Heinrich Donatien Wilhelm Schulz-Beuthen (19 June 1838 in
Beuthen
Bytom (Polish pronunciation: ; Silesian: ''Bytōm, Bytōń'', german: Beuthen O.S.) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland, the city is 7 km northwest of Katowice, the regional capita ...
, Upper
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
(now Bytom, in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
) – 12 March 1915 in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
) was a composer of the high
Romantic
Romantic may refer to:
Genres and eras
* The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries
** Romantic music, of that era
** Romantic poetry, of that era
** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
era.
Life
His original surname was
Schulz
Schulz is a common German and Jewish-Ashkenazi family name from Germany, particularly Northern Germany. The word ''Schulz'' originates from the local official title of Schultheiß or ''(Dorf-)Schulz(e)'', meaning village headman or constable / sh ...
: it was not unusual for people with such common surnames to add the name of their home town to distinguish themselves from others, as Schulz-Beuthen did at some point early in his career. He was intended for the profession of a chemist, and studied chemistry at the
University of Breslau, but his drive to write music was greater. From 1862 to 1865 he studied with
Ignaz Moscheles and
Carl Reinecke
Carl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke (23 June 182410 March 1910) was a German composer, conductor, and pianist in the mid-Romantic era.
Biography
Reinecke was born in what is today the Hamburg district of Altona; technically he was born a Dane, as ...
at the
Leipzig Conservatory, where
Edvard Grieg and
Johan Svendsen
Johan Severin Svendsen (30 September 184014 June 1911) was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, he lived most his life in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Svendsen's output includes two symphonies, a violin ...
were among his fellow students; he also studied privately with
Carl Riedel
Carl Riedel (6 October 1827 – 3 June 1888) was a German conductor and composer. Born in Cronenberg, Wuppertal, he initially worked as a dyer of silk before conductor Karl Wilhelm discovered his musical talent and encouraged him to pursue ...
. Finding Leipzig's
classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aestheti ...
uncongenial to his more romantic temperament, after his graduation Schulz-Beuthen left Germany for Switzerland, where he taught composition in Zurich from 1866 to 1880. In Switzerland he met
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 ...
, the novelist
Gottfried Keller, and was befriended by
Mathilde Wesendonck
Agnes Mathilde Wesendonck (née Luckemeyer; 23 December 182831 August 1902) was a German poet and author. The words of five of her verses were the basis of Richard Wagner's ''Wesendonck Lieder''; the composer was infatuated with her, and his w ...
. He also became friends with the composer
Theodor Kirchner
Fürchtegott Theodor Kirchner (10 December 1823 – 18 September 1903) was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic era.
Musical career
Kirchner enjoyed the friendship and admiration of many leading composers of the 19th century yet was un ...
, an important member of the
Schumann-
Brahms circle, and created an orchestral cycle out of arrangements of some of Kirchner's piano pieces. Following a nervous breakdown (the details of which are not precisely known) Schulz-Beuthen returned to Germany; he was unable to compose for several years, but resumed his teaching activities in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
, where he lived – except for a short period spent in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, 1893-95 – from 1881 until his death on 12 March 1915. His last years were spent in an
asylum.
Works
Schulz-Beuthen was a copious composer: his works include five
operas
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 libretti ...
, of which the first, ''Der Zauberschlaf'', after a play by
Mathilde Wesendonck
Agnes Mathilde Wesendonck (née Luckemeyer; 23 December 182831 August 1902) was a German poet and author. The words of five of her verses were the basis of Richard Wagner's ''Wesendonck Lieder''; the composer was infatuated with her, and his w ...
, combined the stories of
Sleeping Beauty and
Cinderella and may well be the first example of the "fairy tale opera" which became a popular genre in the late 19th century at the hands, most notably, of
Humperdinck. Unfortunately the music is lost, as are many other of Schulz-Beuthen's works. He wrote no fewer than ten
symphonies
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...
(of which the first and last remained incomplete). Symphony No. 6 was inspired by
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''
King Lear
''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare.
It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane an ...
''; he initially wrote
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 the play, later using the material for a symphony with men's chorus.
[Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed.] He also wrote symphonic poems founded on such subjects as
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 ...
's ''
Wilhelm Tell
William Tell (german: Wilhelm Tell, ; french: Guillaume Tell; it, Guglielmo Tell; rm, Guglielm Tell) is a folk hero of Switzerland.
According to the legend, Tell was an expert mountain climber and marksman with a crossbow who assassinated Alb ...
'',
Grillparzer
Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer (15 January 1791 – 21 January 1872) was an Austrian writer who was considered to be the leading Austrian dramatist of the 19th century. His plays were and are frequently performed at the famous Burgtheater in Vien ...
's ''Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen'', and
Böcklin's painting ''
Isle of the Dead''. (Schulz-Beuthen's treatment, one of his last works, is almost exactly contemporary with
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...
's
well-known tone-poem on the same subject.) Other compositions included a Requiem, scenes from
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 ...
's ''
Faust'', a piano
concerto
A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...
, a wind
octet
Octet may refer to:
Music
* Octet (music), ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or composition written for such an ensemble
** String octet, a piece of music written for eight string instruments
*** Octet (Mendelssohn), 1825 compos ...
,
string quintet and trio, choral works, numerous songs, piano pieces and so on.
He had some distinguished admirers, including
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 ...
, and contemporary critics sometimes found his music daringly modern: however, these judgements were passed mainly on works that are no longer available for examination. The bulk of Schulz-Beuthen's music was never published, and it is believed that most of his manuscripts were destroyed in the fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945. Nevertheless, enough was printed during his lifetime, or has come to light in recent years, to indicate a composer of considerable gifts.
Discography
* Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen, ''Piano Music'', Kirsten Johnson, piano, Guild GMCD 7277
* Hermann Goetz and Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen, ''Piano Music'', Kirsten Johnson, piano, Guild GMCD 7282
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schulz-Beuthen, Heinrich
1838 births
1915 deaths
German opera composers
Male opera composers
People from Bytom
People from the Province of Silesia
University of Breslau alumni
University of Music and Theatre Leipzig alumni
German male classical composers
19th-century German musicians
19th-century German male musicians