Carl Heinrich Graun

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Carl Heinrich Graun
Graun by Preissler.jpg
Born(1704-05-07)7 May 1704
Wahrenbrück, Electorate of Saxony
Died8 August 1759(1759-08-08) (aged 55)
Berlin
NationalityGerman
Education Kreuzkirche, Dresden
Occupation(s)Composer, tenor
Years active1726–1756
Known forMost important German composer of Italian opera of his time, along with Johann Adolph Hasse
Notable work Kapellmeister to Frederick the Great
SpouseTwo
ChildrenOne daughter, four sons
Relatives Johann Gottlieb Graun (brother)

Carl Heinrich Graun (7 May 1704 – 8 August 1759) was a German composer and tenor. Along with Johann Adolph Hasse, he is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time. [1]

Contents

Biography

Graun was born in Wahrenbrück in the Electorate of Saxony. In 1714, he followed his brother, Johann Gottlieb Graun, to the school of the Kreuzkirche, Dresden, and sang in the Dresdner Kreuzchor and the chorus of the Opernhaus am Zwinger. He studied singing with Christian Petzold and composition with Johann Christoph Schmidt  [ de ] (1664–1728). In 1724, Graun moved to Braunschweig, singing at the opera house and writing six operas for the company. In 1735, Graun moved to Rheinsberg in Brandenburg, after he had written the opera Lo specchio della fedeltà for the marriage of the then crown prince Frederick (the Great) and Elisabeth Christine in Schloss Salzdahlum in 1733. He was Kapellmeister to Frederick the Great from his ascension to the throne in 1740 until Graun's death nineteen years later in Berlin. [2]

Graun memorial in Wahrenbruck Graundenkmal Wahrenbrueck.jpg
Graun memorial in Wahrenbrück

Graun wrote a number of operas. His opera Cesare e Cleopatra inaugurated the opening of the Berlin State Opera (Königliche Hofoper) in 1742. Montezuma (1755) was written to a libretto by King Frederick. His works are rarely played today, though his passion cantata Der Tod Jesu (The Death of Jesus, 1755) was frequently performed in Germany for many years after his death. This work, said Paul Steinitz, "contains a good deal of imaginative music, but it was more of a Cantata based loosely on sentiments engendered by the Passion story than a liturgical Passion. It fails even to give any specific account of the trial and death of Jesus". [3]

His other works include concertos and trio sonatas. He was known for particularly good text-setting, probably due to his background as a vocalist. [4]

He married twice and had a daughter, who became a singer, from his first marriage and four sons from his second. His great-great-great-great-grandson, Vladimir Nabokov, [5] became an eminent 20th-century novelist.

Works

Stage works

Other works

Notes

  1. ↑ Christoph Henzel (2001). "Graun, Carl Heinrich". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.90000380274. ISBN   978-1-56159-263-0.(subscription required)
  2. ↑ "Carl Heinrich Graun". preussenchronik.de (in German). Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg . Retrieved 24 February 2025.
  3. ↑ Paul Steinitz. Bach's Passions (1978), p. 106
  4. ↑ Sulzer, Johann Georg (1774). "Singend". Allgemeine Theorie der Schönen Künste (in German). Vol. 2 (1st ed.). Leipzig: Weidmann; Reich. p. 1078. Retrieved 24 February 2025.
  5. ↑ Speak, Memory , Vladimir Nabokov, Vintage International, 1989, p. 54.

Further reading

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