Charles Mayer (21 March 1799 – 2 July 1862), also known as Carl Mayer or Charles Meyer, was a

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

active in the early 19th century.

Life

Mayer was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

. His father was a clarinetist who, soon after Charles's birth, moved to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and four years later to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. He received his early musical education from his mother, followed by extended studies with John Field (1782–1837), with whom he continued to study after the family returned to Saint Petersburg after the Moscow fire of 1812. His first successful tour as a concert pianist in 1814 led him to Poland, Germany, Holland, and France, before he settled in Saint Petersburg in 1819. During another celebrated concert tour of 1845 he travelled through Scandinavia (where he became an honorary member of the

Royal College of Music in Stockholm The Royal College of Music, Stockholm ( sv, Kungliga Musikhögskolan i Stockholm) is the oldest institution of higher education in music in Sweden, founded in 1771 as the conservatory of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. The institution was mad ...

), Germany (Hamburg, Leipzig) and Austria (Vienna). Following the rise of

Adolf von Henselt Georg Martin Adolf von Henselt (9 or 12 May 181410 October 1889) was a German composer and virtuoso pianist. Life Henselt was born at Schwabach, in Bavaria. At the age of three he began to learn the violin, and at five the piano under Josephe vo ...

in Saint Petersburg, Mayer withdrew to Dresden in 1846, and died there. Mayer was a busy and successful teacher who is supposed to have taught some 800 pupils in Saint Petersburg. He was reputed to have taken over the calm and musical (rather than virtuoso) technique established by Field. His most prominent pupils included the Russian pianist and composer

Mikhail Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka ( rus, link=no, Михаил Иванович Глинка, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka., mʲɪxɐˈil ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡlʲinkə, Ru-Mikhail-Ivanovich-Glinka.ogg; ) was the first Russian composer to gain wide recogni ...

and Polish composer Filipina Brzezinska-Szymanowska.

Music

Mayer wrote almost exclusively for the piano, producing more than 350 works for the instrument. His main body of work includes a number of studies, sets of variations on popular melodies, character pieces and dances. He is sometimes confused with another composer by the same name who died in 1904. Mayer's ''Valse Mélancolique'', subtitled ''Le Regret'', Op. 332, was for more than a century misattributed to

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...

, until its true authorship was confirmed by Italian music scholar Luca Chierici in 2012.

Selected works

*''Valse de concert'' op. 6 *''Premium concert polka'' op. 9 *''6 Exercises'' op. 31 *''Variations sur un air russe'' No. 1 op. 40 *''Variations sur un air russe'' No. 2 op. 41 *''Rondino op. 42 *''6 Études'' op. 55 *''3 Études'' op. 61 *''Scherzo'' op. 63 *''Impromptu'' No. 2 op. 65 *''Valse-étude'' No. 4 op. 69 *''Nocturne'' op. 81 *''Valse-étude'' op. 83 *''Caprice-Valse No. 1'' op. 85 *''Capriccio No. 3'' op. 87 *''Études'' op. 93 *''Divertissement'' No. 1 op. 95 *''Valse-étude'' No. 6 op. 116 *''Galop militaire'' op. 117 *''3 Études caractéristiques'' op. 127 *''Souvenir de Naples'' op. 128 *''Immortelles'' op. 140 *''40 Études'' op. 168 *''La Dernière rose''. Fantaisie varié op. 169 *''6 Novelletten'' op. 179 *''6 Novelletten'' op. 183 *''Romaneske'' op. 184 *''Elisa polka'' op. 187 *''Triolino-étude'' op. 190 *''Mazurka graçieuse'' op. 224 *''Chant bohémien'' op. 292 *''Grande Étude d'octave'' op. 331 *''Le Régret'' op. 332

References

External links

*
Charles Mayer "Le regret" Valse-Etude mélancolique op.332 from YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Charles 1799 births 1862 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century German composers 19th-century German pianists Composers for piano German male classical composers Musicians from Königsberg German Romantic composers German male pianists 19th-century German male musicians