Schulz [Schultz], Johann Abraham Peter

(b Lüneburg, 31 March 1747; d Schwedt an der Oder, 10 June 1800). German composer and conductor. His father was a baker who planned a religious career for him, so he attended both of Lüneburg’s Lateinschulen; but his interests lay chiefly with music and he frequently appeared as soloist with various school and church choirs in Lüneburg. He studied the violin, flute, keyboard and theory with the local organist J.C. Schmügel. At the age of 15 he accompanied his mother to Lüchow for a family wedding, then continued alone to Berlin, where he sought out his musical heroes C.P.E. Bach and Joseph Kirnberger to enlist their help in his musical career. He was persuaded to complete his education in Lüneburg but when he was 18 he returned to Berlin and Kirnberger accepted him as a pupil. In one of several later autobiographical sketches he complained that his three years of study with Kirnberger consisted almost entirely of the analysis and composition of chorales.

In 1768 Kirnberger recommended Schulz for the position of accompanist and music teacher to Princess Sapieha Woiwodin von Smolensk of Poland. Schulz travelled with the princess throughout Europe for three years, during which time he came into contact with a much wider range of musical ideas than he had known under Kirnberger. He was particularly impressed by Gluck, and met Grétry and Haydn (according to Reichardt). He also met Johann Reichardt in Danzig (1771) and the two became lifelong friends.

After visiting Poland, Schulz returned to Berlin in 1773. There Kirnberger enlisted his help in writing the music articles for J.G. Sulzer’s encyclopedia Allgemeine Theorie der schönen Künste. Schulz wrote all the music articles from S to Z as well as assisting with and editing several others. He also assisted Kirnberger in writing Die wahren Grundsätze zum Gebrauche der Harmonie, although only the latter’s name was credited when it was published in 1773.

In 1776, on Reichardt’s recommendation, Schulz was appointed music director of the newly built French theatre in Berlin, and in 1778 he was given a similar position at the private theatre of the Prussian crown princess, Friederike Luise. In April 1780 he was appointed to yet another position with the Prussian royal family, as court composer in Rheinsberg to the king’s younger brother Prince Heinrich.

Schulz was a champion of new music, producing French operettas along with operas by Gluck, Piccinni and Sacchini at these courts; this brought him into disfavour with the royal family and led to his resignation after seven years in Rheinsberg (1787). He then accepted an even more important position in the court at Copenhagen as Hofkapellmeister and director of the Royal Theatre (1787–95). There he reorganized the royal chapel, staged works which reflected society’s concern for problems such as land reform, founded a benefit fund for musicians’ widows and wrote a treatise on music education, Gedanken über den Einfluss der Musik auf die Bildung eines Volks (1790). This much-discussed essay reflected both his own aesthetic of folklike lieder and the contemporary political and social developments in Copenhagen. As a result of his varied activities, Copenhagen became one of the leading musical centres of Europe.

Schulz was pensioned at an early age in 1795, having contracted tuberculosis. He sailed for Portugal that autumn but his ship was forced ashore by bad weather at Arendal, on the southern coast of Norway, where he stayed the winter at great detriment to his health. The following spring he visited his birthplace in Lüneburg, then returned to Prussia. For the remainder of his life he divided his time between Berlin and Rheinsberg, with frequent visits to Schwedt for medical reasons.

Apart from a few compositions written while he was studying with Schmügel and Kirnberger, Schulz did not compose seriously until his return to Berlin in 1773. He set a prologue for Frederick the Great’s birthday in 1774, but the three-act operetta Clarissa, oder Das unbekannte Dienstmädchen (Berlin, 1775) was his first large stage work; it was followed by several others in the next two decades. The 1770s also saw the publication of his only significant keyboard works: six pieces for harpsichord or piano (op.1, 1776) and a harpsichord sonata (op.2, 1778).

It was not until 1779 that he published his first collection of lieder (Gesänge am Clavier), the genre of composition for which he is best known and through which he exerted the greatest influence during his lifetime. It comprises folklike lieder in the style of the first Berlin lied school, with optional accompaniments secondary to the vocal line. Choosing texts by leading poets was a cause to which he addressed himself continuously; by using the poetry of outstanding literary figures such as Claudius, Voss, Bürger, Klopstock and Hölty, as well as Metastasio and Beaumarchais, Schulz set a standard of excellence for other lied composers.

His most influential collection was Lieder im Volkston. Its first two volumes were composed in Rheinsberg and the third in Copenhagen but all three were published in Berlin (1782, 1785 and 1790). In the preface to the second volume Schulz outlined his aesthetic of lied composition: he intended to write lieder which would have the ‘appearance of familiarity’ to the listener on first hearing (thus resembling folk music), and further intended, in using only the work of the best poets, that the musical setting should reflect and enhance the meaning of the text, rather than being independent. This aesthetic, and Schulz’s own simple, accessible style, influenced lieder into the 19th century.

Schulz was influential in Denmark and has been called the pioneer of that country’s national music (Gottwaldt and Hahne). His simple melodies and strophic forms remained standard for the songs of his pupil C.E.F. Weyse and other 19th-century Danish lieder composers. His choruses and stage works written there were important as embodiments of political ideas.

WORKS

stage

lieder

other works

WRITINGS

Music articles from S to Z (others collab. Kirnberger) in J.G. Sulzer: Allgemeine Theorie der schönen Künste (Leipzig, 1771–4 and later edns)

with J.P. Kirnberger: Die wahren Grundsätze zum Gebrauch der Harmonie … als ein zusatz zu der Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik (Berlin, 1773/R, 2/1793)

Entwurf einer neuen und leichtverständlichen Musiktablatur (Berlin, 1786)

Gedanken über den Einfluss der Musik auf die Bildung eines Volks (Copenhagen, 1790; Dan. trans., 1790)

Über den Choral und die ältere Literatur desselben (Erfurt, 2/1872) [1st edn unknown]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

EitnerQ

FriedlaenderDL

GerberL

GerberNL

KretzschmarG

LedeburTLB

MGG1 (G. Hahne and H. Gottwaldt)

J.F. Reichardt: Biography, AMZ, iii (1800–01), 153–7, 169–76, 597–606, 613–20, 629–35

E.O. Lindner: Geschichte des deutschen Liedes im XVIII. Jahrhundert, ed. L. Erk (Leipzig, 1871/R)

C. Klunger: J.A.P. Schulz in seinen volkstümlichen Liedern (Leipzig, 1909)

O. Riess: Johann Abraham Peter Schulz’ Leben (Leipzig, 1913); also in SIMG, xv (1913–14), 169–270

M. Seiffert: ‘J.A.P. Schulz’ “dänische” Oper’, AMw, i (1918–19), 422–31

H. Gottwaldt, ed.: ‘Drei Fragmente einer eigenen Lebensbeschreibung’, Lüneburger Blätter, vi (1955); xi–xii (1961)

E. Schmitz: Unverwelkter Volkslied-Stil: J.A.P. Schulz und seine ‘Lieder im Volkston’ (Leipzig, 1956)

H. Gottwaldt and G. Hahne, eds.: Briefwechsel zwischen Johann Abraham Peter Schulz und Johann Heinrich Voss (Kassel, 1960)

G. Hahne: ‘Johann Heinrich Voss’ Versuch einer Gesamtausgabe der Lieder Johann Abraham Peter Schulz’, Mf, xx (1967), 176–81

RAYMOND A. BARR