Norbert Burgmüller

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Norbert Burgmüller, lithograph by Jakob Becker

August Joseph Norbert Burgmüller (born February 8, 1810 in Düsseldorf , † May 7, 1836 in Aachen ) was a German composer .

His short life, he was only 26 years old, made it difficult for him to gain recognition for his musical work. The posthumous appreciation by Robert Schumann made him known to a wider public.

Life

Burgmüller came from a very musical family: his father Friedrich August Burgmüller worked as a music teacher, composer, conductor and later as music director in Düsseldorf; his mother Therese von Zandt was a sought-after music teacher. Norbert's older brother Friedrich Burgmüller (1806–1874) was also active as a musician, piano teacher and composer, worked in Paris from 1834 and is known to this day for his piano etudes for young pianists.

Norbert Burgmüller, born in Altestadt No. 3, learned to play the violin and piano at an early age and began to compose. One of his teachers was probably Joseph Kreutzer . The father died in 1824, which put the family in great need. However, she found support from Count Franz von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven , who invited Burgmüller to his Ehreshoven Castle several times . The count took particular care of Burgmüller's musical training, so that he could go to Kassel in 1826 to study the violin with Louis Spohr and theory with Moritz Hauptmann . Until 1830 Burgmüller spent most of his time in Kassel, where he worked as a répétiteur, conductor and pianist. The young composer and pianist Stephen Heller , for whom Burgmüller played his piano concerto, visited him once . The work was premiered on January 14, 1830 in Kassel with Burgmüller at the piano. As early as 1829, the composer was engaged to the celebrated opera singer Sophia Roland (1804–1830), but she broke the bond the following year and died shortly afterwards on October 17, 1830 in Aachen. The composer then fell into a deep crisis, which led to temporary alcohol abuse and the loss of support from Spohr. He also suffered from epileptic seizures from this time on .

Burgmüller returned to Düsseldorf in the same year, where he earned his living by teaching and doing smaller jobs. Public positions such as the post of city music director were denied to him. In 1833 he made friends with Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , who had been given the post of music director in his place. Mendelssohn played Burgmüller's piano concerto in a subscription concert on May 3, 1834. Another success was the premiere of the 1st Symphony on November 13, 1834. The following year the composer got engaged a second time to the French Josephine Collin, the governess of the children of his patron Count Nesselrode. In 1835 he made the acquaintance of the playwright Christian Dietrich Grabbe , who wrote the parodistic opera libretto Der Cid for Burgmüller . In 1836 Burgmüller decided, like his brother, to seek his fortune in Paris. However, he was no longer able to carry out this project. During a spa stay in Aachen, he drowned in the Quirinusbad there, probably as a result of an epileptic attack. His death was received with great dismay in Düsseldorf. Grabbe wrote an obituary, Mendelssohn composed the funeral march in A minor op.103 for the funeral .

Burgmüller's friends also included the later writer Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter , who, at the request of Robert Schumann, wrote extensive memoirs of Burgmüller that appeared in print in 1840; like his student Wilhelm Steifensand , who took his body from Aachen in 1836 to have the burial in Düsseldorf at the Golzheim cemetery and in April 1837 played the “Piano Concerto op. 1” and songs in his honor from his estate.

The grave of Norbert Burgmüller is located in the Düsseldorf North Cemetery after it was reburied at the Golzheim cemetery at the end of the 19th century .

meaning

Bust of Norbert Burgmüller by Franz Küsters in front of the entrance to the Tonhalle Düsseldorf

Burgmüller was only able to partially develop his artistic potential due to his early death. In principle, his oeuvre only represents the early work of a composer. Nevertheless, the works that have been preserved reveal a great talent with very individual traits. The influence of Beethoven and Spohr becomes clear in his early works, but a certain tone of his own cannot be denied. In later works the influence of Mendelssohn can be ascertained, but here too Burgmüller is by no means limited to mere imitation. His works are characterized by great compositional seriousness, i. H. “Biedermeier-like”, virtuoso dazzling work without a greater sense of context or epigonism can hardly be found at Burgmüller. The classic forms formed a basis for him, which he varied and further developed. Many of his works are characterized by a lyrical mood on which harmonic experiments, great expressiveness and moments of stormy drama unfold. Its melody is catchy and flowing. Burgmüller's masterpiece is his unfinished second symphony, in which he anticipates Brahms ' technique of "developing variation". Overall, his works point far into the future. It would be wrong to label Burgmüller as a “romantic little master”; rather, his most mature works are on a par with the works of his contemporaries Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, who highly valued his compositions. This is evidenced by the performance of Burgmüller's Symphony No. 1 conducted by Mendelssohn on January 18, 1838 in the Leipzig Gewandhaus . On this occasion, Schumann wrote that it was “the most important, noble work in the symphony field that has been produced in recent times.” In 1839, Schumann wrote an essay on Burgmüller that began with the words: “After Franz Schubert's untimely death, no one could be more painful than Burgmüller's . "

Nevertheless, the composer was almost completely forgotten for a long time. A continuous rediscovery of his work did not begin until the 1980s. Almost all of the works are now available on CD. In addition, between 2002 and 2010 all of his works appeared in new or first editions in print, for which the Norbert Burgmüller Society, founded in 2007 in Burgmüller's home town of Düsseldorf, was particularly committed.

Honors

Memorial plaque for Norbert Burgmüller in Düsseldorf, Bastionstrasse, created by Ulrich Grenzheuser

The city of Düsseldorf honored Burgmüller in 1986 by installing a plaque on the house where he was born in Mühlenstrasse. In 2018, a memorial plaque was also attached to what would later be his home on Bastionstrasse.

In addition, in 2003 a bust of Burgmüller was placed in front of the entrance to the Tonhalle Düsseldorf . It is a gift from the Düsseldorfer Heimatverein.

Works

Orchestral works

  • Piano Concerto in F sharp minor op. 1 (1828/29)

(published in 2009 in the series Denkmäler Rheinischer Musik , Volume 32)

  • Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 2 (1831–33)

(published in 2009 in the series Denkmäler Rheinischer Musik , Volume 36)

  • Symphony No. 2 in D major op.11 (1834/35, unfinished, Scherzo completed by Robert Schumann )

(published in 2010 in the series Denkmäler Rheinischer Musik , Volume 37)

  • Overture in F minor op.5 (1825)
  • 4 Entr'actes op.17 (1827/28)

(both works appeared in 2010 in the series Denkmäler Rheinischer Musik , Volume 38)

Vocal music

  • Dionys , opera based on Schiller's ballad Die Bürgschaft (1832–34, fragment, lost)
  • Six songs by Uhland , Goethe , Heine , Platen op.3
  • Five German songs op.6
  • Five Chants op.10
  • Five songs op.12
  • Spring song without op.
  • Morning song without op. (Fragment)

(all songs were published in 2008 in the series Denkmäler Rheinischer Musik , Volume 31)

Chamber music

  • String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 4 (1825). ISMN M-2020-0861-4
  • String Quartet No. 2 in D minor, Op. 7 (1825/26). ISMN M-2020-0862-1
  • String Quartet No. 3 in A flat major, Op. 9 (1826). ISMN M-2020-0863-8
  • String Quartet No. 4 in A minor, Op. 14 (1835). ISMN M-2020-0864-6

(all string quartets were published in 2002 in the series Denkmäler Rheinischer Musik , Volume 23)

  • Serenade for clarinet, viola and guitar without op. (1825)
  • Duo in E flat major op.15 for clarinet and piano (1834)

(both works for clarinet published in 2008 in the series Denkmäler Rheinischer Musik , Volume 31)

Piano music

  • Sonata in F minor, Op. 8 (1826)
  • Waltz in E flat major (1827)
  • Polonaise in F major op.16 (1832)
  • Rhapsody in B minor op.13 (1834)

(All piano works were published in 2008 in the series Denkmäler Rheinischer Musik , Volume 30)

Sheet music prints

literature

  • Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter , memories of Norbert Burgmüller. In: New magazine for music . Volume 12 (1840), pp. 1-3, 5-7, 9-11, 13-14, 17-19, 21-22, 37-38, 41-42, 45-47. Annotated new edition: "I only believed in music". Memories of Norbert Burgmüller. Edited by Klaus Martin Kopitz . Book accompanying the exhibition for the 200th birthday of Norbert Burgmüller. Heinrich Heine Institute , Düsseldorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-936655-76-6
  • Willi Kahl : Norbert Burgmüller as the type of the early completed. In: Die Musik , vol. 22.1, issue 3, December 1929, pp. 188–190
  • Heinrich Eckert: Norbert Burgmüller. A contribution to the style and intellectual history of German Romanticism. Filser, Augsburg: 1932 (= publications by the Musicological Institute of the German University in Prague , Volume 3.)
  • Hella Gensbaur:  Burgmüller, August Joseph Norbert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 49 ( digitized version ).
  • Claudio Bolzan: Norbert Burgmüller. La vita e l'opera di un grande sinfonista nella Germania del primo '800. Treviso 1995, ISBN 88-86335-07-5 (= Diastema Libri , Volume 2.)
  • Klaus Martin Kopitz: The Düsseldorf composer Norbert Burgmüller. A life between Beethoven - Spohr - Mendelssohn. Boss-Verlag, Kleve 1998, ISBN 3-9805931-6-9 (also: Chemnitz, Univ., Diss., 2000)
  • Tobias Koch , Klaus Martin Kopitz (eds.): Nota Bene Norbert Burgmüller. Studies on a contemporary of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Verlag Dohr, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-936655-61-2
  • Johannes Saltzwedel : waves of the future. Norbert Burgmüller was only 26 years old, now his amazing music is being rediscovered. In: KulturSPIEGEL , March 2010, p. 31, klaus-martin-kopitz.de (PDF)
  • Klaus Tischendorf (with the assistance of Tobias Koch): Norbert Burgmüller. Thematic-bibliographical catalog of works. Verlag Dohr, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-936655-63-6
  • Ernst-Jürgen Dreyer : Full of lush, rampant genius. Portrait of the composer Norbert Burgmüller. In: Christoph Dohr (Ed.): Almanach for Music. I. Verlag Dohr, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-936655-79-7 , pp. 193-216.
  • Tobias Koch: Romantic optimism. A musical report on the piano works by Norbert Burgmüller. In: Main and secondary roads of romanticism. Edited by EPTA , Section of the Federal Republic of Germany. Staccato Verlag, Düsseldorf 2012, ISBN 978-3-932976-48-3 , pp. 119–129.
  • Ernst-Jürgen Dreyer: Angel music. On the origin of a Schumann motif. In: Thomas Synofzik (Ed.): Schumann Studies. 10. Studio Verlag, Sinzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-89564-142-8 , pp. 361-372.
  • Christopher Fifield: The German Symphony between Beethoven and Brahms: The Fall and Rise of a Genre. Farnham 2015, pp. 43-56.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Martin Kopitz: Norbert Burgmüller. All piano works.
  2. ^ Karl Bone: Düsseldorf and its surroundings . Städtebilder-Verlag, Zurich 1890. Tour through the city. Pp. 32-33
  3. ^ Concert from the estate of Norbert Burgmüller, April 22, 1837. In: Blätter für Scherz und Ernst , no. 34, 1837
personal data
SURNAME Burgmüller, Norbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burgmüller, August Joseph Norbert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1836
Place of death Aachen