{{Short description|Czech composer of classical music and violinist}} {{Infobox person | name = Franz Krommer | image = Franz Krommer passport.jpg | caption = | birth_name = František Vincenc Kramář | birth_date = {{birth date|1759|11|27|df=y}} | birth_place = Kamenice u Jihlavy, Moravia | death_date = {{death date and age|1831|1|8|1759|11|27|df=y}} | death_place = Vienna, Austrian Empire | occupation = Composer }}
'''Franz Krommer''' ({{langx|cs|František Vincenc Kramář}}; 27 November 1759 – 8 January 1831) was a Czech composer of classical music and violinist. He was one of the most popular composers in 19th-century Vienna alongside Beethoven, whom he knew. Today he is mostly known for his clarinet and double clarinet concertos.<ref>{{cite web |title=F. V. Krommer - Clarinet Concerto in Eb Major (Op. 36) |url=http://www.classicalcollectioninc.com/smckrommer36.html |website=Classical Collection Inc. |access-date=24 November 2022}}</ref>
==Life== Franz Krommer was born František Vincenc Kramář in Kamenice. His parents went by a Germanized version of their surname, Krommer. His father was an innkeeper in Kamenice until the family moved to Třebíč in 1773. From 1773 to 1776, Franz studied violin and organ with his uncle, Antonín Mattias Kramář (1742–1804), in Tuřany. He became an organist here along with his uncle in 1777. In 1785 he moved to Vienna and later to Simontornya in Hungary, where he was a violinist and later a Kapellmeister for the orchestra of the Count of Limburg Stirum. In 1790, Krommer was named choirmaster at the Cathedral of Pécs, Hungary. In 1793 he became a Kapellmeister to Count Anton II Grassalkovich. He returned to Vienna in 1795, becoming Maestro di Cappella for Duke Ignaz Fuchs in 1798.
In 1818 Krommer succeeded Leopold Koželuch as Kapellmeister, composer for the Imperial Court of Austria for Francis I, the first Emperor of Austria, the post he held until his death. According to Carl Engel he may have been Kapellmeister as early as 1814.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Engel|first=Carl|author-link=Carl Engel|date=October 1918|title=Music We Shall Never Hear|journal=The Musical Quarterly|volume=4|issue=4|pages=500–1|doi=10.1093/mq/iv.4.491|issn=0027-4631|jstor=737875|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1431921}}</ref> He died on 8 January 1831 in Vienna, at the age of 71.
==Compositions== {{main|List of compositions by Franz Krommer}} His output included at least 300 published compositions across 110 opus numbers. These works consist of at least 9 symphonies, 70 string quartets, wind and string pieces, approximately 15 string quintets,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.areditions.com/rr/embellish/1999_08/quintets.html |title=Embellishments 8: Four Viennese String Quintets |publisher=Areditions.com |access-date=2014-04-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140415022808/https://www.areditions.com/rr/embellish/1999_08/quintets.html |archive-date=2014-04-15 }}</ref> and music for wind ensemble.
==Further reading== *Padrta, Karel. ''Franz Krommer (1759–1831); Thematischer Katalog seiner musikalischen Werke''. Prague: Supraphon, 1997. 425 pp. {{ISBN|80-7058-388-6}} (pbk.) *Zouhar, Zdeněk. ''František Vincenc Kramář: 1759–1959: výběrová bibliografie.'' Brno: Universitní Knihovna, 1959. **Occasionally a system of classification of Krommer's works is seen in use based on Padrta's work. For example, the quintet for flute and strings opus 55 in E minor is PadK VII/3, the concerto opus 86 for flute and orchestra (also in E minor, and often played with clarinet solo) is PadK III/16. These examples are taken from the listings at a Czech radio station's website, which gives both the standard opus numbers (when available) and the newer system ([http://www.rozhlas.cz/d-dur Rozhlas D-Dur]).
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.hoasm.org/XIIC/Krommer.html HOASM biography] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20050909202002/http://haydn.dk/mhc_krommer.php Biography in English] * [http://perso.orange.fr/alain.cf/kramar_bio.htm Biography in French] * {{IMSLP|id=Krommer, Franz}} * {{DNB-Portal|TYP=Sound carrier of|119149419}}
{{Classical period (music)}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krommer, Franz}} Category:Franz Krommer Category:1759 births Category:1831 deaths Category:18th-century Austrian male musicians Category:18th-century classical composers Category:18th-century classical composers from Bohemia Category:18th-century violinists Category:Czech male classical violinists Category:19th-century Austrian composers Category:19th-century Austrian male musicians Category:19th-century Czech classical composers Category:19th-century classical violinists Category:Composers from the Austrian Empire Category:Classical-period composers from Bohemia Category:Czech male classical composers Category:Czech classical violinists Category:18th-century composers from the Holy Roman Empire Category:People from Jihlava District Category:Czech Romantic composers Category:String quartet composers Category:Composers for piano Category:Composers for flute Category:Composers for violin Category:18th-century male musicians from Bohemia