Theodor Uhlig

Gottlob Sigismund Theodor Uhlig (born February 15, 1822 in Wurzen ; † January 3, 1853 Dresden ) was a German musician , music critic and composer .

Life

Theodor Uhlig was the son of the horn player Carl Gottlob Uhlig with the Jägerbataillon in Wurzen. All his life, however, he was considered the illegitimate son of King Friedrich August II of Saxony.

After the death of his parents (his father died in 1827, his mother in 1830) he and his older sister were taken to the Struppen military orphanage near Pirna. There one recognized his giftedness in the musical field: at the age of 13 he composed, already mastered several instruments and also performed difficult pieces by heart. Thereupon u. a. King Anton and later his successor, King Friedrich August II, with grants and grants. In 1837 he went to the Dessau Music School. Here he studied piano and violin and devoted himself to composition. After this time he moved to Dresden in 1840, where the 19-year-old only received an aspirant position in 1841 and soon afterwards became a violinist in the Dresden court orchestra . Here he got to know the composer on the occasion of the premiere of Richard Wagner's opera Rienzi and became one of his closest friends and a reliable helper, especially during Wagner's exile in Zurich.

At the age of 25 Theodor Uhlig married Caroline Büttner. Three children were born to them: Theodor, Elsa and Siegfried. After the Dresden May uprising , Uhlig lived temporarily in Paris. He composed chamber music pieces, wrote the piano reduction for Lohengrin , was a music critic and published six articles in the “ Neue Zeitschrift für Musik ” under the title “ Contemporary reflections ”. There he polemicized against Meyerbeer and "Jewish music", among other things , and advocated Wagner's ideas. Uhlig dedicated his work Opera and Drama to this . Uhlig visited Wagner several times in Zurich, fell ill with tuberculosis and died at the age of 31 on January 3, 1853. He left behind over 80, mostly unprinted works. 18 original compositions, including ballads, songs, singspiele, organ concerts, symphonies, piano, choral and chamber music works are in the possession of the Wurzen Cultural History Museum. His intensive correspondence with Wagner is of historical importance.

Article against Jewish music

This article was published on July 23, 1850 in the " Neue Zeitschrift für Musik " by Uhlig and is considered a "template" for Wagner, whose article was published on September 3, 1850 in the same journal under the heading " Judaism in Music " has been. Uhlig writes, among other things:

In the music of many Jewish composers there are passages that almost all non-Jewish musicians refer to in everyday life and with reference to the well-known Jewish way of speaking as Jewish music, as a muddle. Depending on the character of the noble here and that of the common in this music, these passages, whose peculiarity lies partly in the metrical design, partly in the individual melodic tones of the musical phrase, stand out here only a little, there quite conspicuously, e.g. with Mendelssohn very mildly, with Meyerbeer on the other hand with the utmost sharpness, especially in his " Huguenots ", no less also in his " Prophet ". Just as little as the analogous way of speaking could one have found this tone beautiful or only tolerable where, as with Meyerbeer, it directly reminds of what I do not know otherwise than to call "Jewish school". With reference to numerous passages in the "Huguenots", Robert Schumann speaks of a "peculiar grumbling rhythm", which primarily characterizes Meyerbeer's music. In relation to those well-known passages, I myself speak of “the composer's Hebrew artistic taste”. At the moment the daily bread of the opera-goers consists of the products of Meyerbeer, Flotow and some related spirits of more or less speculative talent - and that is the best proof of the sanity of the modern opera audience. That is how it is in Germany at the moment - truly sad enough.

The correspondence with Richard Wagner

Richard Wagner around 1860

Uhlig and Wagner wrote more than 100 letters to each other. Of particular importance are Wagner's letters from 1849 to 1852, in which he gives details of his “revolutionary attitude” and his intentions for the Ring of the Nibelung , which he began to conceive from 1851 on. On November 12, 1851, Wagner explained for the first time in a letter to Uhlig that he intended (around the first Siegfried conception) to want to write a great drama poem, a tetralogy and made his intentions clear:

With this, my new conception, I step completely out of all relation to our theater and audience today: I break definitely and forever with the formal present. Are you now asking me what I plan to do with my plan? - First of all, carry it out as far as it is in my poetic and musical ability. This will keep me busy for at least three full years. So I put my existence entirely in the hands of Ritter (Juli Ritter, from whom Wagner received a small pension) ... I can only think of a performance after the revolution: only the revolution can bring the artists and the audience to me. The next revolution must necessarily bring the end of our entire theater economy: they must and will all collapse, this is inevitable. From the rubble I then call together what I need. I will find what I need then. Then I set up a theater on the Rhine and invite you to a big dramatic party. After a year of preparation, I then perform my entire work over the course of four days. With him I then give the people of the revolution to recognize the significance of this revolution in its noblest sense. This audience will understand me: the current one cannot. As extravagant as this plan is, it is the only one to which I still aim and aim my life. If I see it performed, I have lived wonderfully; if not, I died for something beautiful. But only this can still please me.

literature

• Program booklet Theodor-Uhlig-Ehrung 1998 with the two gala concerts on March 7, 1998 in the Kulturhaus Schweizergarten Wurzen and on March 8, 1998 in the auditorium of the St. Augustin high school in Grimma. Note on the back of the booklet: "On the occasion of the 1998 festival concert, the Muldental Music School was given the name 'Theodor Uhlig'". 12 pages, Wurzen 1998, without ISBN.
• Albrecht Wagner: Theodor Uhlig - A fighter life in the service of the friend. Pp. 97-99 in: Wurzen 961-1961. Festschrift for the millennium. Published by the council of the city of Wurzen and the editorial team “Der Rundblick” Wurzen. 256 pages. Wurzen 1961.

swell

• Digital Library, Berlin: Richard Wagner; Works, writings and letters . Edited by Sven Friedrich.
• Richard Wagner: Letters . Selected and commented by Hanjo Kesting. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-492-02829-1 / ISBN 3-492-02829-2 .

Web links

• Theodor Uhlig: Contemporary considerations , 1850 (pdf; 634 KB)
• sachsens-museen-enthaben.de
• http://www.kultur-in-wurzen.de/pdfmu/Foyerpraesentation_Theodor_Uhlig_2012.pdf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Richard Klinkhardt in the program Theodor-Uhlig-Ehrung 1998 , Wurzen 1998, p. 4.