Nina d'Aubigny by Engelbrunner

Jana Wynandina "Nina" Gertrut d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner , also d'Aubigny von Engelbronner (born April 15, 1770 in Kassel , † January 27, 1847 in Krumegg near Graz ) was a German writer , singer and music teacher.

Life

Childhood and youth in Kassel

She was born in Kassel as the second daughter of the Saxon-Gotha secret legation councilor and court master Johann Conrad von Engelbronner (1729-1817) and Sabine Jacobine d'Aubigny (1749-1818). She had five other siblings, two of whom were also active as writers.

d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner received her upbringing from her parents and above all from her father. She learned several languages, including French, Italian and Latin, and also formed herself through contacts with scholars and artists of the time, such as Johann Heinrich Tischbein and composer David August von Apell (1754-1832). Travels in late adolescence and early adulthood, such as in 1786 to Mannheim, a year later to Koblenz, where she received singing lessons from Pompeo Sales (1729–1797), Paris and 1790 to Holland, shaped d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner.

Bückeburg 1795–1803

Nina d'Aubigny from Engelbrunner's patron Juliane von Schaumburg-Lippe

Her older sister Susanna Christiana, called Susette, married the consistorial councilor Carl Gottlieb Horstig (1763-1835) in 1795 and moved to Bückeburg . d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner followed her sister and began to work as a tutor for the daughters of Countess Juliane von Schaumburg-Lippe , Eleonore Luise (1781–1783) and Wilhelmine Charlotte (1783–1858). She taught them sewing, Italian, singing, pianofort and harp playing. Later she also became the music teacher of Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach's granddaughter and taught her nieces and nephews. In Bückeburg she also appeared as a singer and made music both privately and publicly.

After the death of her patron Juliane von Schaumburg-Lippe, d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner moved back to Kassel around 1800 and devoted herself to writing her first book Letters to Natalie about singing . At the beginning of 1803, d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner, the Horstig family and sister Emilie made a long trip to France, England and Holland, where they met Jens Immanuel Baggesen , Friedrich Schlegel and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, among others . In London, the tour company met Henry Cavendish , Benjamin West and Charles Burney . In 1806 Carl Gottlieb Horstig published a book about the experiences under the title Journey to France, England and Holland .

Stay in England 1803–1807

After the publication of her work Letters to Natalie on Singing , she moved to England in 1803 . In addition to the positive impressions of the trip to England at the beginning of 1803, political unrest after the occupation of Hanover by the French and financial problems led to the decision to move. In England she worked as a private tutor and publishes first impressions of travels in the Journal London and Paris . As early as 1804, d'Aubigny had traveled to Calcutta in India from Engelbrunner's sister Emilie as a tutor . d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner decided to work as an educator in India, mainly for financial reasons.

Stay in India 1807-1816

From September 1807 to March 1808, d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner traveled from Portsmouth to Calcutta. Here she first took over the school of her sister Emilie and in 1810 became the travel companion of the wife of the Vice-Chief Justice of Calcutta Sir William Burrough (1753-1829) and her friend. The four of them made a trip to Murshidabad from February to November 1810 , where d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner made the acquaintance of the Nawab of Bengal. In 1811, Sister Emilie, and with it d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner, the only family support in India returned to Europe. d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner's financial situation worsened from 1812, so that in 1813 she began to give public concerts in Calcutta. Although her financial situation improved in the months that followed, since she returned to teaching, her health deteriorated. During the crossing to India she was already suffering from biliary fever, which broke out again in the second half of 1814 and deteriorated so severely by 1815 that d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner wrote her will. She left Calcutta in November 1816 and returned to London in March 1818 after a stopover in Cape Town , where she also appeared as a singer.

Trips to Europe and last years of life 1818–1847

Via Holland, d'Aubigny returned from Engelbrunner to Kassel in 1819, where she dissolved the household of her parents, who had died in 1817 and 1818. In October 1820 she moved to Dresden , where she frequented the literary circle of Ludwig Tiecks, among others . At Emilie's estate in Michelbach , d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner organized the notes she had made during her travels through India from 1821 to 1823. In addition, she revised her work Letters to Natalie about singing for the second edition, which appeared in 1824. Trips to Prague, Leipzig and Vienna followed in 1823 , and to Italy in 1824. In 1827, d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner rented a room in Vienna's Palais des Counts Paar and maintained a salon here. In the winter of 1827 she gave numerous large parties and balls to which over 100 guests were invited. In Vienna she came into contact with Franz Grillparzer , Caroline Pichler and Franz Schubert . Her letters to Natalie had made d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner famous, along with her talent for singing and her harp playing. Ludwig van Beethoven owned a copy of her main work in his reference library and recommended it to others, even if no personal contact between him and d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner has been proven.

After the death of her nephews Eduard and Georg Horstig, d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner moved in 1828 to the "Erkoschlössl" (also "Bethanien") in Krumegg near Graz and thus close to her sister Emilie. Here she ran agriculture and cattle breeding and largely withdrew from social life. She died in 1847 and was buried in the village cemetery of Nestelbach near Graz . Her grave has not been preserved.

The writer Nina d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner

d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner began her literary work with a translation of the diary of a trip through the Portuguese province of Alentejo from Dutch, which was published in 1799. Last year she had already published her work Essai sur Cassel under the pseudonym "David August von Apell", the name of her friend Apell . Further works appeared under the prescription of male authorship, although no longer under a pseudonym. In newspaper articles, especially during her time in England, she devoted herself to cultural, geographic and political topics. Here, too, she remained anonymous as an author: “I am always embarrassed to find myself in the position that one could believe that I am after science in order to be considered a scholar. I hate nothing more than women writers whose vanity blends with the ruins of their knowledge. [...] This is why, even if I had written a hundred books, I would only consider this under the strictest incognito. "

Her main work is the work Letters to Natalie about singing from 1803. In it, the author conducts a fictitious conversation about vocal pedagogy with a fictional Natalie in 31 letters. The work, which among other things favors singing training in the private sector and thus anticipates the beginning of the Romantic era with its sociable music evenings in the circle of friends, was well received, so that in 1824 an improved and expanded second edition was published.

Works (selection)

• 1798: Essai sur Cassel et ses environs
• 1799: Diary of a trip through the Portuguese province of Alentejo (translation, together with Susette Horstig)
• 1800: About the life and character of the Pompeo Sales (in Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung , 2nd year, No. 21)
• 1800: About the state of the musical spirit in Cassel (in Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung , 3rd year, No. 41)
• 1801: About the small and large piano school of Mr. Milchmayer in Dresden (in: Journal des Luxus und der Moden , May)
• 1803: Letters to Natalie about singing, as a promotion of domestic bliss and social pleasure (2nd revised edition 1824)
• 1803: Theater in London (in: Newspaper for the Elegant World , 3rd year, No. 126)
• 1805: Inauguration of Windsor (in: London and Paris , 15th vol., 3rd edition)

literature

• Carl Wilhelm Otto August von Schindel: The German writers of the 19th century , 1 part. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1823, pp. 118–120.
• Elisabeth Friedrichs: The German-speaking women writers of the 18th and 19th centuries. A lexicon . Metzler, Stuttgart 1981, p. 10.
• Manfred Elsberger: Nina d'Aubigny from Engelbrunner. A noble music teacher at the transition from the 18th to the 19th century. Investigations into her main work Letters to Natalie about her singing . BUCH & media, Munich 2000.

Web links

• Literature by and about Nina d'Aubigny von Engelbrunner in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elsberger, p. 30.
2. ↑ Elsberger, p. 59.
3. ↑ Elsberger, p. 66.
4. ^ Anton Schindler , biography of Ludwig van Beethoven , 3rd edition, Münster 1860, volume 2, p. 181.
5. ↑ Elsberger, p. 65.
6. ^ Letter of September 16, 1799. Quoted in Elsberger, p. 97.
7. ↑ Elsberger, p. 270.