A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Schunke, Louis

SCHUNKE, Louis (or Ludwig?), pianoforte player and composer, born of a musical family at Cassel, Dec. 21, 1810. His progress was so rapid that at 10 he could play the Concertos of Mozart and Hummel, with ease. In 1824 he visited Munich and Vienna, and then Paris, where he put himself under Kalkbrenner and Reicha. After some wandering to Stuttgart, Vienna (1832), Prague and Dresden, he came to Leipzig, where he made the acquaintance of Schumann, and an intimate friendship was the result. Schunke was carried off on Dec. 7, 1834, at the early age of not quite 24, to the great grief of Schumann, who indulged his affection in several interesting papers ('Ges. Schriften,' i. 92, 325; ii. 56, 277) full of memorials of his friend's characteristics. Schunke's appearance was striking, and he was a very remarkable player. He was one of the four who edited the 'Neue Zeitschrift für Musik' on its first appearance. His articles are signed with the figure 3.

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