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Scan 546
Baker S Biographical Dictionary Of Musicians, 1900
8 lines. Read by computer on 12 September 2026. Printed page 526. See the scan on archive.org.
1GADE — GADSKI
3Gade (gah'-dě), Niels (Wilhelm), Danish composer and founder of the modern Scandinavian school of composition; b. Copenhagen, Feb. 22, 1817; d. there, Dec. 21, 1890. He was the only child of an instrument maker; studied violin with a member of the Danish court band, and gave a concert in Copenhagen at the age of 16. He then took composition lessons with A. P. Berggreen; soon he began writing songs to German texts. At the age of 23, he wrote his overture, Nachklänge von Ossian, for which he was awarded a prize by the Copenhagen Musical Society. The work was performed in Copenhagen on Nov. 19, 1841, and was soon published; this early overture remained the most popular work of Gade, and endured in the orchestral repertory for many years. His next important work was a symphony in C minor. Gade sent this to Mendelssohn in Leipzig, and Mendelssohn performed it at a Gewandhaus concert on March 2, 1843. Subsequently Gade received a government stipend for travel in Germany; he went to Leipzig, where Mendelssohn accepted him as a friend, and let him conduct some of the Gewandhaus concerts. Gade's talent flourished in the congenial atmosphere; an ardent admirer of Mendelssohn and Schumann, he adopted a Romantic style in the prevalent Germanic spirit. After Mendelssohn's death in 1847, Gade assumed the conductorship of the Gewandhaus concerts, but on the outbreak of the Schleswig-Holstein war in the spring of 1848, he returned to Copenhagen. In 1850, he became chief conductor of the Copenhagen Musical Society; also was a co-founder of the Copenhagen Cons. in 1866. He visited Birmingham in 1876 to conduct his cantata, Zion, at the festival there. In the same year, the Danish government granted him a life pension. In Denmark, his position as a prime musician was by then fully established; but he was accepted in Germany, too, as a master composer. Despite his adherence to the Germanic school, he infused elements of national Danish melodies into his works, and so led the way to further development of Scandinavian music. — Works: 8 symphonies (1841-71); overtures: Nachklänge von Ossian (1840), Im Hochlande (1844), Hamlet (1861), Michelangelo (1861); violin concerto (1880); cantatas: Comala (1846), Elverskud (1853), The Holy Night (1861), At Sunset (1865), Kalanus (1871), Zion (1873), The Crusaders (1873), The Mountain Thrall (1873), Gefion (1875), Psyche (1882), Der Strom, after Goethe's Mahomet (1889); chamber music: 2 string quintets, string octet, piano trio, string quartet, 3 violin sonatas, Folk Dance for violin and piano, Pictures of the Orient for violin and piano; for piano solo: Spring Flowers, Aquarelles (3 books), Idylls, 4 Fantastic Pieces, Folk Dance, Sonata in E minor; also 21 vocal works for various combinations, in the style of folksongs; incidental music for a play, Mariotta; ballet music, etc.—Cf. Gade's autobiographical Aufzeichnungen und Briefe, ed. by Dagmar Gade (German transl., Basel 1893); C. Rubner, Niels Wilhelm Gade, in Remembrance of the Centenary of His Birth, in the 'Mus. Quarterly' (Jan., 1917); C. Kjerulf, Niels Wilhelm Gade (Copenhagen, 1917); W. Behrend, Gade (Leipzig, 1917); W. Behrend, Minder om Gade (Copenhagen, 1930).
5Gadsby, Henry Robert, English music teacher; b. Hackney, London, Dec. 15, 1842; d. Putney, Nov. 11, 1907. He was a chorister at St. Paul's from 1849 to 1858; organist at St. Peter's, Brockley; in 1884 succeeded Hullah as prof. of harmony at Queen's College, London; was prof. at the Guildhall School of Music from its foundation (1880) until his death. He wrote 3 symphonies, several overtures, songs, etc.
7Gadski, Johanna (Emilia Agnes), German soprano; b. Anclam, June 15, 1872; d. Berlin, Feb. 22, 1932. She was trained from her eighth year by Frau Schroeder-Chaloupka at Stettin. She made her début at Kroll's Theater, Berlin, in May, 1889, as Undine in Lortzing's opera; sang during the summers of 1889-93 at Kroll's, winters in Mainz, Stettin, Bremen, and Berlin. She went on a concert tour of Holland in 1894. On March 1, 1895, she made her American début as Elsa with the Damrosch Opera Co., winning instant favor; during the next three seasons she continued there, singing Elisabeth, Eva, Sieglinde, and creating the role of Hester Prynne in Walter Damrosch's opera The Scarlet Letter (1896); from 1898-1904 she was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Company and became one of the prime favorites through her superb interpretation of Brünnhilde and Isolde. From 1899 to 1901 she was at Covent Garden and in 1899 sang Eva at Bayreuth. From 1904-6 she made two transcontinental tours of the U. S., establishing her reputation as a great lieder singer. In 1907 she returned to the Metropolitan, where she sang every season until 1917. She then sang 4 more seasons at Covent Garden; toured the U. S. again as concert singer; returned to the stage with the German Grand Opera Co. (1929-31). On Nov. 11, 1892, she was married to Lieutenant Hans
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