Rheinberger, Joseph (EN)

Rheinberger Joseph Gabriel, *17 March 1839, Vaduz, †25 November 1901, Munich, German composer, organist, and teacher. He showed musical talent as a young boy; at the age of 5, he began studying music with S. Pöhli (organ), and then with Ph. Schmutzler (harmony, piano, organ). At the age of 7, he was already playing the organ and piano in public, as well as composing. From 1851 to 1854, he studied at the Munich Conservatory with J. Maier (theory, counterpoint), J.G. Herzog (organ), and J.E. Leonhard (piano), and deepened his knowledge of composition in private lessons with F. Lachner. From 1853, he earned his living by playing the organ in various churches and giving music lessons. Between 1853 and 1859, he wrote 124 pieces, but he later excluded these early compositions from his creative output.

From 1859, he taught piano and then music theory at the Königliche Musikschule in Munich; after the reorganization of this school by H. von Bülow in 1867, he was appointed professor (piano and organ) and inspector of instrumental and theory classes, positions he held until the end of his life. In addition, from 1863 to 1867 he was organist at St. Michael’s Court Church, from 1864 to 1877 conductor of the Oratorienverein, and in 1877 conductor of the choir at the ducal court. In the same year, he rejected an offer to become director of the newly founded conservatory in Frankfurt am Main. In 1894, he was knighted and awarded the title of Privy Councilor, and in 1899, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Munich. He was also an honorary member of the Königliche Akademie in Berlin and a corresponding member of the academies in Paris and Florence. Rheinbergers wife was the poet Franziska von Hoffnaass (1832–92), who wrote the lyrics for his songs and sacred works.

Rheinberger went down in music history primarily as an outstanding teacher, emphasizing technical discipline, the logic of form, and mastery of the art of counterpoint; his school produced well-known composers, theorists, and conductors, including G.W. Chadwick, H. Parker, E. Humperdinck, E. Wolf-Ferrari, L. Thuille, A. Sandberger, Th. Kroyer, and W. Furtwängler. At a time when composers, riding the wave of neo-Romanticism, were concentrating on the search for new technical solutions, Rheinberger remained faithful to musical tradition in both his teaching and composing. He modeled himself on the music of J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, and Beethoven (from his second period), and among the Romantics, he valued Schubert and Mendelssohn; he did not approve of Wagner and Liszt, did not get involved in the fierce disputes between the supporters of Wagner and Brahms, but left his students free to choose their own creative path. As a conductor, he mainly performed choral music, with a preference for Handel’s works. Of Rheinberger’s abiundant compositional legacy, which represented the conservative trend in music in the second half of the 19th century but demonstrated his excellent command of compositional technique, only his organ sonatas have survived in performance practice.

Literature: H.-J. Irmen Joseph Rheinberger. Thematisches Verzeichnis sejner Kompositionen, Regensburg 1975; Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger. Briefe und Dokumente seines Lebens, eds. H. Wanger and H.-J. Irmen, Vaduz 1982, R. Molitor Joseph Rheinberger und seine Kompositionen für Orgel, Leipzig 1904; Th. Kroyer Joseph Rheinberger, Regensburg 1916; H. Grace The Organ Works of Rheinberger, London 1925, 21932; H.-J. Irmen Gabriel Joseph Rheinberger als Antipode des Cäcilianismus, Regensburg 1970; H. Wanger Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger und die Kammermusik, St. Gallen 1978; M. Weyer Die Orgelwerke Joseph Rheinbrgers. Handbuch für Organisten, Wilhelmshaven 1994.