 Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792) as a student in Erfurt. Joseph Martin Kraus (* June 20, 1756 in Miltenberg am Main, † December 15 in Stockholm, 1792), German composer, sometimes referred to as "the Swedish Mozart". Image File history File links Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Image File history File links Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 194 days remaining. ...
1756 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...
Timberframed houses in Miltenberg, Bavaria Miltenberg is a town in Franconia ( Bavaria, Germany). ...
December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
(IPA: ; UN/LOCODE: SE STO) is the capital of Sweden, and consequently the site of its Government and Parliament as well as the residence of the Swedish head of state, King Carl XVI Gustaf. ...
1792 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart; January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was a prolific and highly influential composer of Classical music. ...
Life
Childhood Kraus was born in the central German town of Miltenberg in Franconia, the son of a civil clerk Joseph Bernhard Kraus and Anna Dorothea née Schmidt. His father's family had a small restaurant in Weilbach near Amorbach, while his mother was a daughter of the master-builder Johann Martin Schmidt. Joseph had 13 brothers and sisters, but seven of them died during their childhood. Timberframed houses in Miltenberg, Bavaria Miltenberg is a town in Franconia ( Bavaria, Germany). ...
The Franconian Rake is originally is a heraldic symbol of the bishops of Würzburg, who - though nominally Dukes of Franconia - only ruled in parts of Franconia. ...
Amorbach is a place in the district of Miltenberg, Bavaria, Germany. ...
After a short stay in Osterburken, the Kraus family moved to Buchen (Odenwald) (in Baden-Württemberg) in 1761, where the father Joseph Bernhard Kraus found a position as a clerk. In Buchen Kraus started his earliest formal education. His first music teachers were rector Georg Pfister (1730-1807) and cantor Bernhard Franz Wendler (1702-1782), giving him mainly piano and violin lessons. Kraus showed his musical talent at a very early stage. At the age of 12, Kraus joined the Jesuit Gymnasium and Music Seminar in Mannheim, where he studied German and Latin literature and music. He received a rigorous musical education, especially in violin technique, from P. Alexander Keck (1724-1804) and P. Anton Klein (1748-1810). Osterburken is a town in the Neckar-Odenwald district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ...
Buchen is a town in the Neckar-Odenwald district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ...
Baden-Württemberg is a federal state in southwestern Germany to the east of the Upper Rhine. ...
Mannheim is a city in Germany. ...
Studies It was the wish of his parents that Joseph Martin Kraus should matriculate as a student of law at the university of Mainz in 1773. However, Kraus was not satisfied with the situation at that university, and even published a satire about it. After only one year, he applied to the University of Erfurt, where he could attend music lessons too. Both Catholic and evangelistic music was flourishing in Erfurt, with a rich musical tradition. Very soon, Kraus neglected his studies of law and focused fully on music and literature. Mainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. ...
The University of Erfurt is one of the oldest universities in Germany. ...
The Four Evangelists, by Jakob Jordaens It has been suggested that Christian evangelism be merged into this article or section. ...
One defamation trial against his father forced Kraus to interrupt his studies for one year and to move back to Buchen. He spent his time in Buchen writing his tragedy Tolon, a drama in three acts, and several musical works for the town-church of St. Oswald. Among others, Kraus wrote a Te Deum in D major and the motet Fracto Demum Sacramento in D Major. After this one year break, he continued his studies of law in Göttingen. Although the Göttinger Hainbund (the German poet group that flourished 1772-74) no longer existed, Kraus found himself very much attracted to the ideas of this group of young poets that offered an almost fanatical devotion to the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. In this period Kraus composed a book of poetry, named Versuch von Schäfersgedichte, which is now lost, and consisted of nineteen poems. More and more, he became involved into the Sturm und Drang movement, which influenced both his writing and his music. Te Deum is an early Christian hymn of praise. ...
D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F#, G, A, B, C# and D. Its key signature consists of two sharps. ...
In Western music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions. ...
Göttingen ( ) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany. ...
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock. ...
Sturm und Drang (literally: storm and stress) was a Germany literary movement that developed during the latter half of the 18th century. ...
In 1775, at the age of nineteen, Kraus wrote his Requiem, one of his earliest compositions. There is no way to know for sure whether young Kraus was induced to compose this genre of church music for personal reasons, or whether his choice may have been influenced by his attraction to the Sturm und Drang movement. Although the signs of the composer's obvious inexperience are easily seen, the work is full of dramatic force and original, bold ideas. The Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known formally (in Latin) as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum, is a liturgical service of the Catholic Church and its Eastern Rite. ...
The Requiem was followed by two oratorios: Der Tod Jesu and Die Geburt Jesu (lost), and the musical treatise Etwas von und über Musik fürs Jahr 1777 (Something about the Music for the year 1777). An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, vocal soloists and chorus. ...
The oratorio Der Tod Jesu differs from the oratorios of many other composers in that Kraus wrote both the music and the text of this work. As a librettist, Kraus showed a series of scenes that covered the full spectra of human emotions, from sorrow and fear to joy. The work corresponds fully to a rhetoric question already raised in Kraus's treatise Etwas von und über Musik fürs Jahr 1777:
"Should not church music be mostly for the heart?"
("Soll die Musik in den Kirchen nicht am meisten fürs Herz sein?")
During his stay in Göttingen, Kraus had become friendly with the Swedish fellow student Carl Stridsberg. He convinced Kraus to accompany him to Stockholm to apply for a position at the court of King Gustav III. (IPA: ; UN/LOCODE: SE STO) is the capital of Sweden, and consequently the site of its Government and Parliament as well as the residence of the Swedish head of state, King Carl XVI Gustaf. ...
Gustav III (13 January 1746 (O.S.) (24 January 1746 (N.S.))–March 29, 1792) was the King of Sweden from February 12, 1771 until his death. ...
At the Swedish Court Kraus moved to Stockholm in 1778, at the age of 22. His first years there were not easy and more than once he considered going back home. King Gustav's love for the fine arts had quickly become known in the rest of Europe and attracted musicians from many countries. It took Kraus three bitter years, often spent in extreme poverty, before the king noticed him. His opera Azire was rejected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, but the Academy decided to give him a second chance. King Gustav III of Sweden himself drafted the opera libretto Proserpina which the poet Johan Kellgren versified. Kraus’s music to this libretto was successfully premiered at Ulriksdal Palace in June 1781, before the king and his royal household. Kraus was appointed vice-Kapellmeister of the Royal Swedish Opera and director of the Royal Academy of Music. The Royal Swedish Academy of Music or , founded in 1771 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden. ...
Gustav III (13 January 1746 (O.S.) (24 January 1746 (N.S.))–March 29, 1792) was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. ...
Ulriksdal Palace was one of the first Swedish buildings with mansard roofs Ulriksdal Palace (Swedish: ), is a royal palace situated on the banks of Edsviken Lake in the National City Park in Solna, 6 km north of Stockholm. ...
The Royal Swedish Opera, as seen from the southwest The Royal Swedish Opera, or Kungliga Operan, is the national stage for opera in Sweden. ...
It was the long-awaited breakthrough. Dizzy with the success, Kraus wrote to his parents:
"Immediately after the music ended, the king talked to me for more than a quarter of an hour ... it had simply given him so much satisfaction. Yesterday I was engaged by him. Of course I was not granted any great title, but quite simple that of Kapellmeister. What is worth much more to me than 600 guilders is the favour I have been granted, which is that I am to undertake a journey to Germany, France and Italy at the King's expense."
Grand Tour Gustav III sent Kraus on a five-year Grand Tour of Europe to learn all he could about music abroad. On this trip, Kraus met among others Christoph Willibald Gluck, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Padre Martini and Joseph Haydn, for whom he wrote a Symphony in D major, VB 143 for Haydn to play at Esterháza, which was first published under Haydn's name. Kraus's Symphony in E minor, VB 141 was first published in Paris in 1787, under the name of Giuseppe Cambini, a very popular composer at the time. During this time, Kraus became a member of the same masonic lodge as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The interior of the Pantheon in the 18th century, painted by Giovanni Paolo Panini In the 18th century, the Grand Tour was a kind of education for wealthy British noblemen, wherein the primary educational value was exposure to the cultured artifacts of antiquity and the Renaissance as well as the...
World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ...
Gluck, detail of a portrait by Joseph Duplessis, dated 1775 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) Christoph Willibald (von) Gluck (July 2, 1714 – November 15, 1787) was a German composer. ...
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (February 3, 1736 - March 7, 1809) was an Austrian musician who was born at Klosterneuburg, near Vienna. ...
Giovanni Battista Martini (April 24, 1706 - August 4, 1784), Italian musician, was born at Bologna. ...
Franz Joseph Haydn[1] (March 31 or April 1, 1732 – May 31, 1809) was one of the most prominent composers of the Classical period, called the Father of the Symphony and Father of the String Quartet. A life-long resident of Austria, Haydn spent most of his career as a...
The House of Esterházy (sometimes spelled Eszterházy in Hungarian; Slovak: ) was a noble family in the Kingdom of Hungary since the Middle Ages. ...
Giuseppe Maria Gioacchino Cambini (February 13?, 1746 - 1825?) Italian composer and violinist. ...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart; January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was a prolific and highly influential composer of Classical music. ...
A lot of Kraus's symphonies have been lost, or attributed to other composers. Only about a dozen remain of which scholars are certain of Kraus's authorship. Most of Kraus's extant symphonies are in three movement, without a minuet. Most are scored for two horns and strings, many include two flutes and two oboes, while the later ones also include two bassoons, and two additional horns. The musicologist Bertil van Boer identifies Kraus's Symphony in C♯ minor as "one of only two symphonies in this key written during the eighteenth century." It was later reworked in a more 'manageable' key as Symphony in C minor, VB 142. The movements is the name given to the collective body of sacred dances that were collected or authored by G. I. Gurdjieff and taught to his students as part of the work of self observation and self study the aim of which was development of a stable subjective and then...
A minuet, sometimes spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two persons, usually in 3/4 time. ...
The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. ...
A Fox Products bassoon. ...
The horn is a brass instrument that consists of tubing wrapped into a coiled form. ...
Musicology is reasoned discourse concerning music (Greek: μουσικη = music and λογος = word or reason). In other words: the whole body of systematized knowledge about music which results from the application of a scientific method of investigation or research, or of philosophical speculation and rational systematization to the facts, the processes and the...
It is still a controversial topic if the symphony dedicated to Haydn was Symphony in D major VB 143 or Symphony in C minor VB 142. The minor key and the mood of Symphony VB 142 seem to be a reminiscent of Haydn's "Sturm und Drang" period around 1770, comparable with his earlier minor key works. In any case, Haydn had a very high opinion of the work. Many years after Kraus's death, Haydn remarked to a common friend, Swedish diplomat Fredrik Samuel Silverstolpe:
"The symphony he wrote here in Vienna especially for me will be regarded as a masterpiece for centuries to come; believe me, there are few people who can compose something like that."
During his journey, Kraus also wrote his famous flute quintet in D Major, that broke with all the erstwhile conventions that governed such pieces. The outer and inner form of that work were groundbreaking comparing with everything previously composed at the time, with the astoundingly long first movement of 306 bars. A quintet is a formation containing five members. ...
After Vienna, his journey also took him throughout Italy, France, and England, where he witnessed the Handel Centenary celebrations in 1785. While in Paris, he experienced difficulty with cabals back in Stockholm that sought to prevent his return, but their resolution in 1786 made it possible for him to become the leading figure in Gustavian musical life. George Frideric Handel, 1733 George Frideric Handel (February 23, 1685 – April 14, 1759) was a German/British Baroque composer who was a leading composer of concerti grossi, operas and oratorios. ...
City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Région Île-de-France Département Paris (75) Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Mayor Bertrand Delanoë (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land...
Back to Sweden When Kraus returned from his Grand Tour in 1787, he was appointed as director of curriculum at the Royal Academy of Music, and the next year he succeeded Francesco Antonio Uttini as Kapellmästare, eventually attaining a reputation as an innovative conductor, progressive pedagogue, and multi-talented composer. He also became a member of the Palmstedt literary circle, a group that discussed intellectual and cultural life in the Swedish capital. The Royal Academy of Music (sometimes abbreviated to RAM) is a music school in London, England and one of the leading music institutions in the world. ...
For the convening of the Riksdag of the Estates in 1789, Gustav III wanted to convince the parliament to accede to his plans of going to war with Russia, where he was opposed by the nobility but supported by the burghers and the peasantry. In order to further his aims, Gustav III intended to secure parliamentary approval of the Act of Union and Security that would give him broad powers over the administration of the government. The king asked Kraus to write Riksdagsmusiken for the opening ceremonies in St Nicolai Church on 9th March 1789. The music consists of a march based on the March of the Priests from Mozart's Idomeneo, and a symphony (Sinfonia per la chiesa). The legislature approved the king's measures. The Riksdag of the Estates, or Ståndsriksdagen, was the name used for the Estates of the Swedish realm, or Rikets ständer, when they were assembled. ...
Riksdagsmusiken, or the Riksdag Music, is a suite of music composed by Joseph Martin Kraus, for the grand opening, in 1789, of the Riksdag of the Estates in Sweden. ...
Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante (usually referred to simply as Idomeneo) is an Italian opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. ...
Kraus wrote an overture, a march and interludes for the staging of Voltaire's Olympie in January 1792. Although he was considered as a composer of stage music, his principal opera, Aeneas i Cartago, remained unperformed during his lifetime.
In March 1792, Gustav III attended a masked ball at the opera, where he was assassinated, and he died shortly after. (Giuseppe Verdi started to write an opera on this event, Gustavus Terzo, but later changed the names of the characters, the setting, and the title of the opera, to Un ballo in maschera). The death of Gustav III caused considerable turmoil in the cultural establishment that the monarch had nurtured. Kraus wrote a funeral cantata and the Symphonie funèbre which were played at the burial ceremony on April 13. Giuseppe Verdi, by Giovanni Boldini, 1886 (National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome). ...
Un ballo in maschera, or A Masked Ball, is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. ...
Kraus's own health deteriorated shortly thereafter, and he died only a few months later in December 1792 from tuberculosis. He was buried in the Stockholm suburb of Tivoli following a ceremony where his coffin was carried across the ice of the Brunsviken by torchlight. His tomb has the inscription:
Here the earthly of Kraus; the heavenly lives in his music.
Work Bertil van Boer divides Kraus's sacred music into two periods. The first, from 1768 to 1777, comprises Kraus's music written as a Roman Catholic for Catholic services. For the second, from 1778 to 1790, Kraus was still Catholic, but wrote music for Lutheran services. Aside from short hymns and chorales, there was not much use for sacred music in Sweden at that time. There was also a debate going on regarding the role music should play in the church, and Kraus participated in that debate by writing three articles on the subject in the newspaper Stockholm Post. The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ...
The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition. ...
Post- och Inrikes Tidningar or PoIT (Swedish: Post and Domestic Newspaper) is the national newspaper and gazette of Sweden, and the countrys official notification body for announcements like bankruptcy declarations or auctions. ...
Two different catalogues exist of Kraus's music, one by Karl Schreiber, Verzeichnis der Musikalischen Werke von Jos. Kraus, which gives each composition an A number, and Bertil van Boer's Die Werke von Joseph Martin Kraus: Systematisch-thematisches Werkverzeichnis, which gives each composition a VB number. See the list of compositions by Joseph Martin Kraus. This list of compositions by Joseph Martin Kraus is a list of the musical compositions of Joseph Martin Kraus (June 20, 1756 – December 15, 1792), organized by number in Bertil van Boers Die Werke von Joseph Martin Kraus: Systematisch-thematisches Werkverzeichnis, which gives each composition a VB number. ...
Bertil van Boer also edited modern editions, on Artaria, of all Kraus's symphonies recorded on Volume 4 of Naxos's complete set of Kraus symphonies, and also wrote the programme notes for those discs as well as the article on Kraus in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Volume 1 won the Cannes Classical Award in 1999, while Volume 2 contains world première recordings of three of Kraus's symphonies. The orchestra Concerto Köln won several prizes for its recordings on period instruments of the complete symphonies of Joseph Martin Kraus. Naxos Records is a record label specializing in budget-priced classical music CDs. ...
The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is a dictionary of music and musicians, generally considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. ...
See also Johan Helmich Roman ▶ (help· info) (October 26, 1694 - November 20, 1758) was one of the most important composers of the Baroque era in Sweden. ...
Sweden shares the tradition of Nordic folk dance music with its neighbouring countries, which include including polka, schottische, waltz, polska and mazurka. ...
This is a list of Swedish composers, musicians and singers: // Composers Johan Agrell (1701-1765) full name: Johan Joachim Agrell Hugo Alfvén (1872-1960) full name: Hugo Emil Alfvén Claude Loyola Allgén (1920-1990) né Klas-Thure Allgén Kurt Atterberg (1887-1974) full name: Kurt Magnus...
External links Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Joseph Martin Kraus - [1] Internationale Joseph-Martin-Kraus-Gesellschaft (Buchen/Odenwald)
- [2] Article in Michael Haydn page
- [3] Town Buchen
- [4] Article in Requiem composers
- Mozart Forum Exploring the world of Classical-Era Music (1770-1827), encompassing the music, personalities and accomplishments of Mozart and his contemporaries
- Mozart - Kraus A page dedicated to W.A.Mozart (1756-1791) and J.M.Kraus (1756-1792), with a list of further links
- Kraus @ eClassical.com Short biography and MP3s (commercial)
- Brief biography
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