Carl Heinrich Graun
Encyclopedia
Carl Heinrich Graun was a German composer and tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

 singer. Along with Johann Adolf Hasse, he is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time.

Biography

Graun was born in Wahrenbrück
Uebigau-Wahrenbrück
Uebigau-Wahrenbrück is a town in the Elbe-Elster district, in southwestern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated on the river Schwarze Elster, 11 km northwest of Bad Liebenwerda, and 21 km east of Torgau.-References:...

 in Brandenburg. He sang in the chorus of the Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 opera before moving to Braunschweig, singing there and writing six operas for the company. In 1735 Graun moved to Rheinsberg
Rheinsberg
Rheinsberg is a town and a municipality in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated on the river Rhin, approx. 20 km north-east of Neuruppin and 75 km north-west of Berlin.-History:...

, after he had written an opera for the crown prince, when marrying Elisabeth Christine
Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern
Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern was a Queen of Prussia as wife of Frederick the Great...

 in Salzdahlum. He was kapellmeister
Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...

 to Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...

 (Frederick the Great) from his ascension to the throne in 1740 until Graun's death nineteen years later in Berlin.

Graun wrote a number of operas. His opera Cesare e Cleopatra inaugurated the opening of the Berlin opera house in 1742. Others, such as Montezuma
Montezuma (Graun)
Montezuma is an opera seria in three acts by the German composer Carl Heinrich Graun. The scenario was written in French by Graun's patron, Frederick the Great, the King of Prussia, and turned into an Italian libretto by Giampetro Tagliazucchi....

(1755), with a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by King Frederick. His pieces are rarely played today, though his passion Der Tod Jesu (The Death of Jesus, 1755) was frequently performed in Germany for many years after his death. His other works include concertos and trio sonata
Trio sonata
The trio sonata is a musical form that was popular in the 17th and early 18th centuries.A trio sonata is written for two solo melodic instruments and basso continuo, making three parts in all, hence the name trio sonata...

s.

Carl Heinrich Graun was the brother of Johann Gottlieb Graun
Johann Gottlieb Graun
Johann Gottlieb Graun was a German Baroque/Classical era composer and violinist.Graun was born in Wahrenbrück. His brother Carl Heinrich was also a composer and singer. He studied with J.G. Pisendel in Dresden, and Giuseppe Tartini in Padua. Appointed Konzertmeister in Merseburg in 1726, he taught...

, also a composer.

Stage works

  • Polydorus (5 acts, 1726–28)
  • Iphigenia in Aulis (3 acts 1728)
  • Scipio Africanus (3 acts, 1732)
  • Lo specchio della fedeltà (3 acts, 1733)
  • Pharao Tubaetes (5 acts, 1735)
  • Rodelinda, regina de' langobardi (3 acts, 1741)
  • Cesare e Cleopatra
    Cesare e Cleopatra
    Cesare e Cleopatra is a dramma per musica in three acts by composer Carl Heinrich Graun. The opera uses an Italian language libretto by Giovan Gualberto Bottarelli.-Royal Opera House premiere:...

    (3 acts, 1742)
  • Artaserse, libretto by Metastasio
    Metastasio
    Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.-Early life:...

     (3 acts, 1743)
  • Catone in Utica, libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1743)
  • Alessandro e Poro, libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1744)
  • Lucio Papirio (3 acts, 1744)
  • Adriano in Siria, libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1746)
  • Demofoonte, libretto by Metastasio (3 acts, 1746)
  • Cajo Fabricio (3 acts, 1746)
  • Le feste galanti (1747)
  • Cinna (3 acts, 1748)
  • L'Europa galante (1748)
  • Ifigenia in Aulide (3 acts, 1748)
  • Angelica e Medoro
    Angelica and Medoro
    Angelica and Medoro was a popular theme for Romantic painters, composers and writers from the sixteenth until the nineteenth century. Angelica and Medoro are two characters from the siwteenth-century Italian epic Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto...

    (3 acts, 1749)
  • Coriolano (3 acts, 1749)
  • Fetonte (3 acts, 1750)
  • Il Mithridate (3 acts, 1751)
  • L’Armida (3 acts, 1751)
  • Britannico (3 acts, 1751)
  • L'Orfeo (3 acts, 1752)
  • Il giudizio di Paride (1 act, 1752)
  • Silla (3 acts, 1753)
  • Semiramide (3 acts, 1754)
  • Montezuma
    Montezuma (Graun)
    Montezuma is an opera seria in three acts by the German composer Carl Heinrich Graun. The scenario was written in French by Graun's patron, Frederick the Great, the King of Prussia, and turned into an Italian libretto by Giampetro Tagliazucchi....

    (3 acts, 1755)
  • Ezio, libretto by Metastasio (1755)
  • I fratelli nemici (3 acts, 1756)
  • La Merope (3 acts, 1756)

Other works

  • Te Deum
  • Passion Cantata "Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld" (ca. 1730)
  • "Kommt her und schaut" (Große Passion)(1730)
  • Der Tod Jesu (1755)
  • Oratorium in Festum Nativitatis Christi
  • Osteroratorium
  • Six Italian Cantatas
  • Concerto for Horn, Strings and Cembalo D-major
  • Sinfonia C-major
  • Concerto for Viola da gamba

Sources

  • Graun, Carl Heinrich by E Eugene Helm, in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
    New Grove Dictionary of Opera
    The New Grove Dictionary of Opera is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes....

    ', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7

External links

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