Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim at 300

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (1719-1803) was a German poet of the Enlightenment who has largely been forgotten today. This is mainly due to the fanciful, galant style of the poems that made Gleim a leading exponent of anacreontics. For composers of his time, though, as well as into the 19th century, Gleim’s poetry was an extremely popular choice to set to music.

In the RISM database, there are many sources of music by Johann Nikolaus Forkel and Joseph Haydn, and you’ll also find pieces by Emanuel Bach, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, and Johann Heinrich Rolle. Gleim’s poem “Das Hüttchen” was apparently popular, and RISM has settings of it by Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814), Joseph Schuster (1748-1812), Josef Antonín Štěpán (1726-1797), Johann Franz Xaver Sterkel (1750-1817), Heinrich Henkel (1822-1899), and Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832).

Image: Title page from Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788): Der Wirth und die Gäste. Eine Singode vom Herrn Gleim (RISM A/I: B 141, D-Mbs 2 Mus.pr. 1146).

Catégorie: Anniversaires