Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann

Biography

Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann was born and died in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was the son of composer August Wilhelm Hartmann (1775–1850) and Christiane Petrea Frederica Wittendorff (1778–1848), and the grandson of composer Johann Hartmann (1726-1793), who had originally emigrated to Denmark from Silesia. J.P.E. Hartmann himself was largely self taught. Complying with his father's wishes (who wanted to protect him from the uncertainties of a musician's life), he studied the law and worked as a civil servant from 1829 to 1870, whilst pursuing an extensive musical career. By 1824, he became organist at the Garnisons Kirke in Copenhagen, and in 1832, made a first major impression on audiences with the opera Ravnen. The opera received a long and positive review from Robert Schumann. The libretto was by Hartmann's lifelong friend Hans Christian Andersen with whom he later cooperated on numerous other works, cantatas, songs, incidental music or operas. Andersen among others also wrote the libretto for Hartmann’ popular opera Liden Kirsten, a Danish pendant to the Bartered Bride, which was performed by Liszt in Weimar, and which remains today the most often played Danish opera. Hartmann also cooperated with other important Danish writers of his time, such as Henrik Hertz on his opera Korsarerne or with Adam Øhlenschlæger, writing incidental music and overtures to several of his plays, as well as music in the form of both songs and also melodramas for some of his poems (e.g. Guldhornene), and cooperating in writing numerous cantatas.

In 1836, Hartmann made a study tour to Germany and France, where he made the acquaintance of Frédéric Chopin, Gioachino Rossini, Luigi Cherubini, Gaspare Spontini and Louis Spohr. In his early musical life, Spohr and the Danish composer Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse were Hartmann's early mentors, as well as Heinrich Marschner. Further journeys to Germany followed in the next few years, during which he met Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms and other composers of the time. He also founded the Copenhagen Music Society (Musikforeningen) in 1836, remaining its chairman until the end of his life. In 1843, he transferred from Garnisons Kirke to play the organ for Copenhagen's cathedral, the Vor Frue Kirke, and became the director of the Student Choral Association. He held both these posts until his death. His gentle character made him popular, his compatriots organising year on year numerous impressive feasts to celebrate his birthday.

In 1867, after having taught several subjects at the Danish Academy of Music which originally was founded in 1825 by Giuseppe Siboni (1780–1839), Hartmann helped co-establish and also direct the Royal Danish Academy of Music (Københavns Musikkonservatorium) with Niels Gade (1817–1890) and Holger Simon Paulli (1810–1891).

Personal life

In 1829, he married Emma Sophie Amalie Zinn (1807–1851), herself a composer. One of their sons, Emil Hartmann (1836–1898) also became a renowned composer, while their son Carl Christian Ernst Hartmann (1837–1901) became a sculptor. Two of their daughters married composers; Emma Sophie (b. 1831) married Niels Gade and Clara (b. 1839) married August Winding (1835–1899). Many important later Danish artists, such as the composer Niels Viggo Bentzon and the director Lars von Trier descend from Hartmann.

Style

Hartmann's works are characterized by artistic seriousness, dramatic vitality, and in particular, by national coloring. The Nordic elements, which can be discerned in the themes based on folksongs, modulations, and the tendency towards rather dark sounds, emerged strongly after the 1830s. Hartmann united these Romantic influences with a strong control over both form and theme, acquired through his Classical training.

Hartmann's life covered the whole 19th century and his very varied output makes it difficult to slot him in one category. His early works, such as a Flute Sonata or a Piano Quartet were still written in Beethoven's lifetime and are naturally in the style of the Viennese classicist period. Influences from the then prevailing German models - Weber, Spohr or Marschner - can also be detected. Much of his later work belongs to the generation of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn. Still his style continued developing over the years. Later compositions, such as the monumental A-Minor piano sonata or some Overtures (Yrsa) bear some similarities with Brahms. And there are pre-modernist accents in many of his latest pieces pointing notably to Carl Nielsen. His work had a strong influence on Scandinavian composers of later generations such as Edvard Grieg, Peter Erasmus Lange-Mueller or Carl Nielsen. Edvard Grieg wrote in an article in Musikbladet in 1885 how important a composer Hartmann was not only for Denmark but for all composers of Nordic countries: »What composer in Scandinavia with genuine feeling for Scandinavia does not remember today what he owes to Hartmann ! The best, the most profound thoughts that a whole posterity of more or less consequential spirits has lived on have been first expressed by him, have been made to resound in us by him ».

In his old age, Hartmann’s increasing originality gave him the nickname of being the «old man prodigy» («Vidunderolding»). Overall, his music displays great diversity, going from humour and poetry to drama and tragedy.

Works

Orchestral

Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 17 (1835)

Symphony No. 2 in E, Op. 48 (1847–48)

Twelve Overtures

Concert overture, Op. 3 (1825)

Sacred overture, Op. 9 (1827)

Ravnen, Op. 12 (1830–32)

Korsarerne, Op. 16 (1832–35)

Hakon Jarl, Op. 40 (1844)

Liden Kirsten, Op. 44 (1844–46)

Concert overture, Op. 51 (1852)

Axel og Valborg, Op. 57 (1856)

Correggio, Op. 59 (1858)

En Efteraarsjagt, Op. 63 (1864, dedicated to Niels W. Gade)

Yrsa, Op. 78 (1883)

Dante, Op. 85 (1888)

Incidental music

Olaf den Hellige, Op. 23 (1838) (Adam Oehlenschläger)

Knud den Store, Op. 28 (1839) (Adam Oehlenschläger)

Fiskeren of hans Børn, Op. 29 (1840) (Adam Oehlenschläger)

Syvsoverdag, Op. 30 (12840 - revised in 1872) (Johan Ludvig Heiberg)

Maurerpigen, Op. 32 (1840) (Hans Christian Andersen)

Vocal

Operas

Ravnen, Op. 12 (1830–32) (Hans Christian Andersen)

Korsarerne, (The Corsair), Op. 16 (1832–35) (Henrik Hertz)

Liden Kirsten, (Little Kirsten), Op. 44 (1844–46) (Hans Christian Andersen)

Saul (unfinished) (1864–65) (Hans Christian Andersen)

Concert cantatas

Den musikelskende Landsbypige (1833) (Adam Oehlenschläger)

De tvende Dugdraaber (1844) (Schack von Staffelt)

Den sørgende Jødinde (1844-1875) (Hans Christian Andersen)

Hilsen til Frænderne (1848) (B.S. Ingemann)

Fragment af Oehlenschlägers 'Jesu Bjergprædiken' ", Op. 49 (1848)

En Sommerdag (A Summer's Day, 1854) (Henrik Hertz)

Dryadens Bryllup, Op. 60 (1858) (Fr. Paludan-Müller)

Zigeunersang (1859) (Goethe, translated by H. C. Andersen)

Hinsides Bjergene (1865) (Andreas Munch)

I Provence, Op. 68 (1868–69) (Carl Andersen)

Hilsen til Norge (1869)

Foraarssang, Op. 70 (Spring Song, 1870–71) (H. C. Andersen)

Chamber music

Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in G minor, Op. 8 (1826)

Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in C, Op. 39 (1844)

Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 3 in G minor, Op. 83 (1886)

Suite for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 66 (1864)

Fantasi-Allegro for Violin and Piano in D Major (1889)

Sonata for Flute and Piano in B-flat Major, Op. 1 (1825)

Andante and Variations for Piano Trio in C Major (1849)

String Quartet in G Major (1848, last movement only half finished)

String Quartet in A Major (1852, last movement only in sketches)

Piano Quartet in F Major, Op. 2

Piano

Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 34 (1841)

Piano Sonata No. 2 in G minor (1851)

Piano Sonata No. 3 in F (1853)

Piano Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Op. 80 (1876–83)

Piano Sonatina in G major, Op. 63a (1863)

Sonatina for piano four hands, Op. 4 (1826)

Two Rondos for piano, Op. 6 (1829)

Fantasy for piano, Op. 7

Allegro di Bravura and Andante for piano, Op. 10 (1829)

Eight Caprices for piano, Op. 18 (1835, published in two collections dedicated respectively to Heinrich Marschner and Felix Mendelssohn)

Two characteristic pieces for piano, Op. 25 (1839)

Introduction and Andantino religioso for piano, Op. 26

Three genre pieces for piano, Op. 26

Eight sketches for piano, Op. 31 (1840–41, dedicated to Emma Hartmann)

Six pieces in Song form for piano, Op. 37 (1842)

Three pieces for piano (Ballo militare, Cantilena elegiaca, Allegro grazioso)

Six character pieces for piano, Op. 50, with introductory poems by Hans Christian Andersen

Three pieces for piano (Svensk Hjemvee, Capriccio, Andantino - Hun sidder derinde og spiller klaver) (1848–51)

Organ

Fantasy in A major (1826)

Fantasy in F minor, Op. 20 (published 1837)

Funeral March for Thorvaldsen (1844) with brass ensemble, published in a solo organ version (1879) by Hartmann

Funeral March for Oehlenschläger (1850), with brass ensemble

Organ Sonata in G minor, Op. 58 (1855)

Funeral March for Nicolai Peter Nielsen (1860)

Opening Music for a University Anniversary (1879), with brass ensemble