Anton Reicha's monument at Père Lachaise, Paris

Anton (or Antonin or Antoine) Reicha (or Rejcha) (February 26, 1770 РMay 28, 1836) was a Czech-born naturalized French composer, a flautist in his youth, and an influential theorist. He is best known today for his substantial early contribution to the wind quintet literature, as well as early experiments with irregular time signatures. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (703x1176, 171 KB) Monumento funerario de Anton Reicha. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (703x1176, 171 KB) Monumento funerario de Anton Reicha. ... Looking down the hill at the P̬re-Lachaise cemetery The cimeti̬re du P̬re-Lachaise (pronounced ) is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris (there are larger cemeteries in Paris suburbs). ... February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1770 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (149th in leap years). ... Charles Darwin 1836 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Naturalization is the act whereby a person voluntarily and actively acquires a nationality which is not his or her nationality at birth. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... A flautist demonstrates flute-playing technique A flautist or flutist is a musician who plays the flute. ... A wind quintet, also sometimes known as a woodwind quintet, is a group of five wind players (most commonly flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon). ... The time signature (also known as meter signature) is a notational device used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each bar and which note value (minim (half-note), crotchet (quarter-note), quaver (eighth-note), and so on) constitutes one beat. ...

Life

Reicha was born in Prague in 1770. He received early musical training from his uncle, Josef Reicha, who was a virtuoso cellist. Reicha moved with his family to Bonn in 1785, where he played the flute under the direction of his uncle in the Hofkapelle (1790–94) with the young violist Ludwig Beethoven. In 1801 having worked in Hamburg and having attempted an opera in Paris, he was in Vienna, where he visited Haydn, with whom he struck up a friendship. He renewed his friendship with Beethoven and took lessons from the outstanding Viennese theorists, Albrechtsberger and Salieri. After years of travelling, he settled in Paris after the Restauration and taught at the Paris Conservatoire, where he was appointed in 1818 professor of counterpoint and fugue. Most of the first-rank French composers of the Romantic generation studied at least for a time under Reicha, most notably Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, Charles Gounod and, briefly, César Franck. His influence was transmitted at second-hand as well, through the teaching of his pupils and his published treatises, especially the Traité de haute composition musicale. Reicha died in Paris in 1836. Prague (Czech: Praha (IPA: ), see also other names) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ... 1770 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Alternate meaning: Cello web browser A cropped image to show the relative size of a cello to a human (Uncropped Version) The cello (also violoncello or cello) is a stringed instrument and part of the violin family. ... Bonn is a city in Germany (19th largest), in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the north of the Siebengebirge. ... Ludwig van Beethoven by Carl Jäger (date unknown). ... Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (February 3, 1736 - March 7, 1809) was an Austrian musician who was born at Klosterneuburg, near Vienna. ... Antonio Salieri Antonio Salieri (August 18, 1750 – May 7, 1825), born in Legnago, Italy, was a composer and conductor, as well as one of the most important and famous musicians of his time. ... Conservatoire de Paris, or Paris Conservatoire, has been central to the evolution of music in France and Western Europe. ... Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc) (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist and composer. ... Portrait of Berlioz by Signol, 1832 Louis Hector Berlioz (December 11, 1803 – March 8, 1869) was a French Romantic composer best known for the Symphonie fantastique, first performed in 1830, and for his Grande Messe des morts Requiem of 1837, with its tremendous resources that include four antiphonal brass choirs. ... Charles Gounod Charles François Gounod (June 17, 1818 – October 18, 1893) was a French composer, best known for his opera Faust. ... César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck (December 10, 1822 – November 8, 1890) was a composer and organist. ... Charles Darwin 1836 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Works

Reicha is best known today for his substantial early contribution to the wind quintet literature, beginning with a piece he wrote in 1811 in Paris, which he discarded, but published in 1820 a set of six (Op. 100) [1], which were soon played all over Europe, he recorded in his memoirs, encouraging him to add eighteen more, making twenty-four quintets and individual movements in all. His wind quintets filled a void: "At that time, there was a dearth not only of good classic music, but of any good music at all for wind instruments, simply because the composers knew little of their technique." [2]. Today some of Reicha's wind quintets have joined the regular repertoire (all have been recorded). A wind quintet, also sometimes known as a woodwind quintet, is a group of five wind players (most commonly flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon). ...

He wrote much for other kinds of musical ensembles as well, including eight symphonies, many with thematically-connected movements; seven operas; piano music including sonatas, two gigantic variation sets, and a set of thirty-six fugues; violin sonatas and piano trios; five quintets for wind and strings; 24 trios for three horns (Op.82, published in Paris, 1815) [3]; ten string quintets; and at least thirty-seven string quartets, only three of which were performed during the 20th century, most recently a few years ago (see Drummond link, below). The ten Vienna string quartets (1801-6) are amongst his most important works; though largely ignored since Reicha's death, they were highly influential during his lifetime, and left their mark on the quartets of Beethoven and Schubert. In recent years, quartet ensembles in Europe have begun programming Reicha's quartets, and first modern editions and first recordings are in the works. In music, a fugue is a type of piece written for counterpoint for several independent musical voices. ... A string quintet is an ensemble of five string instrument players or a piece written for such a combination. ... The resident string quartet of the Library of Congress in 1963 A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string instruments—usually two violins, a viola and cello—or a piece written to be performed by such a group. ... Ronald Norman Drummond (born 17 October 1959, in Seattle) is an American writer, editor, and independent scholar. ...

His publications included:

• Traité de mélodie (1814);
• Cours de composition musicale (1818);
• Traité de haute composition musicale (2 vols. 1824–1826; a German translation by Carl Czerny appeared about 1835). His main work.
• L’art du compositeur dramatique (4 vols., 1833). Concerns the writing of opera and provides documents of performance techniques of the time.

Carl Czerny (sometimes Karl; February 21, 1791 – July 15, 1857) was an Austrian pianist, composer and teacher. ...

References

• Olga Šotolová, Antonín Reicha: A Biography and Thematic Catalogue. Deryck Viney, translator. Supraphon, Prague, 1990. The standard monograph on Reicha; contains numerous errors.

External links

• General reference:
  • Ron Drummond, "The String Quartets of Anton Reicha"
  • A brief reference on Czech classical music
  • Anton Reicha
  • Klassiekemuziek: Anton Reicha

• Scores:
• Free scores by Anton Reicha in the Werner Icking Music Archive