Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (1772–1806)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia.
Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia
Elisabeth Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt
Prussian Royalty
House of Hohenzollern
Descendants of Frederick William I
Grandchildren
Frederick William II
Prince Henry
Wilhelmina, Princess of Orange
Prince Emil
Princess Friederike
Prince Heinrich
Louise, Princess Antoni Radziwiłł
Prince Christian
Prince Louis Ferdinand
Prince Paul
Prince Augustus

Prince Frederick Louis Christian "Ferdinand" of Prussia (

biopic
of his life.

Early life

Louis Ferdinand was born on 18 November 1772 in

second degree nephew, also named Louis, Prince Friedrich Ludwig Karl of Prussia
(1773–1796).

Military career

The Death of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, by Peter Edward Stroehling

Louis Ferdinand participated in the French Revolutionary Wars, fighting in the War of the First Coalition in 1792 to 1794 near Longwy and Verdun, took part in the Valmy cannonade and was wounded during the Siege of Mainz. Newly promoted to major general, he took part in the Battle of Kaiserslautern in November 1793. On 23 February 1795 Louis Ferdinand was appointed chief of the “von Baden” infantry regiment. From the end of May 1796, he served as a brigadier to the corps of his nephew, which was intended to cover the demarcation line in Westphalia. On the occasion of the military review at Petershagen, Louis Ferdinand was promoted to lieutenant general on 2 June 1799, with a patent from 20 May 1799.

In 1806, he was one of the principal advocates of resuming the war against

Napoleon and the First French Empire, triggering the War of the Fourth Coalition
.

He died during the opening engagement of the war, at the

Hussars, after Louis Ferdinand refused an offer to surrender and wounded the French NCO.[1][2]
As a prominent leader of the Prussian court, his death was deeply felt.

Musical activities

Apart from being a soldier, Louis Ferdinand was also a gifted musician and composer. Johann Friedrich Reichardt, Kapellmeister to Frederick II and Frederick William II, considered him a great pianist. Early on Louis Ferdinand also started to compose music, but he was not recognized for his compositional activities until later. His early pieces were performed by the orchestra of Prince Henry, the brother of Fredrick the Great. Later on, Prince Louis Ferdinand joined several salons in Berlin, where he frequently improvised on the piano. Among his circle of acquaintances were figures such as Schlegel, Wackenroder, and Tieck, all of whom were highly interested in music. Ludwig van Beethoven dedicated his Third Piano Concerto to him, a sign of high esteem for his piano playing.[3] Anton Reicha's massive variation cycle, L'art de varier, was also written for Louis Ferdinand.

Due to his early death, there are only 13 published musical compositions by Louis Ferdinand with

Chopin, all of his surviving works feature the piano. Despite his limited oeuvre, Louis Ferdinand's music was innovative for his time, in a style that was more expressive and individualistic than the prevailing Classical mode, and he is widely considered to be a pioneering composer of the Romantic movement;[4][5] Robert Schumann, for example, called him "that most Romantic of all princes".[6] His close friendships with Tieck, Schlegel, and Wackenroder, all founding figures of German Romanticism
, may have had an influence on his worldview and consequently his music.

In 1842, Franz Liszt wrote an Élégie sur des motifs du Prince Louis Ferdinand de Prusse, S. 168, for piano solo.

Musical works

The following is a complete list of compositions by Prince Louis Ferdinand with

opus numbers:[7]

Family

Ludwig von Wildenbruch was the elder of two illegitimate children born to Henriette Fromme.

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ Andre Castelot: Napoleon.
  2. ISBN 978-1241766870.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link
    )
  3. ^ See Barbara H. McMurtry: Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia. Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2 August 2007).
  4. ^ Der preußische Apoll Prinz Louis Ferdinand (1772–1806). Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Retrieved 21 July 2022
  5. ^ Debuch, Tobias (2004). Prinz Louis Ferdinand von Preußen (1772-1806) als Musiker im soziokulturellen Umfeld seiner Zeit. Logos Verlag Berlin.
  6. ^ "When the Prince And the Pianist Are the Same Man". The New York Times. 22 June 2003. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  7. ^ H. Kretzschmar: Louis Ferdinand, Prinz von Preussen: Musikalische Werke. Leipzig, 1910.
  8. ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 19.
  • B. Nadolny: Louis Ferdinand. Düsseldorf, 1967
  • E. Klessmann: Louis Ferdinand von Preussen, 1772–1806. Munich, 1972
  • B.H. McMurtry: The Music of Prince Louis Ferdinand. diss., University of Illinois, 1972
  • N. Miller: "Ein höchst poetische Natur...": Prinz Louis Ferdinand und der Klassizismus in der preussischen Musik, Mendelssohn-Studien, v (1982): 79–98
  • Elisabeth Wintzer: Prinz Louis Ferdinand von Preussen als Mensch und Musiker. (Prince Louis Ferdinand from Prussia as a Person and Musician) Leipzig 1915

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (1772–1806).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prince_Louis_Ferdinand_of_Prussia_(1772–1806)&oldid=1192886959"