Sigismond Neukomm or Sigismund Ritter von Neukomm fter ennoblement as a knight">ennoblement.html" ;"title="fter ennoblement">fter ennoblement as a knight(10 July 1778, in Salzburg – 3 April 1858, in Paris) was an Austrian composer and pianist. Neukomm first studied with the organist Weissauer and later studied theory under Michael Haydn and Leopold Mozart, though his studies at

Salzburg University The University of Salzburg (german: Universität Salzburg), also known as the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (''Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg'', PLUS), is an Austrian public university in Salzburg municipality, Salzburg state, named af ...

were in philosophy and mathematics. He became honorary organist at the Salzburg University church in 1792, and was appointed chorus-master at the Salzburg court theater in 1796. Neukomm was

kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

's German theatre from 1804 to 1809, and in the 1810s he spent time in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, where he popularized the works of

Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

and

Wolfgang Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

. He worked at

D. João VI , house = Braganza , father = Peter III of Portugal , mother = Maria I of Portugal , birth_date = , birth_place = Queluz Palace, Queluz, Portugal , death_date = , death_place = Bemposta Palace, Lisbon, Portugal , ...

's court in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. His works had some currency in the nineteenth century:

Johann Nepomuk Hummel Johann Nepomuk Hummel (14 November 177817 October 1837) was an Austrian composer and virtuoso pianist. His music reflects the Transition from Classical to Romantic music, transition from the Classical period (music), Classical to the Romantic ...

's op. 123 is a ''Fantasie for Piano'' on themes by Hummel and von Neukomm. Boston's

Handel and Haydn Society The Handel and Haydn Society is an American chorus and period instrument orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. Known colloquially as 'H+H', the organization has been in continual performance since its founding in 1815, the longest-serving suc ...

, for example, gave 55 performances of his oratorio ''David'' during the 1830s.Harold Earle Johnson, ''Hallelujah, Amen!: The Story of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston'' (Boston: B. Humphries, 1965), 52-4 Neukomm's compositional output is large. With the older composer's approval he made arrangements of Haydn's works, including the

oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...

s '' The Seasons'' and '' The Creation''. He wrote a clarinet

quintet A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...

, several organ voluntaries, ten

opera 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 librett ...

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 ...

for four plays, forty-eight

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

es, eight oratorios, and a large body of smaller works including vocal pieces, works for piano solo, and about 200 songs. In 1814 Neukomm was responsible for erecting a tombstone to the memory of Haydn over his first grave in the

Hundsturm Hundsturm was an independent municipality (''Gemeinde'') of Austria until 1850 and is today a suburb of Vienna the city's 5th District, Margareten. The Hundsturm coat of arms shows, on a blue background, a castle tower on a green meadow. From the ...

cemetery in Vienna. The inscription included a

puzzle canon In music, a canon is a contrapuntal (counterpoint-based) compositional technique that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e.g., quarter rest, one measure, etc.). The initial melody is calle ...

composed by Neukomm himself. He had previously been one of Haydn's pupils, and was also in regular contact with the composer in the last months of his life. The following year, his Requiem Mass commissioned by Tayllerand, premiered for royalty and diplomats attending the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

on 21 January, the 22nd anniversary of the execution of Louis XVI in 1793.

References

Sources

Vincenzo Cernicchiaro Vincenzo is an Italian male given name, derived from the Latin name Vincentius (the verb ''vincere'' means to win or to conquer). Notable people with the name include: Art * Vincenzo Amato (born 1966), Italian actor and sculptor *Vincenzo Bell ...

. ''Storia della musica nel Brasile''. Milano, Fratelli Riccioni, 1926. *

Don Randel Don Michael Randel (born December 9, 1940) is an American musicologist, specializing in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Spain and France. He is currently the Chair of the Board of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a trustee ...

. ''The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music''. Harvard, 1996, p. 633.

External links

* 1778 births 1858 deaths 18th-century Austrian people 18th-century classical composers 18th-century classical pianists 18th-century keyboardists 18th-century male musicians 19th-century Austrian people 19th-century classical composers 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century keyboardists 19th-century male musicians Austrian classical composers Austrian classical pianists Austrian expatriates in Brazil Austrian expatriates in France Austrian expatriates in Russia Austrian knights Austrian male classical composers Austrian opera composers Male classical pianists Male opera composers Musicians from Salzburg Pupils of Joseph Haydn University of Salzburg alumni {{Austria-composer-stub