Carl Heinrich Graun (7 May 1704 – 8 August 1759) was a German composer and

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors i ...

. Along with

Johann Adolph Hasse Johann Adolph Hasse (baptised 25 March 1699 – 16 December 1783) was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a co ...

, he is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time.

Biography

Graun was born in Wahrenbrück in the

Electorate of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony (German: or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806. It was centered around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. In the Golden Bull of 1356, Emperor Charl ...

. In 1714, he followed his brother, Johann Gottlieb Graun, to the school of the Kreuzkirche, Dresden, and sang in the

Dresdner Kreuzchor The Dresdner Kreuzchor is the boys' choir of the Kreuzkirche in Dresden, Germany. It has a seven-century history and a world-wide reputation. Today, the choir has about 150 members between the ages of 9 and 19, from Dresden and the surrounding ...

and the chorus of the Dresden Opera. He studied singing with Christian Petzold and composition with

Johann Christoph Schmidt Johann Christoph Schmidt (3 March 1683 – January 1763) was a musician and music copyist to Handel. After settling in London, he anglicized his name to John Christopher Smith; to avoid confusion with his son of the same name, he is referred to a ...

. In 1724, Graun moved to

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

, singing at the

opera house An opera house is a theater (structure), theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a Stage (theatre), stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets. While some venu ...

and writing six

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libre ...

s for the company. In 1735, Graun moved to Rheinsberg in Brandenburg, after he had written the opera ''Lo specchio della fedeltà'' for the marriage of the then crown prince Frederick (the Great) and Elisabeth Christine in Schloss Salzdahlum in 1733. He was '' Kapellmeister'' to Frederick the Great from his ascension to the throne in 1740 until Graun's death nineteen years later in Berlin. Graundenkmal Wahrenbrueck

Graun wrote a number of operas. His opera '' Cesare e Cleopatra'' inaugurated the opening of the Berlin State Opera (Königliche Hofoper) in 1742. '' Montezuma'' (1755) was written to a libretto by King Frederick. His works are rarely played today, though his passion cantata '' Der Tod Jesu'' (''The Death of Jesus'', 1755) was frequently performed in Germany for many years after his death. His other works include concertos and trio sonatas. He was known for particularly good text-setting, probably due to his background as a vocalist. He married twice and had a daughter, who became a singer, from his first marriage and four sons from his second. His great-great-great-great-grandson,

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...

,'' Speak, Memory'', Vladimir Nabokov, Vintage International, 1989, p. 54. became an eminent 20th-century novelist.

Works

Stage works

*''Polydorus'' (5 acts, 1726–28) *''Iphigenia in Aulis'' (3 acts 1728) *''Scipio Africanus'' (3 acts, 1732) *''Lo specchio della fedeltà'' (3 acts, 1733) *''Pharao Tubaetes'' (5 acts, 1735) *''Rodelinda, regina de' langobardi'' (3 acts, 1741) *'' Cesare e Cleopatra'' (3 acts, 1742) *''Artaserse'', libretto by

Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of '' opera seria'' libretti. Early life M ...

(3 acts, 1743) *'' Catone in Utica'', libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1743) *'' Alessandro e Poro'', libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1744) *''Lucio Papirio'' (3 acts, 1744) *'' Adriano in Siria'', libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1746) *''Demofoonte'', libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1746) *''Cajo Fabricio'' (3 acts, 1746) *''Le feste galanti'' (1747) *''Cinna'' (3 acts, 1748) *''L'Europa galante'' (1748) *''Ifigenia in Aulide'' (3 acts, 1748) *'' Angelica e Medoro'' (3 acts, 1749) *''Coriolano'' (3 acts, 1749) *''Fetonte'' (3 acts, 1750) *''Il Mithridate'' (3 acts, 1751) *''L’Armida'' (3 acts, 1751) *''Britannico'' (3 acts, 1751) *''L'Orfeo'' (3 acts, 1752) *''Il giudizio di Paride'' (1 act, 1752) *''Silla'' (3 acts, 1753) *''Semiramide'' (3 acts, 1754) *'' Montezuma'' (3 acts, 1755) *''Ezio'', libretto by Metastasio (1755) *''I fratelli nemici'' (3 acts, 1756) *''La Merope'' (3 acts, 1756)

Other works

*Te Deum *'' Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld'' Passion cantata (ca. 1730) *''Kommt her und schaut'' (''Große Passion'') (1730) *'' Der Tod Jesu'', Passion cantata (1755) *''Oratorium in Festum Nativitatis Christi'', Christmas oratorio *Easter Oratorium *Six Italian Cantatas *Concerto for Horn, Strings and Cembalo D major *

Lied 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 sp ...

er (1743) *Sinfonia C major *Concerto for Viola da gamba *Harpsichord Concerto in C minor *Gigue in B-flat minor

Bibliography

*John W. Grubbs (1972): ''The Sacred Choral Music of the Graun Brothers'', 1972

Notes

Sources

*"Graun, Carl Heinrich" by E. Eugene Helm, in '' The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992)

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Graun, Carl Heinrich 1704 births 1759 deaths People from Uebigau-Wahrenbrück People from the Electorate of Saxony German Baroque composers German Classical-period composers German male classical composers 18th-century classical composers 18th-century German composers 18th-century German male musicians People educated at the Kreuzschule General directors of the Berlin State Opera