Maria Carolina Wolf, née Benda, (1742 – 2 August 1820) 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 ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

, singer 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

Maria Carolina Wolf's father was

Franz Benda Franz Benda (; baptised 22 November 1709 – 7 March 1786) was a Bohemian violinist and composer, who worked for much of his life at the court of Frederick the Great. Life Benda was born in Old Benatek in Bohemia, the son of Jan Jiří Benda ...

, first violinist and composer at the court of Frederick II, her aunt Anna Franziska Hattasch was a chamber singer and her uncle

Georg Benda Georg Anton Benda (; 30 June 17226 November 1795) was a Kingdom of Bohemia, Bohemian composer, violinist and ''Kapellmeister'' of the Classical period (music), classical period. Biography Born into a Benda family, family of notable musicians in ...

was conductor, both with appointments at the court of the Duke of Gotha. Wolf received piano and singing lessons from her father. Before her appointment at the court, Benda had looked after her father's household because of the death of her mother in 1758. However, in 1761 she went on a concert tour with her father to

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...

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 ...

and

Rudolstadt Rudolstadt is a town in the German federal state Thuringia, within the Thuringian Forest, to the southwest, and to Jena and Weimar to the north. The former capital of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, the town is built along the River Saale inside a wide ...

, during which her father remarried. At the Weimar court, Maria Benda met the Hofkonzertmeister

Ernst Wilhelm Wolf Ernst Wilhelm Wolf (baptised 25 February 1735 – 29 or 30 November 1792) was a German composer. Life Wolf was born in Grossen Behringen in Thuringia, today part of the Hörselberg-Hainich municipality. His elder brother Ernst Friedrich was a co ...

, who received an appointment at the Duchess' court in 1768. Two years later the couple were married. In 1775 Anna Amalia handed over the business of government to her son Carl August. Ernst Wilhelm Wolf remained as conductor under his reign, and Maria continued working as a singer. The Duchess developed an interest in theater, introduced in 1776 by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

. Maria Wolf worked in the plays as an actress and singer and with her husband composed songs with piano accompaniment. These were published in the ''Der Teutsche Merkur'' journal as ''51 Lieder der besten deutschen Dichter mit Melodien'' (''51 Best Songs of the German Poets with Melodies'') and ''Mildheimischen Liederbuch'' (''The Mild Homely Songbook''). Maria Wolf's husband died in 1792, and she continued to live in Weimar until she died on August 2, 1820.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf, Maria Carolina 1742 births 1820 deaths German classical composers German classical pianists German women pianists German women classical composers 18th-century German women singers 18th-century German keyboardists 18th-century German actresses