Carl August Peter Cornelius (24 December 1824 – 26 October 1874) was a German composer, writer about music, poet and translator.

Life

He was born in

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

to Carl Joseph Gerhard (1793–1843) and Friederike (1789–1867) Cornelius, actors in Mainz and Wiesbaden. From an early age he played the violin and composed, eventually studying with Tekla Griebel-Wandall and composition with Heinrich Esser in 1841. He lived with his painter uncle

Peter von Cornelius Peter von Cornelius (23 September 1783, Düsseldorf – 6 March 1867, Berlin) was a German Painting, painter; one of the main representatives of the Nazarene movement. He was the uncle of the composer Peter Cornelius (1824–1874). Life Earl ...

in Berlin from 1844 to 1852, and during this time he met prominent figures such as

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

, the

Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradit ...

Friedrich Rückert Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert (16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translation, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. Biography Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert was born 16 May 1788 in Schweinfurt and was the e ...

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 ...

. His early compositions included chamber and church music and secular songs, among which stands the Stabat Mater for soloists, choir, and orchestra, composed in 1849. Cornelius's first mature works (including the opera ''

Der Barbier von Bagdad ''Der Barbier von Bagdad'' (''The Barber of Baghdad'') is a comic opera in two acts by Peter Cornelius to a German libretto by the composer, based on ''The Tale of the Tailor'' and ''The Barber’s Stories of his Six Brothers'' in '' One Thousa ...

'') were composed during his brief stay 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 ...

(1852–1858). His next place of residence was Vienna, where he lived for five years. It was in Vienna that Cornelius began a friendship with

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

. At the latter's behest, Cornelius moved to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

in 1864, where he married and fathered four children. During his last few years in Berlin, Cornelius wrote music criticism for several major Berlin journals and entered into friendships with

Joseph von Eichendorff Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

Paul Heyse Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (; 15 March 1830 – 2 April 1914) was a German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the '' Tunnel über der Spree'' in Berlin and '' Die Krokodile'' in Munich, he wrote novels, poetry ...

and

Hans von Bülow Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow (; 8 January 1830 – 12 February 1894) was a German conductor, pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishi ...

. Despite his long-standing association with Wagner and

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

(the latter on occasion sought Cornelius's advice when it came to matters of orchestration), Cornelius's relations with the so-called "New German School" of composition were sometimes rocky. For instance, he did not attend the premiere of ''

Tristan und Isolde ''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is a music drama in three acts by Richard Wagner set to a German libretto by the composer, loosely based on the medieval 12th-century romance ''Tristan and Iseult'' by Gottfried von Stras ...

'', using the premiere of his own opera ''Der Cid'' as an excuse. Cornelius's third and final operatic project, ''Gunlöd'', based on the Norse

edda "Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been applied by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ''Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poems ( ...

s, was left incomplete at his death (from

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

) in Mainz. He was buried in the city's Hauptfriedhof, and his grave can still be seen there.

Legacy

The Mainz Conservatory was renamed the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in 1936. The state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

honors musical achievements with the since 1951. A bust created by

Hugo Lederer Hugo Lederer (16 November 1871 – 1 August 1940) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born German sculptor. Biography Lederer was born on 16 November 1871 in Znojmo. He studied in Dresden under sculptor John Schilling from 1890, then briefly ...

in 1930 is displayed in Park Drususwall, Mainz. Several streets and squares are named after him in Mainz () and across other German cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Augsburg and Weimar, as well as in Vienna, Salzburg, and

Waalwijk Waalwijk () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southern Netherlands. It had a population of in and is located near the A59 and N261 motorways. The villages of Capelle, Vrijhoeve-Capelle, Sprang (the former mun ...

, Netherlands. The Peter Cornelius Archive is an extensive collection maintained by the , consisting of the composer’s personal items, documents, and musical works. It includes around 50 original music manuscripts, 58 notebooks with diaries, sketches, and poems, personal memorabilia like death masks, and over 2,600 letters. The archive, enriched by contributions from Cornelius's family, is open to the public for research. In Britain to this day, Cornelius's best-known work is " The Three Kings" (""), a song for solo voice and piano originally from his 1856

song cycle A song cycle () is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in sequence, as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rarely a combinat ...

, '' Weihnachtslieder''. The song's melody line is accompanied by the chorale tune of " Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" ("How brightly shines the morning star"), written by Philipp Nicolai in 1597. An English translation made in 1928 by H.N. Bate ("Three Kings from Persian lands afar...") was arranged by

Ivor Atkins Sir Ivor Algernon Atkins (29 November 1869 – 26 November 1953) was the choirmaster and organist at Worcester Cathedral from 1897 to 1950, and a friend of and collaborator with Edward Elgar. He is remembered for editing Allegri's ''Miserere ...

in 1957 for solo voice and choir, and this version was included in the first volume of the popular

David Willcocks Sir David Valentine Willcocks, (30 December 1919 – 17 September 2015) was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridg ...

and Reginald Jacques compilation ''

Carols for Choirs ''Carols for Choirs'' is a collection of choral scores, predominantly of Christmas carols and hymns, first published in 1961 by Oxford University Press. It was edited by Sir David Willcocks and Reginald Jacques, and is a widely used source o ...

'' in 1961.

Selected works

* Stabat mater for soloists, chorus and orchestra (1849) * ''Brautlieder'' (1856) * ''Weihnachtslieder'', Op. 8 (1856) * ''

'',

opera buffa Opera buffa (, "comic opera"; : ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramma bernesc ...

(1858) * ''Der Cid'', opera (1865) * ''Requiem'' ("Seele, vergiß sie nicht"), after a poem of Hebbel (1872) * String quartets * '' Gunlöd'', unfinished opera in three acts based on the story ''

Hávamál ''Hávamál'' ( ; Old Norse: ''Hávamál'',Unnormalised spelling in the Codex Regius:''Title'': hava mal''Final stanza'': Nv ero Hava mál q''ve''ðin Háva hꜹ''l''lo i ..classical pron. , Modern Icelandic pron. , ‘Words of Hávi he H ...

'' in the version found in the ''Edda''; completed by Karl Hoffbauer for its 1879 publication; premiered at the Hoftheater Weimar on 6 May 1891 with new orchestrations by Eduard Lassen. A different completed version by Max Hass (vocal score) and Waldemar von Baußnern (orchestrations) premiered on 15 December 1906 at the Cologne Opera. * Mass in D minor, CWV 91 for two soloists, chorus and organ, strings

References

Cited sources

External links

* * * *
Free scores
at the

Mutopia Project The Mutopia Project is a volunteer-run effort to create a library of free content sheet music, in a way similar to Project Gutenberg's library of public domain books. It started in 2000. The music is reproduced from old scores that are in th ...

Peter Cornelius
Mahler Foundation
Cornelius, Peter
(in German) Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon {{DEFAULTSORT:Cornelius, Peter 1824 births 1874 deaths 19th-century German classical composers 19th-century German male writers 19th-century German journalists 19th-century German male musicians 19th-century German poets German Romantic composers German opera composers German male journalists German music critics German male poets German male opera composers Musicians from Mainz People from Rhenish Hesse Pupils of Siegfried Dehn Writers from Mainz