Dorette Spohr (2 December 1787 – 20 November 1834), also called Dorette Scheidler Spohr, was a German

harpist The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual string (music), strings running at an angle to its sound board (music), soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various way ...

and

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 ...

active in the early 19th century.

Biography

Dorette Spohr was born as Dorette Scheidler on 2 December 1787 in Kassel, Germany. Her father was a cellist and chamber musician from

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the Gotha (district), district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine House of Wet ...

, and her mother was a singer. She learned harp from Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen, who was a harpist at the court of Gotha. In 1805, Scheidler met

Louis Spohr Louis Spohr (, 5 April 178422 October 1859), baptized Ludewig Spohr, later often in the modern German form of the name Ludwig, was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Highly regarded during his lifetime, Spohr composed ten symphonies, t ...

, a concertmaster at the court of Gotha. They were married on 2 February 1806.

Music career

Spohr initially performed music composed by Backofen, but after her marriage, Louis Spohr composed for her. Between June 1806 and October 1807, Spohr bought a harp from Paris using part of her dowry. From 1810 to 1812, Spohr was principal harpist at the court of Gotha, where she taught the Duke's daughter,

Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subs ...

. Spohr and her husband toured Germany, Switzerland, and Russia, performing with a number of musical orchestras. In 1820, after experiencing difficulties adapting to a new harp with a double-action pedal mechanism, Spohr retired from playing harp. After her retirement, she became interested in piano. Spohr died in 1834 following a fever. Although she seems “not to have composed any music herself," Rensch claims that "she inspired the composition of some of the first major ensemble music for harp and violin."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spohr, Dorette 1787 births 1834 deaths 19th-century German pianists German harpists German women pianists Musicians from Kassel Women harpists