Countess Caroline Esterházy de Galántha ( hu, galánthai grófnő Esterházy Karolina; 6 September 1811 – 14 March 1851) was a Hungarian noblewoman, and a friend and muse to

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 ...

Franz Schubert. His Fantasia in F minor D 940 is dedicated to her.

Biography

The Countess was born in 1811, in Pressburg, Kingdom of Hungary (present-day

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

in Slovakia) to János Károly, Count Esterházy de Galántha and Countess Róza Festetics de Tolna. By birth she was a member of the wealthy and illustrious

Esterházy The House of Esterházy, also spelled Eszterházy (), is a Hungarian noble family with origins in the Middle Ages. From the 17th century, the Esterházys were the greatest landowner magnates of the Kingdom of Hungary, during the time that it ...

family. She received music lessons from Franz Schubert during the summers of 1818 and 1824 on her family estate at Zseliz (today Želiezovce). To judge from her collection of music scores and the markings in them, it appears she was an accomplished pianist. After the summer of 1824, she and Schubert remained friends until his death in 1828. On 8 April 1844, she married Count Karl Folliott de Crenneville-Poutet, but the marriage broke down within a few months and the couple separated. She died in Pressburg on 14 March 1851, from an intestinal disorder.

Relationship with Schubert

The nature of Schubert's feelings for the countess has been the subject of much speculation. Schubert's friends believed him to be in unrequited love with the young countess, and there are a number of references to this in their writings.

Eduard von Bauernfeld Eduard von Bauernfeld (13 January 1802 – 9 August 1890), Austrian dramatist, was born at Vienna. Life Having studied jurisprudence at the University of Vienna, he entered the government service in a legal capacity, and after holding variou ...

wrote of his friend: ''"He was, in fact, head over heels in love with one of his pupils, a young Countess Esterházy .. In addition to his lessons there, he also visited the Count's home, from time to time, under the aegis of his patron, the singer Vogl. ..On such occasions Schubert was quite content to take a back seat, to remain quietly by the side of his adored pupil, and to thrust love's arrow ever deeper into his heart. ..Countess Caroline may be looked upon as his visible, beneficent muse, as the Leonore of this musical Tasso."'' According to Schönstein, ''“when he countessonce jokingly teased Schubert that he had never dedicated a piece of his to her he responded: 'Why do that? Everything is dedicated to you anyway.'”'' Shortly before his death, Schubert nonetheless dedicated his Fantasia in F minor to her.

In popular culture

Moritz von Schwind, in his drawing "Schubertiade at Josef von Spaun", shows a portrait of Caroline Esterházy hanging over the piano which Schubert is playing. A number of films have fictionalized Esterházy’s relationship with Schubert, including ''

Gently My Songs Entreat ''Gently My Songs Entreat'' (German: ') is a 1933 Austrian-German musical film directed by Willi Forst and starring Marta Eggerth, Luise Ullrich and Hans Jaray. The film was shot at the Sievering Studios in Vienna with art direction by Julius ...

'' (1933), '' Unfinished Symphony'' (1934) and '' Symphony of Love'' (1954). The countess is also a main character in the French novella ''

Un été à quatre mains ''Un été à quatre mains'' is a French historical fiction novel by Gaëlle Josse about Franz Schubert. The novel gives a fictionalized account of the time Schubert spent at Zseliz with the Esterházy family during the summer of 1828, and of h ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Esterhazy, Caroline 1805 births 1851 deaths People from Bratislava Muses

Caroline Caroline may refer to: People * Caroline (given name), a feminine given name * J. C. Caroline (born 1933), American college and National Football League player * Jordan Caroline (born 1996), American (men's) basketball player Places Antarctica * ...

Hungarian countesses 19th-century nobility 19th-century Hungarian people