Norbert Burgmüller

(August Joseph) Norbert Burgmüller
(b Düsseldorf, 8 Feb 1810; d Aachen, 7 May 1836). German composer and pianist.

A son of Johann August Franz Burgmüller, Norbert possessed far greater ability than his father or his brother Friedrich, but lacked their ambition and worldliness. One of his early patrons was Count von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven, who brought him to his estates near Kassel after his father's death and had him educated there. From 1826 to 1831 Burgmüller studied composition with Moritz Hauptmann and Spohr, his most important teacher.

During these years Burgmüller made frequent appearances as a pianist and composer, for instance performing his Piano Concerto op.1 in January 1830. The following year he moved to Düsseldorf, hoping to obtain a permanent appointment in the flourishing musical atmosphere of that city, but the project came to nothing. He was suffering very frequent epileptic fits at this time, and his decline in social status began, partly because of financial problems but also because of the reclusive life he led, remaining in contact with only a few close friends including the poet C.D. Grabbe.

Burgmüller's compositions attracted an increasing amount of attention, and won the approval of Mendelssohn, who performed his Symphony in C minor op.2, among other works. But his social situation remained insecure, and he was considering moving to Paris when he died of an epileptic fit while staying at Aachen to take the waters. In an impassioned obituary, Schumann wrote: ‘Since the early death of Schubert, nothing more deplorable has happened than that of Burgmüller’ (Gesammelte Schriften, 111, 145), and a funeral march composed by Mendelssohn himself (op.103) accompanied him to the grave.