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GOETZ, HERMANN (184o-1876)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 190 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GOETZ, See also:HERMANN (184o-1876) , See also:German musical composer, was See also:born at See also:Konigsberg in See also:Prussia, on the 17th of See also:December 184o, and began his See also:regular musical studies at the comparatively advanced See also:age of seventeen. He entered the See also:music-school of See also:Professor Stern at See also:Berlin, and studied See also:composition chiefly under See also:Ulrich and Hans von Billow. In 1863 he was appointed organist at See also:Winterthur in See also:Switzerland, where he lived in obscurity for a number of years, occupying himself with composition during his leisure See also:hours. One of his See also:works was an See also:opera, The Taming of the See also:Shrew, the libretto skilfully adapted from See also:Shakespeare's See also:play. After much delay it was produced at See also:Mannheim (in See also:October 1874), and its success was as instantaneous as it has up to the See also:present proved lasting. It rapidly made the See also:round of the See also:great German theatres, and spread its composer's fame over all the See also:land. But Goetz did not live to enjoy this happy result for See also:long. In December 1876 he died at See also:Zurich from overwork. A second opera, Francesca da See also:Rimini, on which he was engaged, remained a fragment; but it was finished according to his directions, and was performed for the first See also:time at Mannheim a few months after the composer's See also:death on the 4th of December 1876. Besides his dramatic See also:work, Goetz also wrote various compositions for chamber-music, of which a trio (Op. 1) and a quintet (Op. 16) have been given with great success at the See also:London See also:Monday Popular Concerts.

Still more important is the See also:

Symphony in F. As a composer of comic opera Goetz lacks the sprightliness and See also:artistic savoir faire so rarely found amongst Germanic nations. His was essentially a serious nature, and See also:passion and pathos were to him more congenial than See also:humour. The more serious sides of the subject are therefore insisted upon more successfully than Katherine's ravings and Petruchio's eccentricities. There are, however, very graceful passages, e.g. the singing See also:lesson Bianca receives from her disguised See also:lover. Goetz's See also:style, although influenced by See also:Wagner and other masters, shows signs of a distinct individuality. The See also:design of his music is essentially of a polyphonic See also:character, and the working out and interweaving of his themes betray the musician of high See also:scholar-See also:ship. But breadth and beautiful flow of See also:melody also were his, ' After See also:Walther's death upwards of £ro,000 in bonds, &c., were discovered put away and forgotten in escritoires and See also:odd corners. 2 This was the See also:reason given by See also:Baron Walther himself to the writer's See also:mother, an old friend of Frau von See also:Goethe, who lived with her See also:family in the Goethehaus for some years after 1871. as is seen in the symphony, and perhaps still more in the quintet for See also:pianoforte and strings above referred to. The most important of Goetz's See also:posthumous works are a setting of the 137th See also:Psalm for See also:soprano See also:solo, See also:chorus and See also:orchestra, a " See also:Spring " See also:overture (Op. 15), and a pianoforte See also:sonata for four hands (Op.

17).

End of Article: GOETZ, HERMANN (184o-1876)

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