Louise Reichardt (17791826)
Composer; Music teacher; Choir director

Works published by MoV
Weihnachtslied (SATB)
 

Weihnachtslied (SATB)

Caroline Louise Reichardt (1799–1826)

Caroline Louise Reichardt was a composer, music teacher and choir director. Born in Berlin, Reichardt was the daughter of two composers. Her mother, Juliane Benda, continued to compose and perform after the birth of her children; whilst the work of her father, Johann Friedrich Reichardt, was very well regarded at the time. Despite her origins, Reichardt received little musical education from her parents: her mother died when she was four years old and her father was too preoccupied with his own music to make adequate time to educate his daughter.
Although Reichardt lacked any formal education, she had the privilege of living in a home that was constantly filled with the leading writers of the day: Goethe, Eichendorff, Clemens and Bettina Brentano, the Brothers Grimm, and von Arnim all frequented the Reichardt household. Goethe called her home ‘die Herberge der Romantik’ (the sheltering place of Romanticism) and Eichendorff was inspired by his time there to write the poem, Da steht eine Burg überm Tale. Reichardt was clearly inspired by this intellectually stimulating environment as her songs often set texts by these talented contemporary writers.
In 1809 Reichardt moved to Hamburg where she earned a living as a singing teacher and studied composition with Johann Frederich Clasing. She ran a Gesangverein women’s chorus, for which she composed and arranged music and provided German translations of any Latin texts. During her time in Hamburg, Reichardt became particularly fascinated by the works of G.F. Handel and founded the Hamburg Choral Society to promote his music and that of J.S. Bach. However, despite the importance of her influence on musical life in the city, Reichardt was only allowed to conduct her choirs in rehearsals as it was deemed inappropriate for a woman to conduct in public.
Most of Reichardt’s music was composed during her time in Hamburg. She wrote more than 75 songs and choral works, both sacred and secular, many of which appear in popular lieder anthologies. Her hymn tunes were also well known during her lifetime, appearing in no less than 21 different late nineteenth-century hymnals.

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