Joseph Martin Kraus

Joseph Martin Kraus

(b Miltenberg am Main, 20 June 1756; d Stockholm, 15 Dec 1792). German-Swedish composer. He received his earliest musical education in the central German town of Buchen im Odenwald and during the years 1768–73 was educated in Mannheim, where his teachers included members of the Mannheim Kapelle. He studied at the universities of Mainz (1773–4, philosophy), Erfurt (1774–5, law) and, after an interruption due to family troubles, Göttingen (1776–8, jurisprudence). During this period he published a collection of poems under the title Versuch von Schäfersgedichte (Mainz, 1773) and a drama Tolon (Frankfurt, 1776), as well as writing a number of sacred works, including the oratorios Die Geburt Jesu and Der Tod Jesu. While in Göttingen he became acquainted with members of the Göttinger Hainbund, a Sturm und Drang literary circle under whose influence he wrote the treatise Etwas von und über Musik fürs Jahr 1777 (Frankfurt, 1778; facs. with commentary by F.W. Riedel, Munich, 1977), which devotes a large section to a thorough critique of Anton Schweitzer’s opera Alceste. In 1778 a Swedish student, Carl Stridsberg, persuaded Kraus to accompany him to Stockholm and try his fortune at the court of Gustavus III.

For three years Kraus struggled in poverty to obtain an official position; his Sturm und Drang opera Azire was rejected by the court, although he became known as a conductor at the public concert series. During this period he wrote articles for Stockholms Posten and Dagligt Allehanda. In 1781 he was finally elected to the Swedish Royal Academy of Music; his opera Proserpin then won him the post of assistant kapellmästare at court and at the Royal Opera. A commission to provide the inaugural work for the new theatre in 1782 (Aeneas i Cartago) was undermined at the last minute, and he was sent by Gustavus III on a study journey throughout Europe to observe the latest trends in the theatre. This four-year grand tour took him to Germany, Austria, Italy, France and England. In Vienna he met Haydn, who considered him an original genius on the level of Mozart, Salieri and Gluck, who stated: ‘That man has a great style, the like of which I have found in no one else’ (according to Kraus’s biographer F.S. Silverstolpe). Here he also became a member of the same masonic lodge as Mozart.

In Italy he wrote elaborate descriptions of the theatres in Naples and Rome as he accompanied his patron on a state visit, and his lengthy review of Piccinni’s Didon, which he saw in Paris in 1785, was published (Mannheim, 1786). In London he attended the second Handel Commemoration before returning late in 1786 to Stockholm. In 1787 he was appointed chief educational administrator at the Royal Academy of Music, and the following year succeeded Uttini as hovkapellmästare. A popular composer at the public concerts and for the Stockholm theatres, his music included the ballet Fiskarena (1789), the drama with music Soliman II (1789) and a large portion of the pasticcio Äfventyraren (1791) in addition to numerous shorter stage works. He achieved a reputation for the discipline of the Hovkapell and became one of the earliest leaders to conduct almost exclusively with a baton. He also became a close friend of the poet and singer Carl Michael Bellman, with whom, along with other intellectuals, he formed the Diktarkretsen (Poetry Society), a literary and musical circle. He died of tuberculosis shortly after the assassination of his patron Gustavus III at a masked ball.

Kraus can be considered the most original and notable composer in Sweden during the Gustavian period. His German education, coupled with his experiences during his grand tour, gave him a cosmopolitan outlook that was absorbed into his music. As early as 1778 he declared himself an ardent admirer of Gluck and Grétry, who served as his models and whose works he knew from memory. His participation in the debate on opera in the Stockholm newspapers Stockholms Posten and Dagligt Allehanda, 1778–82, shows much concern with the fusion of drama and music. He had difficulty, however, in getting his own major operas performed. Azire, written to give the Swedes ‘something original’, as he put it, was ignored, and Proserpin probably had only a single private performance. Because of intrigues, his greatest work, Aeneas i Cartago, had its première only in 1799, seven years after his death. During the period 1787–92, on the other hand, he was a popular composer whose other music for the stage was highly prized.

Kraus’s musical style is highly original, with a distinctive sense of lyrical melody, bold harmonies which often anticipate Beethoven or Schubert, and a complex rhythmic structure, particularly in the inner voices. His overriding compositional premise was the infusion of drama into all genres of music, a notion that stems from his contact with the literary Sturm und Drang. His operas, with their through-composed recitatives and extensive use of choruses and ballet, show his relationship with Gluck; he developed dramatic unity through the use of motivic devices, and he had a keen sense of the inner feelings of his characters, whose moods are often underscored at the expense of virtuoso display. In the serious operas his writings can be terse and emotional, while the comic ones show lightness of touch. A master at developing the operatic epic, Kraus’s major works Proserpin and Aeneas i Cartago create realistic scenas that give life and drama to classical stories; in the latter, the tragic love between Dido and Aeneas is played out against gigantic storms, temple sacrifices, a hunt and a final battle with three armies on stage.

Kraus’s sacred works, written mostly during his early career, frequently use plainchant as the musical foundation, in addition to having highly complex counterpoint. The oratorio Der Tod Jesu, to which Kraus himself wrote the text, is based upon Graun’s more famous work, although it consists mostly of philosophical reflections on the Crucifixion. A motet, Stella coeli, written in 1783 for the Benedictine monastery in Amorbach, contains an extraordinarily complex fugue and was apparently written in only two days, while Handel’s influence can be felt in the Te Deum finale of 1785.

Kraus was a sensitive and precise orchestrator, using a rich palette to create varying textures and moods in both dramatic and symphonic music. The Symphony in C minor, hailed by Haydn as one of the most ingenious works of the period, borrows from Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide in the opening before devolving into powerful, driving rhythms and extensive internal thematic development. The symphonic music often has a dramatic function; one of the earliest works is characterized as a Sinfonia buffa, while the final two, the Riksdagsmusik (a march derived from Mozart’s Idomeneo and a Sinfonia da chiesa) and the Symphonie funèbre, were written for state occasions, the former for the parliament of 1789 and the latter for the funeral procession of his patron Gustavus III.

Kraus was also active as a song composer, writing works in seven languages. As a poet himself, he was always sensitive to the emotions evoked by the text, from the cynical philosophy of Die Welt nach Rousseau to the Romantic through-composed ode Skulda winkt and the poignant Farväl mitt kära barn. Of particular note are the short piano cantata series Fiskarstugan to texts by Bellman. Kraus’s chamber works include five sonatas for violin and fortepiano, including one with scordatura, a trio, ten string quartets (including six published in 1784 as his op.1 by Hummel) and a flute quintet. These are characterized by considerable rhythmic freedom, extensive use of concertante writing, particularly of the viola and cello, and long lyrical lines. The keyboard music shows the influence of C.P.E. Bach.