Friedrich August Kanne (1778–1833) was a composer and music critic in Vienna.

Biography

Kanne was born on 8 March 1778 in

Delitzsch Delitzsch (; Slavic: ''delč'' or ''delcz'' for hill) is a town in Saxony in Germany, 20 km north of Leipzig and 30 km east of Halle (Saale). With 24,850 inhabitants at the end of 2015, it is the largest town in the district of Nordsach ...

, Saxony. He studied theology and medicine in Leipzig and Wittenberg, then literature and composition in Dresden. At the end of 1804, he moved to Vienna and worked briefly as a music tutor to

Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz Joseph Franz Maximilian, 7th Prince of Lobkowitz (also spelled ''Lobkowicz'') (8 December 1772 – 16 December 1816

of the

House of Lobkowicz The House of Lobkowicz (''Lobkovicové'' in modern Czech, sg. ''z Lobkovic''; ''Lobkowitz'' in German) is a Czech noble family that dates back to the 14th century and is one of the oldest Bohemian noble families. The family also belong to the G ...

. He met

Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

and became a friend of

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 ...

whom he assisted to understand the text of the

Tridentine Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Traditional Rite, is the liturgy of Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church that appears in typical editions of the Roman Missal published from 1570 to 1962. Celebrated almo ...

when Beethoven worked on his ''

Missa solemnis {{Audio, De-Missa solemnis.ogg, Missa solemnis is Latin for Solemn Mass, and is a genre of musical settings of the Mass Ordinary, which are festively scored and render the Latin text extensively, opposed to the more modest Missa brevis. In French ...

''. He lived for a while in the inn (The Black Camel) in Vienna's

Innere Stadt The Innere Stadt (; Central Bavarian: ''Innare Stod'') is the 1st municipal Districts of Vienna, district of Vienna () located in the center of the Austrian capital. The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expa ...

. From 1820 until 1824 he edited the Vienna ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' (general musical newspaper)not to be confused with the better known ''

Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung The ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' (''General music newspaper'') was a German-language periodical published in the 19th century. Comini (2008) has called it "the foremost German-language musical periodical of its time". It reviewed musical e ...

'' in Leipzig following

Ignaz Ignaz is a male given name, related to the name Ignatius. Notable people with this name include: * Franz Ignaz Beck (1734–1807), German musician * Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644–1704), Bohemian-Austrian musician * Ignaz Brüll (1846–1907), ...

and Joseph von Seyfried. In 1829 he edited with

Ignaz Franz Castelli Ignaz Franz Castelli (6 March 1781 – 5 February 1862) was an Austrian dramatist born in Vienna. He studied law at the university, and then entered the government service. During the Napoleonic invasions his patriotism inspired him to wri ...

the Vienna ''Allgemeine musikalische Anzeiger'' (general music bulletin). Kanne wrote more than a dozen

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

s and works of

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...

to plays, including ''La fedeltà'' (1803), ''Sappho'' (1805), ''Die Elfenköningin'' (1805), ''Orpheus und Eurydice'' (1807), ''Fernando und Miranda'' (1808), ''Mirandola oder Das Schwert der Rache'' (1811), ''Die Belagerten'' (1813), ''Deutscher Sinn'' (1813), ''Die gute Nachricht'' (1814), ''Das Schloß Theben oder Der Kampf der Flußgötter'' (1817), ''Die eiserne Jungfrau'' (1822), ''Malvina oder Putzerls Abenteuer'' (1823), ''Lindane oder Die Fee und der Haarbeutelschneider'' (1824), ''Die Zauberschminke oder das Land der Erfindungen'' (1825), ''Der Untergang des Feenreiches'' (1826), ''Philipp und Suschen oder Der falsche Jupiter'' (1832), ''Die Mainacht oder Der Blocksberg'' (Berlin, 1834),"Kanne, Friedrich August"
operone.de partly to his own

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 ...

. His patriotic play to which he also wrote incidental music, "Die Spinnerin am Kreuz" (1822), was for many years in

repertory A repertory theatre is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom Annie Horniman founded the first modern repertory theatre in Manchester after withdrawing ...

on Vienna stages. It has been suggested that the slow movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 is a piece of

program music Program music or programatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program note ...

closely based on the finale of act 1 of Kanne's ''Orpheus''. Beethoven used a text by Kanne for his aria with chorus, "Germania", WoO 94. Kanne's further works include some symphonies, masses, piano works, and songs written to poems by

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

and

Schlegel Schlegel is a German occupational surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Anthony Schlegel (born 1981), former American football linebacker * August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845), German poet, older brother of Friedrich * Brad Schlege ...

. Kanne died on 16 December 1833 in Vienna and is buried in

St. Marx Cemetery St. Marx Cemetery (Sankt Marxer Friedhof) is a cemetery in the Landstraße district of Vienna, used from 1784 until 1874. It contains the unmarked grave of the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. History The cemetery was named after a nearb ...

there.

Legacy

In 1912, the lane ''Kannegasse'' in Vienna's

Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus () is the 15th municipal District of Vienna, Austria (german: 15. Bezirk). It is in central Vienna, west of Innere Stadt. It borders Neubau and Mariahilf in the east, Meidling and Hietzing in the south, Penzing in the wes ...

was named after him. There is speculation that Kanne became the prototype of

Kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

Johannes Kreisler Johannes Kreisler is the name of a character in three novels by E.T.A. Hoffmann: ''Kreisleriana'' (1813), ''Johannes Kreisler, des Kapellmeisters Musikalische Leiden'' (1815), and '' The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr together with a fragmen ...

E. T. A. Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann; 24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822) was a German Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic and artist. Penrith Goff, "E.T.A. Hoffmann" in E ...

's works.Farga, Franz. ''Die Wiener Oper von ihren Anfängen bis 1938'', A. F. Göth, Vienna 1947, p. 109

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanne, Friedrich August 1778 births 1833 deaths Composers from Vienna Austrian music critics Composers from the Austrian Empire Scholars from the Austrian Empire