August Ferdinand Riccius (* February 26, 1819 in Bernstadt; † July 5, 1886 Karlsbad) was a conductor, composer and music publicist.
August Ferdinand Riccius was born as the son of the Bernstadt cloth manufacturer Karl Friedrich Riccius (1794-1869). His younger brother Karl Moritz Riccius, born in 1828, was the later trumpeter and bandmaster at the court of a Russian prince. At the age of nine, August Ferdinand was already able to play the violin and flute excellently. First he attended school in Zittau from 1833 to 1840 which he completed with the Abitur (university entrance examinations). His parents desired that he would one day would become a writer as talents in this field were already emerging.
From 1840 to 1843 he studied theology at the University of Leipzig. In addition to his studies, however, he devoted himself very intensively to music, and it was a great help to him that the conservatory was founded in Leipzig in 1842. During this time he oriented himself towards professional development as a musician and music teacher. It was here that he met his nephew Carl August Riccius (1830-1893), who studied at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1844 to 1846 and after graduating, embarked on the career of a choral conductor and composer. One of August Ferdinand Riccius' students at this time was the later composer and musicologist Ludwig Meinardus (1827-1896) who left the Conservatory in 1847 in order to be able to prepare himself more specifically for his professional career through a more intensive education with private lessons under August Ferdinand Riccius. From 1849 Riccius was conductor of the Leipzig "Euterpe" T.K. Orchestra[1], whose honorary members since 1838 included Robert Schumann (1810-1856). During this time he was considered a critic of the music of Richard Wagner (1813-1883) in the circles of his fellow musicians. He was of the opinion that this music did not correspond to the spirit of the times and described this style as "music of the future". This term was first used in an article in the ''Rheinische Musik-Zeitung'' of December 4, 1852[2]. Although this article, which aimed at a review of musical publications by the music pedagogue Friedrich Wieck (1735-1873)[3] appeared under "anonymous", leading musicologists[4] today assume that August Ferdinand Riccius was the author of this article and of the "Leipziger Briefe III". In addition to these activities, Riccius composed smaller pieces of music or set existing texts to music during this period. Thus, in 1853, works by him appeared under the title "Vier Lieder" (Four Songs) in a Magdeburg music publishing house.
In 1854 August Ferdinand Riccius transferred to the Leipzig Stadttheater [5] where he was offered the position of conductor of the orchestra. He held this position until 1864. In 1859 he was one of the four conductors of the renowned house, alongside Franz Liszt (1811-1886), David Hermann Engel (1816-1877) and Carl Riedel (1827-1888). In that year, triggered by an appeal by the editor-in-chief of the "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik" Franz Brendel (1811-1868), enormous changes took place in the music scene, which had their starting point in Leipzig. It was here that the First "Tonkünstlerversammlung" (Assembly of Musicians) met from June 1 to 4, 1859, to address the issue of redefining the artist in society. The result of this development, in which August Ferdinand Riccius took part, was the founding of the "Allgemeine Deutscher Musikverein" in Weimar on August 7, 1861. Leading advocates of this development were above all Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner (1813-1883). A further compositional work entitled "Des Vogels Freude" was published by Riccius in 1859.
In 1864 August Ferdinand Riccius achieved the reputation as theater kapellmeister in Hamburg. [6] In the Hamburg years he also worked as a singing teacher, as a publicist and music consultant for the "Hamburger Nachrichten". A further composition work entitled "Die lustigen Musikanten" was published by him in 1878 [7]. Altogether his compositional work included the musical accompaniment of dramas and operas. In addition, he wrote overtures and several piano pieces.
August Ferdinand Riccius died on July 5, 1886, in Karlsbad, today's Karlovy Vary.
Source: Wikipedia
Note: Translated from the German version of Wikipedia into English.
