Alexander Ritter
{{short description|German composer and violinist (1833 - 1896)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Alexander Ritter
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Alexander Ritter (1833-1896) Jung.jpg
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1833|6|7|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Narva, Estonia
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|1896|4|12|1833|6|7|df=yes}}
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| genre = classical
| occupation = composer and violinist
| instrument = violin
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Alexander Sascha Ritter (7 June 1833 – 12 April 1896) was a German composer and violinist. He wrote two operas - Der faule Hans and Wem die Krone?, a few songs, a symphonic waltz and two symphonic fantasias. Ritter died in Munich.
Life and career
He was born in Narva, Estonia. He studied in Frankfurt am Main under Joachim Raff. In 1854 he married Wagner's niece Franziska (1829–1895). They had a daughter Hertha, who in 1902 became the wife of the Austrian composer Siegmund von Hausegger.
Ritter had a strong influence on Richard Strauss. He persuaded him to abandon the conservative style of his youth, and begin writing tone poems; he also introduced Strauss to the essays of Richard Wagner and the writings of Schopenhauer. He encouraged Strauss to write his first opera Guntram, but was deeply disappointed at the final version of the libretto, which Ritter took to be a rejection of Schopenhauerian-Christian ideals.
See also
External links
- {{IMSLP|id=Ritter, Alexander}}
- {{DNB-Portal|119322897}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20170619163239/http://grandemusica.net/musical-biographies-r/ritter-alexander.html Grande Musica - Alexander Ritter]
- [http://www.lieder.net/lieder/r/aritter.html Libretti of some of his songs]{{Dead link|date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
- [http://www.universaledition.com/Alexander-Ritter/composers-and-works/composer/602/work/5784 Information about Wem die Krone?]
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Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire
Category:German opera librettists
Category:19th-century German composers
Category:German male dramatists and playwrights
Category:19th-century German dramatists and playwrights
Category:19th-century violinists
Category:German male violinists
Category:19th-century German male writers
Category:19th-century German male musicians
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