Friedrich Kuhlau

Friedrich Kuhlau is normally remembered for his piano music, particularly due to its pedagogical value. His sonatas and sonatinas aren’t difficult and provide musical a fantastic training surface for the more difficult functions of Beethoven. However his music may also stand alone, as his Piano Concerto in C, from 1810, and several other solo key pad functions amply demonstrate. As the concerto isn’t on the particular level with Beethoven’s last three, it really is a structure of considerable creative merit. His flute functions may also be of generally top quality, offering fine composing that shows a grasp from the instrument’s expressive range. Kuhlau had written operas and additional dramatic functions, most of that are finely crafted; the very best of them completely on the amount of his piano music. Friedrich Kuhlau was created in the North German city of Uelzen, near Hannover. His dad was a musician inside a armed service band, and necessarily often needed to relocate his family members. After shifting to Lüneburg when he was seven, Friedrich slipped on snow in the pub and sustained a personal injury to his ideal eye, leading to blindness for the reason that eye forever. At 14, he completed his schooling in Brunswick in the Katharineum-gymnasium, and having demonstrated unusual musical skill throughout his years as a child, he began structure research in Hamburg with Schwenke. More than the next many years, Kuhlau made up some tracks and chamber music, and in 1804 started regularly appearing like a concert pianist. A lot of his functions at the moment and throughout his entire career were created for flute, and for a long time it was thought that Kuhlau was himself an excellent flutist. He cannot play the device, however, but had written functions for this to make money. In 1810, Kuhlau journeyed to Copenhagen to flee the invading soldiers of Napoleon. He previously finished his Piano Concerto previously that yr and his shows from it helped him get an appointment like a non-salaried musician in the Danish Courtroom in 1812. He backed himself giving recitals and teaching music. 2 yrs later, he had written the rating for the singspiel The Robber’s Castle, that was a huge achievement. Around this period, his parents and young sister became a member of him, most of whom he previously to aid. After going for a high-paying post as performing teacher on the Royal Movie theater in the years 1816-1817, Kuhlau still left it, ultimately obtaining another using the Courtroom, which needed him to compose functions occasionally. One of these will be his opera The Magic Harp, that was failing owing generally to its questionable libretto. His following opera, Elisa (1820), fared as badly. Kuhlau traveled to Vienna in 1821 (for four a few months) and in 1825, of which period he befriended Beethoven. The entire year before, his opera Lulu acquired premiered in Hamburg with great achievement. After time for Copenhagen, Kuhlau composed the incidental music to Boye’s play, William Shakespeare, and have scored another achievement. Still helping his parents, he proved helpful diligently, turning out another opera in 1827, Hugo and Adelheid, which failed. In 1828, Kuhlau was presented with an honorary professorship that yielded significant remuneration for him. The same calendar year noticed the premiere of his The Elf’s Hill, a singspiel that was an enormous success. Some tragedies ensued: Kuhlau dropped both parents in 1830, and the next year his home burnt down, the composer struggling a resultant upper body health problem that afflicted him until his loss of life.