Heinrich Ludwig Egmont Dorn (14 November 1800 or 1804-10 January 1892) was a German conductor, composer, teacher, and journalist. He 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 ...

, where he studied piano, singing, and composition. Later, he studied in Berlin with Ludwig Berger,

Bernhard Klein Bernhard Joseph Klein (6 March 1793 – 9 September 1832) was a German composer. Life Klein was born in Cologne. He married Lili Parthey (1800–1829) who was the sister of Gustav Parthey (1798–1872) and the granddaughter of Friedrich Nicolai ...

, and

Carl Friedrich Zelter Carl Friedrich Zelter (11 December 1758 15 May 1832)Grove/Fuller-Datei:Carl-Friedrich-Zelter.jpegMaitland, 1910. The Zelter entry takes up parts of pages 593-595 of Volume V. was a German composer, conductor and teacher of music. Working in his ...

. His first opera, ''Rolands Knappen'', was produced in 1826, and was a success. Around this time, he became co-editor of the ''Berliner allgemeine Musikzeitung''. Dorn became well known as a conductor of opera, and held theatre posts at Königsberg (1828),

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 wel ...

(1829–32),

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

(1832),

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

(1834–43), and

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

(1844–8). In 1849, he became co-conductor, with

Wilhelm Taubert Carl Gottfried Wilhelm Taubert (23 March 1811 – 7 January 1891) was a German pianist, composer, and conductor, and the father of philologist and writer Emil Taubert. Life Born in Berlin, Taubert studied under Ludwig Berger (piano) and Bernhard K ...

, of the

Berlin Hofoper The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...

- a post he held until 1869. Dorn taught

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

to the young

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

, and was a friend of

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

. He was a harsh critic of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

, but was persuaded to conduct the opera ''

Tannhäuser Tannhäuser (; gmh, Tanhûser), often stylized, "The Tannhäuser," was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and 1 ...

'', in 1855. He also wrote an opera ''Die Nibelungen'', based on the

Nibelungenlied The ( gmh, Der Nibelunge liet or ), translated as ''The Song of the Nibelungs'', is an epic poetry, epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The is based on an oral tradition ...

, in 1853, many years before Wagner completed ''

Der Ring des Nibelungen (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the '' Nibe ...

''. Dorn died in Berlin in 1892.

Writings

*''Spontini in Deutschland'' (Leipzig, 1830) *''Aus meinem Leben'' (Berlin, 1870–77) *''Das provisorische Statut der Königlichen Akademie der Künste in Berlin'' (Berlin, 1875)

Compositions

*''Rolands Knappen'' (1826) *''Der Zauberer und das Ungetüm'' (1827) *''Die Bettlerin'' (1828) *''Abu Kara'' (c. 1831) *''Der Schöffe von Paris'' (1838) *''Das Banner von England'' (1841) *''Die Nibelungen'' (1854) *''Ein Tag in Russland'' (1856) *''Gewitter bei Sonnenschein'' (1865) *''Der Botenläufer von Pirna'' (1865)

References

Sources

Robert Eitner Robert Eitner (22October 18322February 1905) was a German musicologist, researcher and bibliographer. Life Robert Eitner was born and grew up in Breslau, the rapidly industrialising administrative capital of Silesia. He attended the St. Elisabet ...

Dorn, Heinrich
''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB). Volume 48, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1904, p 35–37. *

Willi Kahl Theodor Friedrich Wilhelm Willi Kahl (18 July 1893 – 3 October 1962) was a German musicologist. Life Born in Saverne ( lsace from 1911 Kahl studied musicology, classical philology and German literature in Freiburg im Breisgau, Munich and Bo ...

: ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, . * Peck Leverett, Adelyn, and Fifield, Christopher
"Heinrich Dorn". Grove Music Online
(subscription access).

External links

*
"Das Mädchen an den Mond" on The Art Song Project
1804 births 1892 deaths German conductors (music) German male conductors (music) German opera composers Male opera composers Musicians from Königsberg Pupils of Carl Friedrich Zelter 19th-century classical composers 19th-century conductors (music) German male classical composers 19th-century German composers {{Germany-composer-stub