Ludwig Meinardus

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Ludwig Meinardus

Ludwig Siegfried Meinardus (born September 17, 1827 in Hooksiel , † July 10, 1896 in Bielefeld ) was a German composer and music writer.

life and work

Ludwig Meinardus was the son of the incumbent Carl Christoph Meinardus (1798–1888) and his wife Emilie Magdalene, née Alfken (1798–1873). He grew up in Jever and attended the Mariengymnasium there . In his first attempts at composition he was encouraged by Robert Schumann , who encouraged him to enroll at the Leipzig Conservatory, founded in 1843 . In 1847, however, Meinardus left the conservatory without a degree in order to study privately with August Ferdinand Riccius (1819–1886) in Leipzig.

After a long time as a private teacher and as a freelance composer in Caputh near Potsdam , he continued his studies with Adolf Bernhard Marx in Berlin in 1851 . Here he joined the Bob gang , a group of young artists who campaigned for the dissemination of contemporary musical works, primarily Robert Schumann's, in conservative Berlin. He also wrote for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik on the side . In 1853 he finally moved to Glogau in Silesia as music director of the local singing academy .

Meinardus had already published his op. 1, a novella for piano, by Whistling in Leipzig in 1850 . This was preceded by the acquaintance with Franz Liszt in Weimar . From then on, Liszt remained on friendly terms with Meinardus and sat down a. a. for the performance of the oratorio Luther in Worms (1874).

In 1865 Meinardus moved to Dresden , where he worked as a private lecturer at the Conservatory and taught singing and harmony. In 1874 he moved to Hamburg as a music correspondent . , Since that time increased Meinardus his music literary activity as the highlight of the popular Mozart - biography can be considered from the 1883rd In the Luther year of 1883, the oratorio Luther in Worms achieved international fame, which established the lasting importance of Meinardus' work.

Meinardus spent the last years of his life from 1887 as choir director of the Bodelschwingh'schen Anstalten in Bielefeld . A year before his death, Meinardus published a novel Eigenwege (1896), with which he broke new paths in writing. As early as 1874 he had published a two-volume autobiography with Ein Jugendleben , which - apart from a tendency towards prolonged self- styling - can be considered a valuable source on the Schumann and Mendelssohn circle. In the dispute between the Brahms followers and the New German School over Liszt, Meinardus, whose musical view, which is based on Beethoven and Schumann, clearly bears national-conservative traits, sided with Brahms. His style was strongly influenced by Mendelssohn and he was decidedly on the side of those who opposed Wagner .

family

Meinardus married on April 9, 1861 in Glogau Amalie von Conrady (1817-1894), daughter of the Prussian lieutenant colonel Wilhelm Ludwig von Conrady. The later Prussian infantry general Emil von Conrady (1827–1905) was her younger brother. The marriage remained childless.

Works

Meinardus' output (48 printed works) consists mainly of songs and chamber music as well as six oratorios. Two symphonies and opera fragments remained unprinted. Meinardus revived the baroque suite form through his preoccupation with the music of old masters. One of these works is entitled Suite about a German Folk Song , the subject of the composition is the melody composed by the Oldenburg Grand Duchess Cäcilie for the later popular hymn Heil dir, o Oldenburg .

Compositions

Chamber music

  • Novella for piano op.1
  • Duo for violin and pianoforte , op. 5, dedicated to Karl and Johannes Meinardus; FEC Leuckart Verlag , Breslau, 1856.
  • Piano Trio in A minor , op. 40, dedicated to Capellmeister AF Riccius; Joh.Aug. Böhme, Hamburg, 1880.
  • String Quartet No.2 in C major , op. 43, dedicated to Freiherr Reinhard Carl Friedrich von Dalwigk ; CFW Siegel, Leipzig, 1885.

Oratorios

Further vocal works

  • Cantata on the Nativity of Christ for choir, community singing and organ, op. 48. Publisher: Schriftenniederlage der Anstalt Bethel, Bielefeld (around 1895). on-line

Discography

  • King Solomon op. 25 - concert recording of the first performance after 130 years

Music writing work

  • The unified German Empire music conditions (1872)
  • Looking back at the beginnings of the Deutsche Oper in Hamburg (1878)
  • Mattheson and his services to the German art of music (1879)
  • Mozart. An artist's life (1883)
  • The German Tonkunst (1888)
  • Classicism and Romanticism in German Music Art (1893)

Meinardus' compositional and literary estate is kept in the Göttingen University Library.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Ludwig Siegfried Meinardus  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuch der Briefadeligen houses. 1910. Fourth year, Justus Perthes , Gotha 1909, p. 125.
  2. ↑ King Solomon live recording
personal data
SURNAME Meinardus, Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meinardus, Ludwig Siegfried (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and music writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH Hooksiel
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1896
Place of death Bielefeld