GOLDMARK, KARL (1832- )

This article appears in Volume V12, Page 213 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: GOA-GRA

GOLDMARK, KARL (1832- ) , Hungarian composer, was born at Keszthely-am-Plattensee, in

Hungary

HUNGARY
HUNGARY (Hungarian Magyarorszdg)

, on the 18th of May 1832. His father, a poor cantor in the local Jewish

synagogue

SYNAGOGUE (avvaywyii)
SYNAGOGUE, UNITED

, was unable to assist to any extent financially in the development of his son's talents. Yet in the

household

HOUSEHOLD, ROYAL

much music was made, and on a cheap

violin

VIOLIN

and

home

-made

flute

FLUTE

, constructed by

Goldmark

GOLDMARK, KARL (1832- )

himself from reeds cut from the river-bank, the future composer gave rein to his musical ideas. His talent was fostered by the

village

VILLAGE

schoolmaster, by whose aid he was able to enter the music-school of the Oedenburger Verein. Here he remained but a short time, his success at a school concert finally determining his parents to allow him to devote himself entirely to music. In 1844, then, he went to Vienna, where Jansa took up his cause and eventually obtained for him admission to the conservatorium. For two years

Goldmark

GOLDMARK, KARL (1832- )

worked under Jansa at the

violin

VIOLIN

, and on the outbreak of the revolution, after studying all the orchestral

instruments

INSTRUMENTS

he obtained an engagement in the orchestra at Raab. There, on the capitulation of Raab, he was to have been shot for a spy, and was only saved at the eleventh hour by the happy arrival of a former colleague. In 185o Goldmark left Raab for Vienna, where from his friend Mittrich he obtained his first real knowledge of the classics. There, too, he devoted himself to composition. In 1857 Goldmark,
who was then engaged in the Karl-theater band, gave a concert of his own works with such success that his first quartet attracted very general attention. Then followed the " Sakuntala " and " Penthesilea " overtures, which show how Wagner's influence had supervened upon his previous domination by Mendelssohn, and the delightful " Landliche Hochzeit " symphony, which carried his fame abroad. Goldmark's reputation was now made, and very largely increased by the production at Vienna in 1875 of his first and best opera, Die Konigin von Saba. Over this opera he spent seven years. Its popularity is still almost as

great

GREAT

as ever. It was followed in November 1886. also at Vienna, by Merlin, much of which has been re-written since then. A third opera, a version of Dickens's Cricket on the Hearth, was given by the Royal Carl Rosa Company in London in 19oo. Goldmark's chamber music has not made much lasting impression, but the overtures " Im Friihling," " Prometheus Bound," and " Sapho " are fairly well known. A " programme " seems essential to him. In opera he is most certainly at his best, and as an orchestral colourist he ranks among the very highest.

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