1815–1892 · Germany · Romantic
Robert Franz (1815–1892) was a German composer, conductor and organist from Halle. Songs for voice and piano set to poems by Heine, Lenau and other poets make up the largest part of his creative legacy. The site holds his songs at various levels of difficulty, from intermediate to advanced.
Robert Franz was born on 28 June 1815 in Halle. As a boy he sang in his school choir, but his parents did not allow him to study music. From 1828 he attended the town's Latin school run by the Francke Foundations: there he was noticed as a musically gifted child, and the school's singing teacher, cantor Carl Gottlob Abela, had him accompany choir rehearsals on the piano.
His father's opposition was overcome only when Robert turned twenty: from 1835 to 1837 he lived in Dessau and studied under Friedrich Schneider. Two years with this well-known teacher brought him so close to the music of Bach and Handel that he later prepared his own editions of their works — among them Bach's St Matthew Passion and Magnificat, a number of his cantatas, and Handel's Messiah and L'Allegro. Some of these editions were considered controversial among musicians: some critics believed that in reworking the scores, Franz distorted the originals.
After returning to Halle, Franz took on a number of posts in his home town. In 1841 he became organist at St Ulrich's Church, in 1842 conductor of the Singakademie in Halle (a post he held until 1867), and from 1859 music director of the University of Halle; in 1861 the university awarded him an honorary doctorate of philosophy. In 1848 Franz married Marie Hinrichs, who composed songs herself and in 1846 had published a collection of nine works for voice and piano with the Leipzig publisher Breitkopf & Härtel.
In 1843 Franz's first songbook appeared — twelve works for voice and piano, Op. 1. It was warmly received by Mendelssohn, Liszt and Schumann: Schumann wrote at length about these songs for the journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, and that piece was eventually reissued separately as well. Franz kept up friendly relations with Schumann and Liszt in later years as well.
Franz's hearing began to decline as early as 1841. Ill health forced him to give up all his posts in the late 1860s; around that time he was awarded a pension for his services in promoting Bach's works. In 1872 several people, among them Liszt and Joachim, organized a concert tour for Franz — the entire proceeds from the performances were given to him.
In 1885, when Franz turned seventy, the city council of Halle granted him the title of honorary citizen; that same year he published his only piano piece. Robert Franz died in Halle on 24 October 1892; he was buried in the Stadtgottesacker beside his wife Marie. In 1903 a monument to Franz was unveiled in Halle and a street was named after him, and in 1907 the Singakademie in Halle and a newly founded music school were both named after him.
Songs for voice and piano make up the largest part of Franz's legacy — he wrote several hundred such works to poems by Heine, Lenau, Eichendorff, Mörike and Osterwald. In the composer's own words, his songs "...should carry peace and tranquility." They share with Schumann's vocal music the same improvisatory freedom and distinctive harmonic voice, though the range of feeling Franz expressed was narrower. Besides songs, Franz wrote about thirty choral works, among them a setting of Psalm 117 for a cappella choir. He also prepared his own editions of scores by Bach and Handel, seeking to make them more accessible to ordinary performing ensembles; some critics felt that in doing so he distorted the originals.
The site holds 41 editions of Franz's songs for voice and piano: two pieces at intermediate level, twenty-three at upper intermediate level, and sixteen at advanced level. A good place to start is "Umsonst" and "O lüge nicht" — the most accessible pieces on the site; the next step up is "Die Lotosblume" and "Tanzlied im Mai" at upper intermediate level, while the more demanding "Nachtlied" at advanced level is better left for later.