
Woldemar Bargiel (3 October 182823 February 1897) was a German
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 conductor of the
Romantic period
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...
.
Life
Bargiel was born 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 ...
and was the younger maternal half-brother of
Clara Schumann
Clara Josephine Schumann (; ; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic music, Romantic era, she exerted her influence o ...
. Bargiel’s father Adolph was a well-known piano and voice teacher while his mother
Mariane Tromlitz, a granddaughter of the famous flautist
Johann Georg Tromlitz, had previously been unhappily married to Clara’s father,
Friedrich Wieck
Johann Gottlob Friedrich Wieck (18 August 1785 – 6 October 1873) was a noted German piano teacher, voice teacher, owner of a piano store, and author of essays and music reviews. He is remembered as the teacher of his daughter, Clara, a chil ...
. Clara was nine years older than Woldemar. Throughout their lives, they enjoyed a warm relationship. The initial opportunities which led to the success and recognition he enjoyed were due to Clara, who introduced him to both
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...
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 ...
. Bargiel received his first lessons at home and later with the well-known Berlin teacher of music theory
Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn. Upon the suggestion of Schumann and the recommendation of Mendelssohn, Bargiel at age 18 went to study at the famous Leipzig Conservatory with some of the leading scholars of music:
Ignaz Moscheles
Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in the Co ...
(piano) and
Niels Gade
Niels Wilhelm Gade (22 February 1817 – 21 December 1890) was a Danish composer, conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. Together with Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann, he was the leading Danish musician of his day, in the period known as ...
(composition), and also with
Julius Rietz.
After leaving Leipzig in 1850, he returned to Berlin where he tried to make ends meet by giving private lessons. Eventually, Clara and Robert were able to arrange for the publication of some of his early works, including his First Piano Trio.
Subsequently, Bargiel held positions at the conservatories in Cologne and Rotterdam (where he met Hermine Tours, his future wife, sister of the composer Berthold Tours) before accepting a position at the prestigious Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin where he taught for the rest of his life. Among his many students were
Paul Juon,
Waldemar von Baußnern,
Alexander Ilyinsky,
Agnes Tschetschulin, and
Leopold Godowsky
Leopold Mordkhelovich Godowsky Sr. (13 February 1870 – 21 November 1938) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and teacher, born in what is now Lithuania to Jewish parents, who became an United States of America, American citizen in 1891. He ...
. Besides teaching and composing, Bargiel served with Brahms as co-editor of the complete editions of Schumann's and Chopin's works. While Bargiel did not write a lot of music, most of what he composed was well thought out and shows solid musical craftsmanship. His chamber music—he wrote four string quartets, a string octet and three piano trios—represents an important part of his output.
Selected list of compositions
*W/o Opus- String Quartet No.1 in E major(1848)
*W/o Opus- String Quartet No.2 in D minor(1848–50)
*Op. 1 3 Character pieces for piano (1848–1850)
*Op. 2 Character pieces for piano (1850)
*Op. 3 Three nocturnes for piano (1849–51)
[Available in score at IMSLP]
*Op. 4 Six bagatelles for piano (1851)
*Op. 6 Piano trio No. 1 in F major (1851)
*Op. 7 Suite for piano, four hands (1853)
*Op. 8 Three character pieces for piano (1853)
*Op. 9 Three fantasy-pieces for piano (1853–54)
*Op. 10 Violin Sonata in F minor (1854)
*Op. 13 Scherzo for piano (1857)
[Austrian National Library Musiksammlung digital catalog]
*Op.15 Fantasy Piece for Piano (1856)
*Op. 15a Octet for strings in C minor (I.''Adagio - Allegro appassionato''; II.''Andante sostenuto - Allegro - Tempo 1 - Tempo 2''; III. ''Allegro'') (1849–50, published 1877)
*Op. 15b String Quartet No. 3 in A minor (by April 16, 1851)
*Op. 16 Overture to Prometheus (1852, revised 1854 and 1859)
*Op. 17 Suite for violin and piano (1858)
*Op. 18 Overture to a Tragedy (1856)
*Op. 19 Third Fantasy for solo piano (1858, published 1860)
*Op. 20 Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat (1857, published 1860)
*Op. 21 Suite for piano (I. ''Praludium''; II. ''Zwiegesang''; III. ''Sarabande''; IV. ''Marsch'' - ''Trio''; V. ''Scherzo''; VI. ''Finale'') (1860)
*Op. 22 Overture to Medea (1861)
*Op. 23 Sonata for piano in G, four hands (1862)
*Op. 25 Psalm 13 (for chorus and orchestra) (1862)
*Op. 26 Psalm 23 (1862)
*Op. 29 Gigue for piano four-hands (1853?)
[In the Deutsches Musik-Archiv in Berlin, according to their catalog.]
*Op. 30 Symphony in C major (1864)
[A review of the symphony's published four-hand reduction, with music examples, can be found in the 1866 Allegemeine musikalische Zeitung. , ser. 3 v. 1 1866, p. 103.]
*Op. 31 Suite in G minor for piano (I. ''Prelude; II. ''Elegy; III. ''Marcia fantastica''; IV. ''Scherzo''; V.''Adagio''; VI.''Finale'') (1864)
*Op. 32 Eight fantasy pieces for piano (published 1866)
*Op. 33 Psalm 96 for unaccompanied double chorus (published 1867)
*Op. 34 Sonata for piano in C (I. ''Allegro moderato, con passione''; II. ''Andante, un poco con moto''; III. ''Adagio maestoso - Allegro molto - Prestissimo'') (1867)
*Op. 35 Three Spring Songs, for three-part women's chorus (1867)
[Seen in the Dutch Royal Library https://opc-kb.oclc.org]
*Op. 37 Piano Trio No. 3 in B-flat (published 1870)
*Op. 38 Adagio in G major for violin or cello and piano or orchestra (1871)
*Op. 39 Spring Songs (for three-part chorus with piano) (published 1872)
*Op. 41 Eight Piano Pieces (published 1873)
*Op. 43 Psalm 61 (for choir, baritone solo and orchestra) (published 1878)
[Information from Bavarian Online Library Catalog.]
*Op. 44 Impromptus, for piano (1869?, published 1880)
*Op. 45 Etude and Toccata for piano (published 1880)
*Op. 47 String Quartet No. 4 in D minor (published 1888)
*Op. 48 Intermezzo for orchestra (arrangement of the slow movement of the Op. 34 piano sonata) (also published as Op. 46)
Notes
References and sources
*Some of the information on this page appears on the website of Edition Silvertrust but permission has been granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
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External links
Bargiel Piano Trio Nos.1 & 2, Opp.6 & 20 and String Octet Op.15a Sound-bites & discussion of works*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bargiel, Woldemar
1828 births
1897 deaths
Composers from Berlin
Musicians from the Province of Brandenburg
Composers from the Kingdom of Prussia
German Romantic composers
19th-century German classical composers
German male classical composers
19th-century German male musicians