Friedrich Heinrich Adolf Bernhard Marx . B. Marx(15 May 1795, Halle – 17 May 1866,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

music theorist Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the " rudiments", that ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

, and

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

Life

Marx was the son of a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish doctor in Halle who, though a member of the congregation, was according to his son a convinced atheist. Marx was given the names Samuel Moses at birth, but changed these at his baptism in 1819. He began his career studying law at Halle, but also learned musical composition there—a fellow student was the composer

Carl Loewe Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe (; 30 November 1796 – 20 April 1869), usually called Carl Loewe (sometimes seen as Karl Loewe), was a German composer, tenor singer and conductor. In his lifetime, his songs ("Balladen") were well enough known for ...

. After rejecting an offer for legal appointment at

Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...

, in 1821 he went to Berlin, where in 1825

Adolf Martin Schlesinger Adolf Martin Schlesinger (4 October 1769 – 11 October 1838) was a German people, German music publisher whose firm became one of the most influential in Berlin in the early nineteenth century. Career Schlesinger was History of the Jews in Germ ...

appointed him editor of the music journal he had founded, the ''Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung''. Marx's intellectual critiques were appreciated by, amongst others,

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

, although they often offended the Berlin establishment, including

Carl Friedrich Zelter Carl Friedrich Zelter (11 December 1758 15 May 1832)Grove/Fuller-Datei:Carl-Friedrich-Zelter.jpegMaitland, 1910. The Zelter entry takes up parts of pages 593-595 of Volume V. was a German composer, conductor and teacher of music. Working in his ...

. Marx became an intimate of the family of

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions inc ...

, who was greatly influenced by Marx's ideas about the representational qualities of music—Marx's influence in the revision of Mendelssohn's overture to 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1826) was noted by their mutual friend Eduard Devrient in his memoirs. After Mendelssohn's revival of J. S. Bach's '' St. Matthew Passion'' in 1829, Marx persuaded Schlesinger to undertake the publication of this work, making Bach's masterpiece accessible to scholars for the first time. As Mendelssohn matured however the two drifted apart. At one time each agreed to write the

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

for an

oratorio An oratorio () is a musical composition with dramatic or narrative text for choir, soloists and orchestra or other ensemble. Similar to opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguisha ...

to be composed by the other. Mendelssohn wrote a text on the subject of ''

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

'', while Marx wrote one on the subject of '' St. Paul''. However Mendelssohn's later oratorio on St. Paul used an extensively revised text; and when Marx asked Mendelssohn to perform his ''Moses'' in 1841 in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, Mendelssohn refused because of its poor quality. The enraged Marx thereupon threw his extensive correspondence with Mendelssohn into the river, and it has therefore been lost forever. ''Moses'' was to be performed by

Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most pro ...

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

in 1853. In 1830, with Mendelssohn's recommendation, Marx was appointed to the new post of professor of music at

Berlin University The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humboldt ...

and, from this time until his death, Marx's main influence was as a writer and teacher. In 1832, he also became music director at the university. In 1850 he was one of the founders of the Berlin

Stern conservatory The Stern Conservatory (''Stern'sches Konservatorium'') was a private music school in Berlin with many distinguished tutors and alumni. The school is now part of Berlin University of the Arts. History It was founded in 1850 as the ''Berliner Mu ...

. His four-volume textbook on compositional theory, ''Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition'', was one of the most influential of the nineteenth century. It demonstrated a new approach to musical pedagogics, and presented a logically ordered system of the musical forms then in use, concluding with

sonata form The sonata form (also sonata-allegro form or first movement form) is a musical form, musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of t ...

, which Marx exemplified using

's piano sonatas. Toward the end of his life Marx completed a biography of the composer. He wrote extensively about the music of his time and also published a two-volume autobiography.

Bibliography

Works by Marx

* ''Über Malerei in der Tonkunst: ein Maigruss an die Kunstphilosophien''. Berlin, 1826. * ''Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition, praktisch-theoretisch''. Leipzig, 1837/38/45/47. * ''Die Musik des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts und ihre Pflege: Methode der Musik''. Leipzig, 1855. * ''Ludwig van Beethoven: Leben und Schaffen''. Berlin: Janke, 1859. * ''Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben''. Berlin, 1865. * ''Musical Form in the Age of Beethoven: Selected Writings on Theory and Method''. Edited and Translated by Scott Burnham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Others

* Burnham, Scott. "Aesthetics, Theory, and History in the Works of Adolf Bernhard Marx." Ph.D. dissertation, Brandeis University, 1988. * Conway, David, ''Jewry in Music'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2012). * Marx, Josef Bernhard, ''Recollections From My Life: An Autobiography by A.B. Marx'', Pendragon Press, (2017) .

References

External links

Introduction to the Interpretation of the Beethoven Piano Works (1895)
by Marx, translated by Fannie Louise Gwinner. From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marx, Adolf Bernhard 1795 births 1866 deaths Burials at Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery 19th-century German classical composers 19th-century German male musicians German autobiographers German male classical composers German people of Jewish descent German music critics German music theorists Musicologists from Berlin German Romantic composers Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni People from Halle (Saale) 19th-century German musicologists Scholars from the Kingdom of Prussia Bach scholars Beethoven scholars Gluck scholars Handel scholars Haydn scholars Hoffmann scholars Mozart scholars