Robert Franz Julius Knauth (28 June 1815 – 24 October
1892) was a German composer, mainly of lieder. He was
born in Halle, Germany, the son of Christoph Franz
Knauth. In 1847, Christoph Knauth adopted his middle
name Franz as his new surname, and his son followed
suit. He suffered in early life from the hostility of
his parents to a musical career. He was twenty years
old when his father's animosity was conquered and he
was allowed to live in Dessau to study organ playing
under Friedrich Schne...(+)
Robert Franz Julius Knauth (28 June 1815 – 24 October
1892) was a German composer, mainly of lieder. He was
born in Halle, Germany, the son of Christoph Franz
Knauth. In 1847, Christoph Knauth adopted his middle
name Franz as his new surname, and his son followed
suit. He suffered in early life from the hostility of
his parents to a musical career. He was twenty years
old when his father's animosity was conquered and he
was allowed to live in Dessau to study organ playing
under Friedrich Schneider. The two years of study under
that famous teacher were advantageous chiefly in making
him uncommonly intimate with the works of Bach and
Händel, his knowledge of which is shown in his
editions of the former's St Matthew Passion, Magnificat
and ten cantatas, and the latter's Messiah and
L'Allegro, although some of these editions have long
been controversial among musicians.
In 1843 he published his first book of songs, which was
followed by some fifty more books, containing in all
about 250 songs. In his native Halle he filled various
public offices, including those of city organist as
well as conductor of the Singakademie and the Symphony.
He also served as royal music-director and music master
at the university. The first book of songs was warmly
praised by Liszt and Schumann, and the latter wrote a
lengthy review of it in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik
and later published it separately as well. Deafness
began to make itself apparent as early as 1841. Franz
also had a nervous disorder that in 1868 compelled him
to resign his offices. His future was then provided for
by Franz Liszt, Joseph Joachim and others, who gave him
the receipts of a concert tour amounting to some
100,000 marks. In 1878 or 1879, he made an extensive
search for Bach manuscripts in various towns, villages
and country houses in Germany. Supposedly, he
discovered a park surrounding Schloss Witzthun where
young trees were being protected from their supporting
poles by paper instead of the customary cloth or
leather. On examination, the paper turned out to be
Bach manuscripts. After questioning the gardener, Franz
found a trunk of them, including a number of violin
sonatas. Although this account was printed in The New
York Times, Franz declared it was "entirely
untrue".
In addition to songs, he set the 117th Psalm for double
choir and wrote and a four-part Kyrie; he also edited
Emanuele d'Astorga's Stabat Mater and Francesco
Durante's Magnificat. On his seventieth birthday he
published his only pianoforte piece. He also
transcribed Schubert's String Quartet in D minor
("Death and the Maiden") for piano duet (1878) and made
arrangements of Mozart's Quintets in C minor and C
major. He died in Halle.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Franz).
Although originally composed for Voice and Piano, I
created this Arrangement of the "Die Lotosblume" (The
Lotus Flower Op. 1 No. 3) for Flute & Classical Guitar.
