1806–1874 · France · Romantic
Friedrich Burgmüller (1806–1874) was a German pianist and composer of the Romantic era who lived in Paris from 1832. Born into a family of musicians, he is known above all for three collections of piano studies for students, particularly the “25 Études faciles et progressives”, Op. 100, for early intermediate players.
Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller was born on 4 December 1806 in Regensburg, into a family of musicians: his father, Friedrich August Burgmüller, worked as a conductor and pianist, while his mother, Therese von Zandt, was a pianist and singer. Before he was even a year old, the family moved to Düsseldorf, where he spent his childhood and youth. His younger brother Norbert also became a composer.
After his father's death in 1824, Friedrich left Düsseldorf for Alsace. In 1829 he arrived in Kassel, where he studied with Louis Spohr and Moritz Hauptmann. There, on 14 January 1830, he gave his first concert as a pianist.
In 1832, at the age of twenty-six, Burgmüller moved to Paris and remained there for the rest of his life. There he absorbed Parisian musical taste and developed his light style of playing and composing. In 1842 he became a French citizen.
In 1835 his younger brother Norbert planned to join him in Paris; a year later, though, he suffered an epileptic seizure and drowned while taking the waters at a spa in Aachen. Friedrich himself wrote a great deal of salon music for the piano, published collections of pieces, and also composed études for children.
Burgmüller wrote not only piano pieces but also waltzes, nocturnes and polonaises, along with music for two ballets. One of his ballet numbers, the Peasant Pas de Deux — originally titled Souvenirs de Ratisbonne — became part of Adolphe Adam's Giselle when that ballet premiered in 1841. Overall he wrote comparatively little for the stage: besides Giselle, this included the collective opera Lady Henriette and his own ballet La Péri.
Burgmüller died on 13 February 1874, in his sixty-eighth year. Sources disagree on exactly where this happened: some say Paris, others Fontainebleau or the hamlet of Beaulieu near Paris.
Burgmüller's best-known works are his piano études — three collections for students at different levels. The first, the “25 Études faciles et progressives”, Op. 100, is aimed at early intermediate students, while two more advanced collections are Op. 105, comprising 18 études, and Op. 109.
Besides the études, Burgmüller left many salon pieces for piano — waltzes, nocturnes and polonaises — written in the light Parisian style for which he was known in his time. Several pieces from the Op. 100 collection are available on the site: for example, “Consolation”, “La Candeur”, “La Petite Réunion”, “Douce Plainte”, “Progrès” and “Tendre Fleur” — at intermediate difficulty, “Innocence”, “La Pastorale” and “l'Arabesque” — a little harder, and “Ballade”, which is at advanced level. There is also “El Perdón de Ploërmel”, also at advanced level.