Heinrich von Herzogenberg

Heinrich von Herzogenberg
(b Graz, 10 June 1843; d Wiesbaden, 9 Oct 1900). Austrian composer. The son of an Austrian court official, he received his education in the humanities at the Gymnasien in Feldkirch (Vorarlberg), Dresden and Graz.

From 1862 to 1865 he studied law at the University of Vienna as well as composition at the conservatory with Felix Otto Dessoff, through whom his lifelong friendship with Brahms was formed. In 1868 Herzogenberg settled in Graz as a freelance composer, but moved to Leipzig in 1872. There he founded the Bach-Verein with Philipp Spitta and Alfred Volkland in 1874, and became its leader in 1875. In 1885 he succeeded Friedrich Kiel as professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where he also gave a masterclass in composition. After an absence from his teaching activities caused by ill-health, he lost his position at the Hochschule to Woldemar Bargiel in 1889. In 1891 he also gave up his masterclass, and he became a member of the Senate in 1892. After Bargiel's death in 1897 he took over his work at the Hochschule and the Akademie der Künste. Further illness forced him to retire in the spring of 1900.

Herzogenberg was one of the most distinguished composers from the circle of conservative Berlin academics. He had an all-round training, his musical activity being influenced by the various movements of the 19th century. A few of his early works, especially the dramatic cantata Columbus op.11, bear witness to his clash with Wagner, and his piano works and songs were initially influenced by Schumann, and later, increasingly, by Brahms, on whose chamber works he modelled his own. Herzogenberg's interest in earlier music, especially that of Bach, was principally nurtured by Spitta. It found its expression in his own Protestant church music, which Herzogenberg, though of Catholic upbringing, had emphasized in his output since 1893 when he came under the influence of the theologian Friedrich Spitta (1852–1924), Philipp's brother. The cantata Totenfeier op.80 stands at the transition to this period, the central focus of which is made up of the three church oratorios, Die Geburt Christi op.90, Die Passion op.93 and Erntefeier op.104. In 1868 Herzogenberg married Elisabeth (b Paris, 13 April 1847; d San Remo, 7 Jan 1892), daughter of Bodo Albrecht von Stockhausen (a diplomat of the Hanoverian Court); she was a pianist and a former pupil and close friend of Brahms.