresponded intensively with Robert Schumann , whom he admired and to whom he dedicated his Lieder op.8 in 1841. In 1853/54 both composers even considered "swapping" their positions.

A scholarship from King Friedrich Wilhelm IV enabled Stern to study singing in Paris , where he arrived in September 1843. Here, as the successor to Conradin Kreutzer , Stern headed the German choral society and met Giacomo Meyerbeer - who also sponsored him - and Hector Berlioz . He also stayed there with the banker Auguste Léo , where Stern met Frédéric Chopin . In 1844 he returned to Berlin.

From 1844 Stern sang in the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin and founded his own choral society in 1847, which soon posed serious competition for the Sing-Akademie. With this he first performed works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , later also the Missa solemnis and the 9th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven . During his time in Berlin, Stern took up residence in various rental houses, around 1848 initially at Spittelbrücke 2, and from the 1870s on at Friedrichstrasse 214 in Berlin city center.

Together with Theodor Kullak and Adolf Bernhard Marx , Julius Stern founded the "Music School for Singing, Piano and Composition" in 1850. On January 20, 1852, he married Elisabeth Meyer (1831-1919), eleven years his junior, daughter of the Berlin merchant Itzig Meyer, whose sister Jenny Meyer (1834-1894) later became an esteemed concert singer. From 1857, after the two co-founders left, the school operated as the Stern Conservatory . The institute was one of the most important training facilities for young musicians in Berlin and had well-known teachers as well as students. In addition to the sole management of the conservatory, Stern also took on the post of conductor of the choir of the synagogue of the reform community in Johannisstrasse under Rabbi Samuel Holdheim .

In 1855, Stern founded an orchestral association that did not last long due to economic problems. He later directed the Berlin Symphony Orchestra until he retired as a conductor in 1873. In the same year he joined the Society of Friends .

Julius Stern's grave is in the Weissensee Jewish Cemetery in field A1, row 22.

Honors

Berlin memorial plaque on the house, Friedrichstrasse 214, in Berlin-Kreuzberg

The Berlin University of the Arts named an institute after the composer: Julius Stern Institute for the promotion of young musicians . On October 16, 2014, the Senate of Berlin and the District Office of Mitte honored the musician's work by affixing a Berlin memorial plaque to his last home, Friedrichstrasse 214.

Works (selection)

At a young age, Stern composed a number of songs that were quite popular in their day.

• op. 1: Five songs . Gustav Crantz, Berlin 1839
• op. 3: Images of the Orient based on texts by Heinrich Stieglitz . Gustav Crantz, Berlin 1839
• op. 4: Barcarole for high voice, violoncello and piano. Gustav Frantz, Berlin 1839
• op. 8: Six poems by Reinick , Eichendorff, Burns, Chamisso . Heinrichshofen, Magdeburg 1841
• op. 9: Sacred Overture
• op. 10: Six poems . Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1842

literature

• Robert Eitner:  Stern, Julius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 36, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, p. 106 f.
• Bodo Rollka, Volker Spiess, Bernhard Thieme: Berlin Biographical Lexicon . Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-7759-0369-0 , p. 385
• Cordula Heymann-Wentzel: The Stern Conservatory of Music in Berlin - a private training institute owned by Berlin Jewish families . In: Beatrix Borchard , Heidy Zimmermann (Ed.): Musical worlds - worlds of life . Cologne 2000, ISBN 978-3-412-20254-5 , pp. 249-263
• Ottokar Hahn: The Julius Stern Institute: Present and History. Festschrift for the 155th anniversary of the foundation . University of the Arts, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-89462-124-7
• Richard Stern: memorial sheets to Julius Stern . Xlibris Corporation, 2008, ISBN 978-0-554-70627-6
• Robert and Clara Schumann's correspondence with correspondents in Berlin 1832 to 1883 , ed. by Klaus Martin Kopitz , Eva Katharina Klein, Thomas Synofzik (=  Schumann Letter Edition , Series II, Volume 17). Dohr, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-86846-028-5 , pp. 637-694
• The Stern Conservatory . In: Berliner Morgenpost , May 14, 2008

Web links

Commons : Julius Stern  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sheet music and audio files by Julius Stern (musician) in the International Music Score Library Project
• Charlotte von Bronikowska (von Bülow) was one of the founding members
• Julius Stern Institute for the promotion of young musicians
• Speech by the President, Professor Martin Rennert, at the memorial event on the occasion of Julius Stern's birthday at the restored gravestone at the Weissensee Jewish Cemetery, August 8, 2012 (PDF)
• Works by and about Julius Stern in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Death Register StA Berlin II, No. 145/1883
2. ↑ Stern, J. In: General Housing Gazette for Berlin, Charlottenburg and Surroundings , 1849, Part 1, p. 469. “Composer and Singing Teacher”.
3. ↑ Stern, Julius . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1874, part 1, p. 824. "Royal professor and music director, director of the Stern'schen Choral Society, the Conservatory and the Reichshallenkapelle".
4. ^ Jacob Jacobson: The Jewish Citizens' Books of the City of Berlin . Berlin 1962, p. 180
5. ↑ Heymann-Wentzel, 2000, p. 261.
6. ↑ Institute for the Promotion of Young Musicians at the UdK
7. ↑ A memorial plaque for Julius Stern . In: Berliner Zeitung , October 17, 2014.