![Adolph Bernhard Marx signature](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Adolph_Bernhard_Marx_signature.png)
Friedrich Heinrich Adolf Bernhard Marx
. B. Marx(15 May 1795,
Halle – 17 May 1866,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
) was a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
music theorist
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...
,
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...
, and
musicologist
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
.
Life
Marx was the son of a
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish doctor in Halle who, though a member of the congregation, was according to his son a convinced atheist. Marx was given the names Samuel Moses at birth, but changed these at his baptism in 1819.
He began his career studying law at Halle, but also learned musical composition there—a fellow student was the composer
Carl Loewe
Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe (; 30 November 1796 – 20 April 1869), usually called Carl Loewe (sometimes seen as Karl Loewe), was a German composer, tenor singer and Conducting, conductor. In his lifetime, his songs ("Balladen") were well enough ...
. After rejecting an offer for legal appointment at
Naumburg
Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...
, in 1821 he went to Berlin, where in 1825
Adolf Martin Schlesinger
Adolf Martin Schlesinger (4 October 1769 – 11 October 1838) was a German music publisher whose firm became one of the most influential in Berlin in the early nineteenth century.
Career
Schlesinger was Jewish, and was born Aaron Moses Schlesing ...
appointed him editor of the music journal he had founded, the ''Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung''. Marx's intellectual critiques were appreciated by, amongst others,
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
, although they often offended the Berlin establishment, including
Carl Friedrich Zelter
Carl Friedrich Zelter (11 December 1758 15 May 1832)Grove/Fuller-Datei:Carl-Friedrich-Zelter.jpegMaitland, 1910. The Zelter entry takes up parts of pages 593-595 of Volume V. was a German composer, conductor and teacher of music. Working in his ...
.
Marx became an intimate of the family of
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...
, who was greatly influenced by Marx's ideas about the representational qualities of music—Marx's influence in the revision of Mendelssohn's overture to 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1826) was noted by their mutual friend
Eduard Devrient
(Philipp) Eduard Devrient (11 August 18014 October 1877) was a German baritone, librettist, playwright, actor, theatre director, and theatre reformer and historian.
Devrient came from a theatrical family. His uncle was Ludwig Devrient and his b ...
in his memoirs. After Mendelssohn's revival of
J. S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
's ''
St. Matthew Passion'' in 1829, Marx persuaded Schlesinger to undertake the publication of this work, making Bach's masterpiece accessible to scholars for the first time. As Mendelssohn matured however the two drifted apart. At one time each agreed to write the
libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...
for an
oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...
to be composed by the other. Mendelssohn wrote a text on the subject of ''
Moses
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
'', while Marx wrote one on the subject of ''
St. Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
''. However Mendelssohn's later oratorio on St. Paul used an extensively revised text; and when Marx asked Mendelssohn to perform his ''Moses'' in 1841 in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
, Mendelssohn refused because of its poor quality. The enraged Marx thereupon threw his extensive correspondence with Mendelssohn into the river, and it has therefore been lost forever. ''Moses'' was eventually given a performance by
Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
at
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
in 1853.
In 1830, with Mendelssohn's recommendation, Marx was appointed to the new post of professor of music at
Berlin University
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
and, from this time until his death, Marx's main influence was as a writer and teacher. In 1832, he also became music director at the University. In 1850 he was one of the founders of the Berlin
Stern conservatory The Stern Conservatory (''Stern'sches Konservatorium'') was a private music school in Berlin with many distinguished tutors and alumni. The school is now part of Berlin University of the Arts.
History
It was founded in 1850 as the ''Berliner Musi ...
.
His four-volume textbook on compositional theory, ''Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition'', was one of the most influential of the nineteenth century. It demonstrated a new approach to musical pedagogics, and presented a logically ordered system of the musical forms then in use, concluding with
sonata form
Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical form, musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle ...
, which Marx exemplified using
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
's piano sonatas. Toward the end of his life Marx completed a biography of the composer. He wrote extensively about the music of his time and also published a two-volume autobiography.
Bibliography
Works by Marx
* ''Über Malerei in der Tonkunst: ein Maigruss an die Kunstphilosophien''. Berlin, 1826.
* ''Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition, praktisch-theoretisch''. Leipzig, 1837/38/45/47.
* ''Die Musik des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts und ihre Pflege: Methode der Musik''. Leipzig, 1855.
* ''Ludwig van Beethoven: Leben und Schaffen''. Berlin: Janke, 1859.
* ''Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben''. Berlin, 1865.
* ''Musical Form in the Age of Beethoven: Selected Writings on Theory and Method''. Edited and Translated by Scott Burnham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Others
* Burnham, Scott. "Aesthetics, Theory, and History in the Works of Adolf Bernhard Marx." Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis University, 1988.
* Conway, David, ''Jewry in Music'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2012).
* Marx, Josef Bernhard, ''Recollections From My Life: An Autobiography by A.B. Marx'', Pendragon Press, (2017) .
References
External links
Introduction to the Interpretation of the Beethoven Piano Works (1895)by Marx, translated by Fannie Louise Gwinner. From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marx, Adolf Bernhard
1795 births
1866 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century German composers
19th-century German male musicians
Beethoven scholars
German autobiographers
German male classical composers
German people of Jewish descent
German music critics
German music theorists
Musicologists from Berlin
German Romantic composers
Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni
People from Halle (Saale)
19th-century German musicologists