1829–1869 · Netherlands · Romantic
Joseph Ascher was a Dutch composer and pianist, born in Groningen in 1829 and died in London in 1869. He spent most of his life in Paris and London, served as court pianist to the French Empress Eugénie and wrote mostly salon pieces for piano. The site has his song "Alice, Where Art Thou?" in two editions.
Joseph Ascher was born in Groningen in June 1829. His father, Simon Ascher, was the chazzan, or cantor, of the city's Jewish community. The family soon moved to London, and in 1832 Simon became chief cantor of the Great Synagogue there. It was in London that the boy began his musical studies and wrote his first compositions.
In August 1845 Ascher was enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory. A year later, in 1846, Ignaz Moscheles came to Leipzig. A surviving certificate shows that Moscheles then became Ascher's piano teacher.
A report written when he left the conservatory in June 1848 shows that Ascher did not work equally hard at every subject, but his talent was enough for a good final result. He did not, however, complete the conservatory course.
In 1849 Ascher set out for Paris. In those years salon music was in high fashion in the city's well-to-do circles. He received the title of court pianist to the French Empress Eugénie. He was also honoured by the Austrian emperor and by the former Queen Isabella.
In 1865 Ascher moved back to London. In Paris, Émile Waldteufel succeeded him as court pianist.
Ascher fell ill in the 1860s. For the last two and a half years of his life the composer suffered from an incurable nervous illness. He died in London in June 1869; his father was still serving there as a cantor at the time.
Ascher wrote chiefly for piano: solo pieces, works for four and eight hands, and also ballads and display pieces for solo voice with piano. He is known above all as a composer of salon music.
His piano pieces include "Danse andalouse" (a concert caprice, op. 30, 1853), the galop "Sans Souci" (op. 85, 1860) and concert paraphrases on the Irish air "The Last Rose of Summer" (op. 114, 1863) and on "God Save the Queen" (op. 50). The mazurkas "La perle du nord" and "Dosia" and the study "Les gouttes d’eau" are the ones people know best. His galops, nocturnes, mazurkas and studies number over a hundred, not counting other salon pieces.
Among his romances is "Alice, Where Art Thou?" to words by Wellington Guernsey, 1861. His romances "I’ll think of thee" (1862) and "Thoughts of Home. An Alpine Song" (1864) are settings of the same author.
The site has "Alice, Where Art Thou?" in two editions: for solo piano (level "Advanced") and for voice and piano (level "Intermediate+"). It is easier to start with the voice and piano version.