Franz Commer
1813 — 1887
Franz Aloys Theodor Commer was a German church musician and music researcher.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Franz Commer.
From the period sources
Franz Commer, born in Cologne in 1813, established himself as a significant figure in German music through both his compositions and his extensive editorial work. He began his musical training in Cologne with L. Kubel and Joseph Klein, becoming organist at the Carmelite church and a cathedral chorister by the age of fifteen (Biographie universelle des musiciens, 1883). Moving to Berlin in 1832 for further study, he received instruction from A. W. Bach in organ, A. B. Marx at the university, and Rungenhagen in composition. Rungenhagen, then director of the Royal Academy of Singing, appointed Commer as the institution’s librarian, a role that immersed him in a vast collection of 16th and 17th-century works (Biographie universelle des musiciens, 1883).
This curatorial work profoundly shaped Commer’s career, leading him to publish several important collections of historical music. His “Musica Sacra. Sammlung der Meisterwerke des 16en, 17en und 18en Jahrhunderts,” published in four volumes in 1839, earned him the great gold medal from King Frederick William III of Prussia (Biographie universelle des musiciens, 1883). He also undertook the “Collectio operum musicorum Batavorum saeculi XVI,” a ten-volume series published under the patronage of the Dutch Society for the Advancement of Music (Biographie universelle des musiciens, 1883). These collections, which included works by composers like Josquin des Prez, Orlando di Lasso, and Francesco Durante, were considered “valuable and interesting” by a Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1886). Beyond his scholarly pursuits, Commer composed operas such as Der Zauberring (1843) and Der Kiffhäuser, as well as masses, cantatas, and incidental music for Aristophanes’ The Frogs and Sophocles’ Electra (Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 1888). He was also a Royal Musical Director, a member of the Berlin Akademie, and a Royal Professor, co-founding the Berlin “Tonkünstlerverein” in 1844 (Dictionary of Music, 1896).