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SPOHR, LUDWIG (1784-1859)
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See also:SPOHR, See also:LUDWIG (1784-1859) , See also:German composer and violinist, was See also:born at See also:Brunswick on the 25th of See also:April 1784. He spent his childhood at Seesen, where in 1789 he began to study the See also:violin, and at six years old was able to take See also:part in chamber-See also:music. He had a few lessons in See also:composition, but, as he himself tells us, he learnt more from studying the scores of See also:Mozart. After playing a See also:concerto of his own at a school See also:concert with marked success, he was placed under Maucourt, the See also:leader of the See also:duke's See also:band; and in 1798 he started on an See also:artistic tour. This proved a failure; but on his return to Brunswick the duke gave him an See also:appointment in his band, and provided for his future See also:education under See also:Franz See also:Eck, with whom he visited St See also:Petersburg and other See also:European capitals. His first violin concerto was printed in 1803. In that See also:year Spohr returned to Brunswick and resumed his See also:place in the duke's band. A visit to See also:Paris was prevented by the loss of his favourite violin—a magnificent Guarnerius, presented to him in See also:Russia. After a See also:series of concerts in See also:Berlin, See also:Leipzig, See also:Dresden, and other German towns, his reputation gained for him in 18o5 the appointment of leading violinist to the duke of See also:Gotha. Soon after this he married his first wife, Dorette Scheidler, a celebrated harpist. At Gotha he composed his first See also:opera, See also:Die Priifung, but did not succeed in producing it. Alruna was equally unfortunate, though See also:Goethe approved of it at a trial See also:rehearsal at See also:Weimar in 18o8. In this year Spohr, See also:hearing that 'See also:Palma was performing at See also:Erfurt before See also:Napoleon's See also:Congress of Princes, and failing to obtain See also:admission to the See also:theatre, bribed a See also:horn-player to send him as his See also:deputy; and, though he had never touched a horn in his See also:life, he learned in a single See also:day to See also:play it well enough to pass See also:muster in the evening and so to get a See also:good view of Napoleon and the princes in a See also:pocket See also:mirror on his See also:desk. Spohr's third opera, Der Zweikampf mit der Geliebten, written in 1809, was successfully performed at See also:Hamburg next year. In 1811 he produced his (first) See also:Symphony in E See also:flat, and in 1812 composed his first See also:oratorio, Das jiingste Gericht.' In See also:writing this See also:work he See also:felt hampered by lack of skill in See also:counter-point.; so with characteristic See also:diligence he mastered the contents of Marpurg's Abhandlung von der Fuge.
In 1812 Spohr visited See also:Vienna, and was induced to accept the leadership of the See also:orchestra at the Theater an der Wien. He then began his dramatic masterpiece, See also:Faust, which he completed in 1813, though it was not performed until five years later. His strength and inventiveness as a composer were now fully See also:developed, and enabled him to produce large See also:works with astonishing rapidity. He resigned his appointment at Vienna in 1815, and soon afterwards made a tour in See also:Italy, where he per-formed his eighth and finest violin concerto, the Scena cantante nello slilo drammatico. The leading See also:Italian critics called him " the finest See also:singer on the violin that had ever been heard." On Spohr's return to See also:Germany in 1817 he was appointed conductor of the opera at See also:Frankfort; and there in 1818 he first produced his Faust. It was followed by Zemire and Azor, which, though by no means as See also:fine as Faust, soon attained a much greater popularity. Faust suffered from its libretto, which is on quite a different See also:plot from Goethe's poem.
Spohr first visited See also:England in 1820, and on the 6th of See also: 2 in D See also:minor) and, instead of having it led by the first violinist and a See also:maestro al cembalo, conducted it himself with a See also:baton; a great innovation in London at the See also:time. Spohr had a triumphant success both as composer and as virtuoso; and he on his See also:side was delighted with the Philharmonic orchestra. At his farewell concert in London Mme Spohr played on the See also:harp for the last time. The constrained attitudes of harp---haying were See also:bad for her See also:health; so in later concerts she played the See also:pianoforte in duets with violin which her See also:husband produced with his usual prompt facility. After a transitory visit to Paris, Spohr returned to Germany and settled for a time in Dresden, where German and Italian opera were flourishing side by side under the direction of See also:Weber and Morlacchi. Spohr could 1 Not to be confused with The Last See also:Judgment. not appreciate Weber's See also:genius; nevertheless Weber recommended him strongly to the elector of See also:Hesse See also:Cassel as Kapellmeister. Spohr entered upon his duties at Cassel on the 1st of See also:January 1822, and soon afterwards began his See also:sixth opera, Jessonda, which he produced in 1823. This work—which he himself regarded as one of his best—marks an important See also:epoch in his operatic career. It was his first opera on See also:Gluck's lines, i.e. with accompanied recitative throughout in place of secco-recitative or spoken See also:dialogue; and it was produced in the same year as Weber's Euryanthe, a work marked by the same departure from German See also:custom. Spohr's resources at Cassel enabled him to produce his new works on a grander See also:scale and with more perfect detail than he could have attained in a less well-endowed See also:post; and he never failed to use these privileges to the See also:advantage of other meritorious composers, though as a critic he was very difficult to please. Soon after his See also:instalment Mendelssohn, then a boy of thirteen, visited Cassel; notwithstanding the disparity of their years, a See also:firm friendship sprang up between the two, which ceased only with Mendelssohn's See also:death in 1847. Spohr's next three operas, Der Berggeist (1825), Pietro von See also:Abano (1827) and Der Alchyrnist (183o), attained only See also:fair temporary success. But at the Rhenish musical festival held at See also:Dusseldorf in 1826, his oratorio Die letzten Dinge met with so enthusiastic a reception that it was repeated a few days later in aid of the See also:Greek Insurgents, and became the most famous of his sacred compositions. It is known in See also:English as The Last Judgment. In 1831 Spohr summed up another aspect of his career by See also:publishing his Violin School, an admirable See also:book for advanced students, which stands to the violin much as the See also:combination of See also:Cramer's Studies with See also:Clementi's See also:Gradus stands to the pianoforte. The year 1834 was saddened by the death of Spohr's wife. In 1836 he married again. During 1833 he had been working at an oratorio—See also:Des Heilands letzte Stunden, known in English as See also:Calvary or The Crucifixion—which was performed at Cassel on Good See also:Friday 1835, and sung in English at the See also:Norwich Festival of 1839 under Spohr's own direction, with an effect which he afterwards always spoke of as the greatest See also:triumph of his life. For the Norwich Festival of 1842 he composed The Fall of See also:Babylon, which also was a perfect success, though the elector of Hesse-Cassel, unmoved by a See also:petition from England almost amounting to a See also:diplomatic See also:representation, refused Spohr leave of See also:absence to conduct it. His last opera, Die Kreuzfahrer, was produced at Cassel in 1845. Of his nine symphonies the finest, Die Weihe der See also:Tone, was produced in 1832. His compositions for the violin include concertos, quartetts, duets, and other concerted pieces and solos, and among these a high place is taken by four See also:double quartetts, (i.e. octets for two antiphonal See also:string-quartet See also:groups), an See also:art-See also:form of his own invention. He was, indeed, keenly interested in experiments, notwithstanding his See also:attachment to classical form; and the care with which he produced See also:Wagner's Fliegender Hollander and See also:Tannhauser at Cassel in 1842 and 1853, in spite of the elector's opposition, shows that his failure to understand See also:Beethoven See also:lay deeper than pedantry. Spohr retained his appointment until 1857, when, very much against his wish, he was pensioned off. In the same year he See also:broke his See also:arm, but he was able to conduct Jessonda at See also:Prague in 1858. This, however, was his last effort. He died at Cassel on the 16th of See also:October 18 J9. Spohr's Selbstbiographie is a delightful document, revealing a See also:character the generosity of which was conspicuous through all its complacent intellectual foibles. He was a born See also:taste-maker, for he mastered the technique of his art safely and then applied his mastery to the expression of exactly those modes of thought which surprise no one who believes that each art-problem has one See also:answer and that the critics know it. But he had a very genuine melodic invention, and his sense of beauty was such as even the all-pervading mannerisms of his otiose See also:chromatic See also:style could not quite destroy. He tried every experiment the copy-book optimism of his See also:age could suggest; the subjects of his operas are all that is romantic and necromantic; he wrote almost as much " See also:programme-music " as See also:Berlioz; he invented " double quartets," he wrote an See also:Historical Symphony tracing the progress of music from See also:Bach to his own day; and, lastly, his See also:gift for orchestration was quite exceptional. Yet not one of his experiments shows any essential connexion between the new form and the old material which he has so skilfully packed into it. Nor is his treatment of his beloved classical forms any nearer to organic life. In conversation with See also:Joachim he once in his last years expressed the ambition to write a set of string quartets " in the strict form with all the passages ending properly with shakes." This shows that all his work as a composer had failed to wean him from the conventions of virtuoso players, and it well illustrates the way in which " strict forms " See also:desert their convenient functions to pose as classical ideas; for the " passage ending in a shake " is merely the easiest known way of See also:finishing a See also:section in concerto style, and is so far from being an essential feature in chamber-music that in the ten mature quartets of Mozart which Spohr undoubtedly regarded as his See also:models it cannot be traced in more than twelve of the thirtyone movements in which it ought to occur. The steady level of Spohr's mastery prevents any of his work from either rising to the height of Mendelssohn's See also:master-pieces, or sinking to the weakness of Mendelssohn's failures. But where the true conditions of an art-form suit Spohr's training and temperament he is, at times, very nearly a great composer; and in the severely restricted See also:medium of duets for two violins his work is an artistic tour de force, the neglect of which would be unfortunate in a wider See also: The player on the dealer's left leads. The highest card of the suit led—the value of the cards will be explained—or the highest trump, wins the See also:trick. Players must follow suit to a See also:lead of trumps, except in certain cases which will be mentioned. To a See also:plain suit no one need follow except a player who holds no trumps; others may follow or trump as they please. If a player takes three tricks he wins the game. If no one succeeds there is a " spoil," and a fresh stake, smaller than the original one as a See also:rule, is put into the See also:pool for the next See also:round. The See also:order of the cards in plain suits may be remembered by " after the See also:knave the highest in red and the lowest in See also:black." In red suits the order is See also: Only the five can renege to the knave led. The ace of-hearts can renege to any inferior card. If hearts are not trumps and the ace of hearts is led, a trump must beplayed if possible: if not, it is not necessary to play a See also:heart. " Twenty-five " and " See also:Forty-five " are -varieties of " Spoil-five ": the game is played for either of these See also:numbers; each trick See also:counts five to the maker, and there is no " spoil," but the trick made by the highest trump out scores ten; if a player gets out before that trump is played, he wins the game all the same. The winning of all five tricks is called a " jink "; at " Spoil-five " a player who jinks, if jinking is agreed upon, receives an extra stake all round; but if, after winning three tricks, he elects to " jink " and fails, he cannot See also:score during that hand. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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