Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago

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My student Melina performing Friedrich Kuhlau‘s Sonatina in C Major 55 no.3.

0:00 Allegro con spirito
2:00 Allegretto grazioso

Melina is 8 years old and studies the piano with me for 3 years. She already took part at Jugend Musiziert competition. Beside her solo piano she likes to play duets with her sister Lucy as well as learning the flute as a second instrument.

Melina‘s sister Lucy performing Brahms‘ Hungarian dance: youtu.be/rsW0RNm6YFE

Friedrich Daniel Rudolf Kuhlau (German; Danish sometimes Frederick Kulav) (11 September 1786 – 12 March 1832) was a German-Danish pianist and composer during the late Classical and early Romantic periods. He was a central figure of the Danish Golden Age and is immortalized in Danish cultural history through his music for Elves' Hill, the first true work of Danish National Romanticism and a concealed tribute to the absolute monarchy. To this day it is his version of this melody which is the definitive arrangement.
During his lifetime, Kuhlau was known primarily as a concert pianist and composer of Danish opera, but was responsible for introducing many of Beethoven's works, which he greatly admired, to Copenhagen audiences. Kuhlau was a prolific composer, as evidenced by the fact that although his house burned down, destroying all of his unpublished manuscripts, he still left a legacy of more than 200 published works in most genres.

Early life and education

Kuhlau was born on 11 September 1786 just south of Lüneburg in the Uelzen district of Lower Saxony (Germany). At the age of seven, he lost his right eye when he slipped on ice and fell. His father, grandfather, and uncle were military oboists. Even though Kuhlau was born to a poor family, his parents managed to pay for piano lessons. In 1802 he moved to Hamburg where he began learning the piano with scholar C.F.G Schwencke.

Career

In 1804, Kuhlau made his debut and began working as a concert pianist. It was around this time that he began composing songs and chamber music to earn money. Many of Kuhlau's compositions throughout his life were for the flute, though he himself did not play the instrument. In 1810, he fled to Copenhagen to avoid conscription in the Napoleonic Army, which overwhelmed the many small principalities and duchies of northern Germany. In the same year, Kuhlau published his first piano and flute compositions. Kuhlau made a living in Copenhagen as a piano teacher and composer in 1811. He was later appointed as a non-salaried musician in the Danish Court in 1812. Kuhlau eventually became a Danish citizen in 1813. Following the success of his singspiel, The Robber's Castle, Kuhlau gained a high-paying position as a singing teacher at the Royal Theater in 1816. Kuhlau's works between 1817 and 1820 failed to gain much prominence. His opera, The Magic Harp, was said to have failed due to a controversial libretto. In 1821 and 1825, Kuhlau travelled to Vienna where he befriended Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven's influence is evidential in Kuhlau's later works such as his singspiel, Elverhøj or Elves' Hill, a work widely regarded as a tribute to the Danish Monarchy and an inspiring piece from the Danish Golden Age. In 1828, Kuhlau was awarded an honorary professorship.

#piano #sonatina #kuhlau