Carl Heinrich Graun

Carl Heinrich Graun (born the May 7th 1704 in Germany in Wahrenbrück (today Uebigau-Wahrenbrück), dead the August 8th 1759 with Berlin) was a singer (tenor) and German Compositeur.

Biography

In 1713, Graun attended the Kreuzschule Dresden in company of his/her brother Johann Gottlieb and will be pointed out soon by the exceptional quality of its voice. It is in this school that it followed its first courses of song, harpsichord and violoncello. He studied the musical Composition under the direction of the choirmaster Schmidt. In 1724, it was called as singer (Ténor) at the court of Braunschweig. In 1735, it makes its beginnings at the same time as his/her brother Johann Gottlieb Graun - also leader and type-setter - as vice-Master of vault with the service of the Crown prince to Prussia, who will become the future Frederic II, known as Frederic Large the, king de Prusse. It will compose and direct cantatas, of which the number is estimated at 50.

In 1740, after the accession with the throne of Frederic the Large one, Graun is named choirmaster, then sent in Italy with for mission of recruiting singers and singers for the Italian opera which the sovereign in Berlin wishes to build. The new theater will be inaugurated with its opera Cesare E Cleopatra , on December 7th 1742.

Of return to Berlin and restored in its functions of choirmaster, it will be devoted entirely to the composition of operas corresponding perfectly to the taste of the king and the public of the time, which will make soon him to it main uncontested Berliner lyric scenes - what it will remain until his death. The sovereign will contribute to the operas of Graun by writing itself the booklet of the opera of Graun entitled Montezuma .

Works of Graun then constituted the principal repertory of the programs of the Berliner operas, beside those of Johann Adolph Hasse.

Works

Graun divides with the choirmaster of Dresden, Johann Adolph Hasse (1699 - 1783), the merit to have carried to its higher perfection the Italian opera of Alessandro Scarlatti. The two type-setters accepted as well testimonys of recognition on behalf of their contemporaries as they temporarily rejected into the shade works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel.

With the arrival of Christoph Willibald Gluck, its works disappeared definitively from the lyric repertory. On the other hand, its passion, Der Tod Jesu ( the death of Jesus ), played for the first time in 1755, will remain until our days in the programmes of concert in Berlin and elsewhere.

In addition to this passion and 28 operas, Graun left with the posterity a great number of religious compositions, including one Te Deum, written in the honor of the victory of Prague in 1756, like various instrumental compositions.

Theatrical works

Polidorus (5 acts, 1726 or 1731)
Die in ihrer Unschuld siegende Sinilde (3 acts, 1727)
Iphigenia in Aulis (3 acts, 1728)
Scipio Africanus (3 acts, 1732)
Lo specchio beyond fedeltà (3 acts, 1733)
Pharao Tubaetes (5 acts, 1735)
Rodelinda, Regina del' angobardi (3 acts, 1741)
Cleopatra E Cesare (3 acts, 1742)
Artaserse (3 acts, 1743)
Catone in Utica (3 acts, 1743)
Alessandro E Poro (3 acts, 1744)
Lucio Papirio (3 acts, 1744)
Adriano in Siria (3 acts, 1746)
Demofoonte (3 acts, 1746)
Cajo Fabricio (3 acts, 1746)
the feste galanti festa teatrale (1747)
Cinna (3 acts, 1748)
Europa gallant festa teatrale (5 acts, 1748)
Ifigenia in Aulide (3 acts, 1748)
Angelica E Medoro (3 acts, 1749)
Coriolano tragedia per musica (3 acts, 1749)
Fetonte tragedia per musica (3 acts, 1750)
It Mithridate tragedia per musica (3 acts, 1751)
Armida (3 acts, 1751)
Britannico tragedia per musica (3 acts, 1751)
Orfeo tragedia per musica (3 acts, 1752)
It giudizio di Paride pastoral per muscia (1 act, 1752)
Silla (3 acts, 1753)
Semiramide (3 acts, 1754)
Montezuma tragedia per musica (3 acts, 1755)
Ezio (1755)
I fratelli nemici tragedia per musica (3 acts, 1756)
Merope tragedia per musica (3 acts, 1756)

Various works

Te Deum
Der Tod Jesu, Oratorio (1755)
Oratorium in Festum Nativitatis Christi
Oratorio of Easter
Six Italian cantatas
Melodies (published in a collection of odes chosen by Friedrich Graefe, 1743)
Concerto for horn, cords and Harpsichord in major D
Sinfonia in major C

Sources

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon von 1888
Site on the type-setter

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