Zumsteeg, Emilie
Zumsteeg, Emilie
- Marcia J. Citron
- , revised by Martina Rebmann
Updated in this version
updated and revised
(b Stuttgart, Dec 9, 1796; d Stuttgart, Aug 1, 1857). German composer, pianist, singer, conductor, and teacher. The youngest of seven children born to the composer Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, she studied the piano with G. Schick and theory with Wilhelm Sutor. Gifted with a fine alto voice, Zumsteeg was soon singing and performing on the piano (e.g. at the Stuttgart Museumskonzerte) though she primarily pursued a career as a composer. As an adult Zumsteeg was active as a teacher and mixed with leading musicians and poets in Wurttemberg. Her literary ties reflected an interest in the lied, which formed the basis of her creative reputation. She also wrote several piano works in her early years, such as the Trois polonaises, published in 1821 and favorably reviewed in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, and a few sacred choral music compositions. She occupied a central position in the musical life of Stuttgart as a teacher of voice and piano and as a leading member of the Verein für Klassische Kirchenmusik. Additionally, she conducted a women's choir of about 30 members, and on special occasions, such as the annual Schiller celebrations in Stuttgart, she performed with a double-sized women’s choir. Public concerts with mixed choirs, however, were conducted by men like Peter Joseph von Lindpaintner, the court conductor of the royal chapel. Zumsteeg also directed oratorios and operas in private houses, the performances of which she led from the piano. She was an excellent and much sought after music teacher.
Zumsteeg’s lieder (about 60 in number) and duets were still known in the late 19th century (Michaelis) but have not remained in the repertory. The six lieder of her op.6 received a brief but laudatory notice in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in 1842. An earlier collection, Sechs Lieder op.4 (Mainz, n.d.), includes mainly simple, strophic songs, but occasionally reveals an italianate flair, as in the second song, Morgenständchen (in Citron). Only a small portion of her solo songs were printed during her lifetime, though they are her most important compositions. Although the early songs were still rococo-colored and influenced by the songs of her father, her musical language became more romantic around 1830, with good text declamation and musical interpretation of words becoming increasingly important. The songs were written to texts by contemporary poets Zumsteeg knew or had befriended (Helmina von Chézy, Justinus Kerner, Nikolaus Lenau, Eduard Mörike, Gustav Schwab et al.). Two of her lieder appear in the series Frauen komponieren (1992) and the almost complete Lieder und Duette were edited in 1998, while editions of single songs have been published more recently.
Bibliography
- AMZ, vol.23 (1821), 479–80; vol.23 (1821), 816; vol.31 (1829), 747; vol.36 (1834), 484; vol.44 (1842), 935–6
- A. Michaelis: Frauen als schaffende Tonkünstler: ein biographisches Lexicon (Leipzig, 1888)
- H.J. Moser: Das deutsche Lied seit Mozart (Berlin and Zürich, 1937, 2/1968)
- K. Haering: ‘Emilie Zumsteeg’, Schwäbische Lebensbilder, vol.2 (1941), 537–44
- M.J. Citron: ‘Women and the Lied, 1775–1850’, Women Making Music: the Western Art Tradition, 1150–1950, ed. J. Bowers and J. Tick (Urbana and Chicago, 1986), 224–48
- M. Riepl-Schmidt: ‘Emilie Zumsteeg, die “männliche” Musikerin’, Wider das verkochte und verbügelte Leben: Frauenemanzipation in Stuttgart seit 1800 (Stuttgart, 1990), 70–79
- M. Rebmann: ‘“Wie Deine Kunst, so edel war Dein Leben”: ein Werkverzeichnis der Stuttgarter Komponistin Emilie Zumsteeg’, Musik in Baden-Württemberg, vol.2 (Stuttgart, 1995), 51–74
- M. Rebmann: ‘“Die Thatkraft einer Männerseele”: der Stuttgarter Komponistin Emilie Zumsteeg zum 200. Geburtstag’, Viva voce, no.40 (1996), 29–33
- M. Rebmann: ‘Emilie Zumsteeg’, Annäherung XII: an sieben Komponistinnen XII, ed. C. Mayer (Kassel 2001), 37–57
- M. Rebmann: ‘Emilie Zumsteeg’, “Das Lied, das du mir jüngst gesungen…”: Studien zum Sololied in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jh. in Württemberg: Quellen – Funktion – Analyse (Frankfurt, 2002), 115–80
- M. Rebmann: ‘“Sie war eine Haupttriebfeder jener musikalischen Ereignisse”: Emilie Zumsteeg und das Stuttgarter Chorwesen in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts’, klangwelten: lebenswelten – komponistinnen in südwestdeutschland, ed. R. Nägele and M. Rebmann (Stuttgart, 2004), 38–61
Editions
- Emilie Zumsteeg: Sechs Lieder mit Begleitung des Pianoforte, op.4, repr. (Mainz, 1990)
- Frauen komponieren: 25 Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier, ed. by E. Rieger and K. Walter (Mainz, 1992) [with two songs by Zumsteeg]
- M. Rebmann, ed.: Emilie Zumsteeg: Lieder und Duette, für unterschiedliche Stimmlagen mit Begleitung des Klaviers (Stuttgart, 1998) (Musik aus Baden-Württemberg) [45 songs and 5 duets]
- Weihnachtslieder von Komponistinnen 3, ed. E. Goell (Kassel, 2009) [op.7/3, recte op.5/2 Lied]
- Weihnachtslieder von Komponistinnen 4, ed. E. Goell (Kassel 2010) [op.8 Chorgesang am heilgen Abend]
- Pian é forte: Klaviermusik: Women Composers through the Centuries (Kassel, 2011) [Polonaise no.3]