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Moritz Hauptmann

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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MORITZ HAUPTMANN (1792-1868), German musical composer and writer, was born at Dresden, on the 13th of October 1792, and studied music under Scholz, Lanska, Grosse and Morlacchi, the rival of Weber. Afterwards he completed his education as a violinist and composer under Spohr, and till 1820 held various appointments in private families, varying his musical occupations with mathematical and other studies bearing chiefly on acoustics and kindred subjects. For a time also Hauptmann was employed as an architect, but all other pursuits gave place to music, and a grand tragic opera, Mathilde, belongs to the period just referred to. In 1822 he entered the orchestra of Cassel, again under Spohr's direction, and it was then that he first taught composition and musical theory to such men as Ferdinand David, Burgmiiller, Kiel and others. His compositions at this time chiefly consisted of motets, masses, cantatas and songs. His opera Mathilde was performed at Cassel with great success. In 1842 Hauptmann obtained the position of cantor at the Thomas-school of Leipzig (long previously occupied by the great Johann Sebastian Bach) together with that of professor at the conservatoire, and it was in this capacity that his unique gift as a teacher developed itself and was acknowledged by a crowd of enthusiastic and more or less distinguished pupils. He died on the 3rd of January 1868, and the universal regret felt at his death at Leipzig is said to have been all but equal to that caused by the loss of his friend Medelssohn many years before. Hauptmann's compositions are marked by symmetry and perfection of workmanship rather than by spontaneous invention.

Amongst his vocal compositions - by far the most important portion of his work - may be mentioned two masses, choral songs for mixed voices (Op. 32, 47), and numerous part songs. The results of his scientific research were embodied in his book Die Natur der Harmonik and Metrik (1853), a standard work of its kind, in which a philosophic explanation of the forms of music is attempted.