Rungenhagen, Carl Friedrich (EN)

Rungenhagen Carl, Karl Friedrich, *27 September 1778 Berlin, †21 December 1851 Berlin, German choral conductor, composer, teacher. The son of a merchant, showed artistic talent from childhood. Until 1794, he studied painting with D. Chodowiecki at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and learned the basics of basso continuo from double bassist E. Fischer and violinist C. Benda. After his father’s death (1796), he devoted himself exclusively to music. In 1801, he was accepted into the Singakademie, where his first opera, Die Fischer bei Kolberg, was staged in 1814. He was friends with C. Zelter, then director of the Singakademie, thanks to whom he became deputy director of the institution in 1815. In honor of his patron, in 1826 he composed a cantata to words by Goethe, Zelters siebzigster Geburtstag gefeiert von Bauenden, Dichtenden, Singenden. After Zelter’s death (1832), elections for the director of the Singakademie were held for the first time; apart from Rungenhagen, F. Mendelssohn and E. Grell also ran for the position; in 1833, it was entrusted to Rungenhagen, who was generally liked at the Singakademie as an honest, kind, and calm man. In the same year, he became a member of the Akademie der Künste and taught composition in the music section; in 1843, he was awarded the title of professor. His autobiography, Aus meinem Leben, can be found in the manuscripts section of the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin.

Rungenhagen was essentially self-taught, educating himself through practical experience conducting choirs and drawing on Zelter’s comments on composition. He studied the works of Palestrina, J.S. Bach, Handel, A. Lotti, F. Durante, and other Baroque masters. At the Singakademie, he continued the tradition of cultivating early music initiated by C.F. Fasch and Zelter. During his tenure, Bach’s St. John Passion (1833) and Mass in B minor (Part 1 1834, Part 2 1835) were performed, as well as Handel’s oratorios Alexander’s Feast (1838, conducted by G. Spontini) and Messiah (1838). The concert repertoire was dominated by works by contemporary German composers, and the first stage performance of A.H. Radziwiłł’s Faust (1835) also took place. Rungenhagen was a conservative composer, despite his ties to Weber, to whom he dedicated his Nachrichten aus dem Leben und über die Musik-Werke C.M. von Webers (Berlin 1826), he was not drawn to piano and symphonic music. He composed for the bourgeoisie, cultivating vocal genres typical of classicism. His simple, melodic solo and choral songs (including Gesänge der Zelterschen Liedertafel in Berlin, Op. 21 and Op. 40 for four male voices), as well as sacred works (hymns, motets) published in Berlin by various publishers, were popular at the time, but now have only historical value. His four operas, among these, according to references in Moniuszko literature (H. Opieński, W. Rudziński), there was an opera with a Polish theme (Racibór i Wanda), have also been forgotten. For educational purposes, he also wrote vocal exercises (Singübungen Op. 11, Op. 23) and piano exercises (Six exercises Op. 33).

His contemporaries valued Rungenhagen as a reliable teacher; he gave private composition lessons to many students and went down in the history of Polish music as the teacher of Moniuszko (1837–40) and Kolberg (1835–36). Rungenhagen treated composition as the result of mastering a craft consisting of the ability to harmonize melodies and use contrapuntal techniques; this is evidenced by his teaching method, documented by the tasks in Moniuszko’s Berlin Studies (harmonic and contrapuntal exercises, basso continuo realization, chorale harmonization, canons and fugues, copying fragments from cantatas, operas, and oratorios by other composers, preparing scores from vocal books); the concept of a two-layer structure of a piece (melody + harmony) associated with the basso continuo tradition and strict adherence to abstract theoretical rules limited creative imagination. However, the advantage of studying with Rungenhagen was that it brought Moniuszko closer to performance practice, as Rungenhagen entrusted him with conducting the choir, thanks to which the young composer was able to learn how to create sound effects with a large vocal ensemble.

Literature: R. Eitner Rungenhagen, Karl Friedrich, in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB), vol. 29, Leipzig 1889, access online: Deutsche Biographie – Rungenhagen, Karl Friedrich; M. Karłowicz Nauczyciel S. Moniuszki, “Tygodnik Ilustrowany” 1897 nos. 19, 20; G. Schünemann Die Singakademie zu Berlin 1791–1941, Regensburg 1941; W. Bollert Die Händelpflege der Berliner Singakademie unter Zelter und Rungenhagen, in: Singakademie zu Berlin, Berlin 1966.