Johann Mayrhofer
Johann Baptist Mayrhofer (22 October[1] 1787 – 5 February 1836) was an Austrian poet and librettist. He is best known for his close friendship with the composer Franz Schubert.
Biography[edit]
Mayrhofer was born in Steyr, Austria, educated at Novitiate in St. Florian's Priory, Upper Austria. In 1810 he began to study jurisprudence and theology at the University of Vienna, both of which courses he finished. He worked as a censor at the Zentral-Bücher-Revisions-Amt in Vienna.[2]
In 1814 he met the young composer Franz Schubert and his friends (Joseph von Spaun, Franz von Schober).
From 1818 to 1821 he lived with Schubert in a one-room apartment in a house on Wipplingerstrasse 4.[2][3]
After Schubert moved out, he wrote the poem "An Franz" for him:
You love me! Deeply I have felt it,
You faithful boy, tender and good;
So steel yourself, beautifully bound,
The noble, youthful courage!
However life presses on,
We hear the kindred sounds. |sign=Johann Mayrhofer, "An Franz"[4][5]
Most scholars agree that he was homosexual.[5] Mayrhofer wrote much lyric poetry and published it in 1824. Forty-seven Schubert songs and two of his operas (Die Freunde von Salamanka and Adrast) are based on texts by Mayrhofer.
In 1829 he published his Memories of Franz Schubert in the journal Neues Archiv für Geschichte,[6] through which some remarkable information about Schubert and his circle of friends have been handed down.
Mayrhofer was a hypochondriac all his life: in 1836, during a cholera epidemic, he committed suicide by jumping from the window of his office in Vienna.[7][8]
Libretti[edit]
- Die Freunde von Salamanca (1815)
- Adrast (1819)
Works[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Michael Lorenz: "Johann Mayrhofer's Real Date of Birth", michaelorenz.blogspot.com
- ^ a b Otto Erich Deutsch (1983). Schubert: Die Erinnerungen seiner Freunde (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. pp. 9f., 92. ISBN 3-7651-0186-9. OCLC 10759777.
- ^ "Wipplingerstraße". www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
- ^ Stegemann, Michael (1996). "Ich bin zu Ende mit allen Träumen" : Franz Schubert. Munich: Piper. pp. 227f. ISBN 3-492-03819-0. OCLC 36485726.
- ^ a b Musik-Konzepte – Franz Schubert "Todesmusik". Munich: edition text + kritik. 1997. p. 159. ISBN 3-88377-572-X. OCLC 38134251.
- ^ Mayrhofer, Johann (1829). "Erinnerungen an Franz Schubert, in: Neues Archiv für Geschichte, Staatenkunde, Literatur und Kunst (1829) – Bayerische Staatsbibliothek". opacplus.bsb-muenchen.de. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
- ^ Susan Youens, Schubert's Poets and the making of Lieder, p. 152
- ^ Deutsch, Otto Erich (1983). Schubert: Die Erinnerungen seiner Freunde (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. pp. 9f., 76, 92. ISBN 3-7651-0186-9. OCLC 10759777.
Further reading[edit]
- Davidson, Michael; Hillenaar, Henk (2008), Schubert and Mayrhofer. London 2008.
- Dürhammer, Ilija (March 1997), " 'Was ich gefühlt, hast Du gesungen' – Neue Dokumente zu Johann Mayrhofers Leben und Schaffen", Mitteilungen der österreichischen Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft 31, pp. 13–45.
- Dürhammer, Ilija (1999), Schuberts literarische Heimat. Dichtung und Literatur-Rezeption der Schubert-Freunde. Vienna, Cologne, Weimar.
- Michael Kohlhäufl (1999), Poetisches Vaterland. Dichtung und politisches Denken im Freundeskreis Franz Schuberts. Kassel 1999.
- List, Fritz (1921), Johann Mayrhofer, ein Freund und Textdichter Franz Schuberts. Munich 1921. Print: Nittenau: Kangler: [1991]: 226 Bl.
- Lorenz, Michael (2000), "Dokumente zur Biographie Johann Mayrhofers", Schubert durch die Brille 25, June 2000, 21–50.
- Norman McKay, Elizabeth: "Schubert and Classical Opera: The promise of Adrast", Erich Wolfgang Partsch (ed.): Der vergessene Schubert: Franz Schubert auf der Bühne. Böhlau, Wien 1997, ISBN 3-205-98749-7, p. 61–76.
- Rabenlechner, Michael Maria (1938), Johann Mayrhofers Gedichte mit einem Lebensbild des Dichters. Wiener Bibliophilen-Gesellschaft 1938.
- Steblin, Rita (2001), "Schubert’s Problematic Relationship with Johann Mayrhofer: New Documentary Evidence". Essays on Music and Culture in Honor of Herbert Kellman, 2001, 465–495.
- Youens, Susan (1999), Schubert’s Poets and the Making of Lieder. Cambridge University Press 1999.
External links[edit]
- "Mayrhofer, Johann" in Constant von Wurzbach: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich. Vol. 17. Verlag L. C. Zamarski, Vienna 1856–1891, 186–190
- V. Hanus: "Mayrhofer Johann". In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Vol. 6, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-7001-0128-7, p. 13 f. (Direct links to "p. 13", "p. 14")
- Walburga Litschauer (1990), "Mayrhofer, Johann", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 16, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 574–575
| Compositions |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media |
| ||||||
| People |
| ||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
