Mert anal

Johann Kaspar
Mertz
Introduction

Johann Kaspar
Mertz(1806-1856)
*He was born in Pressburg which todays
Bratislava (Slovakia)

*After that he was settled in the

Kingdom of Hungary

*He was active in Viena between 1840-

1856
J. K. Mertz

*He was born into a poor family

*He managed to Show his talent to

patrons
The environment that J. K. Lived in. Guitar
*Mertz was one of the leading virtuoso
guitarist and composers during the played indoor.
middle 19th century
 Early Life and Career

*Mertz began to play guitar and flute when he was young.

*He had to give music lessons at early ages.

* The earliest record of Mertz activity as concert artist is

from 1834 when Mertz performed in a Pressburg concert
organized by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (Meyebeer 4)
*He left his Birthplace at 1840
Caroline Augusta
of Bavaria Caroline Augusta

Mertz appeared in a concert at the

Hofburg theater in Vienna under the
Patronage of Empress Carolina Augusta
(Empress of Austria) (Meyebeer 4)

Which probably bolstered his fame as a

virtuoso guitarist.

Introduced him with the Viennese

social, political and artistic elites.

Hofburg Theatre
 Mertzs Redemption
He was introduced with the music industry in Austria.
Mertzs guitar music was first published by prestigious
Haslinger publishing house in Vienna (Meyebeer 4)
Undoubtedly, Mertz knew the guitar composers like
Mauro Giulliani, Anton Diabelli
And probably influenced by most famous romantic
period composers like Schubert, Schumann,
Mendelssohn
 Mertz embarked on a concert tour in 1841,
performing in Austria, Poland and Russia. In
Dresden 1842 he met the pianist Joshepine
Platin.. they were married in Prague and came
back to Austria where they were both active
teachers and concert artsits.

(Meyebeer 4)
Character Piece
Character piece, relatively brief musical
composition.

Usually for piano, expressive of a specific

mood or nonmusical idea. ,

Closely associated with the Romantic

movement
 Character pieces Works with
evocative(reminiscent) titles that are depicted in
the music often suggesting a mood, personality, or
scene, like a character in a play.
(Burkholder et. al. pp. 423-424)
 Mendelssohn, Felix: Chopin, Frdric:Polonaise-
Songs Without Words Fantaisie in A-flat Major

Both pieces are designed toexpress a definite mood

Most of these pieces are written in theternary form (A
B A). But it could differ, there is no such rule.
 Character Piece

EXAMPLES
Beethoven "Bagatelles
Schubert Impromptus, Musical Moments
Mendelssohn Kinderstcke
Chopin Impromptus, Ballades, Preludes, Nocturnes
 Bardenklnge

Mertz's character piece includes 28 pieces from

Bardenklnge Op. 13, which features many small but
delightful pieces.
Op. 13 is clearly affirm Mertz's place as the guitar's
principal German Romantic composer.
Included here are often-performed works like
"Liebeslied," "Tarantelle," "An Malvina," and "Romanze,"
which all are character pieces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1giUN-
5W6A

An Malvina (Mertz)
 Malvina
Derived from Gaelic meaning smooth browIt was
created by the 18th century Scottish poet James
Macpherson. (Hans Patrick)
Like Malvina, for a character in his Ossianic poems,
Macpherson claimed that these poems were translations
of ancient texts (Hans Patrick)
It explains why the album called Bardenklnge (Bardic
sounds)
Inspired by romantic
piano styles
*Mertz's guitar music,
followed the pianistic models
of Schubert, Mendelssohn,
Chopin and Schumann

*Unlike his contemporaries

who followed classical models
of Mozart and Haydn
(as did Sor and Aguado)

*or the bel canto style of

Rossini (as did Giuliani). Mauro Giulliani Fernando Sor Dionisio Aguado
 Being a guitarist in 19th century

* The lifetime and output of Johann Kaspar Mertz

occured during a particularly unfortunate period for the
guitar repertoire. It was during his lifetime that the guitar
would become overshadowed by more sonically powerful
instruments such as the piano. (Andrew Stroud 13)
Indeed, from examining any number of works, it
is clear that the model that Mertz followed was
that of the piano, which might help explain the
general decline of the guitar during this time.
Given that significant innovations to the
construction of the guitar did not allow it to keep
pace with the piano and the majority of
compositions for the guitar were either based on
pianistic models
(Andrew Stroud 15)
Instruments that
Mertz played
There had been improvements on guitar
in terms of volume, playing styles to catch
up the other instruments like piano

Mertz performed on the guitar of the

Viennese builder Scherzer (Andrew
Stroud 15)

The instrument preferred by Mertz was

the ten string guitar (Andrew Stroud 15)
Johann Gottfried Scherzer in 1856
 Genres that he wrote

Lied, music drama, character pieces, Fantasies, Impromtu, Poloneises,

Nocturne etc.
Tecnique method
Schule fr die Guitarre(Vienna: Tobias Haslinger's Witwe & Sohn, 1848)
Mertz also left a method book and an historically significant
movement towards playing the instrument with fingernails (Andrew
Stroud 16)
Arrangements
6 Schubert'sche Lieder(Vienna: Tobias Haslinger's Witwe & Sohn, 1845)
 Thank You!

Any questions?
 References

Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006), A dictionary of first

names, Oxford Paperback Reference (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, pp. 180,
406, ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1.
Meyerbeer, Giacomo, and Brian Tororsian. J.K. MertzsDivertissement ber Motive
Der Oper Der Prophet (Meyerbeer): Op. 32. DGA ed. Mnchen: Aibl, n.d. Print.
Stroud, Andrew. Elements of Style Hongrois within Fantaisie Hongroise, Op.65,
No. 1 by J.K. Mertz. 26 June 2012.
https://global.britannica.com/art/character-piece
W.W. Norton, A History of Western Music. 9th edition