Matthias Christian Baumann

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Matthias Christian Baumann (born April 29, 1740 Annweiler ; † January 19, 1816 Zweibrücken ) was a German piano maker . On two of its square pianos was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played. One came back to Zweibrücken in 1958 and has been restored to play again since 2003.

Life

The Baumann family were organ builders from the Palatinate . For the father Johann Karl Baumann (~ 1714–1794) the building of thirteen organs can be proven. Baumann learned the trade of organ and piano builder in his father's workshop. In 1766 he received citizenship in Zweibrücken and the title of Palatinate-Zweibrücken court organ builder . A year later he married Anna Elisabetha Isemann. Around the year 1782 there was another piano maker besides Baumann in the residential city of Zweibrücken. Nuremberg is another place where Baumann worked. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum in this city owns a Baumann piano.

In a letter on August 31, 1782 , Mozart asked his father Leopold to order a piano from Baumann in Zweybrücken : I no longer know the name of the piano maker in Zweybrücken, and so I asked you to order one from him. - But it would have to be ready in a month or at the most 6 weeks; and the same price… . This piano is now in the Carolino Augusteum Museum in Salzburg .

The piano in the museum of the city of Zweibrücken

Another square piano from Baumann's workshop was acquired in 1958 for the museum of the city of Zweibrücken, which is currently being rebuilt. In 2003 it was restored by the Latvian piano maker Viesturs Ilsums from Riga . The material is walnut wood and metal. The keyboard has a hammer technique . The dimensions are 79 × 152 cm × 48.5 cm. It comes from the possession of Mozart's patroness Martha Elisabeth von Waldstätten (1744–1811). Since von Waldstätten was a member of the Mozart Circle of Friends, experts assume that Mozart also played on this piano.

Until recently there were only 8 Baumann table pianos known, but Christopher Clarke's new research gives us valuable information about 20 known Baumann table pianos, which is still little known today.

A square piano is in the Sweelinck collection, Museum Geelvinck in Amsterdam. Two square pianos by Baumann are part of the collection of historical keyboard instruments Pooya Radbon. To date, there is not a single Baumann fortepiano known to us.

literature

  • Bernhard B. Bonkhoff: The Baumann family of organ builders and their work. In: Communications of the Working Group for Middle Rhine Music History. Waldfischbach, Volume 39 (1979), pp. 510-532.
  • Karl Jost: Mozart and Zweibrücken. In: Dahl / Lohmeyer: The baroque Zweibrücken and its masters. Waldfischbach 1957. pp. 567-595.
  • Jutta Schwan: Christian Baumann "... the most honorable famous organ builder". A little piece of music history about Zweibrücken, Mozart and a good little pianoforte. In: Charlotte Glück-Christmann (ed.): The cradle of the kings. Zweibrücken 2010. pp. 345–347.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO): Baumann, Matthias Christian . (BMLO ID b1623, accessed February 26, 2018)
  2. ^ Germanisches Nationalmuseum (catalog of objects): square piano. Inventory number: MIR2001. (accessed on February 28, 2018)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Baumann, Matthias Christian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baumann, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German piano and instrument maker
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1740
PLACE OF BIRTH Annweiler
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1816
Place of death Zweibrücken