A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Kuntzsch, Johann Gottfried

by George Grove

KUNTZSCH, Johann Gottfried, one of those earnest, old-fashioned, somewhat pedantic, musicians, to whom Germany owes so much; who are born in the poorest ranks, raise themselves by unheard-of efforts and self-denial, and die without leaving any permanent mark except the pupils whom they help to form. The 'Baccalaureus Kuntzsch' was teacher of the organ and clavier at the Lyceum of Zwickau when Schumann was a small boy, and it was by him that the great composer was grounded in pianoforte playing. Kuntzsch celebrated his jubilee at Zwickau in July 1852, when Schumann wrote him a charming letter,^[1] which his biographer assures us was but one of many. Schumann's studies for the pedal piano—6 pieces in canonform (op. 56), composed in 1845 and published in 1846—are dedicated to his old master, whose name is thus happily preserved from oblivion. Kuntzsch died at a great age in 1854.

[ G. ]

1. Wasielewsky gives it, p. 10.