Emilie Mayer

In the 21st century, her work has been rediscovered and celebrated for its craftsmanship, originality, and contribution to the Romantic repertoire.

Training under Carl Loewe, Adolf Bernhard Marx and Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht is recorded. The recorded working language is German. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are symphony and romantic. Works named in the authority record are Symphony no 1, Symphony no 2 and Symphony no 7.

Emilie Mayer was born in Friedland, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the third of five children and eldest daughter of a wealthy pharmacist, Johann August Friedrich Mayer, and his wife Henrietta Carolina. Her mother died when Emilie was three years old. She started private music lessons at age five under the tutelage of Carl Heinrich Ernst Driver, an organist. It was also when she first started composing, submitting to Driver pieces of "free interpretation". According to one of her surviving personal statements, “After a few lessons … I composed variations, dances, little rondos, etc.” Seemingly destined for domestic life, in 1840 at the age of 28, her circumstances changed when her father committed suicide - 26 years to the day after her mother was buried. Filled with devastation, Emilie consumed herself in her compositions, only to be further disheartened when her mentor, Carl Driver died a few months later. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Mayer was encouraged to pursue music and composition by her family and male mentors. At the time of 19th century Germany, women were expected to be "wife and mother", putting aside all other aspirations in favor of the household regardless of status. While she did take up her late mother's role of caretaker of her father's household, she was never pressured to give up her musical aspirations nor was she ever pressured to marry. Her brothers, after their father's death, further encouraged her to pursue composition as well as traveled alongside her and financially supported her trips. In 1841, at the age of thirty, she moved to the regional capital city of Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland) where she studied composition with Carl Loewe, a central figure in the musical life of the city, and appointed "musical tsar" by the rising Prussian monarchy in 1821. The German writer Marie Silling claims that Loewe, after auditioning her, claimed "You actually know nothing and everything at the same time! I shall be the gardener who grows your talent from a bud to a beautiful flower" With him, she wrote Die Fischerin, her only Singspiel. Loewe became one of the most important influences on Mayer's development as a composer. Through his mentorship, Mayer became integrated into Stettin's musical culture. Loewe established many concerts, education practices, and salons around the city in which Mayer and her compositions played a large role.

In 1847, after the premiere of her first two symphonies (C minor and E minor) by the Stettin Instrumental Society, and with the urging of her tutor, she moved to Berlin to continue her compositional studies. Once in Berlin, she studied fugue and double counterpoint with Adolf Bernhard Marx, and instrumentation with Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht. She began publishing her works (e.g. Lieder op. 5-7, in 1848) which were performed in private concerts. Then, on 21 April 1850, Wilhelm Wieprecht led his "Euterpe" orchestra in a concert at the Royal Theatre of Mayer's compositions: a concert overture, a string quartet, a setting of Psalm 118 for chorus and orchestra, two symphonies and some piano solos. Shortly after this, she was awarded the gold medal of art from the Queen of Prussia, Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria. This success was especially significant because it was uncommon not only for a woman to be a composer in mid-19th-century Europe, but also to have a large-scale orchestral concert devoted primarily to her own music. Mayer's growing success in Berlin made her one of the few women of the period to gain recognition as a symphonic composer. With critical and popular acclaim, she continued composing works for public performance. She traveled to attend performances of her works, including to the Königliches Schauspielhaus, and cities such as Cologne, Munich, Lyon, Brussels and Vienna.

After Carl Loewe died in 1869, the Loewe society was formed. Mayer dedicated two of her cello sonatas to members of the society and their families. The Op. 40 (1873) Cello Sonata is dedicated to the sister of composer Martin Plüddemann from Kolberg, and the Cello Sonata in D major, Op. 47 (1883) is dedicated to the Baron von Seckendorff from Stargard. In 1876, Mayer returned to Berlin where her music was still frequently performed. Mayer's new Faust Overture, based on Goethe's Faust, was successful and she re-established herself as a significant figure in the city's cultural circles. She was an honorary member of the Philharmonic Society in Munich and was the co-chair of the Berlin Opera Academy. Mayer died on 10 April 1883 from pneumonia in Berlin and was buried at the Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I at the Holy Trinity Church not far from Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn.

Emilie Mayer was initially influenced by the Vienna classic style, whilst her later works were more Romantic. Mayer's harmonies are characterized by sudden shifts in tonality and the frequent use of seventh chords, with the diminished seventh allowing Mayer to reach a variety of resolutions. One defining characteristic of Mayer's music is a tendency to set up a tonal centre with a dominant seventh, but not resolving to the tonic immediately; sometimes, resolution is skipped altogether. Her rhythms are often very complex, with several layers interacting at once. The first movements of her works usually follow a sonata-allegro form. Modern scholars and conductors have often compared Mayer's orchestral works to Beethoven because of their dramatic contrasts, energetic rhythms, and large-scale symphonic structures. Like Beethoven, Mayer composed powerful thematic developments in her pieces along with emotional intensity within traditional Classical forms. Her symphonies combine the structure of Viennese Classicism with expressive harmonies and a wide emotional range associated with Romanticism. These characteristics, along with the ambition and scale of her orchestral works, contributed to her reputation during her lifetime as the female version of Beethoven.

Selected Works Symphonies Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1850) Symphony No. 2 in E minor (1852) Symphony No. 3 in C major (1853) Symphony No. 5 in F minor (1857) Overtures Overture in C major Overture to Faust Chamber Music Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 13 String Quartet in G minor Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 38 Piano Piano Sonata in D minor Various character pieces and studies Lieder Drei Lieder, Op. 7 No. 1 “Du bist wie eine Blume” No. 2 “O lass mich dein gedenken” No. 3 “Wenn der Abendstern die Rosen” Zwei Gesänge No. 1 “Abendglocken” No. 2 “Das Schlüsselloch im Herzen“ Erlkönig I Erlkönig II

Emilie Mayer's musical career was significantly shaped by her mentorship under composer and conductor Carl Loewe, who encouraged her to pursue composition seriously. Loewe's guidance helped Mayer establish herself as one of the few female symphonic composers of her time. His influence and encouragement helped Mayer's music become respected and even championed by her male colleagues. Even when Loewe departed in 1866, the new directors of the Stettin Instrumentalverein continued programming her works in Stettin. Mayer also received influence from military-band music which inspired her Symphony No. 3, "Military". Her career took place during the rise of national conservatism in Germany following many failed revolutions, so her will to pursue composing as an unmarried woman was seen as very progressive to many men of higher standing around her. After relocating to Berlin in the 1850s, Mayer became connected with influential musicians and patrons in the city's concert scene, securing performances of her symphonies and chamber works. Her relationships with orchestras and conductors, including those who premiered her compositions, played a crucial role in the dissemination of her music.

Although Emilie Mayer's music was highly regarded in her own time, it fell into obscurity after her death, like the work of many women composers of the 19th century. Her compositions have received renewed interest from scholars, performers, and recording labels in recent decades. Modern performances of her symphonies and chamber works have revealed a distinctive voice influenced by Beethoven and Mendelssohn but marked by her dynamic sense of form and lyricism. Musicologists have also explored Mayer's place within the broader context of women in classical music, noting her persistence in overcoming gender barriers to achieve professional recognition. Recent recordings and critical editions of her scores have contributed to a growing appreciation of her legacy. Conductors and musicologists have increasingly recognized her as one of the most significant female symphonic composers of the Romantic era, helping restore her works to the concert repertoire after more than a century of neglect.