August Conradi (27 June 1821 – 26 May 1873) was a German

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

Life

Born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, Conradi was originally intended by his father to study

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

. Instead, he was enrolled at the

Prussian Academy of Arts The Prussian Academy of Arts (German: ''Preußische Akademie der Künste'') was a state arts academy first established in Berlin, Brandenburg, in 1694/1696 by prince-elector Frederick III, in personal union Duke Frederick I of Prussia, and la ...

in Berlin. There he studied

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. Howeve ...

and composition with

Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen (first name also sometimes given as Karl;Eitner (1889) 27 September 1778 – 21 December 1851) was a German composer and music teacher. Life Rungenhagen abandoned early study of art under Daniel Chodowiecki and joi ...

, director of the

Sing-Akademie zu Berlin The Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, also known as the Berliner Singakademie, is a musical (originally choral) society founded in Berlin in 1791 by Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch, harpsichordist to the court of Prussia, on the model of the 18th-century ...

. In 1843, he became a church organist of Invalidenhaus, Berlin, also writing his first symphony plus a ''Zigeunerpolka'' for orchestra the same year. The latter was arranged for piano by Hungarian

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

and composer

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

.Searle, 4:663. Conradi held various conducting appointments; these included

Stettin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

(1849), Berlin (1850),

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

(1852), and

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

(1853), then Berlin again at such theaters as Kroll's, the Wallner-Theater and the Victoria-Theater. Conradi probably met Liszt in the early 1840s. He served as Liszt's

copyist A copyist is a person that makes duplications of the same thing. The term is sometimes used for artists who make copies of other artists' paintings. However, the modern use of the term is almost entirely confined to music copyists, who are emplo ...

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

in January and February 1844, and he spent 18 months there in 1848 and 1849 at Liszt's instigation. Conradi prepared copies of the initial versions of Liszt's orchestral works, making suggestions on scoring. He also assisted Liszt in assembling a "Programme general" of all the repertory he had played during his

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'' or , "virtuous", Late Latin ''virtuosus'', Latin ''virtus'', "virtue", "excellence" or "skill") is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such a ...

years.Walker, 6:Page cit. needed. While Conradi was an extremely hard worker, he also possessed a somewhat routine mind. When he received his appointment as

Kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

in Stettin in the winter of 1849, his work at Weimar was taken over by the more imaginative

Joachim Raff Joseph Joachim Raff (27 May 182224 or 25 June 1882) was a German-Swiss composer, pedagogue and pianist. Biography Raff was born in Lachen in Switzerland. His father, a teacher, had fled there from Württemberg in 1810 to escape forced recruitme ...

. Nevertheless, Liszt continued to use him as a copyist. In September, 1855 Liszt wrote of his intention to send the score of his ''Psalm 13'' to Berlin so that Conradi could make a fair copy for the first performance there. The extent of Conradi's help with Liszt's early orchestration has been well documented by Liszt scholar

Peter Raabe Peter Raabe (27 November 1872 – 12 April 1945) was a German composer and conductor. Biography Raabe graduated from 3 schools: the Higher Musical School in Berlin; and the universities of Munich; and Jena. In 1894–98 Raabe worked in König ...

, who demonstrated that, whatever the position regarding initial drafts, the final versions were always Liszt's own.Walker, 6:page cit. needed. Conradi wrote eight operas, a ballet, five symphonies, overtures, and string quartets as well as dance music, songs,

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

sketches,

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...

s and

potpourri Potpourri ( ) is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant materials used to provide a gentle natural scent, commonly in residential settings. It is often placed in a decorative bowl. The word "potpourri" comes into English from the French ...

s, which were performed in garden concerts for many years.

References

Bibliography

*Searle, Humphrey: "Conradi, August", in Sadie, Stanley (ed.): ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (London: Macmillan, 1980); *Walker, Alan: "Conradi, August", in Sadie, Stanley (ed.): ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (London: Macmillan, 2001);

External links

* 1821 births 1873 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century German male musicians German classical organists German male classical composers German male organists German Romantic composers Musicians from Berlin Male classical organists 19th-century organists {{Germany-composer-stub