Saint Joachim
Saints Joachim and Anne, parents of the Virgin Mary
Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Confessor
Born	100.BC unknown real day
Died	unknown Jerusalem
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church Orthodox Churches Anglican Communion Islam Aglipayan Church
Canonized	Pre-Congregation
Feast	July 26 (Anglican Communion), (Roman Catholicism); September 9 (Eastern Orthodox Church), (Greek Catholics); March 20 (General Roman Calendar, 1584-1738); Sunday after the Octave of the Assumption (General Roman Calendar, 1738-1913); August 16 (General Roman Calendar, 1913-1969)
Attributes	Lamb, doves, with Saint Anne or Mary
Patronage	Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, fathers, grandparents, Fasnia (Tenerife)

Saint Joachim ("he whom YHWH has set up", Hebrew: יְהוֹיָקִים Yəhôyāqîm, Greek Ἰωακείμ Iōākeím) was the husband of Saint Anne and the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican traditions. The story of Joachim and Anne appears first in the apocryphal Gospel of James. Joachim and Anne are not mentioned in the Bible.^[1]

In Christian tradition[link]

Since the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke do not explicitly name either of Mary's parents, but apparently name two different fathers for Saint Joseph, many scholars from John of Damascus (8th C.), and particularly Protestant scholars, argue that the genealogy in Luke is actually the family tree of Mary, and that Heli is her father.^[2] To resolve the problem of Joseph having two fathers - one descended from Solomon, one descended from Nathan, son of David, traditions from the 7th Century specify that Heli was a first cousin of Joachim.^[3]

St Joachim on Glass

In the Protoevangelium of James, Joachim is described as a rich and pious man of the house of David who regularly gave to the poor and to the temple (synagogue) at Sepphoris.^[4] However, as his wife was barren, the high priest rejected Joachim and his sacrifice, as his wife's childlessness was interpreted as a sign of divine displeasure. Joachim consequently withdrew to the desert where he fasted and did penance for forty days. Angels then appeared to both Joachim and Anne to promise them a child. Joachim later returned to Jerusalem and embraced Anne at the city gate. The cycle of legends concerning Joachim and Anne were included in the Golden Legend and remained popular in Christian art until the Council of Trent restricted the depiction of apocryphal events. Traditional depictions (e.g., vestibular statuary) of Joachim show him bearing a shovel.

No liturgical celebration of Saint Joachim was included in the Tridentine Calendar. It was added to the General Roman Calendar in 1584, for celebration on March 20, the day after the feast day of Saint Joseph. In 1738, it was transferred to the Sunday after the Octave of the Assumption of Mary. As part of his effort to allow the liturgy of Sundays to be celebrated, Pope Pius X transferred it to August 16, the day after the Assumption, so that Joachim may be remembered in the celebration of Mary's triumph.^[5] It was then celebrated as a Double of the 2nd Class, a rank that was changed in 1960 to that of 2nd Class Feast. In the Roman Catholic calendar of saints (in 1969) it was joined to that of Anne, for celebration on July 26.^[6]

The Eastern Orthodox Churches and Greek Catholics commemorate Joachim on September 9, the Synaxis of Joachim and Anne, the day after the Nativity of the Theotokos.

Joachim is ascribed the title of "forebearer of God".^{[citation needed]}

San Joaquin, California was named in his honour.

In Islam[link]

The House of Imran (Arabic: آل عمران) is the 3rd chapter of the Qur'an. Imran is Arabic for the biblical figure Amram, the father of Moses, and Aaron, who is regarded by Muslims as being the ancestor of Mary and Jesus through his son Aaron. In Muslim belief, however, the Christian Joachim has been attributed the name Imran as well. Muslims distinguish between the two different individuals as:

• "Imran, ancestor of Mary", who is Amram
• "Imran, father of Mary", who is Joachim

As for the figure of Joachim/Imran, he is revered by Muslims for being the father of Mary and the grandfather of Jesus and also for being one of the most saintly men present in Jerusalem at the time, along side the priest Zachariah. By tradition, Imran's wife was Hannah, the Christian Saint Anne.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Saint Joachim

• Saint Joachim
• St. Joachim

Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.

Life[link]

Origins[link]

Joseph Joachim's birth house in Kittsee.

Joseph Joachim was born in Kittsee (Kopčany / Köpcsény), near Bratislava and Eisenstadt, in what is today's Burgenland area of Austria. He was the seventh of eight children born to Julius, a wool merchant, and Fanny Joachim who were of Hungarian Jewish origin. His infancy was spent as a member of the Kittsee Kehilla (Jewish community), one of Hungary's prominent Siebengemeinden ('Seven Communities') under the protectorate of the Esterházy family. He was a first cousin of Fanny Wittgenstein, the mother of Karl Wittgenstein and the grandmother of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and the pianist Paul Wittgenstein.^[1]

Early career[link]

In 1833 his family moved to Pest, where he studied violin with Stanislaus Serwaczynski, the concertmaster of the opera in Pest. (Serwaczynski later moved to Lublin, Poland, where he taught Wieniawski). In 1839, Joachim continued his studies at the Vienna Conservatory (briefly with Miska Hauser and Georg Hellmesberger, Sr.; finally — and most significantly — with Joseph Böhm). He was taken by his cousin, Fanny Wittgenstein to live and study in Leipzig, where he became a protégé of Felix Mendelssohn. In his début performance in the Leipzig Gewandhaus he played the Otello Fantasy by Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst. The twelve-year-old Joachim's 1844 performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in London (under Mendelssohn's baton) was a triumph, and helped to establish that work in the repertory. Joachim remained a favorite with the English public for the rest of his career.

Maturity[link]

Following Mendelssohn's death in 1847, Joachim stayed briefly in Leipzig, teaching at the Conservatorium and playing on the first desk of the Gewandhaus Orchestra with Ferdinand David. In 1848, Franz Liszt took up residence in Weimar, determined to re-establish the town's reputation as the Athens of Germany. There, he gathered a circle of young avant-garde disciples, vocally opposed to the conservatism of the Leipzig circle. Joachim was amongst the first of these. He served Liszt as concertmaster, and for several years enthusiastically embraced the new "psychological music," as he called it. In 1852 he moved to Hanover, at the same time dissociating himself from the musical ideals of the 'New German School' (Liszt, Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, and their followers, as defined by journalist Franz Brendel) and instead making common cause with Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. His break with Liszt became final in August 1857, when Joachim wrote to his former mentor: "I am completely out of sympathy with your music; it contradicts everything which from early youth I have taken as mental nourishment from the spirit of our great masters."

Joseph and Amalie Joachim.

Joachim's time in Hanover was his most prolific period of composition. During this time, he frequently performed with Clara Schumann and with Brahms, both in private and in public. In 1860 Brahms and Joachim jointly wrote a manifesto against the "progressive" music of the 'New German' School, in reaction to the polemics of Brendel's Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. This manifesto met with a mixed reception, being heavily derided by followers of Wagner.^{[citation needed]}

The famous Joachim Quartet. From left to right: Robert Hausmann (cello), Josef Joachim (1st violin), Emanuel Wirth (viola) and Karel Halíř (2nd violin)

On 10 May 1863 Joachim married the contralto Amalie Schneeweiss (stage name: Amalie Weiss) (1839–99). Amalie gave up her own promising career as an opera singer and gave birth to six children. She continued to perform in oratorios and to give lieder recitals. In 1865 Joachim quit the service of the King of Hanover in protest, when the Intendant of the Opera refused to advance one of the orchestral players (Jakob Grün) because of the latter's Jewish birth.^[2] In 1866, Joachim moved to Berlin, where he was invited to help found a new department of the Royal Academy of Music. There he became the director of the Hochschule für ausübende Tonkunst, or High School for Musical Performance.

On Good Friday, 10 April 1868, Joachim and his wife joined their friend, Johannes Brahms, in the celebration of one of Brahms' greatest triumphs, the first complete performance of his German Requiem at the Bremen Cathedral. Amalie Joachim sang "I Know that My Redeemer Liveth" and Joseph Joachim played Schumann's Abendlied. It was a glorious occasion, after which about 100 of the composer's friends, the Joachims, Clara Schumann, the Dietrichs, Max Bruch and others gathered at the Bremen Rathskeller.

In 1869, the Joachim String Quartet, was formed, which quickly gained a reputation as Europe's finest. Other members of the Quartet were Karel Halíř (2nd violin), Emanuel Wirth (viola) and Robert Hausmann (cello).

In 1884, Joachim and his wife separated after he became convinced that she was having an affair with the publisher Fritz Simrock. Brahms, certain that Joachim's suspicions were groundless, wrote a sympathetic letter to Amalie, which she later produced as evidence in Joachim's divorce proceeding against her. This led to a cooling of Brahms and Joachim's friendship, which was not restored until some years later, when Brahms composed the Double Concerto in A minor for violin and cello, Op. 102, as a peace offering to his old friend. It was co-dedicated to the first performers, Joachim and Robert Hausmann.

On 16 April 1889, in England, Joseph Joachim was presented a Stradivarius violin and Tourte bow once owned by Raphael Georg Kiesewetter. In late 1895 both Brahms and Joachim were present at the opening of the new Tonhalle at Zurich, Switzerland; Brahms conducted and Joachim was assistant conductor. But in April, two years later, Joachim was to lose forever this revered friend, as Johannes Brahms died at the age of 64 at Vienna. At Meiningen, in December 1899, it was Joachim who made the speech when a statue to Brahms was unveiled.

Joseph Joachim, by Philip Alexius de László, 1903

During 1899, Joachim was invited to become president of the newly established Oxford & Cambridge Musical Club in London. He remained club president until his death.^{[citation needed]}

In Berlin, on 17 August 1903, Joachim recorded five sides for The Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd (G&T), which remain a fascinating and valuable source of information about 19th-century styles of violin playing. He is the earliest violinist of distinction known to have recorded,^{[citation needed]} only to be followed soon thereafter when Sarasate made some recordings the following year.

Joachim's portrait was twice painted by Philip de László. A portrait of Joachim was painted by John Singer Sargent ^[3] and presented to him at the 1904 "Diamond Jubilee" celebration of his sixtieth anniversary of his first appearance in London. In Berlin, a great concert took place, at which his pupils past and present, 116 violinists and violists, with 24 cellists who attended his classes played under the direction of Fritz Steinbach, a conductor of note, for his interpretations of Brahms' music. The great moment of celebration came when Joachim, without the slightest hesitation, responded to the spontaneous request to play Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major.

Joachim remained in Berlin until his death in 1907.

Repertoire[link]

Amalie's and Joseph's grave in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

Among the most notable of Joachim's achievements were the revivals of Bach's Sonatas and partitas for solo violin, BWV 1001-1006, and particularly of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61. Joachim was the second violinist to play Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, which he studied with the composer. Joachim played a pivotal role in the career of Brahms, and remained a tireless advocate of Brahms's compositions through all the vicissitudes of their friendship. He conducted the English premiere of Brahms's Symphony No. 1 in C minor.

A number of Joachim's composer colleagues, including Schumann, Brahms, Bruch, and Dvořák composed concerti with Joachim in mind, many of which entered the standard repertory. Nevertheless, Joachim's solo repertoire remained relatively restricted. Despite his close friendship with Brahms, Joachim performed his Violin Concerto in D major only six times in his career. He never performed Schumann's Violin Concerto in D minor, which Schumann wrote especially for him, or Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor. The most unusual work written for Joachim was the F-A-E Sonata, a collaboration between Schumann, Brahms, and Albert Dietrich, based upon the initials of Joachim's motto, Frei aber Einsam (free but lonely). Although the sonata is rarely performed in its entirety, the third movement, the Scherzo in C minor, composed by Brahms, is still frequently played today.

Compositions[link]

Joachim's own compositions are less well known. He has a reputation as a composer of a short but distinguished catalogue of works. Among his compositions are various works for the violin (including three concerti) and overtures to Shakespeare's Hamlet and Henry IV. He also wrote cadenzas for a number of other composers' concerti (including the Beethoven and Brahms concerti). His most highly regarded composition is his Hungarian concerto (Violin Concerto No 2 in D minor, Op. 11).

List of compositions[link]

Original compositions[link]

• Op. 1, Andantino and Allegro scherzoso, for violin and piano (1848): dedicated to Joseph Böhm
• Op. 2, Three Pieces, (circa 1848-1852), Romanze, Fantasiestück, Eine Frühlingsfantasie for Violin or Viola and Piano
• Op. 3, Violin Concerto in One Movement, in G minor (1851); dedicated to Franz Liszt
• Op. 4, Hamlet Overture (1853)
• Op. 5, Three Pieces for Violin and Piano: Lindenrauschen, Abendglocken, Ballade; dedicated to Gisela von Arnim
• Op. 6, Demetrius Overture (Herman Grimm, dedicated to Franz Liszt)
• Op. 7, Henry IV Overture (1854)
• Op. 8, Overture to a Comedy by Gozzi (1854)
• Op. 9, Hebrew Melodies, for Viola and Piano
• Op. 10, Variations on an Original Theme, for Viola and Piano (1855)
• Op. 11, Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor "in the Hungarian Manner" (1853?)
• Op. 12, Notturno for Violin and Orchestra in A major (1858)
• Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major (1875)
• Op. 13, Elegiac Overture "In Memoriam Heinrich von Kleist" (ca. 1877)
• Op. 14, Szene der Marfa from Friedrich Schiller's unfinished drama "Demetrius" (ca. 1869)
• WoO, Ich hab' im Traum geweinet for voice and piano, pub. Wigand, 1854.
• Scene from Schiller's Demetrius (1878)
• WoO, Rain, rain and sun, Merlin's Song (Tennyson), pub. C. Kegan & Co., 1880.
• Melodrama zu einer Schillergedenkfeier (unpublished, autograph in Hamburg Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek)
• Overture in C major' (Konzertouvertüre zum Geburtstag des Kaisers) (1896)
• Two Marches for orchestra
• Andantino in A minor, for violin and orchestra (also for violin and piano)
• Romance in B flat major, for violin and piano
• Romance in C major, for violin and piano
• Variationen über ein irisches Elfenlied for piano
• Variations for Violin and Orchestra in E minor (ca. 1879); dedicated to Pablo Sarasate