Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer (20 January 1783 – 6 March 1860) was a German

cellist The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Life

Early life and career

Dotzauer was born in 1783 in , near

Hildburghausen Hildburghausen (IPA adapted from: ) is a town in Thuringia in central Germany, capital of the district Hildburghausen. Geography It is situated in the Franconian part of Thuringia south of the Thuringian Forest, in the valley of the Werra river ...

. His father, a pastor, encouraged his interest in music. In early years he played piano, violin and cello, also horn and clarinet, and studied theory and composition with the organist , a pupil of

Johann Christian Kittel Johann Christian Kittel (18 February 1732 – 17 April 1809) was a German organist, composer, and teacher. He was one of the last students of Johann Sebastian Bach. His students included Michael Gotthard Fischer, Karl Gottlieb Umbreit, Johan ...

. In

Meiningen Meiningen () is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 25,000 (2021).

he studied the cello with ,

Konzertmeister The concertmaster (from the German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (U.K.) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (or clarinet in a concert band). After the conductor, the concertmaster is the second-most signifi ...

of the

Meiningen Court Orchestra The Meiningen Court Orchestra (german: Meininger Hofkapelle) is one of the oldest and most traditional orchestras in Europe. Since 1952 the now 68-member orchestra has been affiliated to the Meiningen Court Theatre and in addition to their opera ...

; from 1801 Dotzauer was a member of the orchestra."The Dresden School" (from ''History of the Violoncello'' by Lev Ginsburg (Paginiana Publications, 1983))
www.celloheaven.com. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
''

Neue Deutsche Biographie ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' (''NDB''; literally ''New German Biography'') is a biographical reference work. It is the successor to the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, Universal German Biography). The 26 volumes published thus far cover ...

'', volume 4 (1959). He moved in 1805 to

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 ...

, where he played in the

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 ...

. During this period he visited the cellist

Bernhard Romberg Bernhard Heinrich Romberg (November 13, 1767 – August 13, 1841) was a German cellist and composer. Life Romberg was born in Dinklage. His father, Anton Romberg, played the bassoon and cello and gave Bernhard his first cello lessons. He fi ...

in Berlin, who influenced his playing. With

Heinrich August Matthaei Heinrich August Matthaei (3 October 1781 – 4 November 1835) was a German violinist and composer. He was for many years concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Life Matthaei was born in Dresden in 1781. Little is known of his early li ...

Bartolomeo Campagnoli Bartolomeo Campagnoli (September 10, 1751 – November 6, 1827) was an Italian violinist and composer. Campagnoli was a virtuoso violinist who toured Europe propagating the 18th Century Italian violin style. He also has a number of compositions t ...

and

Johann Georg Hermann Voigt Johann Georg Hermann Voigt (14 May 1769 – 24 February 1811) was a German organist, cellist, violist and composer. Life Born in Osterwieck, Voigt was the son of Stadtmusikus' C. C. Voigt from the town of Osterwieck in the northern Harz fore ...

, Dotzauer was a founder of the

Gewandhaus Quartet The Gewandhaus Quartet (German: Gewandhaus-Quartett) is a string quartet based in Leipzig. It was founded in 1808 by members of the Gewandhaus Orchester, as one of the first professional quartets in the world. In its more than 200-year history, t ...

Dresden

In 1811 Dotzauer was appointed cellist of the Dresden Court Orchestra; from 1821 he was principal cellist. During this time in the orchestra he played under

Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (18 or 19 November 17865 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and critic who was one of the first significant composers of the Romantic era. Best known for his opera ...

, and later under

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 ...

, playing in the premieres of Wagner's operas ''

Rienzi ' (''Rienzi, the last of the tribunes''; WWV 49) is an early opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name (1835). The title is commonly shortened to ''Rienzi ...

'' and ''

The Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dut ...

''. He made concert tours of Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. He was a noted teacher, his students including

Friedrich August Kummer Friedrich August Kummer (5 August 1797 – 22 August 1879), born in Meiningen, Germany, was a cellist, pedagogue, and composer. Childhood and education As a child, his family moved to Dresden on an invitation by the court chapel to his father, ...

and

Karl Drechsler Karl Drechsler (27 June 1800 – 1 December 1873) was a German cellist and teacher. Life Drechsler was born in Kamenz, and in 1820 he joined the court chapel in Dessau. He went in 1824 to study with Friedrich Dotzauer in Dresden, and returning to ...

. His two sons Justus Bernhard Friedrich and Karl Louis became musicians. Dotzauer remained in the orchestra until retirement in 1850; he died in Dresden in 1860.

Compositions

Dotzauer composed many studies and exercises for solo cello; other compositions include masses and other church music, an opera, 9 cello concertos, and chamber music including string quartets.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dotzauer, Friedrich 1783 births 1860 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century German composers 19th-century German male musicians Composers for cello German classical cellists German male classical composers German Romantic composers People from Saxe-Hildburghausen