Tepper de Ferguson
Encyclopedia
Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Fergus(s)on (Lewis-William Ferguson-Tepper, Tepper von Ferguson), 10/18 December 1768, Warsaw - 12 September 1838, Paris. Polish-Russian musician
and composer
, a music teacher
mainly associated with the Imperial Lycée
in Tsarskoye Selo
(near St Petersburg, Russia).
William Ferguson and Katherina-Concordia had three sons. One of them, Peter (1732–1794), who would become Ludwig-Wilhelm's father, entered into partnership with his maternal uncle Pjotr Tepper. In 1767 he was officially adopted by Pjotr Tepper under the condition to add the name Tepper to his name Ferguson.
In 1779, the Scottish origin of Peter Ferguson Tepper was recognised and confirmed in England, in consequence of which the Scottish and Polish branches of the family re-established relations. According to a column of James Boswell
in a later issue of The Scots Magazine (1786): "In June 1779, he [Peter Ferguson-Tepper] had his arms matriculated in the Herald Office, London, and obtained permission to use the surname and arms of Tepper jointly with the surname and arms of Ferguson. The father's writings being destroyed during the civil war in Poland, the son did not know from what part of Scotland his father came; and his Scots relations, not having heard from Poland for near fifty years, believed their friend in that country had died without issue; but the above paragraph in our Magazine caused them to make inquiry, when with equal joy they discovered other; and in a few months thereafter, Mr Ferguson Tepper came to Edinburgh to see them./.../Mr Peter Ferguson Tepper, of Warsaw is supposed to be the second banker in Europe. Mister Walter Ferguson, writer in Edinburgh, and he are brothers' children."
In 1763, Peter Ferguson Tepper married Maria-Philippina Valentin d'Hauterive (c.1736-1792), daughter of a French emigrant who left France after the revocation of the Nantes edict in 1685. The 1770s-1780s were the time of their prosperity. The Tepper's bank had partners in Holland, Italy, and Russia and undertook large-scale financial operations of international scale. Among their clients were Russian aristocrats and the Polish King Stanisław August Poniatowski whose army they financed. The splendid Tepper Palace in Warsaw was depicted in 1770 by Bernardo Bellotto
.
In 1777, Peter Ferguson-Tepper became Treasurer and Agent of the Maltese Order. In 1787, the Teppers entertained King Stanislaw-August Poniatowski in their county estate Falenty. Recent research has revealed the participation of the Teppers in Scottish politics of the time: after the death of Princess Charlotte (1753–1789), the illegitimate daughter of Charles Edward Stuart
(1720–1788), the last Scottish Pretender for the English throne), the Teppers acted as guardians for her children. In the 1790s, the Teppers were granted the rank of Polish Nobility.
Along with his brothers and sisters, Ludwig-Wilhelm spent his early years in splendour of his parents' palaces. He was an infant prodigy, and started to play clavecin at the age of six, and at the age of ten he composed music and gave public concerts.
His father, however, intended him for law and diplomacy, and in 1781 sent him (together with two of his brothers) to study at the Military Academy of Duke Carl-Eugen in Stuttgart, where he resented the poor quality of music instruction..
From 1783-1789, he studied law, history and many other subjects at the University of Strasbourg where in May 1789 he presented his dissertation "Poloniam imperio Romano Germanico nunquam subjectam".
In 1796 he moved to Hamburg where he set to music Schiller's "Ode an die Freude".
From 1800, he held the post of the court Kapellmeister, after Giuseppe Sarti
.He taught music to Grand Duchesses, younger sisters of the Emperor Alexander I. In 1811-1812, Tepper de Ferguson gave music lessons to Elizabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden), the Consort of Alexander I.
From 1802, he was a member of the newly founded St Petersburg Philharmonic Society. He participated in one of the first St Petersburg performance of Haydn's oratorio The Creation in 1802. In 1812, his own oratorio Te Deum was performed in St Petersburg.
In 1802 he married Jeanne-Henriette Severin (1780-1823), a daughter of a wealthy St Petersburg banker. His other daughter was the wife of the Portuguese diplomat and merchant José Pedro Celestino Velho (1755-1802). Tepper and Jeanne-Henriette brought up Jeanne-Henriette's niece, Josephine Velho (1802-1820) who was born just after her father death.
From the 1810s, the Teppers lived in Tsarskoe Selo. They had a house there which has survived and is still known as "Tepper's House".
From 1816, Tepper taught choir singing and music at the Imperial Lycée, where among his pupils was Alexander Pushkin. Tepper composed music for the amateur theatrical performances which took place in the Lycée, and organised a choir of the Lycée students which gave informal performances in Tsarskoe Selo. In 1817, he composed music to the "Six Years, the Farewell Song of the First Students of the Imperial Lycée in Tsarskoe Selo", the words of which were written by Anton Delvig. The Farewell Song is one of the best-known Tepper compositions. In 1818, he composed choral music for the consecration of the new Evangelical church in Tsarskoe Selo. In the words of Wilhelm Küchelbecker
, "Music, full of feeling and expression, is worth our honourable friend, good Tepper."
Henrika-Katarina (born 24 May 1763) married in 1780 August-Wilhelm Arndt, an employee at the Tepper bank.
Charlotte Rosa (born 4 July 1764) was in her first marriage the wife of baron d’Axt, Minister of Prussia in Warsaw. Her second husband was M. Milashevich, Colonel in Russian military service.
Elzbieta-Dorota (born 8 August 1765) married in 1783 Karol Szulc (Schulz, Schultz), a young banker in Warsaw.
Peter-Charles (Peter-Karol) (1766-1817) married Marie Henriette Bоué (b. 1769), daughter of Pierre Boué (1738–1802), an influential banker in Hamburg. The famous French scholar, botanist and geologist Ami Boué
(1794–1881) was a nephew of Marie-Henriette.
Philipp-Bernard (1 August 1767–1829). In 1786 he was sent by his father to Edinburgh to study English. On 5th July 1786 he was granted the citizenship of the city of Edinburgh. He must have later resettled in Poland, where he died with the title Collegiate councillor (a rank in the Russian administration) and was buried in the Warsaw Evangelical-Reformed (Calvinist) Cemetery in the Powązki district, which had been established in 1792 on the property of his brother-in-law Karol Schultz.
Daniel-Frederick (born in 1772).
Ann-Margaret (born 11 August 1775)
Anna-Isabel (born 12 August 1778) married in 1792 Count Jan Henryk Wołodkowicz (1765–1825) and divorced him in 1804.
Otto-Walter (1779-1797). There is a portrait of him dated 1785 at the National Museum, Warsaw.
A nephew of Ludwig-Wilhelm, Pierre Charles Guillaume Fergusson-Tepper (the son of Peter Charles and Marie-Henriette Boué) established a successful and profitable business of printed fabric in Bavilliers
(Franche-Comté). Among his children were Marie Philippine, Tepper's god-daughter, and Louis Guillaume Edouard Fergusson-Tepper (1837–1890) who might have been named after Tepper. Louis Guillaume Edouard became a sculptor and exhibited his works in the Salons of Paris in the 1870s.
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and 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...
, a music teacher
Music education
Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain , the cognitive domain , and, in particular and significant ways,the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity...
mainly associated with the Imperial Lycée
Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum
The Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg also known historically as the Imperial Alexander Lyceum after its founder the Emperor Alexander I with the object of educating youths of the best families, who should afterwards occupy important posts in the Imperial service.Its...
in Tsarskoye Selo
Tsarskoye Selo
Tsarskoye Selo is the town containing a former Russian residence of the imperial family and visiting nobility, located south from the center of St. Petersburg. It is now part of the town of Pushkin and of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.-History:In...
(near St Petersburg, Russia).
Origin of the family
Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson was born in Warsaw as the sixth child and third son of the extremely wealthy Polish banker Peter Ferguson Tepper and his wife Maria-Philipina, née d'Hauterive. The surname 'Ferguson' indicates Scottish origin of the family. Indeed, in 1703, his grandfather William Ferguson of Inverurie had emigrated from Scotland to Poland. In 1714, William Ferguson married Katherina-Concordia Tepper, a sister of the wealthy and influential merchant and banker, furrier and fur trader Pjotr Tepper of Poznan. Pjotr Tepper managed the large-scale international trade using family connections, and imported goods to Poland from many countries, including Britain.William Ferguson and Katherina-Concordia had three sons. One of them, Peter (1732–1794), who would become Ludwig-Wilhelm's father, entered into partnership with his maternal uncle Pjotr Tepper. In 1767 he was officially adopted by Pjotr Tepper under the condition to add the name Tepper to his name Ferguson.
In 1779, the Scottish origin of Peter Ferguson Tepper was recognised and confirmed in England, in consequence of which the Scottish and Polish branches of the family re-established relations. According to a column of James Boswell
James Boswell
James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....
in a later issue of The Scots Magazine (1786): "In June 1779, he [Peter Ferguson-Tepper] had his arms matriculated in the Herald Office, London, and obtained permission to use the surname and arms of Tepper jointly with the surname and arms of Ferguson. The father's writings being destroyed during the civil war in Poland, the son did not know from what part of Scotland his father came; and his Scots relations, not having heard from Poland for near fifty years, believed their friend in that country had died without issue; but the above paragraph in our Magazine caused them to make inquiry, when with equal joy they discovered other; and in a few months thereafter, Mr Ferguson Tepper came to Edinburgh to see them./.../Mr Peter Ferguson Tepper, of Warsaw is supposed to be the second banker in Europe. Mister Walter Ferguson, writer in Edinburgh, and he are brothers' children."
Early years
Bernardo Bellotto
Bernardo Bellotto was a Venitian urban landscape painter or vedutista, and printmaker in etching famous for his vedutes of European cities . He was the pupil and nephew of Canaletto and sometimes used the latter's illustrious name, signing himself as Bernardo Canaletto...
.
In 1777, Peter Ferguson-Tepper became Treasurer and Agent of the Maltese Order. In 1787, the Teppers entertained King Stanislaw-August Poniatowski in their county estate Falenty. Recent research has revealed the participation of the Teppers in Scottish politics of the time: after the death of Princess Charlotte (1753–1789), the illegitimate daughter of Charles Edward Stuart
Charles Edward Stuart
Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...
(1720–1788), the last Scottish Pretender for the English throne), the Teppers acted as guardians for her children. In the 1790s, the Teppers were granted the rank of Polish Nobility.
Along with his brothers and sisters, Ludwig-Wilhelm spent his early years in splendour of his parents' palaces. He was an infant prodigy, and started to play clavecin at the age of six, and at the age of ten he composed music and gave public concerts.
His father, however, intended him for law and diplomacy, and in 1781 sent him (together with two of his brothers) to study at the Military Academy of Duke Carl-Eugen in Stuttgart, where he resented the poor quality of music instruction..
From 1783-1789, he studied law, history and many other subjects at the University of Strasbourg where in May 1789 he presented his dissertation "Poloniam imperio Romano Germanico nunquam subjectam".
Diplomatic career
Soon after his return to Warsaw Tepper was appointed Secretary of legation to the first Polish diplomatic mission to Spain and spent in Madrid March-July 1791. In 1792, he participated in the Polish diplomatic mission to Dresden in regard to the Constitution of the 3rd May.In Europe
After the beginning of the Russian-Polish war and crash of his father's bank in 1793, Tepper left Warsaw for Strasbourg. In November 1793 he moved to Vienna, where he spent more than two years. He participated in Viennese musical and cultural life,met Haydn and made an acquaintance with Beethoven. There he started his career as a composer.In 1796 he moved to Hamburg where he set to music Schiller's "Ode an die Freude".
In Russia
In autumn 1797 he came to St Petersburg, Russia, where Tepper's bank used to have business partners and was well known to the Russian aristocracy. He started as a music teacher and composer. Many of musical compositions which have been preserved in the libraries of St Petersburg, Vienna, Hamburg, Weimar, bear dedications to famous members of the St Petersburg society: Princess Golitsyna, Princess Kourakine, Countess Mniszek.From 1800, he held the post of the court Kapellmeister, after Giuseppe Sarti
Giuseppe Sarti
Giuseppe Sarti was an Italian opera composer.-Biography:He was born at Faenza. His date of birth is not known, but he was baptised on 1 December 1729. Some earlier sources say he was born on 28 December, but his baptism certificate proves the later date impossible...
.He taught music to Grand Duchesses, younger sisters of the Emperor Alexander I. In 1811-1812, Tepper de Ferguson gave music lessons to Elizabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden), the Consort of Alexander I.
From 1802, he was a member of the newly founded St Petersburg Philharmonic Society. He participated in one of the first St Petersburg performance of Haydn's oratorio The Creation in 1802. In 1812, his own oratorio Te Deum was performed in St Petersburg.
In 1802 he married Jeanne-Henriette Severin (1780-1823), a daughter of a wealthy St Petersburg banker. His other daughter was the wife of the Portuguese diplomat and merchant José Pedro Celestino Velho (1755-1802). Tepper and Jeanne-Henriette brought up Jeanne-Henriette's niece, Josephine Velho (1802-1820) who was born just after her father death.
From the 1810s, the Teppers lived in Tsarskoe Selo. They had a house there which has survived and is still known as "Tepper's House".
From 1816, Tepper taught choir singing and music at the Imperial Lycée, where among his pupils was Alexander Pushkin. Tepper composed music for the amateur theatrical performances which took place in the Lycée, and organised a choir of the Lycée students which gave informal performances in Tsarskoe Selo. In 1817, he composed music to the "Six Years, the Farewell Song of the First Students of the Imperial Lycée in Tsarskoe Selo", the words of which were written by Anton Delvig. The Farewell Song is one of the best-known Tepper compositions. In 1818, he composed choral music for the consecration of the new Evangelical church in Tsarskoe Selo. In the words of Wilhelm Küchelbecker
Wilhelm Küchelbecker
Wilhelm Küchelbecker was a Russian Romantic poet and Decembrist....
, "Music, full of feeling and expression, is worth our honourable friend, good Tepper."
Siblings and relatives
Ludwig-Wilhelm had nine brothers and sisters:Henrika-Katarina (born 24 May 1763) married in 1780 August-Wilhelm Arndt, an employee at the Tepper bank.
Charlotte Rosa (born 4 July 1764) was in her first marriage the wife of baron d’Axt, Minister of Prussia in Warsaw. Her second husband was M. Milashevich, Colonel in Russian military service.
Elzbieta-Dorota (born 8 August 1765) married in 1783 Karol Szulc (Schulz, Schultz), a young banker in Warsaw.
Peter-Charles (Peter-Karol) (1766-1817) married Marie Henriette Bоué (b. 1769), daughter of Pierre Boué (1738–1802), an influential banker in Hamburg. The famous French scholar, botanist and geologist Ami Boué
Ami Boué
Ami Boué , Austrian geologist, was born at Hamburg, and received his early education there and in Geneva and Paris....
(1794–1881) was a nephew of Marie-Henriette.
Philipp-Bernard (1 August 1767–1829). In 1786 he was sent by his father to Edinburgh to study English. On 5th July 1786 he was granted the citizenship of the city of Edinburgh. He must have later resettled in Poland, where he died with the title Collegiate councillor (a rank in the Russian administration) and was buried in the Warsaw Evangelical-Reformed (Calvinist) Cemetery in the Powązki district, which had been established in 1792 on the property of his brother-in-law Karol Schultz.
Daniel-Frederick (born in 1772).
Ann-Margaret (born 11 August 1775)
Anna-Isabel (born 12 August 1778) married in 1792 Count Jan Henryk Wołodkowicz (1765–1825) and divorced him in 1804.
Otto-Walter (1779-1797). There is a portrait of him dated 1785 at the National Museum, Warsaw.
Last Years
In 1819, Tepper de Ferguson, his wife and step-daughter undertook a long European travel. However, when in Paris, Josephine Velho died in a tragic accident (July 1820), and in 1823 his wife died in Dresden. Tepper de Ferguson returned to Russia for a short time, but left in May 1824 for Paris, where in July 1824 he married Marie Catherine Adelaide Canel. His last years he spent in Paris where he was known as Louis-Guillaume, baron Tepper de Ferguson. He died in Paris in 1838.A nephew of Ludwig-Wilhelm, Pierre Charles Guillaume Fergusson-Tepper (the son of Peter Charles and Marie-Henriette Boué) established a successful and profitable business of printed fabric in Bavilliers
Bavilliers
Bavilliers is a commune in the Territoire de Belfort department in Franche-Comté in northeastern France.-External links:*...
(Franche-Comté). Among his children were Marie Philippine, Tepper's god-daughter, and Louis Guillaume Edouard Fergusson-Tepper (1837–1890) who might have been named after Tepper. Louis Guillaume Edouard became a sculptor and exhibited his works in the Salons of Paris in the 1870s.
Legacy and selected Compositions
In Russia, Tepper is immediately recognised as Alexander Pushkin's music teacher. But in the wider context of Russian and European cultural life of that time, his participation in the introduction of Haydn's "Creation" to Russian audiences seem even more important. Tepper's chamber music is well known in Russia and Europe and it is constantly performed. His "Farewell Song" is traditionally performed annually at the Museum of the Pushkin Lycée in Tsarskoe Selo on the 19th October (the anniversary of the inauguration of the Lycée in 1811). Music scores of Tepper's compositions have been preserved in the music libraries of St Petersburg, Hamburg, Vienna, Weimar, etc.- An die Freude. Hamburg,1796; Berlin, 1797;
- Zwölf deutsche Lieder von den besten Dichtern. Hamburg, 1798;
- Neuf variations sur l’air de la Pastorale de Nina pour le Clavecin ou Forte Piano. 1798;
- Opera 'Eulenspiegel', libretto by August Cotzebue.
- Opera 'Herminie', libretto by Gaston.
- Romance de l’opera 'Une folie' de Mehul, variée très humblement.
- Danse cosaque mise en variations. SPb.
- Te Deum. 1812.
- Oratorio on the Deliverance of Moscow. 1812.
- Six Years. The Farewell Song of the First Students of the Imperial Lycée in Tsarskoe Selo. 1817.
- Sonata in D. Piano 4 hands.1818.
- Variations sur l’air "Loin de toi ma Felicie" / composées et dediées à Madame la Princesse Galizin née Princesse Wiazemski. с.1820.
- Variations sur une romance de la composition de Madame la Princesse Kourakin née Comtesse Golowin. ок.1820.
- Variations sur un air de danse de Monsieur l’abbé Vogler / composées et dediées à Madame A. E. De Pestel, née de Kroock. ок.1820.
- Variations sur une romance de la composition de Mademoiselle S. de K. (cinq ans y a que connais ma Delphine). c.1820.
Literature
- Грот, Я. Пушкин, его лицейские товарищи и наставники. СПб.1887. (Yakov Grot. Pushkin, ego litseyskie tovarishchi i nastavniki --Pushkin, his Lycée friends and Tutors. SPb, 1887).
- Ступель, А. Лицейский учитель пения. In: Пушкин: Исследования и материалы. М-Л.1960. Т.3. (Stupel', A. Litseyskii uchitel' peniya -- A Lycée music teacher. In: Pushkin. Researches and Materials. Moscow-Leningrad, 1960. Vol.3).
- Руденские М.П. и С.Д. Наставникам ... за благо воздадим. Л.1986. (Rudensky, M.P. and S.D. Nastavnikam ... za blago vozdadim. -- Let us thank our tutors ... Leningrad, 1986).
- Яценко О.А. Учитель пения: Штрихи к биографии Л-В Теппера де Фергюсона. Дома у Пушкина. СПб, 1994. (Yatsenko, O.A. Uchitel' peniya: shtrikhi k biografii L-W Teppera de Fergusona. -- The music teacher: some additions to the biography of L-W Tepper de Ferguson. In: At Pushkin's home. SPb, 1994).