Emilie Mayer - n.1 (ohne Tempo) from 6 Klavierstücke für die Kinderwelt, Op.48

Описание: Emilie Luise Frederica Mayer (14 May 1812 – 10 April 1883) was a German Romantic music composer. Mayer composed eight symphonies and numerous chamber works, piano sonatas, and orchestral overtures. Despite the limited opportunities for women in professional music during her time, she achieved wide recognition and public performance of her music across Germany.
Emilie Mayer was born in Friedland, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the third of five children and eldest daughter of a wealthy pharmacist, Johann August Friedrich Mayer, and his wife Henrietta Carolina. Her mother died when Emilie was three years old. She started private music lessons at age five under the tutelage of Carl Heinrich Ernst Driver, an organist. It was also when she first started composing, submitting to Driver pieces of "free interpretation". According to one of her surviving personal statements, “After a few lessons … I composed variations, dances, little rondos, etc.” Seemingly destined for domestic life, in 1840 at the age of 28, her circumstances changed when her father committed suicide - 26 years to the day after her mother was buried. Filled with devastation, Emilie consumed herself in her compositions, only to be further disheartened when her mentor, Carl Driver died a few months later.
Unlike many of her contemporaries, Mayer was encouraged to pursue music and composition by her family and male mentors. At the time of 19th century Germany, women were expected to be "wife and mother", putting aside all other aspirations in favor of the household regardless of status. While she did take up her late mother's role of caretaker of her father's household, she was never pressured to give up her musical aspirations nor was she ever pressured to marry. Her brothers, after their father's death, further encouraged her to pursue composition as well as traveled alongside her and financially supported her trips.
In 1841, at the age of thirty, she moved to the regional capital city of Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland) where she studied composition with Carl Loewe, a central figure in the musical life of the city. With him, she wrote Die Fischerin, her only Singspiel. Loewe established many concerts, education practices, and salons around the city in which Mayer and her compositions played a large role.
In 1847, after the premiere of her first two symphonies (C minor and E minor) by the Stettin Instrumental Society, and with the urging of her tutor, she moved to Berlin to continue her compositional studies. Once in Berlin, she studied fugue and double counterpoint with Adolf Bernhard Marx, and instrumentation with Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht.
She began publishing her works (e.g. Lieder op. 5-7, in 1848) which were performed in private concerts. Then, on 21 April 1850, Wilhelm Wieprecht led his "Euterpe" orchestra in a concert at the Royal Theatre of Mayer's compositions: a concert overture, a string quartet, a setting of Psalm 118 for chorus and orchestra, two symphonies and some piano solos. Shortly after this, she was awarded the gold medal of art from the Queen of Prussia, Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria. With critical and popular acclaim, she continued composing works for public performance. She traveled to attend performances of her works, including cities such as Cologne, Munich, Lyon, Brussels and Vienna.
In 1876, Mayer returned to Berlin where her music was still frequently performed. She was an honorary member of the Philharmonic Society in Munich and was the co-chair of the Berlin Opera Academy. Mayer died on 10 April 1883 from pneumonia in Berlin.
Emilie Mayer's musical career was significantly shaped by her mentorship under composer and conductor Carl Loewe, who encouraged her to pursue composition seriously. Loewe's guidance helped Mayer establish herself as one of the few female symphonic composers of her time. His influence and encouragement helped Mayer's music become respected and even championed by her male colleagues. Even when Loewe departed
Emilie Mayer was initially influenced by the Vienna classic style, whilst her later works were more Romantic.
After relocating to Berlin in the 1850s, Mayer became connected with influential musicians and patrons in the city's concert scene, securing performances of her symphonies and chamber works. Her relationships with orchestras and conductors, including those who premiered her compositions, played a crucial role in the dissemination of her music.

The image before (and after) the music is Loisach und Wanneck bei Lermoos by Max Nonnenbruch, chosen for this video by D. T.

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