Adolf Jensen was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and music teacher, and was the brother of Gustav Jensen (1843–1895) who was a violinist and composer.

Biography

Adolf Jensen was born in 1837 in Königsberg

Königsberg

Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...

. His family were musicians. He mostly taught himself music but he got help from Louis Ehlert

Louis Ehlert

Louis Ehlert was a German composer and music critic.Ehlert entered the Leipzig Conservatory in 1845, where he studied under Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn. In 1850 he moved to Berlin where he was a critic and teacher. From 1869 until 1871 he taught at the Schule des höheren Klavierspiels...

, Louis Köhler

Louis Köhler

Christian Louis Heinrich Köhler was a German composer, conductor and piano teacher.Köhler was born in Braunschweig. He studied piano in Vienna under Carl Maria von Bocklet, Simon Sechter and Ignaz von Seyfried. As a conductor, he worked in Marienburg and Elbing...

 and Friedrich Marpurg (1825–1884). Ehlert came from Königsberg, Köhler taught there, and Marpurg was the director of the Königsberg Theater and the great grandson of Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg was a German music critic, music-theorist and composer. He was friendly and active with many figures of the Enlightenment of the 18th century.-Life:...

 who wrote books about music theory. In 1856 he went to Russia to teach. He wanted to make money so he could take lessons with Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....

 but Schumann died. In 1857 he was the music director of the Posen

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...

 City Theater. From 1858 until 1860 he lived in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 and he made friends with Niels Gade. Then he went back to Königsberg and composed a lot of his music then. He went to Berlin and taught advanced piano at Carl Tausig

Carl Tausig

Carl Tausig was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer.-Life:Tausig was born in Warsaw to Jewish parents and received his first piano lessons from his father, pianist and composer Aloys Tausig, a student of Sigismond Thalberg. His father introduced him to Franz Liszt in Weimar at the...

's "Schule des höherin Clavierspiels" from 1866 until 1868. Then he got very sick and had to retire. He went to Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, and then to Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

 in 1870 and then to Baden-Baden

Baden-Baden

Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...

. He died there of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 in 1879 when he was 42.

Jensen wrote about 160 songs, and music for choir. His music for piano includes a Sonata in F sharp minor (Op. 25), a set of 25 Études (Op. 32), and Erotikon, Op. 44, seven pieces depicting scenes from Greek legends. He also wrote music for piano four hands.

His orchestral music consisted of a Concert Overture in E minor and a Geistliches Tonstück. He started work on opera Die Erbin von Montfort in 1864-65, but never finished it. After his death, Wilhelm Kienzl

Wilhelm Kienzl

Wilhelm Kienzl was an Austrian composer.-Biography:Kienzl was born in the small, picturesque Upper Austrian town of Waizenkirchen. His family moved to the Styrian capital of Graz in 1860, where he studied the violin under Ignaz Uhl, piano under Johann Buwa, and composition from 1872 under the...

adapted the music to a new libretto, Turandot, written by Jensen's daughter Elsbeth, who wrote under the pseudonym "Egbert Jensen".

External links