A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Naumann, Johann Gottlieb
NAUMANN, Johann Gottlieb (or Giovanni Amadeo), well-known composer in his day, born April 17, 1741, at Blasewitz near Dresden. Though the child of a peasant he was educated at the Kreuzschule in Dresden, and intended for a schoolmaster. He studied music by himself, until a Swedish musician resident in Dresden named Weestroem, happening to visit his home was struck by seeing Bach's (probably Emmanuel's) sonatas on the harpsichord, and determined to take him on a professional tour. Starting in May 1757, they first went to Hamburg, where they were detained 10 months by Weestroem's ill health, and then to Padua where Weestroem took lessons from Tartini, in which he did not allow Naumann to share. His treatment was altogether so bad that the young man left him, but was able to proceed with his training, as Tartini taught him for nothing, and a Saxon musician named Hunt gave him pecuniary assistance. During his stay of three years in Padua he made the acquaintance of Hasse. He next went to Naples with a pupil named Pitscher, to study dramatic music for six months; and then, armed with a recommendation from Tartini, visited Padre Martini at Bologna, and received from him some instruction in counterpoint. During a lengthened stay at Venice he produced his first opera at San Samuele. In 1763 he returned home, and through the influence of the Electress was appointed court composer of sacred music. Soon after we find him again in Italy, composing 'Achille in Sciro' for Palermo, and 'Alessandro nelle Indie' for Venice. In 1769 he produced 'La Clemenza di Tito' (Metastasio's text) in Dresden, and in 1772 'Solimanno' and 'Nozze disturbate' in Venice, and 'Armida' in Padua. On his return to Dresden he declined a flattering invitation from Frederic the Great to Berlin, and was rewarded by the Elector with the title of Capellmeister, and a salary of 1200 thalers. During a temporary residence in Stockholm he produced in Swedish 'Amphion,' 'Gustav Wasa,' and 'Cora,' his best and most popular work, published for P.F. In 1786 he was raised to the dignity of Obercapellmeister, with a salary of 2000 thalers, for his refusal of a brilliant position at Copenhagen. In 1793 he produced 'Protesilao,' an opera, at Berlin, and an oratorio 'Davidde in Terebinto' at Potsdam, for which he received a gold snuff-box with 400 Friedrichs d'or from the King Frederic William II, who also induced Hummel to take lessons from him. His last opera was produced April 25, 1801, at Dresden, where he died of apoplexy on the 23rd of the following October. For further particulars the reader is referred to Meissner's 'Bruchstücke aus Naumann's Lebensgeschichte' (Prague, 1803–4).
Naumann was also a prolific composer of church music; 11 oratorios, and 21 masses, with Te Deums, and smaller church-pieces, being preserved in Dresden. The court chapel still performs some of his compositions, but the single work of his now known beyond Dresden is his setting of Klopstock's 'Vater unser,' an effective composition for its day. Though a good musician, capable of turning his talents to account, he had not a particle of genius. Entirely uninfluenced by the works of Haydn and Mozart, he trudged on to the end of his life in the footsteps of Hasse and Graun. On hearing for the first time one of J. A. Hiller's performances of the 'Messiah' he expressed the strongest disapproval of the music, a fact which speaks for itself.
The Library of the Sacred Harmonic Society contains a Mass of his (in G) published in London with an accompaniment arranged by Edmund Harris; and 'The Pilgrims at the Holy Sepulchre,' an oratorio, edited with a biography by Mainzer. By his marriage with the daughter of Admiral Grotschilling he left three sons, the eldest of whom, Karl Friederich, became a well known mineralogist, whose son Ernst, born Aug. 15, 1832, studied the organ with Johann Schneider, and composition with Hauptmann, and has been since 1860 professor, organist, and musikdirector at Jena. He published an excellent treatise 'Ueber die verschiedenen Bestimmungen der Tonverhältnisse' (Leipzig, 1858), as well as some music, among which may be named a string quintet, and a serenade for strings and wind.
The elder Naumann's second son, Moritz Ernst Adolf, a well-known physician and professor in Bonn, was father to Dr. Emil, pupil of Mendelssohn and Hauptmann, and a composer of merit, born Sept. 8, 1827, in Berlin, where he holds the sinecure post of court-director of sacred music. He lives chiefly in Dresden, engaged in musical literature. Readers of Mendelssohn's letters will not forget the excellent counsels which he addresses to his young friend in a letter dated March 1845. His last work is 'Die moderne musikalische Zopf' (1880), a pamphlet of conservative tendency. He succeeded W. Rust as organist of S. Thomas's, Leipzig (March 1880), on the promotion of the latter to be Cantor. [App. p.728 "Add that Dr. Emil Naumann's exhaustive 'History of Music' has been translated by Ferdinand Praeger, edited and furnished with very necessary additional chapters on English music by Sir F. A. G. Ouseley, and published by Cassell & Co. (1886). The author died June 23, 1888."]
The third brother, Constantin August, was a mathematician and astronomer.