Richard Kaden

Richard Ferdinand Kaden (10 February 1856 – 9 July 1923) was a German violinist, violist, music educator, musicologist and composer.

Life

Born in Dresden, Kaden came from a Freiberg miner family. In 1856 he was born as one of two sons – Richard's brother became a major – of the ministerial treasurer Moritz Ferdinand Kaden (d. 1921) and his wife Emilie Geyer in the royal Saxon capital and residence city of Dresden. His father, who had initially been a miner himself, then served as a tambour in the Royal Saxon Army. As a soldier he experienced the German revolutions of 1848–1849. On leaving the army, he followed a superior into the management of a private railway company. After nationalisation, he made it to the ministry in Dresden as a sub-civil servant.

Kaden attended the 1st citizen school in his hometown. While still a pupil, he began training at the Königliches Konservatorium Dresden (until 1877). His teachers included among others concertmaster Ferdinand Hüllweck and later Johann Christoph Lauterbach in violin as well as Carl Heinrich Döring in piano, Julius Rietz in theory and composition, Wilhelm Rischbieter in counterpoint and Julius Rühlmann in history of music. At the age of fourteen, he became a violinist in the Buffold Town Band. By the age of fifteen, he was chief second fiddle. After the disbandment of the Stadtkapelle, he was violist of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden from 1872 to 1896. In 1888, he was appointed to the Bayreuth Festival orchestra.[1]

While working as a musician, he became a student at the Königlich Sächsisches Polytechnikum Dresden. There he studied philosophy and education (with Friedrich Schulze) as well as psychology. He received further inspiration from Paul Hohlfeld, editor of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause's writings and later scientific director of the Pädagogische Musikschule.

From 1872 to 1883, he was engaged as violin and ensemble teacher at the Dresden Conservatory. In 1883 he became artistic director of the private progressive education "Pädagogische Musikschule zu Dresden", which was founded by his pupil and later Vera von Mertschinski and existed until 1931. Among others, Henri Marteau and Karl Panzner were his pupils there. He is also considered the spiritus rector of the music educator Fritz Reuter.[2] Furthermore, he was chairman of the Dresden and 2nd chairman of the Saxon Music School Directors Association. There, among others, together with Hugo Riemann, Julius Klengel and Hermann Vetter, he introduced a Prüfungsordnung (from 1913) for music school teachers.

He wrote essays (Der Kunstwart, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, the Musikalisches Wochenblatt among others) on music education and aesthetic topics. With his manuscript School of Music Education (1892) he wanted to create "a scientifically underpinned system of music education" (Siegfried Freitag).[3] Kaden lectured on music, philosophy and pedagogy, for example in the context of the Literarischer Verein zu Dresden, of which he was a member.[4] Ferner was a member of the Dresden Masonic lodge "Zum goldenen Apfel".

Kaden also excelled as a composer, creating several violin works and a symphony, among others. He also edited the Pierre Baillot Violin School.[5]

Family

In his first marriage (from 1879) he was married to the preacher's daughter Franziska Boeck from Danzig. His second wife from 1909 was Vera von Mertschinski,[5] daughter of the Russian Empire Titular Councillor and educator to Count Shuvalov in St Petersburg. Kaden was the father of one child: Elsa (b. 1882). He died in 1923 of pneumonia in Dresden at the age of 67.

Awards

He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross II Class of the Albert Order.

Publications
  • Parsifal im Lichte des Zeitgeistes. 2nd edition, Kaufmann, Dresden 1914.

Further reading
  • Hermann Abert (ed.): Illustriertes Musik-Lexikon. J. Engelhorns Nachf., Stuttgart 1927.
  • Herrmann A. L. Degener (ed.): Wer ist wer? Unsere Zeitgenossen. 8th edition, Degener, Leipzig 1922.
  • Paul Frank, Wilhelm Altmann: Kurzgefaßtes Tonkünstlerlexikon. Für Musiker und Freunde der Tonkunst. 12th very enlarged edition, Carl Merseburger, Leipzig 1926.
  • Siegfried Freitag: Richard Kaden (1856–1923) und seine Reformbestrebungen im Bereich der privaten Musikschulen. In Rudolf-Dieter Kraemer (ed.): Musikpädagogische Biographieforschung. Fachgeschichte – Zeitgeschichte – Lebensgeschichte (Musikpädagogische Forschung. Vol. 18). Verlag Die Blaue Eule, Essen 1997, ISBN 978-3-89206-828-0, pp. 64–72.
  • Friedrich Jansa (ed.): Deutsche Tonkünstler und Musiker in Wort und Bild. 2nd edition, Verlag von Friedrich Jansa, Leipzig 1911.
  • Fritz Reuter: Richard Kaden (1856–1923). In Zeitschrift für Musik 90 (1923) 17, pp. 10–14.

References
  1. Alfred Sous: Das Bayreuther Festspielorchester. Geschichte, Geschichten und Anekdoten von damals bis heute. Lienau, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-87484-125-1, p. 146.
  2. Walter Clemens, Werner Busch: Zum Gedenken an Fritz Reuter. In Heinz Wegener (Red. Ed.): Gedenkschrift Fritz Reuter (Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Gesellschafts- und sprachwissenschaftliche Reihe 15 (1966) 3). pp. I–VI, here p. I.
  3. Siegfried Freitag: Richard Kaden (1856–1923) und seine Reformbestrebungen im Bereich der privaten Musikschulen. In: Rudolf-Dieter Kraemer (ed.): Musikpädagogische Biographieforschung. Fachgeschichte – Zeitgeschichte – Lebensgeschichte (Music Education Research. Vol. 18). Verlag Die Blaue Eule, Essen 1997, ISBN 978-3-89206-828-0, pp. 4–72, here p. 64.
  4. Frank Almai, Rolf Parr: Literarischer Verein zu Dresden. In Wulf Wülfing, Karin Bruns, Rolf Parr (ed.): Handbuch literarisch-kultureller Vereine, Gruppen und Bünde 1825–1933 (Repertorien zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte. Vol. 18). Metzler, Stuttgart among others 1998, ISBN 978-3-476-01336-1, pp. 269–294, here p. 286.
  5. Einstein, Alfred (1929). "Kaden, Richard". Hugo Riemanns Musik-Lexikon (in German).
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.