Richard Ferdinand Kaden (10 February 1856 – 9 July 1923) was a German violinist, violist,

music educator Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origina ...

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

and composer.

Life

Born in

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 ...

Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony () was a German monarchy in Central Europe between 1806 and 1918, the successor of the Electorate of Saxony. It joined the Confederation of the Rhine after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, later joining the German ...

, Kaden came from a

Freiberg Freiberg () is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the Ore Mountains, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the Elster and ...

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face (mining), face; cutt ...

family. In 1856 he was born as one of two sons – Richard's brother became a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

– of the ministerial treasurer Moritz Ferdinand Kaden (d. 1921) and his wife Emilie Geyer in the royal Saxon capital and residence city of Dresden. His father, who had initially been a miner himself, then served as a

tambour In classical architecture, a is the inverted bell of the Corinthian capital around which are carved acanthus leaves for decoration. The term also applies to the wall of a circular structure, whether on the ground or raised aloft on pendent ...

in the

Royal Saxon Army The Royal Saxon Army () was the military force of the Electorate (1682–1807) and later the Kingdom of Saxony (1807–1918). A regular Saxon army was first established in 1682 and it continued to exist until the abolition of the German monarchies ...

. As a soldier he experienced the

German revolutions of 1848–1849 The German revolutions of 1848–1849 (), the opening phase of which was also called the March Revolution (), were initially part of the Revolutions of 1848 that broke out in many European countries. They were a series of loosely coordinated p ...

. On leaving the army, he followed a superior into the management of a private railway company. After nationalisation, he made it to the ministry in Dresden as a sub-civil servant. Kaden attended the 1st citizen school in his hometown. While still a pupil, he began training at the Königliches Konservatorium Dresden (until 1877). His teachers included among others

concertmaster The concertmaster (from the German language, German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (UK) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (clarinet or oboe in a concert band). After the Conducting, conductor, the concertma ...

Ferdinand Hüllweck and later in violin as well as Carl Heinrich Döring in piano,

Julius Rietz August Wilhelm Julius Rietz (28 December 1812 – 12 September 1877) was a German composer, conductor, cellist, and teacher. His students included Woldemar Bargiel, Salomon Jadassohn, Arthur O'Leary, and (by far the most celebrated) Sir Arthu ...

in theory and composition, Wilhelm Rischbieter in

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

and Julius Rühlmann in

history of music Although definitions of music vary wildly throughout the world, every known culture partakes in it, and it is thus considered a cultural universal. The origins of music remain highly contentious; commentators often relate it to the origin of la ...

. At the age of fourteen, he became a violinist in the Buffold Town Band. By the age of fifteen, he was chief second fiddle. After the disbandment of the Stadtkapelle, he was violist of the

Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden The Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden (), or Saxon State Orchestra Dresden, is one of the oldest orchestras in the world, created by order of Maurice, Elector of Saxony in 1548. Under communist East Germany and until 1992 it was called Staatskap ...

from 1872 to 1896. In 1888, he was appointed to the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival () is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special ...

orchestra. While working as a musician, he became a student at the Königlich Sächsisches Polytechnikum Dresden. There he studied philosophy and education with Fritz Schultze (1846–1908), as well as psychology. He received further inspiration from Paul Theodor Hohlfeld (1840–1910), editor of philosopher

Karl Christian Friedrich Krause Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (; 6 May 1781 – 27 September 1832) was a German philosopher whose doctrines became known as Krausism. Krausism, when considered in its totality as a complete, stand-alone philosophical system, had only a small ...

's writings, and later scientific director of the Pädagogische Musikschule. From 1872 to 1883, he was engaged as violin and ensemble teacher at the Dresden Conservatory. In 1883 he became artistic director of the private

progressive education Progressive education, or educational progressivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. T ...

"Pädagogische Musikschule zu Dresden", which was founded by his pupil and later Vera von Mertschinski and existed until 1931. Among others,

Henri Marteau Henri Marteau (31 March 1874 – 3 October 1934) was a French violinist and composer. Life and career Marteau's debut was made when he was 10 at a concert given by the Vienna Philharmonic Society conducted by Hans Richter. A tour through Switze ...

and

Karl Panzner Karl Panzner (2 March 1866 – 7 December 1923) was a German conductor and musikdirektor in Düsseldorf. Life Born in Teplice, Panzner was the son of a merchant, who lived in Dresden since 1869. Panzner received private piano lessons in hi ...

were his pupils there. He is also considered the of the music educator

Fritz Reuter Fritz Reuter (7 November 1810 – 12 July 1874; born as ''Heinrich Ludwig Christian Friedrich Reuter'') was a novelist from Northern Germany who was a prominent contributor to Low German literature. Early life Fritz Reuter was born at Stavenhage ...

. Furthermore, he was chairman of the Dresden and 2nd chairman of the Saxon Music School Directors Association. There, among others, together with

Hugo Riemann Karl Wilhelm Julius Hugo Riemann (18 July 1849 – 10 July 1919) was a German musicologist and composer who was among the founders of modern musicology. The leading European music scholar of his time, he was active and influential as both a mus ...

Julius Klengel Julius Klengel (24 September 1859 – 27 October 1933) was a German cellist who is most famous for his études and solo pieces written for the instrument. He was the brother of Paul Klengel. A member of the Gewandhausorchester of Leipzig at fif ...

and Hermann Vetter, he introduced a (from 1913) for music school teachers. He wrote essays (', the ''

Neue Zeitschrift für Musik The New Journal of Music (, and abbreviated to NZM) is a music magazine, co-founded in Leipzig by Robert Schumann, his teacher and future father-in law Friedrich Wieck, Julius Knorr and his close friend Ludwig Schuncke. Its first issue appe ...

'', the ' among others) on music education and aesthetic topics. With his

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

''School of Music Education'' (1892) he wanted to create "a scientifically underpinned system of music education" (Siegfried Freitag). Kaden lectured on music, philosophy and pedagogy, for example in the context of the Literarischer Verein zu Dresden, of which he was a member.Frank Almai, Rolf Parr: ''Literarischer Verein zu Dresden.'' In Wulf Wülfing, Karin Bruns, Rolf Parr (ed.): ''Handbuch literarisch-kultureller Vereine, Gruppen und Bünde 1825–1933'' (''Repertorien zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte''. Vol. 18). Metzler, Stuttgart among others 1998, , , here . He was a member of the Dresden

Masonic lodge A Masonic lodge (also called Freemasons' lodge, or private lodge or constituent lodge) is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also a commonly used term for a building where Freemasons meet and hold their meetings. Every new l ...

"Zum goldenen Apfel". Kaden also excelled as a composer, creating several violin works and a symphony, among others. He also edited the

Pierre Baillot Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot (; 1 October 1771 – 15 September 1842) was a French violinist and composer born in Passy. He studied the violin under Giovanni Battista Viotti and taught at the Conservatoire de Paris together with Pierr ...

Violin School.

Family

In his first marriage (from 1879) he was married to the preacher's daughter Franziska Boeck from Danzig. His second wife from 1909 was Vera von Mertschinski, daughter of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

Titular Councillor and educator to Count Shuvalov in St Petersburg. Kaden was the father of one child: Elsa (b. 1882). He died in 1923 of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

in Dresden at the age of 67.

Awards

He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross II Class of the

Albert Order The Albert Order () was created on 31 December 1850 by King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony to commemorate Albert III, Duke of Saxony (known as Albert the Bold). It was to be awarded to anyone who had served the state well, for civil virtue, s ...

Publications

* ''Parsifal im Lichte des Zeitgeistes''. 2nd edition, Kaufmann, Dresden 1914.

References

External links