Carl Friedrich Glasenapp

Carl Friedrich Glasenapp

Carl Friedrich Glasenapp (3 October 1847–14 April 1915) was a Baltic German writer, author of the first biography of composer Richard Wagner.

Biography

Carl Friedrich Glasenapp was born in Riga, the present-day capital of Latvia but at the time part of the Russian Empire. He came from a German-speaking family. After finishing school in Riga, he moved to Tartu (known as Dorpat in German, in present-day Estonia) where he studied linguistics, art history and philology at the University of Tartu.[1][2] In 1873 he took up a position as a school teacher in Pärnu, and in 1875 moved back to Riga where he kept working as a high-school teacher. In Riga he founded and presided over the local Richard Wagner society. He received the rank of State Councillor. He died on 14 April 1915 in Riga.[1]

Works on Wagner

Glasenapp had encountered the music of Wagner at an early age and became an enthusiastic supporter of the composer. The idea to write a biography about Wagner appears to have came to him while still a student.[2] His biography with the tile "Richard Wagner's Leben" was the first one about Wagner, and published in three volumes 1876–1882.[1] He travelled to Bayreuth with the manuscript of the first volume to present it to Wagner; he became a loyal and trusted biography whose depiction of Wagner's life was coloured by his admiration for the composer. However, being a member of the circle close to Wagner also gave him access to important information.[2] He also co-authored, together with Heinrich Freiherr von Stein, a "Wagner-Lexikon" (1883), a further "Wagner-Encyclopädie" in two volumes (1891), and a revised and expanded biography of Wagner, "Das Leben Richard Wagners", in six volumes (1876-1911).[1] He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature for the latter work.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Koch, Klaus–Peter (2015). "Deutsche Musiker in Lettland einschließlich dem südlichen Livland". Musikgeschichte in Mittel- und Osteuropa (in German). 15. Leipzig University: 9. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 Warrack, John (20 January 2001). "Glasenapp, Carl Friedrich". Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
  3. ↑ "Nomination for Nobel Prize in Literature (Nomination Archive)". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 12 August 2026.
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