Leopold Damrosch
Encyclopedia
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
orchestral conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
.
Biography
Damrosch was born in Posen (Poznań)Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
, Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
, and began his musical education at the age of nine, learning the violin against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to become a doctor. Capitulating to the wishes of his parents he entered the University of Berlin and completed his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
but during his spare time he studied violin under Ries
Franz Ries
Franz Ries was a Romantic German violinist and composer, son of Hubert Ries. He studied at the Paris Conservatory...
, and thorough bass with Dehn and Bohmer
Böhmer
Böhmer or Boehmer may refer to:* Christian Boehmer Anfinsen, biochemist and a 1972 Nobel Prize winner* Harald von Boehmer, German immunologist* Hasso von Boehmer, German Colonel who participated in the July 20 Plot against Hitler...
. After he completed his degree Damrosch decided to dedicate his life and energy to music. He gained fame as a violinist and began to play to large audiences in many major German cities including Berlin and Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. He went to Weimar, and was received by Franz Liszt
Liszt
Liszt is a Hungarian surname. Notable persons with that surname include:* Franz Liszt , Hungarian composer and pianist* Adam Liszt , father of Franz Liszt* Anna Liszt , mother of Franz Liszt...
, who appointed him solo-violinist in the Ducal orchestra.
Liszt dedicated a symphonic poem
Symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...
(Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo
Tasso, Lamento e Trionfo (Liszt)
Franz Liszt composed his Tasso, Lamento e trionfo in 1849, revising it in 1850-51 and again in 1854. It is numbered No. 2 in his cycle of 13 symphonic poems written during his Weimar period.-Composition:...
) to Damrosch.
Damrosch first appeared as a conductor during the season of 1859 where he conducted the Philharmonic concerts in Breslau. He continued to conduct the Philharmonic for three years due to the success of this season. In 1862 Damrosch founded a symphonic society in Breslau with an orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
of eighty performers, modeled after the Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus
Gewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, Germany. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. The first Gewandhaus was built in 1781 by architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe. The second opened on 11 December 1884, and was destroyed in the...
concerts of Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
.
This society gained fame throughout Germany and Damrosch invited Liszt to conduct several of the performances, an invitation which he accepted. Wagner also accepted the invitation to conduct his own manuscript compositions in the winter of 1867.
In 1871 Damrosch emigrated to the United States of America at the invitation of the Arion
Arion
Arion was a kitharode in ancient Greece, a Dionysiac poet credited with inventing the dithyramb: "As a literary composition for chorus dithyramb was the creation of Arion of Corinth," The islanders of Lesbos claimed him as their native son, but Arion found a patron in Periander, tyrant of Corinth...
society in New York. He first conducted in the United States on 6 May 1871, at Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and Steinway-Häuser are located in world cities such as New York City, London, Hamburg, Berlin,...
, as conductor, composer, and violinist. He participated in many concerts over this period and in 1873 he founded the Oratorio Society of New York
Oratorio Society of New York
The Oratorio Society of New York is a non-profit membership organization which performs choral music in the oratorio style. The Society was founded in 1873 by conductor Leopold Damrosch, and it is New York City's second oldest cultural organization...
. The first concert of this society was later that year and consisted of a programme of selections from Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Georg Friedrich Handel, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition...
and other great Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
composers. In 1874 Damrosch gave another concert at the Oratorio Society, this the first with a full orchestra, consisting of Handel's Samson. For Christmas that year Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
was performed.
In 1877 Damrosch, in connection with a number of persons interested in the cultivation of orchestral music, established the Symphony society
New York Symphony Orchestra
The New York Symphony Orchestra was founded as the New York Symphony Society in New York City by Leopold Damrosch in 1878. For many years it was a fierce rival to the older Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was supported by Andrew Carnegie who built Carnegie Hall expressly for the...
. This society became closely identified with the Oratorio Society and several joint performances were organized. The co-operation of these societies reached its climax in the great "musical festival" which was held in the armory of the 7th regiment in New York, from 3 till 7 May 1881. The chorus numbered 1,200, the main body being the Oratorio Society, which was augmented by various choral societies from neighboring towns. An additional chorus of 1,000 young ladies from the Normal College and 250 boys from the Church choirs took part in the afternoon concerts. The orchestra was composed of 250 pieces, and Dr. Damrosch selected a large number of artists for soloists. Among the choral works performed were Handel's Dettingen Te Deum and Messiah; Rubinstein's Tower of Babel (first time); Berlioz's Grande Messe des Mortes (first time); and Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Ninth Symphony. The audience numbered from 8,000 to 10,000 at each concert, and the enthusiasm for the projector of this enterprise resulted in an ovation on the last night. The degree of Doctor of Music was conferred upon him by Columbia in 1880.
In 1883 Damrosch traveled extensively through the west with his orchestra. In September 1884, he began a remarkable series of operatic performances as General Manager and chief conductor of the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York. The company had experienced great financial losses during its first season of Italian opera under director Henry Abbey. For its second season it turned to Damrosch to direct the company in German repertory. The company comprised some of the greatest artists of the German opera houses, and, in contrast with the hitherto prevailing mode, every part, even the smallest, was carefully presented. Twelve of the operas performed were comparative novelties, the most important of which were Wagner's Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
, Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, and Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
, and Beethoven's Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
. This proved to be Damrosch's last effort. He conducted every performance except during the last week of his life, when he took a severe cold, from which he never recovered. He died in New York City in 1885.
His sons Frank Damrosch
Frank Damrosch
Frank Heino Damrosch was a German-born American music conductor and educator.-Biography:He was born on June 22, 1859 in Breslau, and came to the United States with his father, Leopold Damrosch, and brother, Walter Damrosch in 1871. He had studied music in Germany under Dionys Pruckner. He studied...
and Walter Johannes Damrosch
Walter Johannes Damrosch
Walter Johannes Damrosch was a German-born American conductor and composer. He is best remembered today as long-time director of the New York Symphony Orchestra and for conducting the world premiere performances of George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F , and An American in Paris .- Biography...
, both born in Breslau, in 1859 and 1862 respectively, both succeeded him as conductors of the Oratorio Society of New York
Oratorio Society of New York
The Oratorio Society of New York is a non-profit membership organization which performs choral music in the oratorio style. The Society was founded in 1873 by conductor Leopold Damrosch, and it is New York City's second oldest cultural organization...
.
Works
- Am Manzanares, op. 11 no. 10
- An, op. 8 no. 5
- An den Mond, op. 17 no. 4
- Bedeckt mich mit Blumen, op. 11 no. 7
- Bedeckt mich mit Blumen, op. 11 no. 3
- Bitte, op. 5 no. 1
- Cantatas 1 - 7
- Das Meer erstrahlt im Sonnenschein, op. 16 no. 1
- Dereinst, dereinst, op. 11 no. 4
- Dich lieb' ich inniglich, op. 7 no. 3 (E. Kern)
- Die blauen Frühlingsaugen, op. 13 no. 3
- Die du bist so schön und rein, op. 10 no. 3
- Es war ein alter König, op. 10 no. 4
- Frühling, op. 16 no. 2
- Frühlingslied, op. 6 no. 3
- Geh, Geliebter, geh jetzt!, op. 11 no. 6
- Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen, op. 10 no. 2
- Ich halte ihr die Augen zu, op. 16 no. 4
- Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland, op. 13 no. 2
- Ich liebe dich, op. 8 no. 1
- In der Ferne, op. 10 no. 1
- Jedweder Geselle, sein Mädel im Arm, op. 16 no. 5
- Kalt und schneidend weht der Wind, op. 8 no. 8
- Kommen und Scheiden, op. 5 no. 4
- Liebesfrühling, op. 5 no. 5
- Liebesgruss, op. 14 no. 1 (Volkslieder (Folksongs))
- Lied des Fischerknaben
- Mädchen mit dem rotten Mündchen, op. 10 no. 6
- Mignon, op. 17 no. 2
- Nachhall, op. 5 no. 2 ((Ignaz) Julius Lasker)
- Nachtgesang, op. 17 no. 3
- Nähe des Geliebten, op. 17 no. 1
- Nelken wind' ich und Jasmin, op. 11 no. 5
- Schiller's "Joan of Arc"
- Siegfrieds Schwert
- Sulamith
- Symphony in A Major (1878)
- Trost, op. 8 no. 6 (Joseph Christian Freiherrn von Zedlitz)
- Violin Concerto in D minor (pub. by Bote & Bock, 1878). One of two violin concertos by the composer; the other, also in D minor, dates from 1874.
- Von dem Rosenbusch, o Mutter, op. 11 no. 2
- Wandl' ich in dem Wald des Abends, op. 16 no. 3
- Wenn ich auf dem Lager liege, op. 10 no. 5
- Wenn ich ihn nur habe, op. 7 no. 2
- Wieder möcht' ich dir begegnen, op. 8 no. 9
- Zuléikha, op. 6 no. 2
- Zuversicht, op. 5 no. 3 ((Ignaz) Julius Lasker)