Josephine
Lang
(1815-80)
Biographical
Composer and pianist. Though not credited with any composition in
larger form than songs or piano pieces, Josephine Lang won a high artistic
rank among the women composers of Germany. She began her piano studies
when five years old, and made progress enough to allow a public appearance
in her eleventh year. Four years later, Mendelssohn met her and
became her teacher in counterpoint and thoroughbass. He was charmed
by her gifted and poetic nature, and calls her 'one of the loveliest creatures
I have ever seen. She has the gift of composing songs, and of singing
them, in a degree that I have never known before.' To help support
her parents, she did some teaching, and sang in the royal chapel with
such success that she was named for the post of royal court singer.
In 1842 she married Christian Kostlin, who obtained a law professorship
at Tiibingen, and there she passed fourteen happy years. The death
of her husband was followed by the loss of her three sons, and she was
forced once more to struggle for a living. In this later period
of trial and success, she published most of her compositions. The
songs, amounting to a hundred and fifty in number, are remarkable for
their strong feeling and expressive power, while her piano works are stamped
with originality and depth of conception. Among the latter are the
great 'Deutscher Siegesmarsch', two mazurkas, and an impromptu, 'In the
Twilight'.[1]
Place of birth: Munich[2]
Place
of death: Tübingen[2]
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Sources
1. A. Elso. Woman's Work in Music. Boston: L. C. Page & Company, 1904.
2. Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, vol. 51. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1906.
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