Herzogenberg, Heinrich von 06/10/1843 - 10/09/1900

Heinrich Herzogenberg (1843-1900) was born in Graz, Austria, and studied composition at the Vienna Conservatory with Otto Dessoff and concurrently law at the university. After his studies were over he lived as a freelance artist in Graz. His compositions from this time are stylistically influenced by Schumann, Brahms and Wagner.



In 1871 he moved to Leipzig where he founded the Leipzig Bach Club with his dear friend Philip Spitta. This mixed choir was dedicated mainly to the performance of Bach cantatas and contributed to the renascence of interest in Bach in the nineteenth century. This devotion to Bach caused a change in Herzogenberg's own compositional style and by the time he moved to Berlin in 1885 to accept the position of Professor of Composition, he had become part of the conservative "Berlin Academics." A relatively minor composer himself, he and his wife did much to encourage a number of younger musicians.



Herzogenberg’s compositions include three symphonies, as well as quintets and quartets for various groups of instruments. In style he is largely derivative, influenced by his own interest in earlier music and by the music of leading composers of his own time. Although he was Catholic, he was influenced by his Protestant friend Spitta's endeavors to reform the music of the Protestant church, and this became the focal point of the last period of his compositional activity.