The 1850s decade ran from January 1, 1850, to December 31, 1859.

Politics and wars[link]

Crimean war

Wars[link]

• Crimean war (1854–56) fought between Imperial Russia and an alliance consisting of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Second French Empire, the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Ottoman Empire. The majority of the conflict takes place around Crimea, on the northern coasts of the Black Sea.
• On 1856-10-08, the Second Opium War between several western powers and China begins with the Arrow Incident on the Pearl River.
• Second War of Italian Independence (1859), also known as Franco-Austrian War, or Austro-Sardinian War.

Internal conflicts[link]

• The Indian Mutiny: revolt against British colonial rule in India
• Bleeding Kansas (1854–59): battles erupt in Kansas Territory between proslavery and "Free-State" settlers, directly precipitating the American Civil War.
• Taiping Rebellion (1851–64) in Qing China.

Prominent political events[link]

• Moldavia and Wallachia are unified and form Romania.
• Gideon T. Stewart attempts to create a Prohibition Party.
• Dissolution of the Mughal Empire by the British.

Assassinations[link]

This section requires expansion.

The 1850s were marked by several notable assassinations and assassination attempts:

• Eight are killed and 142 wounded in Paris in a failed assassination attempt on Napoleon III, Emperor of the French (1858).

Science[link]

• Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, putting forward the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1859
• Epidemiology begins when John Snow traces the source of an outbreak of cholera in London to a contaminated water pump.
• Discovery of Neanderthal fossils in Neanderthal, Germany
• Solar flares discovered by Richard Christopher Carrington

Economics[link]

• Distinction between coats and jackets begins to blur
• Production of steel revolutionized by invention of the Bessemer process
• Benjamin Silliman fractionates petroleum by distillation for the first time
• First transpacific telegraph cable laid
• First safety elevator installed by Elisha Otis
• Railroads begin to supplant canals in the United States as a primary means of transporting goods.
• First commercially successful sewing machine made by Isaac Singer

Environment[link]

• Ukrainian settlers bring Carniolan honeybees to the Primorsky Krai

Society[link]

• The word girlfriend first appears in writing in 1855.
• The word boyfriend first appears in writing in 1856.

The introduction of these two terms may indicate the beginning of the broad acceptance of new, more liberal forms of courtship in Western Culture.

Popular culture[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

Literature[link]

• Charles Dickens publishes Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities

People[link]

World leaders[link]

• Padshah Bahadur Shah Zafar (Mughal Empire)
• Emperor Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary)
• Emperor Napoleon III (Second French Empire)
• King Frederick William IV (Germany)
• Pope Pius IX
• Queen Maria II (Portugal)
• King Peter V (Portugal)
• Emperor Nicholas I (Russia)
• Emperor Alexander II (Russia)
• Queen Isabella II (Spain)
• Queen Victoria, (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• Prime Minister Lord John Russell (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• Prime Minister Lord Aberdeen (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• Prime Minister Lord Palmerston (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• President Zachary Taylor (United States)
• President Millard Fillmore (United States)
• President Franklin Pierce (United States)
• President James Buchanan (United States)
• Nasser-al-Din Shah of Qajar dynasty (Persia)

External links[link]

• American texts from 1850s
• American speeches from 1850s

Eduard Franck

Eduard Franck (1817–1893) was born in Breslau, the capital of the Prussian province of Silesia. He was the fourth child of a wealthy and cultivated banker who exposed his children to the best and brightest that Germany had to offer. Frequenters to the Franck home included such luminaries as Heine, Humboldt, Heller, Mendelssohn, and Wagner. His family’s financial position allowed Franck to study with Mendelssohn as a private student in Düsseldorf and later in Leipzig. As a talented pianist, he embarked upon a dual career as a concert artist and teacher for more than four decades during the course of which he held many positions.

Although he was highly regarded as both a teacher and performer, he never achieved the public recognition of his better known contemporaries such as Mendelssohn, Schumann or Liszt. As fine a pianist as the first two and perhaps even a better teacher, the fact that he failed to publish very many of his compositions until toward the end of his life, in part, explains why he was not better known. Said to be a perfectionist, he continually delayed releasing his works until they were polished to his demanding standards. Schumann, among others, thought quite highly of the few works he did publish during the first part of his life.

His chamber music is generally considered amongst his finest compositions. Of the works with opus numbers, there are 3 string quartets, 2 string quintets for 2 violins, 2 violas and cello, 2 string sextets, 3 piano trios, a piano quintet, 2 sonatas for cello & piano, and 4 sonatas for violin and piano. In addition to these, there are several other works without opus, including a piano sextet, 2 piano trios, a piano quintet, a sonata for violin & piano and an occasional piece for cello & piano.

Wilhelm Altmann, probably the most important chamber music critic of the 20th century, in writing of Franck’s chamber music, comments:

“This excellent composer does not deserve the neglect with which he has been treated. He had a mastery of form and a lively imagination which is clearly reflected in the fine and attractive ideas one finds in his works.”

Of Franck’s Second Sextet, Altmann states: “This sextet belongs in the concert hall. It demonstrates that its composer was master of musical form and in possession of a gift which allows him to produce strong and noble melodies.”

He was the father of Richard Franck.

Within the next years, all available works of Eduard Franck will be published in critical Editions by Pfefferkorn Music Publishers, Leipzig.

List of chamber music works with opus number[link]

• Op.6: Sonata for Violoncello & Piano in D Major
• Op.11: Piano Trio No.1 in e minor
• Op.15: String Quintet in e minor (2 Vln, 2 Vla & Vc)
• Op.19: No.1: Sonata for Violin & Piano in c minor
• Op.22: Piano Trio No.2 in E Flat Major
• Op.23: No.2: Sonata for Violin & Piano in A Major
• Op.41: String Sextet No.1 in E Flat Major, 2011 critical Urtext-Edition by Pfefferkorn Music Publishers (Leipzig)
• Op.42: Sonata for Violoncello & Piano in F Major
• Op.45: Piano Quintet in D Major
• Op.49: String Quartet No.1 in f minor (also known as Op.40)
• Op.50: String Sextet No.2 in D Major, 2011 critical Urtext-Edition by Pfefferkorn Music Publishers (Leipzig)
• Op.51: String Quintet No.2 in C Major (2 Vln, 2 Vla & Vc)
• Op.53: Piano Trio No.3 in E Flat Major
• Op.54: String Quartet No.2 in E Flat Major
• Op.55: String Quartet No.3 in c minor
• Op.58: Piano Trio No.4 in D Major
• Op.60: Sonata for Violin & Piano in E Major

Orchestral works (partial list)[link]

• Op.12: Concert-overture in E♭ (1848)^[1]
• Op.13: Piano Concerto in D minor (1850)^[2]; Critical Urtext-Edition edited by James Tocco, 2012 by Pfefferkorn Music Publishers, Leipzig
• Op.30: Violin Concerto in E minor (1855)^[3]
• Op.47: Symphony in A (1860?)^[3]
• Op.52: Symphony in B♭ (1856)^[4]
• Op.57: Violin Concerto in D (1860)^[4]
• Without opus?: Piano Concerto No.2 in C? (1879) (manuscript)

References[link]

1. ^ Hofmeisters Monatsberichte, 1848; several libraries
2. ^ Hofmeisters Monatsberichte, January 1850
3. ^ ^{a b} Barnett, Rob (November 2003). "Review of Audite CD with Symphony in A and Violin Concerto in E minor". MusicWeb International. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Nov03/Frank_violin2.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-10. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Barnett, Rob (November 2003). "Review of Audite CD with Symphony in B-flat and Violin Concerto in D". MusicWeb International. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Nov03/Franck_E_violin.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-10. 

• Altmann, Wilhelm: Handbuch fur Streichquartettspieler, Vol.3, Heinrichshofen Verlag, Wilhelmshafen,1972
• Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, Vol.1, 2nd Edition, Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1963
• Feuchte, Paul and Andreas: Die Komponisten Eduard Franck und Richard Franck, Leben und Werk, Dokumente, Quellen, Second Edition, Leipzig 2010
• Some of the information on this page appears on the website of Edition Silvertrust but permission has been granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

External links[link]

• Website of Pfefferkorn Music Publishers, Leipzig
• Eduard Franck String Sextet Nos.1 & 2, String Quartet Nos. 2 & 3 and Piano Quintet Op.45 Soundbites & short biography.
• http://www.klassika.info/Komponisten/Franck/index.html
• http://www.audite.de
• Free scores by Eduard Franck at the International Music Score Library Project
• Early works for Piano, scores and recordings: on a modern grandpiano and on a Berndt grandpiano from 1848

Stephen Collins Foster
Stephen Collins Foster
Born	(1826-07-04)July 4, 1826 Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, United States
Died	January 13, 1864(1864-01-13) (aged 37) New York, New York, United States
Occupation	Songwriter

Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864), known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century. His songs — such as "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home" ("Swanee River"), "Hard Times Come Again No More", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Old Black Joe", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", and "Beautiful Dreamer" — remain popular over 150 years after their composition.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Foster attended private academies in Allegheny, Athens, and Towanda, Pennsylvania. He received an education in English grammar, diction, the classics, penmanship, Latin and Greek, and mathematics. In 1839, his elder brother William was serving his apprenticeship as an engineer at nearby Towanda and thought Stephen would benefit from being under his supervision. The site of the Camptown Races is 30 miles from Athens, and 15 miles from Towanda. Stephen attended Athens Academy from 1839 to 1841. He wrote his first composition, Tioga Waltz, while attending Athens Academy, and performed it during the 1839 commencement exercises; he was 14. It was not published during the composer's lifetime, but it is included in the collection of published works by Morrison Foster. In 1842, Athens Academy was destroyed in a fire.

His education included a brief period at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (now Washington & Jefferson College).^{[1][nb 1]} His tuition was paid, but Foster had little spending money.^[1] Sources conflict on whether he left willingly or was dismissed;^[3] but, either way, he left Canonsburg to visit Pittsburgh with another student and didn't return.^[1]

During his teenage years, Foster was influenced greatly by two men. Henry Kleber (1816–1897), one of Stephen’s few formal music instructors, was a classically trained musician who emigrated from Darmstadt, Germany, to Pittsburgh and opened a music store. Dan Rice was an entertainer, a clown and blackface singer, making his living in traveling circuses. Although respectful of the more civilized parlor songs of the day, he and his friends would often sit at a piano, writing and singing minstrel songs through the night. Eventually, Foster learned to blend the two genres to write some of his best-known work.

A Career in Music[link]

In 1846, Foster moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and became a bookkeeper with his brother's steamship company. While in Cincinnati, Foster penned his first successful songs, among them "Oh! Susanna" which would prove to be the anthem of the California Gold Rush in 1848–1849. In 1849, he published Foster's Ethiopian Melodies, which included the successful song "Nelly Was a Lady", made famous by the Christy Minstrels. A plaque marks the site of Foster's residence in Cincinnati, where the Guilford School building is now located.

Then he returned to Pennsylvania and signed a contract with the Christy Minstrels. It was during this period that Foster would write most of his best-known songs: "Camptown Races" (1850), "Nelly Bly" (1850), "Old Folks at Home" (known also as "Swanee River", 1851), "My Old Kentucky Home" (1853), "Old Dog Tray" (1853), and "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair" (1854), written for his wife Jane Denny McDowell.

Many of Foster's songs were of the blackface minstrel show tradition popular at the time. Foster sought, in his own words, to "build up taste ... among refined people by making words suitable to their taste, instead of the trashy and really offensive words which belong to some songs of that order."

Although many of his songs had Southern themes, Foster never lived in the South and visited it only once, by river-boat voyage (on his brother Dunning's steam boat, the Millinger) down the Mississippi to New Orleans, during his honeymoon in 1852.

Foster attempted to make a living as a professional songwriter and may be considered innovative in this respect, since this field did not yet exist in the modern sense. Due in part to the limited scope of music copyright and composer royalties at the time, Foster realized very little of the profits which his works generated for sheet music printers. Multiple publishers often printed their own competing editions of Foster's tunes, not paying Foster anything. For "Oh, Susanna", he received $100.

Foster moved to New York City in 1860. About a year later, his wife and daughter left him and returned to Pittsburgh. Beginning in 1862, his fortunes decreased, and as they did, so did the quality of his new songs. Early in 1863, he began working with George Cooper, whose lyrics were often humorous and designed to appeal to musical theater audiences. The Civil War created a flurry of newly written music with patriotic war themes, but this did not benefit Foster.

Death[link]

Stephen Foster had become impoverished while living at the North American Hotel at 30 Bowery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. He was reportedly confined to his bed for days by a persistent fever; Foster tried to call a chambermaid, but collapsed, falling against the washbasin next to his bed and shattering it, which gouged his head. It took three hours to get him to Bellevue Hospital. In an era before transfusions and antibiotics, he succumbed three days after his admittance, aged 37.^{[citation needed]}

In his worn leather wallet, there was found a scrap of paper that simply said "Dear friends and gentle hearts" along with 38 cents in Civil War scrip and three pennies. Foster was buried in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh. One of his most beloved works, "Beautiful Dreamer", was published shortly after his death.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy[link]

Music[link]

	"Oh! Susanna" (1848) Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna" performed by the United States Navy Concert Band "Old Folks at Home" "Old Folks at Home" performed by Ernestine Schumann-Heink (1918)
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Foster is acknowledged as "father of American music".^[4] He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, and he was also inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010.

"My Old Kentucky Home" is the official state song of Kentucky, adopted by the General Assembly on March 19, 1928. "Old Folks at Home" is the official state song of Florida, designated in 1935, but has been replaced as state anthem by Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky)

American Baritone Nelson Eddy recorded 35 Foster songs over three recording sessions in July, August and September 1947 on Columbia records, in 78 format, 2 songs per record. Columbia Records issued these recordings in 1948, "Nelson Eddy in Songs of Stephen Foster (Volume 1: A-745 and Volume 2: A-795)". In 2005 Jasmine Records compiled all 35 Foster songs in one CD, "Nelson Eddy Sings The Stephen Foster Songbook" JASCD 421. "In these performances, arranger/conducter Robert Armbruster made every attempt to frame Nelson Eddy's voice with a simple, yet colorful, orchestral and choral background - the norm of Stephen Foster's time." (Liner notes by Robert Nickora July 2005).

American classical composer Charles Ives freely quoted a wide variety of Foster's songs in many of his own works.

Poet and producer Jimmy Spice Curry remade the Stephen Foster classic "Beautiful Dreamer".

Douglas Jimerson, a tenor from Baltimore who has released CDs of music from the Civil War era, released Stephen Foster's America in 1998. Just before his death in 2004, singer-songwriter Randy Vanwarmer completed an entire album of Stephen Foster songs. It was released posthumously as Sings Stephen Foster.

Eighteen of Foster's compositions were recorded and released on the Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster collection. Among the artists who are featured on the album are John Prine, Ron Sexsmith, Alison Krauss, Yo Yo Ma, Roger McGuinn, Mavis Staples, and Suzy Bogguss. The album won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2005.

Singer/songwriter Syd Straw covered "Hard Times Come Again No More" on her 1989 album "Surprise."

A Squirrel Nut Zippers song titled "The Ghost of Stephen Foster" features references to his most famous works, including "Camptown Races".

Other honors[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

• Foster is honored on the University of Pittsburgh campus with the Stephen Foster Memorial, a landmark building that houses the Stephen Foster Memorial Museum, the Center for American Music, as well as two theaters: the Charity Randall Theatre and Henry Heymann Theatre, both performance spaces for Pitt's Department of Theater Arts. It is the largest repository for original Stephen Foster compositions, recordings, and other memorabilia his songs have inspired world-wide.

• A public sculpture by Giuseppe Moretti honoring Stephen Foster and commemorating his song "Uncle Ned" sits in close proximity to the Stephen Foster Memorial.

• In My Old Kentucky Home State Park in Bardstown, Kentucky, a musical, called Stephen Foster-The Musical has been performed since 1958. There is also a statue of him next to the Federal Hill mansion, where he visited relatives and is the inspiration for "My Old Kentucky Home".

• The Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, Florida is a Florida State Park named in his honor, as is Stephen C. Foster State Park in Georgia. Both parks are on the Suwannee River.

• Stephen Foster Lake at Mount Pisgah State Park in Pennsylvania is named in his honor.

• In Alms Park in Cincinnati, overlooking the Ohio River, there is a seated statue of him.

• The Lawrenceville (Pittsburgh) Historical Society, together with the Allegheny Cemetery Historical Association, hosts the annual Stephen Foster Music and Heritage Festival (Doo Dah Days!). Held the first weekend of July, Doo Dah Days! celebrates the life and music of one the most influential songwriters in America's history. His home in the Lawrenceville Section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania still remains on Penn Avenue nearby the Stephen Foster Community Center.

• 36 U.S.C. §140 designates January 13 as Stephen Foster Memorial Day, a United States National Observance. In 1936, Congress authorized the minting of a silver half dollar in honor of the Cincinnati Musical Center. Stephen Foster was featured on the obverse of the coin despite his tenuous links to the city.

Movies[link]

Three Hollywood movies have been made of Foster's life: Harmony Lane (1935) with Douglass Montgomery, Swanee River (1939) with Don Ameche, and I Dream of Jeanie (1952), with Bill Shirley. The 1939 production was one of Twentieth Century Fox's more ambitious efforts, filmed in Technicolor; the other two were low-budget affairs made by B-movie studios.

In popular culture[link]

This section mainly consists of lists. The information may be better understood by either replacing or supporting with prose. You can help by consulting the relevant guideline and making appropriate changes or additions. Editing help is available. (May 2012)

• Journalist Nellie Bly took her pseudonym from the title character of Foster's song "Nelly Bly".
• "Stephen Foster Super Saturday" is a day of thoroughbred racing during the Spring/Summer meet at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. During the call to the post, selections of Stephen Foster songs are played by the track bugler, Steve Buttleman. The day is headlined by the Stephen Foster Handicap a Grade I dirt race for older horses at 9 furlongs.
• Two television shows about the life of Stephen Foster and his childhood friend (and later wife) Jeanie MacDowell were produced in Japan, the first in 1979 with 13 episodes, and the second from 1992 to 1993 with 52 episodes, and both were called Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair after the song of the same name.
• In the Honeymooners episode, "The $99,000 Answer", Ed Norton warms up on the piano by playing the opening to "Swanee River". Later, when Ralph returns to the gameshow, the first question asked is "Who is the composer of 'Swanee River'," to which Ralph nervously responds with "Ed Norton" and immediately loses the game.
• In the film "Tombstone", Billy Clanton (played by Thomas Hayden Church) tries to guess who wrote the song being played by Doc Holiday (Val Kilmer) "...That sounds like Old Dog Tray...Camptown Races? Oh Susanna? Stephen Stinkin Foster?"
• Erika M Anderson of the band EMA says in reference to Foster's "Camptown Races", "I bet my money on the bobtail nag/somebody bet on the bay" in the song "California" from her 2011 release "Past Life Martyred Saints".^[5]
• David Berman of the Silver Jews sings the lyric "Her doorbell plays a bar of Stephen Foster" in the song Tennessee, which appeared on the 2001 album Bright Flight.^[6]

See also[link]

• "The Glendy Burke", another of his songs
• Fletcher Hodges, Jr. An expert on his music

Notes[link]

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Emerson, Ken (1998). Doo Dah!: Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture. De Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80852-8.
• Hamm, Charles (1979). Yesterdays: Popular Song in America (Chapter 10, "Old Folks at Home, or, the Songs of Stephen Foster"). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-01257-3.

Further reading[link]

• Emerson, Ken, ed. (2010). Stephen Foster & Co.: Lyrics of the First Great American Songwriters. New York: The Library of America. ISBN 1-59853-070-4. OCLC 426803667. 

External links[link]

Find more about Stephen Foster on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Images and media from Commons
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource

• Free scores by Stephen Foster at the International Music Score Library Project
• Stephen Foster at the Internet Movie Database
• Stephen Foster at Find a Grave
• Sheet music for "I see her still in my dreams", Macon, GA: John C. Schreiner & Son. From Confederate Imprints Sheet Music Collection.
• Sheet music for "Parthenia to Incomar", Macon, GA: John C. Schreiner & Son. From Confederate Imprints Sheet Music Collection.

v t e Stephen Foster Songs Minstrel songs: Angelina Baker (1850) · Camptown Races (1850) · The Glendy Burk (1860) · My Old Kentucky Home (1853) · Oh! Susanna (1848) · Old Folks at Home (Swanee River) (1851) · Parlor songs: Beautiful Dreamer (1864) · Hard Times Come Again No More (1854) · Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair (1854) · Old Black Joe (1853) · Films, musicals, recordings Films: Harmony Lane · I Dream of Jeanie · Swanee River · Musicals: Stephen Foster - The Musical · Recordings: Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster · State Parks Parks: My Old Kentucky Home State Park · Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park · Stephen C. Foster State Park · Other Stephen Foster Handicap · Stephen Foster Memorial · Stephen Foster Memorial Day · Stephen Foster Sculpture · Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair (anime) ·

Carl Czerny, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber, 1833

Carl Czerny (German: [kaɹl ˈtʃɛrni]; 21 February 1791 – 15 July 1857) was an Austrian pianist, composer and teacher. He is best remembered today for his books of études for the piano. Czerny's music was profoundly influenced by his teachers, Clementi, Hummel, Salieri and Beethoven.

Early life[link]

Carl Czerny was born in Vienna to a musical family of Czech origin (Černý, lit. "Black"). His grandfather was a violinist and his father was an oboist, organist, and pianist. His family came to Vienna from Nymburk, Bohemia and Carl himself did not speak German until the age of ten. A child prodigy, Czerny began playing piano at age three and composing at age seven. His first piano teacher was his father, Wenzel Czerny, who taught him mainly Bach, Mozart, and Clementi. Czerny began performing piano recitals in his parents' home. Beethoven, attending one such recital, was so impressed with Czerny's performance of his Pathétique Sonata that he took on the 10 year old as a student.^[1] Czerny remained under Beethoven's tutelage for the next three years. Czerny went on to take lessons from Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Antonio Salieri. Czerny also attended courses which Muzio Clementi held in Paris, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Prague, Rome and Milan.

Czerny made his first public performance in 1800 playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor. However, Czerny was never confident in his abilities as a performer and resolved to withdraw permanently from the stage.^[2] At age 21, in February 1812, Czerny returned to the public to give the Vienna premiere of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor".

Teaching[link]

At age fifteen, Czerny began a very successful teaching career. Basing his method on the teaching of Beethoven and Clementi, Czerny taught up to twelve lessons a day in the homes of Viennese nobility.^[1] His notable students included Sigismond Thalberg, Stephen Heller, Alfred Jaëll, Theodor Leschetizky, Theodor Kullak, Theodor Döhler, and Anna Caroline Oury. Czerny's fees were so steep that some students, such as Stephen Heller, were unable to afford it and had to switch teachers.

His most famous student was Franz Liszt, who began studying with Czerny at age nine. Czerny was Liszt's only teacher. Upon taking him on as a student, Czerny forced Liszt to abandon all repertoire for the first few months, insisting he play only scales and exercises to strengthen his technique.

As a concert pianist, Liszt went on to include several Czerny compositions in his repertoire. Liszt also dedicated his twelve Transcendental Études to Czerny, who was among the first composers to pioneer the "étude" form. Liszt also collaborated with Czerny on the Hexaméron; a joint work along with fellow composers Frédéric Chopin, Sigismond Thalberg, Henri Herz, and Johann Peter Pixis.

Composition[link]

Czerny composed a very large number of pieces (up to Op. 861), including a number of masses and requiems, and six symphonies, concertos, sonatas and string quartets and other chamber music. Many of these pieces remained unpublished. The manuscripts are held by Vienna's Society for the Friends of Music, to which Czerny (a childless bachelor) willed his estate. A number of these works received their world premiere performance in June 2002 at a Carl Czerny Music Festival mounted by the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, under the artistic direction of the Canadian pianist Anton Kuerti. The better known part of Czerny's repertoire is the large number of didactic piano pieces he wrote, such as The School of Velocity and The Art of Finger Dexterity. He was one of the first composers to use étude ("study") for a title.

Czerny's body of works also include arrangements for eight pianos, four hands each, of two overtures of Gioachino Rossini. He also left an essay on performing the piano sonatas of Beethoven. He published an autobiographical sketch, "Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben" (1842; "Memories from My Life").

Czerny was one of 50 composers who wrote a Variation on a theme of Anton Diabelli for Part II of the Vaterländischer Künstlerverein (published 1824). He also wrote a coda to round out the collection. Part I was devoted to the 33 variations supplied by Beethoven, which have gained an independent identity as his Diabelli Variations, Op. 120. Czerny maintained a relationship with Beethoven throughout his life, giving piano lessons to Beethoven's beloved nephew Carl, and proofreading many of Beethoven's works before they were published.^[1]

Beethoven's influence can also be seen in Czerny's Variations on "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser", Op. 73, for piano and orchestra (1824; also a version for piano and string quartet), which were based on a theme by Beethoven's teacher Joseph Haydn.

A complete reevaluation of Czerny's compositions was undertaken at an academic conference mounted by the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies, held in conjunction with the Czerny Music Festival in June 2002. The proceedings of the conference were published by the University of Rochester Press in 2008 as "Beyond the Art of Finger Dexterity: Reassessing Carl Czerny," edited by David Gramit. The volume contains a catalogue of autographs held by the archive of the Society for the Friends of Music in Vienna.

Death[link]

Czerny remained in Vienna for most of his life, only leaving three times (he visited Leipzig in 1836, Paris and London in 1837, and Lombardy in 1846).^[2] He died in Vienna at the age of 66. He never married and he had no near relatives. Shortly before his death, he disposed of his considerable fortune with the help of his friend and lawyer Leopold von Sonnleithner.^[2]

Recordings[link]

Signum Records recently issued at least three CD recordings of Czerny's symphonies and concerti, including a concerto for piano four hands in C major. In fact, the view of Czerny as primarily a composer of didactic works is being challenged, as can be seen in the review cited below of a Sony Classical CD of some of Czerny's four-hand works. Nimbus Records is in course of issuing recordings of all 11 of Czerny's solo piano sonatas, played by Martin Jones. His Symphony No. 1 ('Grand Symphony') was even issued on a CD supplement to an issue of BBC Music Magazine.

Sony Classics issued a recording of Piano Music for Four Hands by Czerny [SK 45936] with the piano duo Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen in 1991, and the CD label Analekta released a recording of two Czerny Piano Sonatas, as well as his Funeral March on the Death of Beethoven, Op. 146, with the Canadian pianist, Anton Kuerti in 1997 [FL 2.3141].

In June 2002 the Wirth institute for Austrian and Central European Studies of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, mounted a three-day "Carl Czerny Music Festival," under the artistic direction of the Canadian pianist Anton Kuerti. The Festival included (according to best research available) a number of world premiere performances from Czerny manuscripts held by Vienna's Society of the Friends of Music, and most of it was recorded and subsequently broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In the wake of the Festival Kuerti and the Canadian violinist Erika Raum recorded Czerny's Sonata for Piano and Violin in A Major of 1807 and his twenty Variations for Piano and Violin on a Theme by Krumpholz, Op. 1, for CBC Records [MVCD 1150], which they had initially premiered at the Festival. In 2006 Grzegorz Nowak, the then conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, who premiered the Czerny's 6th Symphony at the Festival, recorded the same work with the SWR Rundfunkorchestrer Kaiserlauten on Hänssler Classic [CD 93.169]. Finally, in 2012, as part of a cooperative venture between the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies, CBC Radio and the record label DOREMI, a three-CD set of live performances of works performed at the Festival was released by DOREMI [DHR-6011-3]. The DOREMI set includes two string quartets, two fugatos for string quintet, a Piano Trio, a Piano Quartet, a Serenade Concertante, two Overtures, an Offertorium, five Lieder, and etude for piano and Variations Brilliantes on a theme of Bellini for Piano 6 hands.

Media[link]

	Duo Concertante, Op. 129 1. Allegro 2. Scherzo – Allegro Molto Andantino Grazioso 4. Rondo – Allegretto Performed by Alex Murray (flute) and Martha Goldstein (piano)
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See also[link]

• List of compositions by Carl Czerny

References[link]

External links[link]

• Archive copy at the Wayback Machine Carl Czerny: Piano Music for four hands. One of the Italian-language reviews on the page refers to "this most beautiful selection of works", quite a departure from the School of Velocity studies that have tormented piano students for almost 200 years.
• Carl Czerny Music Festival and International Symposium 13–26 June 2002, Edmonton, Alberta The lower portion of this page contains an article from the Edmonton Journal (principal daily newspaper in Edmonton) declaring that Czerny is unfairly judged by history.
• A Lesson For Carl Short story by Andrew Crumey depicting Czerny's first meeting with Beethoven.

Books and sheet music[link]

• "Carl Czerny" Titles from the Munich Digitisation Centre (MDZ)
• "Carl Czerny" Titles from archive.org
• "Carl Czerny" Titles from books.google.com

Sheet music[link]

• Free scores by Carl Czerny at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Carl Czerny in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Carl Czerny's scores – The School of Velocity and other etudes for piano.
• Grande Fantaisie en forme de Sonate, opus 144 (ca 1827)
• Rondo espressivo, opus 93 (ca 1825)
• Caprice, opus 108 (ca 1827)
• Second grand trio pour le piano-forte, violon et violoncelle, opus 166 (1830) From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
• Deux rondeaux, opus 168 (ca 1829)
• Quatuor concertant für vier Pianoforte über mehrere beliebte Melodien (Quartet for 4 Pianos on Well-Known Melodies), opus 230 (1800) From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection
• Nocturne, opus 647 (ca 1841)
• Aufmunterung zum Fleiss: 24 unterhaltende Uebungstücke für das Pianoforte, opus 684 (publ. 1890) From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection