Editing Carl Loewe

{{Short description|German composer and conductor (1796–1869)}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=May 2024}}
{{Redirect|Johann Löwe|the German painter|Johann Michael Siegfried Löwe}}
{{Infobox person
| name         = Carl Loewe
| image        = File:Carl Loewe.jpg
| caption      = Carl Loewe
| birth_name   = Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe
| birth_date   = 30 November 1796
| birth_place  = [[Löbejün]], [[Margraviate of Brandenburg]]
| nationality  = German
| death_date   = {{death date and age|1869|4|20|1796|11|30|df=y}}
| death_place  = [[Kiel]], [[Prussia]]
| other_names  =
| occupation   = Composer, tenor singer and conductor
| years_active =
| spouse       =
| partner      =
| children     =
| website      = 
}}
'''Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe''' ({{IPA|de|ˈjoːhan kaʁl ˈɡɔtfʁiːt ˈløːvə|lang}}; 30 November 1796 – 20 April 1869), usually called '''Carl Loewe''' (sometimes seen as Karl Loewe), was a German [[composer]], [[tenor]] singer and [[Conducting|conductor]]. In his lifetime, his songs ("Balladen") were well enough known for some to call him the "[[Franz Schubert|Schubert]] of North Germany",<ref>''The Cambridge Companion to the Lied'', ed. James Parsons, CUP 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Vef4v8G6XQsC&dq=%22Erlk%C3%B6nig%22+%22Carl+Loewe%22&pg=PA147 p.147]</ref> and [[Hugo Wolf]] came to admire his work. He is less known today, but his [[ballad]]s and songs, which number over 400, are occasionally performed.

== Life and career ==
Loewe was born in [[Löbejün]] and received his first music lessons from his father. He was a choir-boy, first at [[Köthen]], and later at [[Halle (Saale)|Halle]], where he went to grammar school. The beauty of Loewe's voice brought him under the notice of [[Madame de Staël]], who procured him a pension from [[Jérôme Bonaparte]], then king of [[Westphalia]],{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} which enabled him to further his education in music, and to study [[theology]] at [[Halle University]]. In 1810, he began lessons in Halle with [[Daniel Gottlob Türk]].<ref>Eberl, Kathrin: Daniel Gottlob Türk – an urban musician in the late 18th Century. Beeskow 2011</ref> This ended in 1813, on the flight of the king.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1820, he moved to Stettin in [[Prussia]] (now [[Szczecin]] in Poland), where he worked as [[organ (music)|organist]] and music director of the school. It was while there that he did most of his work as a composer, publishing a version of [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s "[[Erlkönig]]" in 1824 (written 1817/18) which some say at least equals [[Erlkönig (Schubert)|Schubert's better known version]].<ref>Daniel Albright, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4Ez1AgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Erlk%C3%B6nig%22+%22Carl+Loewe%22&pg=PT252 ''Panaesthetics''], Yale University Press, 2014</ref><ref>''1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die'', ed. Matthew Rye, Chartwell Books 2017, [https://books.google.com/books?id=25NADwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Erlk%C3%B6nig%22+%22Carl+Loewe%22&pg=PA224 p.224]</ref> He went on to set many other poets' works, including [[Friedrich Rückert]], and translations of [[William Shakespeare]] and [[Lord Byron]].

In 1821 he married Julie von Jacob, who died in 1823. His second wife, Auguste Lange, was an accomplished singer, and they appeared together in his [[oratorio]] performances with great success.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

On 20 February 1827,<ref>[http://www.berliozhistoricalbrass.org/27-2%20Wint99sic.pdf ''Tuba Journal'']</ref> he conducted the first performance of the 18-year-old [[Felix Mendelssohn]]'s [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn)#Overture|Overture ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'']], Op. 21. He and Mendelssohn were also soloists in Mendelssohn's [[Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in A-flat major (Mendelssohn)|Concerto in A-flat major for 2 pianos and orchestra]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.portlandchamberorchestra.org/2006_2007_Season/March/felix-mendelssohn.htm |title=Portland Chamber Orchestra |access-date=2013-06-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080807161256/http://www.portlandchamberorchestra.org/2006_2007_Season/March/felix-mendelssohn.htm |archive-date=2008-08-07 }}</ref>

Later in life, Loewe became very popular both as a composer and as a singer. As a youth, he had a high [[soprano]] voice (he could sing the music of the Queen of the Night in ''[[The Magic Flute]]'' as a boy), and his voice developed into a fine [[tenor]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He made several tours as a singer in the 1840s and 1850s, visiting England, France, Sweden and Norway amongst other countries. He eventually moved back to Germany, and, after quitting his posts in Stettin after 46 years, moved to [[Kiel]], where he would die from a [[stroke]] on 20 April 1869.

Loewe was also active as a music teacher. His most famous student, whom he taught composition from 1841 to 1847, was [[Emilie Mayer]], of whom he said that "such a God-given talent as hers had not been bestowed upon any other person he knew".<ref>Jugenderinnerungen einer Stettiner Kaufmannstochter, Greifswald 1921</ref> Mayer would later go on enjoying a successful career in Berlin as a freelance composer, ultimately earning her the nickname "weibliche Beethoven" (eng. female Beethoven).<ref>[https://www.ndr.de/kultur/Kammerkonzert-mit-Emilie-Mayer-Trios,audio1020350.html Kammerkonzert mit Emilie Mayer-Trios] ''www.ndr.de'' accessed 7 December 2021</ref>

==Works==
{{Main|List of compositions by Carl Loewe}}
Loewe wrote five [[opera]]s, of which only one, ''{{Lang|de|Die drei Wünsche}}'', was performed at Berlin in 1834, without much success; seventeen oratorios, many of them for male voices unaccompanied, or with short instrumental interludes only; choral ballads, [[cantata]]s, three [[string quartet]]s (his opus 24,<ref>{{cite web|title=The Wurlitzer Collection |url=http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/ccm/special_collections/WurlitzerCollection.html |access-date=2008-07-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006110209/http://www.libraries.uc.edu/libraries/ccm/special_collections/WurlitzerCollection.html |archive-date=2008-10-06 }}</ref>) and a pianoforte trio;<ref>in G minor, his opus 12, broadcast – see [http://www.ndrkultur.de/programm/programmueberblick/programmuebersicht/nkult858.pdf here]{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> a work for [[clarinet]] and [[piano]], published posthumously; and some piano solos.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

But the branch of his art by which he is remembered is the solo ballad with pianoforte accompaniment. His treatment of long narrative [[poem]]s, in a clever mixture of the dramatic and [[Lyric poetry|lyrical]] styles, was undoubtedly modelled on the ballads of [[Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg]], and has been copied by many composers since his day. His settings of the "Erlkönig" (a very early example), "Archibald Douglas" on a text by [[Theodor Fontane]], "{{Lang|de|Heinrich der Vogler}}", "Edward" on a translation by [[Johann Gottfried Herder]] of [[Edward (ballad)|a British ballad]], and "{{Lang|de|Die verfallene Mühle}}", are particularly fine.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

There are at least two symphonies by Loewe – one, in D minor, has been recorded on the [[Koch Schwann]] label together with the first of at least two CD recordings of Loewe's second piano concerto (in A major), and another, in E minor, was given its first performance in 170 years in November 2004.<ref>{{cite web|title=2004 Loewe Festtage Program, with Premiere of E-minor Symphony|url=http://www.carl-loewe-gesellschaft.de/?cid=104125000818|language=de|access-date=2008-07-16}}</ref> (The [[Classic Production Osnabrück|cpo]] series of recordings of Loewe's complete ballads includes as well a recording of two [[piano sonata]]s and a "[[tone poem]] in sonata form", with one of the sonatas – the E major of 1829 – having a vocal part for soprano and baritone.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.recordsinternational.com/archive/RICatalogJuly97.html|
title=Records International Description of cpo Loewe Sonatas CD|date=July 1997|access-date=2008-07-16}}</ref>)

In 1875, at [[Bayreuth]], [[Richard Wagner]] remarked of Loewe, "{{Lang|de|Ha, das ist ein ernster, mit Bedeutung die schöne deutsche Sprache behandelnder, nicht hoch genug zu ehrender deutscher Meister, echt und wahr!}}" (Ha, that is a serious German Master, authentic and true, one who uses the beautiful German language with meaning, one who cannot be sufficiently revered!).<ref>[[Hans Joachim Moser]], ''Das Deutsche Lied seit Mozart'' (Berlin 1937), p. 135, note 2.</ref>

==Style==
Loewe's earliest songs, such as the ''{{Lang|de|Acht Jugenlieder}}'' and the ''{{Lang|de|Anakreontische Lieder}}'', follow the musical pattern of the late 18th century tradition, using a single melodic line, basic accompaniment, and mostly [[strophic]] and varied strophic forms.

Under Zumsteeg's influence, Loewe began incorporating and cultivating the ballad form into his vocal songs. When compared to other ''Lieder'' composers, Loewe's rhapsodic composition style is said to have "a striking absence of organic musical development".<ref name=Grove>Ewan West, "Loewe, (Johann) Carl (Gottfried)", in ''[[The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] (London: Macmillan Publishers, 1980); also in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by [[Stanley Sadie]] and [[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]] (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).</ref> His settings of poetry separated poetic ideas and treated them episodically rather than using unifying motifs (like fellow Lieder composer, Franz Schubert).

One of Loewe's strengths as a composer were his "imaginative and, at times, daring" accompaniments, which were often atmospheric and exploited the piano's sonorous and tonal potential.<ref name=Grove />

==His heart==
In 2012 an [[urn]] thought to contain the heart of Carl Loewe was found inside the [[Szczecin Cathedral]]'s southern pillar during the renovation works carried out that year.<ref>{{cite web|title=Unusual discovery in the cathedral |url=http://www.szczecin.eu/en/zycie_w_miescie/aktualnosci/24622-unusual_discovery_in_the_cathedral.html |work=www.szczecin.eu |access-date=2012-03-24}}</ref> A special commission appointed by the Szczecińsko-Kamieńska Metropolitan [[Curia (Catholic Church)|Curia]] has deduced, on the basis of historical records and an inscription on the pillar, that the urn indeed contains the heart of Carl Loewe.<ref>{{cite web|title=To najpewniej serce Carla Loewe! Komisja potwierdza |trans-title=It's probably the heart of Carl Loewe! The Commission confirms |url=http://szczecin.gazeta.pl/szczecin/1,34959,11287241,To_najpewniej_serce_Carla_Loewe__Komisja_potwierdza.html|language=pl|access-date=2012-03-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308022224/http://szczecin.gazeta.pl/szczecin/1,34959,11287241,To_najpewniej_serce_Carla_Loewe__Komisja_potwierdza.html|archive-date=2012-03-08|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Recordings==
* ''Carl Loewe: Ballads'', [[Thomas Quasthoff]], [[Norman Shetler]]; [[EMI Records|EMI Masters]] 1989
* ''Carl Loewe: Balladen & Lieder'', 2 discs, [[Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau]], [[Jörg Demus]]; [[Musical Heritage Society]] 1996
* ''Lieder & Balladen: Complete Edition'', 21 discs, [[Classic Production Osnabrück|cpo]] 2007

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist}}

'''Sources'''
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Löwe, Johann Karl Gottfried|volume=17|page=73}}
*{{cite web|title=The LiederNet Archive: Texts and translations to vocal music by Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe |url=http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_settings.html?ComposerId=1674 |access-date=2017-03-08}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|last=Salmon|first=John|title=The Piano Sonatas of Carl Loewe|year=1996|location=New York|publisher=P. Lang|isbn=0820418900|oclc=26761454|ref=none}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Carl Loewe}}
*{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Löwe, Karl|year=1905 |short=x}}
* [http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_settings.html?ComposerId=1674 Texts and translations to vocal music by Loewe] at [http://www.lieder.net/ The LiederNet Archive]
*{{IMSLP|id=Loewe, Carl|cname=Carl Gottfried Loewe}}
*{{ChoralWiki|Carl Loewe}}
*{{cite web|language=de|title=Carl-Loewe-Gesellschaft|url=http://www.carl-loewe-gesellschaft.de|access-date=2008-07-16}}
*[https://www.discogs.com/artist/1013331-Carl-Loewe Recordings] [[Discogs]]
* [http://www.klassika.info/Komponisten/Loewe/wv_gattung.html Extensive list of works]
* {{YouTube|Q9E6rHsF6Oo|"Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter" (video)}}, [[Hermann Prey]], [[Michael Endres]]
* {{YouTube|VFe9yasObqk|"Erlkönig", Op. 1, Nr. 3 (audio)|link=no}}, [[Thomas Quasthoff]]
* {{YouTube|6AlTdRx6A3M|"Der späte Gast", Op. 7, Nr. 2 (audio)|link=no}}, [[Michael Raucheisen]]
* {{YouTube|8X3iGV68wN0|"Herr Oluf" (audio)|link=no}}, [[Josef Greindl]]
* {{YouTube|rHDWIys2g48|"Mädchen sind wie der Wind" (audio)|link=no}}, Josef Greindl
* {{YouTube|Ho02dXJgxdY|"Die Heinzelmännchen zu Köln" (audio)|link=no}}, Josef Greindl
* {{YouTube|d_dVaS9VJFU|"Spirito Sancto" (audio)|link=no}}, Josef Greindl

{{Romantic music}}
{{Romanticism|state=collapsed}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Loewe, Carl}}
[[Category:1796 births]]
[[Category:1869 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century German classical composers]]
[[Category:19th-century German male musicians]]
[[Category:German male classical composers]]
[[Category:German Romantic composers]]
[[Category:People from Saalekreis]]
[[Category:German string quartet composers]]
[[Category:Composers from the Kingdom of Prussia]]
[[Category:Choral composers]]