Friedrich August Belcke (27 May 1795

Lucka Lucka is a town in the Thuringian landkreis of Altenburger Land. History The settlement of the area around Lucka occurred in the early Stone Age (5000-2500 b.c.). Lucka was first mentioned in writing in 1320 as "opidum Luckowe". The area was als ...

Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg () was a duchy ruled by the Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin in today's Thuringia, Germany. The extinction of the line in 1825 led to a major re-organisation of the Thuringian states. History In 1640 the sons of the l ...

– 10 December 1874) was a celebrated

trombonist The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

in the 19th century. In 1815, after two solos with the

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...

, Belcke had a 30-year career as a trombone soloist. In 1819 a critic admired a concert given by Belcke 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 ...

for its "clarity and precision, distinctness and pleasing sound, plus something truly noble in the imposing trombonistic figurations, as well as astonishing skill in that which is not idiomatic to the instrument - for example, rapid passages, cantabile, trills, etc." The other well-known trombonist of his time was

Carl Traugott Queisser Karl Traugott Queisser (11 January 1800, Döben, Electorate of Saxony – 12 June 1846, Leipzig) played trombone and viola in Germany as a member of the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Felix Mendelssohn. He was Principal Viola of the Gewandhaus Orch ...

References

*Rasmussen, M: 'Two early nineteenth-century trombone virtuosi', Brass Quarterly, 5, No. 1 (1961) *Herbert, Trevor: The Trombone, Yale University Press, 2006. pp144–145 {{DEFAULTSORT:Belcke, Friedrich August 1795 births 1874 deaths People from Lucka People from Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg German classical trombonists Male trombonists 19th-century German musicians 19th-century German male musicians 19th-century classical trombonists