Emil Breslaur (29 May 1836 – 26 July 1899) was a German pianist and composer.
Life
Born in
Cottbus, Breslaur attended the Gymnasium in his hometown and the teachers' seminary in
Neuzelle
Neuzelle ( dsb, Nowa Cala) is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Oder-Spree district of Brandenburg, Germany, the administrative seat of ''Amt (country subdivision), Amt'' (collective municipality) Neuzelle (Amt), Neuzelle. It is bes ...
. He then became a preacher and religious teacher in the Jewish community in Cottbus. In 1863, he went to Berlin and studied there for four years at the
Stern Conservatory, where he was particularly concerned with the pedagogical side of piano teaching. His teachers were
Jean Vogt and
Heinrich Ehrlich
Alfred Heinrich Ehrlich (5 October 1822, in Vienna – 30 December 1899, in Berlin) was a pianist, composer and writer on music. As a composer, he came forward with a ''Piano Concerto'' and ''Piano Variations on an Original Theme,'' being one of ...
(piano), Flodoard Geyer and
Friedrich Kiel (composition), Hugo Schwantzer (organ) and
Julius Stern (score reading and conducting). From 1868 to 1879, Breslaur worked as a teacher at
Theodor Kullak's New Academy of Music. In 1878, he founded the journal ''Der Klavier-Lehrer'', which he edited until his death; in 1883, he became choirmaster of the Reformed Synagogue in Berlin. He founded a circle of music teachers from which the Deutscher Musiklehrer-Verband emerged in 1886.
In addition to his teaching and composing activities, Breslaur also wrote music criticism and published several books. Of particular value are his publications on the methodology of piano teaching. These include his Piano School op. 41, which he also sent to
Clara Schumann in 1889.
Breslaur died in Berlin at the age of 63.
Publications
* ''Zur methodischen Uebung des Klavierspiels'' (''Osterprogramm der Neuen Akademie der Tonkunst'', Beilage), Berlin: Krause, 1871
* ''Methodik des Klavier-Unterrichts in Einzelaufsätzen. Für Lehrer und Lernende. Mit vielen Abbildungen und erläuternden Notenbeispielen'',
''Methodik des Klavier-Unterrichts in Einzelaufsätzen''
on Google Books Berlin: N. Simrock, 1886
* ''Sind originale Synagogen- und Volks-Melodien bei den Juden geschichtlich nachweisbar? Vortrag gehalten im Verein für jüdische Geschichte und Litteratur in Berlin'', Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1898
Further reading
* ''Clara Schumann im Briefwechsel mit Freunden und Kollegen in Berlin'' (''Schumann-Briefedition'', Serie II Band 18), edited by Klaus Martin Kopitz, Eva Katharina Klein and Thomas Synofzik, Cologne: Dohr 2015, ,
References
External links
*''Jewish Encyclopedia''
"Breslaur, Emil"
by Isidore Singer & Joseph Sohn (1906).
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breslaur, Emil
German classical pianists
19th-century German Jews
German male classical pianists
19th-century German composers
German music educators
1836 births
1899 deaths
People from Cottbus
19th-century German male musicians
19th-century musicians