Pauline Volkstein (19 January 1849 – 6 May 1925) was a German composer of more than 1,000 songs.
Biography
Volkstein was born in
Quedlinburg
Quedlinburg () is a town situated just north of the Harz mountains, in the Harz (district), district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. As an influential and prosperous trading centre during the early Middle Ages, Quedlinburg becam ...
, Germany. She had little formal music training, but came from a musical family. Her mother had studied counterpoint with
Friedrich Schneider, and her uncle was cellist and composer
Bernhard Cossmann.
Volkstein lived in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
,
Murano
Murano is a series of islands linked by bridges in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies about north of Venice and measures about across with a population of just over 5,000 (2004 figures). It is famous for its glass making. It was o ...
, and
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
, before settling in
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 ...
with her sister in 1905. Her first songs were published around that time.
Volkstein set her own poems to music and also composed music for texts by poets
Arndt,
Bierbaum,
Chamisso,
Eichendorff,
Falke,
Fallersleben
Fallersleben is a part (''Ortsteil'') of the City of Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany, with a population of 11,269 (as of 2010). The village of Fallersleben was first mentioned in 942 under the name of ''Valareslebo''. Fallersleben became a city ...
,
Flaischlen,
Fleming,
Geibel,
Gersdorff,
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 ...
,
Greif,
Halm,
Groth,
Heine,
Keller,
Kerner,
Lenau,
Liliencron,
Lons,
Morike,
Muller,
Opitz,
Roquette,
Saar
Saar or SAAR has several meanings:
People Given name
* Sarr Boubacar (born 1951), Senegalese professional football player
* Saar Ganor, Israeli archaeologist
* Saar Klein (born 1967), American film editor
Surname
* Ain Saar (born 1968), E ...
,
Schenkendorf,
Storm
A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstor ...
,
Uhland, and
Wolff.
She composed some pieces with piano or guitar accompaniment, but wrote many stand-alone melodies that were later arranged with accompaniments by other composers, such as
Armin Knab and
Justus Hermann Wetzel.
Volkstein self-published some of her music. Several of her songs with guitar accompaniment initially appeared in ''Der Wächter'', a magazine associated with the German youth movement during the 1920s and 1930s. Her music was also published by Fritz Schuberth and Ries & Erler GMBH.
Volkstein's compositions include:
*12 Folksongs (see External links)
*12 Lieder
*12 Lieder (piano setting by Justus Hermann Wetzel; see External Links)
*20 Songs with Guitar Accompaniment
*24 Folksongs with Simple Accompaniment
*Bloom, Dear Violet (arranged by Armin Knab)
*Jungfrau Zimperlich (text by
Ludwig Pfau)
*Melodies (piano setting by Justus Hermann Wetzel)
*New Folksongs (1922)
*Piano compositions
*Spinning Song (arranged by Armin Knab)
References
External links
Sheet Music for 12 Folksongs by Pauline Volkstein with piano setting by Justus Hermann Wetzel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Volkstein, Pauline
1849 births
1925 deaths
20th-century German composers
20th-century German women composers
People from Quedlinburg
Place of death missing