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A biography of Friedrich Wilhelm Arnold (1810-1864) A life imbued with music Peter Van Leeuwen 2018 A biography of Friedrich Wilhelm Arnold (1810-1864): A life imbued with music. (V.1805E_I) www.van-leeuwen.de Copyright © Peter Van Leeuwen 2018 All rights reserved Front Cover: Excerpt from one of Arnold's compositions: Allegro , published in: Pfennig- Magazin für Gesang und Guitarre. Herausgegeben von einem Verein Rheinländischer Tonkünstler. Redigirt von F.W. Arnold . Cologne, Gaul & Tonger. 1835 1(4): 190. Back Cover: Reproduction of a photograph of the portrait of Friedrich Wilhelm Arnold. 3 Table of contents Table of contents .................................................................................... 3 Preface .................................................................................................... 7 Origins ..................................................................................................... 9 Childhood and Schooling ....................................................................... 13 Student days ......................................................................................... 16 Cologne, London, Aachen: Journalism, Music, Theater ......................... 20 Novelist ................................................................................................. 24 The Music Business, Part I: Cologne ...................................................... 29 Marriage ............................................................................................... 30 Musical Pursuits: Part I .......................................................................... 33 Transition .............................................................................................. 35 The Music Business, Part II: Elberfeld .................................................... 37 Family.................................................................................................... 41 Musical Pursuits: Part II ......................................................................... 44 Music Publisher – Contact to Musicians and Composers ....................... 46 Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann ............................................ 47 Woldemar Bargiel ............................................................................. 52 Johannes Brahms ............................................................................. 54 The German Folk Song .......................................................................... 56 Philipp Wackernagel ......................................................................... 56 Anton Wilhelm von Zuccalmaglio ..................................................... 57 Karl Simrock ..................................................................................... 61 Johannes Brahms ............................................................................. 61 Julius Grimm ..................................................................................... 65 Franz Espagne................................................................................... 66 Ludwig Uhland .................................................................................. 69 Jacob Grimm .................................................................................... 70 The Locheimer-Liederbuch .................................................................... 76 4 Table of contents Health – Illness – Death ......................................................................... 80 Epitaph .................................................................................................. 85 Legacy ................................................................................................... 87 Who was Friedrich Wilhelm Arnold? ..................................................... 91 Acknowledgements ............................................................................... 98 References .......................................................................................... 100 Publications .................................................................................... 100 Newspaper Articles ........................................................................ 102 Archives/Museums/Libraries/Registries ......................................... 103 List of Persons ..................................................................................... 106 F.W. Arnold's Compositions and Arrangements .................................. 108 5 6 7 Preface The story of Friedrich Wilhelm Arnold is presented here. He lived in the 19 th century in what is present day Germany. At that time, Germany was a confederation of states, kingdoms, duchies, princedoms, and city states. He lived his early life in the Kingdom of Württemberg in the south and came from a reasonably well-off family. Once he had completed his education, he moved north to the Kingdom of Prussia and spent the rest of his life in Cologne and Wuppertal-Elberfeld. His privileged background and subse- quent schooling enabled him to pursue a number of professions associated with culture but focused primarily on music. In the course of his life he was a musician, writer, theater critic, editor, composer, businessman, publisher and music researcher. He was acquainted with many of the people involved in culture and fine arts of his day, some of them were his friends, a number of them are well-known even today. After he had started his own music business in Elberfeld, he settled down there with his family. Beyond earning a living, he was socially active and he engaged himself in local musical proJects. He often travelled in the German states as well as through other parts of Europe, driven by his music publishing business as well as his personal interest in the German folk song. He died unexpectedly at the age of 54. My account of Arnold's life is based on the many sources available today. Starting point was the Family History , written by my great- grandmother Lily Schnabel, which also included many particulars on the life and times of her grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm. The search for more detail and further information was greatly simplified by the current availability of data on the internet. In specific cases I also contacted organizations or persons, many of whom supplied me with further facts and material. In the following I have tried to put all those details into a roughly chronological framework which tells the story of Friedrich Wilhelm Arnold on the background of his family and his times. I have attempted to reference the facts related here so that, if need be, the reader can trace the source. The sources are given in on-page foot- notes and I have, where appropriate, included supplementary information in these notes. There are also numerous cross references which link bits of related information scattered around the text. For the sake of clarity, I have adopted certain conventions in the text body. The names of persons, when they are first mentioned, are written in italics with the family name in a bold font, e.g. Friedrich Wilhelm Arnold . 8 Preface The titles of books, articles, chapters, etc. are written in italics. Original texts in German are often given and I have translated these into English where appropriate. Quoted texts are placed in quotation marks. At times I have speculated on various aspects of Arnold's life, the circumstances, his character and personality and these are of course my subJective views. I have included a number of pictures with the intention of making the written word a bit more accessible and perhaps enhance the impression of a life lived almost two hundred years ago. Herdecke, Germany 2018. 9 Origins The town Sontheim bei Heilbronn lies in the southern German province of Baden-Württemberg on the Neckar river in a gently rolling, hilly landscape. Sontheim is a suburb of Heilbronn, which is about 20 km down- stream, roughly halfway between Heidelberg and Stuttgart. In the early 19 th century, Sontheim was a rural, peasant community with several hundred inhabitants. 1 Its population was mainly Catholic and focused on farming and winegrowing with some fishing in the river. 2 Apart from the local small- holders there were several estates. Sontheim before 1882 3 One of these estates belonged to Friedrich Wilhelm's father, Franz Theodor Joseph Arnold . No records of the father's birthdate or place have been found but he was probably born before or around 1790. Also, little is known of what Theodor Arnold actually did for a living. 4 However there is some evidence that he was, among other things, a man of farming and 1 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sontheim_%28Heilbronn%29/. 2 https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Beschreibung_des_Oberamts_Heilbronn/Kapitel_B_14/. 3 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hn-sontheim-vor1882.Jpg/. 4 It seems that after Sontheim became a part of Heilbronn, archive material was transferred to Heilbronn where it was destroyed in fire. See http://heuss.stadtarchiv-heilbronn.de/ and search, using the "Expertenmaske", in the field "Signatur" for: C008-0. 10 Origins business. For instance, in 1815 he applied for a license to erect a soap factory 5 which was granted in the same year.6 Two years later he applied for a machine for making bread out of potatoes. 7 As both of these business undertakings make use of agricultural products – plant oil and ashes for soap and the potatoes for bread – one can well imagine that Theodor Arnold produced such goods on his estate. Apart from working his estate, he was also involved in music.