Simon Molitor

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Simon Molitor
Monument to Simon Molitor on the market square in Neckarsulm

Simon Molitor (* 3. November 1766 in Neckarsulm , † 21st February 1848 in Vienna ; actually Alois Franz Joseph Simon Molitor ) was a German composer of classical music , musicologist, guitarist and officials . Before he became passionate about the guitar , Molitor began his musical training as a violinist. In Vienna he worked as a guitar virtuoso and music teacher. In addition, he leads a wandering life as a virtuoso. He is considered to be the most important representative of Viennese guitarism before Mauro Giuliani . He also wrote together with the guitarist Wilhelm Klingenbrunner (1782-1850) (under the pseudonym: R. Klinger) a guitar school with the title Attempt to Complete Methodical Instructions for Playing the Guitar .

Life

Simon Molitor's father, Johann Michael Molitor, was the director of church music in Neckarsulm and had himself delivered various compositions in this field. He later moved to Mergentheim , where he died as Kapellmeister in the service of the Teutonic Order . Simon Molitor received his first music lessons from his father when he was a boy, as well as lessons in violin and piano. According to his father's will, he should study, as he recognized his exceptional musical talent.

However, that did not meet his expectations, so that he left the university without the knowledge of his parents and began a driving virtuoso life from the age of 18. He traveled through Germany and played in orchestras, gave concerts and composed concert and chamber music for various instruments and for singing. At the end of the 1780s he came to Vienna, where he studied composition with Abbé Vogler .

He then went to Italy and was orchestra director in Venice in 1796 and 1797 .

In 1798, at the request of his family, he joined the Imperial War Commissariat in Vienna as a civil servant and later switched to catering. During the campaign in 1799 he composed patriotic war songs, which were sung with enthusiasm.

The last musical achievement from that time was a guitar school, which made a major contribution to breaking the ground for this instrument. From then on he worked as a civil servant until his retirement in 1831 and was promoted to head catering administrator. He received the Officer's Cross of the French Legion of Honor and the Knight's Cross of the Baden Zähringer Order of Lions .

Simon Molitor was never married. When he retired in 1831, he had already saved a small fortune and was able to devote himself entirely to his favorite inclination, the art of music. He composed many songs, but they were never published. He diligently devoted himself to his research in the history of music and in particular collected materials on the history of the Viennese court orchestra and the earlier court opera , which was partially supplemented by Leopold von Sonnleithner . Molitor spent many hours in the imperial court library and in the archives of the court offices to look up the appropriate sources and to make extracts from them. When he died on February 21, 1848 at the age of 82, he could no longer reap the fruits of his many years of research.

Individual music-historical essays by Molitor appeared in the Leipziger Allgemeine musical newspaper : in 1838 an honorary rescue of the imperial court composer Francesco Bartolomeo Conti and in 1839 remarks on the life story of Emanuel, known as "the Baron of Astorga".

Simon Molitor was a hardworking composer in his early years. The guitar school, which he published jointly with Wilhelm Klingenbrunner, was often used in his time. He also wrote many pieces for this instrument as well as solo pieces for the violin, the latter especially for his own performance on his art trips.

The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna still has 44 pieces of his composition in its archive.

Works

Molitor wrote orchestral music, concertos for violin and clarinet, string quartets, piano and vocal compositions and works, especially sonata for guitar solo and for violin and guitar. His Great Sonata for the Guitare Only (Op. 7), which he provided with a comprehensive preface, should be emphasized . In this preface he sat down u. a. deal with the history of the guitar.

literature

Web links

Commons : Simon Molitor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Rätz (Ed.): Classics of the guitar. Study and lecture literature from the 18th and 19th centuries. Volume 1. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1977; License edition Schott, Mainz, p. 143 ( To the composers ).
  2. ↑ Facsimile of the sonata ( memento of February 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) in the Boije Samling (web archive)
  3. ↑ classic-arietta.de
personal data
SURNAME Molitor, Simon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Molitor, Alois Franz Simon Joseph (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German classical composer, music researcher and civil servant
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1766
PLACE OF BIRTH Neckarsulm
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1848
Place of death Vienna