Heinrich Werner (2 October 1800 – 3 March 1833) was a German composer.

Biography

Werner was born into a musical family in Kirchohmfeld in the Eichsfeld district of

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

. Initially trained at home, he played the organ for the local church at the age of 11 and became a choral singer at Sankt Andreasberg at 15. His older brother in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

had him study music and attend the Gymnasium there. Starting in 1821, he studied in

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

and took the teaching examination the next year; he then led the chorus at the city's opera house and taught music students. From 1825, he was choral director at the court theatre at

.Brusniak (2007). He is said to have written 84 compositions, mostly songs, including a setting of

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 poem ''

Heidenröslein "" or "" ("Rose on the Heath" or "Little Rose of the Field") is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1789. It was written in 1771 during Goethe's stay in Strasbourg when he was in love with Friederike Brion, to whom the poem is addr ...

''. It was first publicly performed in 1829, under his direction, and bore as title the first line, "Sah ein Knab' ein Röslein stehn" ("A boy saw a little rose standing"). It was seen as superior to all the roughly 100 versions that had preceded his, and became the outstanding popular-song version (although the

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

art-song setting, published in 1821, has outlasted it). He died at the age of 32 in Braunschweig in 1833, having become ill with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

the previous year.

References

External links

* * 1800 births 1833 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century German composers 19th-century German male musicians German male classical composers German Romantic composers People from Leinefelde-Worbis {{Germany-composer-stub