Robert Franz Julius Knauth (28 June 1815 – 24 October 1892) was a German composer, mainly of

lieder In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French s ...

Biography

Franz was born in

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hal ...

, Germany, the son of Christoph Franz Knauth. In 1847, Christoph Knauth adopted his middle name Franz as his new surname, and his son followed suit. He suffered in early life from the hostility of his parents to a musical career. He was twenty years old when his father's animosity was conquered and he was allowed to live in Dessau to study

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

playing under Friedrich Schneider. The two years of study under that famous teacher were advantageous chiefly in making him uncommonly intimate with the works of

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...

and Händel, his knowledge of which is shown in his editions of the former's ''

St Matthew Passion The ''St Matthew Passion'' (german: Matthäus-Passion, links=-no), BWV 244, is a '' Passion'', a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander. It se ...

'', ''

Magnificat The Magnificat (Latin for " y soulmagnifies he Lord) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary, the Canticle of Mary and, in the Byzantine tradition, the Ode of the Theotokos (). It is traditionally incorporated into the liturgical servic ...

'' and ten cantatas, and the latter's ''

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

'' and ''

L'Allegro ''L'Allegro'' is a pastoral poem by John Milton published in his 1645 ''Poems''. ''L'Allegro'' (which means "the happy man" in Italian) has from its first appearance been paired with the contrasting pastoral poem, ''Il Penseroso'' ("the mela ...

'', although some of these editions have long been controversial among musicians. In 1843 he published his first book of songs, which was followed by some fifty more books, containing in all about 250 songs. In his native

he filled various public offices, including those of city organist as well as conductor of the

Singakademie A Singakademie - originally a phenomenon of the German-speaking realm - is a large mixed choral society A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifical ...

and the

Symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...

. He also served as royal music-director and music master at the university. The first book of songs was warmly praised by

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 ...

and

Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

, and the latter wrote a lengthy review of it in the ''

Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 'Die'' (; en, " heNew Journal of Music") is a music magazine, co-founded in Leipzig by Robert Schumann, his teacher and future father-in law Friedrich Wieck, and his close friend Ludwig Schuncke. Its first issue appeared on 3 April 1834. His ...

'' and later published it separately as well. Deafness began to make itself apparent as early as 1841. Franz also had a nervous disorder that in 1868 compelled him to resign his offices. His future was then provided for by

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 ...

Joseph Joachim Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

and others, who gave him the receipts of a concert tour amounting to some 100,000 marks. Robert Franz, Herrmann

In 1878 or 1879, he made an extensive search for

manuscripts in various towns, villages and country houses in Germany. Supposedly, he discovered a park surrounding Schloss Witzthun where young trees were being protected from their supporting poles by paper instead of the customary cloth or leather. On examination, the paper turned out to be Bach manuscripts. After questioning the gardener, Franz found a trunk of them, including a number of

violin sonata A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, often accompanied by a keyboard instrument and in earlier periods with a bass instrument doubling the keyboard bass line. The violin sonata developed from a simple baroque form with no fixed fo ...

s. Although this account was printed in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Franz declared it was "entirely untrue". In addition to songs, he set the 117th

Psalm The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

for double choir and wrote and a four-part

Kyrie Kyrie, a transliteration of Greek , vocative case of (''Kyrios''), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the Kyrie eleison ( ; ). In the Bible The prayer, "Kyrie, eleison," "Lord, have mercy" derives f ...

; he also edited Emanuele d'Astorga's '' Stabat Mater'' and Francesco Durante's ''

''. On his seventieth birthday he published his only pianoforte piece. He also transcribed

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

's String Quartet in D minor ("Death and the Maiden") for piano duet (1878) and made arrangements of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

's Quintets in C minor and C major. He died in

References

Footnotes

External links

* *
Free digital scores by Robert Franz
in th
OpenScore Lieder Corpus
* Catalog of works and Lieder project at th
Digital Robert Franz Library
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Franz, Robert 1815 births 1892 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century German composers 19th-century German male musicians Deaf classical musicians Deaf people from Germany German male classical composers German Romantic composers People from Halle (Saale) People from the Province of Saxony