Chrétien Urhan
Encyclopedia
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist, organist
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, composer and player of the viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
and the viola d'amore
Viola d'amore
The viola d'amore is a 7- or 6-stringed musical instrument with sympathetic strings used chiefly in the baroque period. It is played under the chin in the same manner as the violin.- Structure and sound :...
.
Career outline
His father first introduced him to the violin. He was first mentioned in 1804 by Joséphine de BeauharnaisJoséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and thus the first Empress of the French. Her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, and she had been imprisoned in the Carmes prison until her release five days after Alexandre's...
that he had replaced a violinist for a performance of Haydn's The Creation, at the young age of 14. From there he was sent to work in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he took instruction from Jean-François Lesueur, master of the chapel of the Tuileries. He also learned from prominent teachers such as François-Antoine Habeneck, Rodolphe Kreutzer
Rodolphe Kreutzer
Rodolphe Kreutzer was a German violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer of forty French operas.-Biography:...
and Pierre Rode
Pierre Rode
Jacques Pierre Joseph Rode was a French violinist and composer.-Biography:Born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France, Pierre Rode traveled to Parisat the age of 13 and soon became a favourite pupil of the great Giovanni Battista Viotti who found the boy so talented that he charged him no fee for the...
. He was invited to join the imperial chapel as a violinist in 1810.
In this period the young Urhan shared lodgings with his friends the harpist Franz Anton Stockhausen (father of Julius Stockhausen
Julius Stockhausen
Julius Christian Stockhausen was a German singer and singing master.- Life :Stockhausens' parents, Franz Stockhausen Sr...
) and the painter Carl Begas the elder (who was studying with Antoine Jean Gros, 1813-15). In 1815, through a Quartermaster in the Prussian army of occupation, Urhan and Stockhausen (who corresponded with Beethoven) obtained a score of Beethoven's Eroica
Eroica
The name Eroica may refer to:*The Eroica Symphony, by Ludwig van Beethoven;*The Eroica Variations for piano, also by Beethoven;*The Eroica Piano Trio, an American chamber ensemble;...
Symphony and set it before Habeneck, with the result that the work was introduced to Paris. The two were among Amis de Beethoven, or Beethoven-Bruder in Paris, together with Wilhelm Mangold and others. In the early 1820s the violinist Sina, a member of the string quartet led by Schuppanzigh for Andreas Razumovsky
Andreas Razumovsky
Count Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky was a Russian diplomat who spent many years of his life in Vienna.-Life :Razumovsky was the son of Cyril Razumovsky, the last hetman of Ukraine, and nephew of Aleksey Grigorievich Razumovsky, called the Night Emperor. The elder Rasumovsky's late Baroque palace...
, with Urhan gave new encouragement to Habeneck to continue with the master's works. Until Stockhausen's marriage to the singer Margarethe Schmuck
Margarethe Stockhausen
Margarethe Stockhausen , born Margarethe Schmuck, was a soprano singer who had a distinguished career in Europe and Britain during the 1820s and 1830s...
, a member of their circle, in 1825, he lived with Urhan, who remained a lifelong friend.
In 1816, Urhan was appointed solo viola at the Opéra de Paris, and became solo violinist in 1825. Strongly Catholic, he was also appointed the organist at the Church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul in Paris in 1827, a position that he held until his death. In this position he met the young Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, with whom he played chamber music, and also the Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata
Violin Sonata No. 9 (Beethoven)
Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, commonly known as the Kreutzer Sonata, is a violin sonata which Ludwig van Beethoven published as his Opus 47...
in a mass. A number of composers wrote prominent parts for Urhan. Meyerbeer composed for him solo viola and solo viola d'amore parts in his opera Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
, and Rudolph Kreutzer, the solo viola d'amore part in his opera Le Paradis de Mahomet. In 1834, Berlioz wrote his Harold en Italie for orchestra with viola obbligato at the request of Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...
, who refused to play the work. Berlioz offered the solo viola part to Urhan and the premiere was given on November 23, 1834 at the Paris Conservatory.
His character, seen by Ernest Legouvé
According to Ernest LegouvéErnest Legouvé
Gabriel Jean Baptiste Ernest Wilfrid Legouvé was a French dramatist.-Biography:Son of the poet Gabriel-Marie Legouvé , he was born in Paris. His mother died in 1810, and almost immediately afterwards his father was removed to a lunatic asylum. The child, however, inherited a considerable fortune,...
, he was both entirely religious and entirely devoted to music. He lived like a medieval ascetic, abstaining from almost everything except his daily visit to the Café des Anglais. His love for theatre music created a severe inner conflict, which he overcame by asking the permission of the Archbishop to play in the orchestra of the Opéra (of which he was Leader), being told it was a matter for his own conscience. He accepted this by always being seated with his back to the stage, so that he never saw the singers or dancers for whom he played, even when providing solo accompaniment for a dancer.
He was in many other ways withdrawn and eccentric. He once visited Legouvé's wife and sat silently in her house for a time, and only as he left spoke, saying 'Thankyou, I needed to come and see you.' On another occasion, while walking in the Bois de Boulogne
Bois de Boulogne
The Bois de Boulogne is a park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine...
, a voice came into his mind and instructed him to write down a tune. He did so, and published it, but refused to be credited as its author, calling it 'transcription', and insisting that Legouvé write an article on the miraculous composition.
However, no-one thought of laughing at him, because he led such an austere life, and gave everything he earned to charity. His dignity, not for himself but for the music he served, was proverbial. When a beautiful young duchess made a slight commotion entering a concert given by the Marquis de Prault at the faubourg Saint-Honoré, during a Beethoven string ensemble movement led by Urhan, the violinist rapped with his bow to stop the music and waited for total silence before restarting the movement.
Legouvé thought there were several greater violin virtuousi in Paris than Urhan, but that he outshone them through his profound knowledge of the masters and respect for their music, and through the indefinable quality of style which he brought to them. He often differed with Habeneck, when the conductor wanted to make cuts, and actually published and signed an article against Habeneck when he withdrew some double-basses from Beethoven's Choral Symphony. He did not merely guard the reputation of the old masters, but he was also a fierce advocate and defender of the new, and of those of the future. He was the first to introduce a song of Schubert's into France ('L'Adieu'). For Legouvé, to see him play was like watching Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico
Fra Angelico , born Guido di Pietro, was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent"...
painting in his cell, a medieval mystic at work.
Urhan's death
The Stockhausens visited Urhan in his fifth-floor Paris apartment in 1839, and found him living in great simplicity in two rooms, with a piano and five stools in his bedroom, where they sat and were made very welcome. In 1843 Urhan encouraged their son Julius while he was in Paris. In November 1845 Julius wrote to inform his parents of Urhan's death. He had been living in pitiable conditions in Belleville, and began to refuse his food: thoughts of suicide made him resolve to starve himself to death. He suffered agonies of pain and descended into a frenzy, giving terrible grief to his friends, none of whom could talk him out of it. All interventions failed, and Urhan, whom the Stockhausen and Legentil families considered their dear friend, and who had formerly taken communion every Sunday, lost his faith in God and his desire for life. Thus he died, quietly at last with friends at his bedside, on 2 November 1845.Compositions
These are a small selection of his large number of chamber ensemble compositions.- Three Grand Walzes for piano
- Two romantic quintets for 2 violins, 2 violas and celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, dedicated to Baillot and Victor HugoVictor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France.... - Three romantic duos for piano (4 hands)
- The cantata les Champs de repos
Image
- Anonymous oil portrait (black and white reproduction), in Wirth 1927, Plate facing p. 32.
External links
Sources
This article began as a translation of the article in French Wikipedia.- Ernest LegouvéErnest LegouvéGabriel Jean Baptiste Ernest Wilfrid Legouvé was a French dramatist.-Biography:Son of the poet Gabriel-Marie Legouvé , he was born in Paris. His mother died in 1810, and almost immediately afterwards his father was removed to a lunatic asylum. The child, however, inherited a considerable fortune,...
, Soixante Ans de Souvenirs (Paris 1886-87), Part II, Ch. 8. (see external links) - Ulrich Schuppener, Christian Urhan. Zum 200. Geburtstag des bedeutenden Musikers aus Monschau (Christian Urhan: On the 200th Birthday of the Distinguished Musician from Monschau): (Beiträge zur Geschichte des Monschauer Landes, 2), Geschichtsverein des Monschauer Landes (Contributions to the History of the MonschauMonschauMonschau is a small resort town in the Eifel region of western Germany, located in the district Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia.-Geography:The town is located in the hills of the North Eifel, within the Hohes Venn – Eifel Nature Park in the narrow valley of the Rur river.The historic town center...
Province, no. 2: Monschau Province History Society). (Monschau 1991). - Julia Wirth, Julius Stockhausen. Der Sänger des Deutschen Liedes (Verlag Englert u. Schlosser, Frankfurt am Main 1927).