Johann Joseph Abert was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 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...

. An ethnic German

Ethnic German

Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...

 from the Sudetenland

Sudetenland

Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...

, he is also known by his Czech

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

 name Jan Josef Abert.

Abert studied double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 at the Prague Conservatory

Prague Conservatory

Prague Conservatory, sometimes also Prague Conservatoire, in Czech Pražská konzervatoř, is a Czech secondary school in Prague dedicated to teaching the arts of music and theater acting.- Instruction :...

 with Josef Hrabě and also received lessons in theory

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

 from Johann Friedrich Kittl and August Wilhelm Ambros

August Wilhelm Ambros

August Wilhelm Ambros was an Austrian composer and music historian of Czech descent.- Life :He was born at Mýto, Rokycany District, Bohemia. His father was a cultured man, and his mother was the sister of Raphael Georg Kiesewetter , the musical archaeologist and collector...

. In 1853, Peter Josef von Lindpaintner

Peter Josef von Lindpaintner

Peter Josef von Lindpaintner was a German composer and conductor.Born in Koblenz as the son of a tenor, he studied with Peter Winter and Joseph Graetz. From 1819 onwards he was based in Stuttgart...

 selected him as a double bassist for the Court Orchestra at Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

, the royal capital of Württemberg

Württemberg

Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

. He became the Court Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...

 in 1867 and remained in this office, previously occupied by Lindpainter, Friedrich Wilhelm Kücken

Friedrich Wilhelm Kücken

Friedrich Wilhelm Kücken was a German composer and conductor.Kücken was born in Bleckede. He learned piano as a child and played chamber music in his youth. After moving to Schwerin he studied under Friedrich Lührss, Paul Aron, and George Rettberg...

, and Carl Anton Eckerts, until 1888.

Abert composed chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 and lied

Lied

is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...

er, as well as several successful opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

s. Of his seven symphonies

Symphony

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

, the Frühlingssinfonie (Spring Symphony, No. 7) in C, the program

Program music

Program music or programme music is a type of art music that attempts to musically render an extra-musical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience in the form of program notes, inviting imaginative correlations with the music...

 symphony Columbus (No. 4), and the Symphony in C minor (No. 2) are generally considered to be the best. The Württembergische Landesbibliothek

Württembergische Landesbibliothek

The Württembergische Landesbibliothek is a large library in Stuttgart, Germany, which traces its history back to the ducal public library of Württemberg, founded in 1765. It holds c. 3.4 million volumes and is thus the fourth-largest library in the state of Baden-Württemberg...

 in Stuttgart and the Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach currently share responsibility for the preservation of his manuscripts and other personal papers.

Abert's son, Hermann

Hermann Abert

Hermann Abert was a German historian of music.-Life:Abert was born in Stuttgart, the son of Johann Josef Abert , the Hofkapellmeister of that city....

, became a noted music historian.

Recordings

Little of Abert's oeuvre has so far been recorded. However, there are recordings available of the String Quartet in A (together with a collection of songs), the opera Ekkehard, the 4th Symphony (Columbus), and the concertante works for double bass and orchestra.

Selected list of works

• Symphonies
  • Symphony No.1 in B minor (1852)
  • Symphony No.2 in C minor (1854)
  • Symphony No.3 in A major (1856)
  • Symphony No.4 in D major, Op. 31 (1865), "Columbus (Musikalisches Seegemälde in Form einer Sinfonie)"
  • Symphony No.5 in C minor (1870)
  • Symphony No.6 in D minor (1890), "Lyrische Sinfonie"
  • Symphony No.7 in C major (1894), "Frühlingssinfonie"

• Other works for orchestra
  • Overture in E major for large orchestra (1850)
  • Overture in D minor for large orchestra (1851)
  • Jubilation Overture for large orchestra, dedicated to Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria (1855)
  • Festive Overture in D major, composed at the occasion of the Württemberg royal wedding (1874)
  • Concert Overture
  • Tragic March, dedicated to the soldiers fallen in 1866 war (1866)
  • Celebration March, for the 25-year anniversary of the reign of King Karl I (1889)
  • Festive March for Harmony Band for the anniversary of the Ulanen Regiment of Queen Olga of Württemberg (1883)

• Concertos
  • Polonaise and Introduction in D major for double bass and orchestra (1848)
  • Variations and Rondo in C major for double bass and orchestra (1849)
  • Introduction and Polonaise in C major for double bass and orchestra (1849)
  • Concertino in F major for double bass and orchestra (1851)
  • Rondeau for double bass and orchestra in C major (1852)

• Chamber Music
  • String Quartet in A, dedicated to Karl Eckert (1862)

• Operas
  • Anna von Landskron, libretto
    Libretto
    A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
    
     by Christian Gottfried Nehrlich, premiered 1858, Stuttgart
  • König Enzio, libretto by Friedrich Albert Bernhard Dulk, premiered 1862, Stuttgart
  • Astorga, libretto by Ernst Pasqué, premiered 1866, Stuttgart
  • Enzio von Hohenstaufen, premiered 1875, Stuttgart
  • Ekkehard, based on the novel by Joseph Viktor von Scheffel
    Joseph Viktor von Scheffel
    Joseph Victor von Scheffel was a German poet and novelist.-Biography:He was born at Karlsruhe. His father, a retired major in the Baden army, was a civil engineer and member of the commission for regulating the course of the Rhine; his mother, née Josephine Krederer, the daughter of a prosperous...
    
     about Ekkehard von St. Gallen, premiered 1878, Hofoper Berlin
    Berlin State Opera
    The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
    
    
  • Die Almhoaden, based on the play The Clock of Almudaina by Don Juan Palon y Col, libretto by A. Kröner. Premiered 1890, Leipzig

External links

• Johann Joseph Abert-Gesellschaft e.V.