Franz Seraphin Lauska (13 January 1764 – 18 April 1825), baptised as Franciscus Ignatius Joannes Nepomucensis Carolus Boromaeus,Anke Sieber: Franz Lauska (1764–1825). Biographie, Briefe, Werkverzeichnis, Göttingen: Hainholz 2016. was a
Moravia
Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
The medieval and early ...
n pianist,
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 ...
, and teacher of
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Meyer Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart and Richard Wa ...
and
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 ...
. The name "Seraphin" was a later name affix, which Lauska never used. Lauska was considered "one of the most brilliant executants of his time."
Biography
Lauska was born in
Brno
Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...
, and may have been a student of
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (3 February 1736 – 7 March 1809) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist, widely regarded as one of the leading figures in counterpoint and composition theory during the Classical period. He was a prol ...
while studying in Vienna in 1784. He also spent time in Italy, played chamber music while serving at the Bavarian court in Munich, taught in Copenhagen from 1794 to 1798, and then moved to Berlin. There he performed as a pianist, wrote music, and was a piano teacher of the
Prussian
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...
royal family and the young Giacomo Meyerbeer. He conducted 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-centu ...
in rehearsals while
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 ...
was away in 1802 and later became a member of Zelter's Liedertafel. Lauska probably knew
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 ...
, for whom he read proofs, and was friends with
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (5 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and Music criticism, critic in the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Best known for List of operas by Carl Maria von Weber, h ...
, who dedicated his second sonata in A-flat major to Lauska. Around 1816 he gave piano lessons to Felix and
Fanny Mendelssohn
Fanny Mendelssohn (14 November 1805 – 14 May 1847) was a German composer and pianist of the early Romantic era who was known as Fanny Hensel after her marriage. Her compositions include a string quartet, a piano trio, a piano quartet, an or ...
. He died in
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 ...
, aged 61.
Works
Lauska wrote a great deal of piano music (approximately 25 sonatas, rondos, variations, polonaises, capriccios, etc.), much of it technically undemanding and intended for beginners, amateurs, and his pupils. His music is uncomplicated and typical of the musical style at the time. The following list of works is incomplete. A complete, dated catalogue of works has been published recently.
* Piano music:
** ''Grande Sonate'', Op. 1, for harpsichord or piano (Hamburg, ca. 1795)
** ''Menuette varié'', for piano, on a theme from Sonata, op. 1 (Copenhagen, no date)
** ''Grande Sonate'', Op. 4, for harpsichord or piano (Hamburg, ca. 1797)
** ''Eine grosse Sonate für's Pianoforte'', Op. 6 (Hamburg, 1797)
** Sonata, Op. 7, for piano (Hamburg, 1797)
** Eight variations for piano on the air "Ich küsse dich o Schleier" from ''Geister Insel'' by Reichard (Munich, 1799)
** ''Grande Sonate'', Op. 9 (Hamburg, ca. 1800)
** ''Grande Sonate'', Op. 10 (Hamburg, ca. 1800)
** Sonata, Op. 20, for piano (Leipzig, ca. 1812)
** Polonaise, Op. 23 (Leipzig, ca. 1815)
** Polonoise, Op. 25 (Leipzig, ca. 1809)
** Sonata, Op. 26 (Leipzig, ca. 1810)
** Rondeau and polonaise, Op. 27 (Berlin, ca. 1815)
** ''Deux grandes polonaises en forme de rondeau'', Op. 29 (Berlin, ca. 1812)
** Capriccio, Op. 32, for piano (Leipzig, ca. 1815)
** ''Grande Sonate'', Op. 34 (Berlin, no date)
** Sonata, Op. 35 (Berlin, no date)
** Capriccio and Polacca, Op. 36, for piano (Leipzig, ca. 1819)
** Petites Variations sur l'air Vive Henry IV, Op. 36 (also) (C.C. Lose, Copenhagen, ca. 1820s?) ÖNB
** ''Sonate brillante'', Op. 37 (Leipzig, ca. 1818)
** ''Capriccio e Variazioni sopra una Canzonetta Boemica (To gsau Kone, to gsau Kone, to gsau Kone...)'', Op. 38 (Leipzig, CF Peters, ca. 1818) Se ÖNB Plate 1401 suggests ca.1818 (or so, that is, ca., again) ; see IMSLP's list of Peters plate numbers. May be listed in a late 1810s Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung issue or a contemporary magazine, which would settle the date more closely.
** Polonoise, Op. 42, for piano (Leipzig, no. date)
** ''Rondeaux brillants et agréables'', Op. 44 (Leipzig, ca. 1820)
** ''Sonate agreeable'', Op. 46 (Leipzig, no date)
** ''Der Fackeltanz'', for piano four hands (Berlin, ca. 1823)
*Chamber music:
** ''Sonate facile'', Op. 18, for piano and violin (Munich, 1802–1803)
** Sonata, Op. 28, for piano and cello (Berlin, ca. 1812)
** ''Introduzzione e rondoletto'' for piano and cello (Berlin, ca. 1818–1819)
* Vocal music:
**''Neun deutsche Lieder und Variationen'', Op. 2, for voice and piano (Hamburg, 1792)
**''Lied von den Militair-Eleven'' (Munich, 1806)
** Twelve songs for voice and guitar (Hamburg, before 1821)
** ''Fünf Tafel-Lieder für Männerstimmen'', for the Liedertafel in Berlin (Berlin, ca. 1826)
** Mass
** ''Quando corpus morietur'' for 4 voices (1825)
* Orchestral and Concertante works
** Concerto for harpsichord or piano and orchestra
Notes
Lauska has also been spelled Louska and Lausca. Alternative forenames include Franz Seraphicus, Franz Seraphim, Franz Seraphinus, and František Ignác. See Wagner 2001 Seraphin an Seraphim at
WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
.Wagner 2001; Letellier 1999, p. 171; Brzoska 2001; Thompson 1975, p. 1221.Wagner 2001.Letellier 1999, pp. 171, 255.''The Monthly Musical Record'' (1 September 1891) View at
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
Letellier, Robert Ignatius
Robert Ignatius Letellier (born 1953, in Durban, South Africa) is a cultural historian and academic, specialising in the history of music, Romantic literature and the Bible. He teaches at the Maryvale Institute and the Institute of Continuing Edu ...
, editor (1999). ''The Diaries of Giacomo Meyerbeer, Volume 1, 1791–1839''. Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. .
* Sieber, Anke (2016): Franz Lauska (1764–1825). Biographie, Briefe, Werkverzeichnis. Göttingen: Hainholz .
* Thompson, Oscar; Bohle, Bruce, editors (1975). ''The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians'' (tenth edition, edited by Bruce Bohle). New York: Dodd, Mead. .
* Sadie, Stanley, editor (2001). ''
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and t ...