Fritz Spindler

Fritz Spindler was a German pianist and composer, especially of works for the piano.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Fritz Spindler.

From the period sources

Fritz Spindler, a prolific pianist and composer, was born in Wurzbach, Lobenstein, on November 24, 1817, and later became a pupil of F. Schneider of Dessau, according to Grove’s Dictionary (1883). He resided for many years in Dresden, where he established himself as a significant figure in piano music. His published output was extensive, numbering “more than 330” works, as noted in Grove’s Dictionary (1883), though a later American Supplement (1922) suggests “more than 830.” While the majority of these were “brilliant drawing-room pieces,” he also contributed “much teaching-music” and compositions of “a graver character,” including trios, sonatinas, two symphonies, and a concerto for piano and orchestra.

Spindler’s pedagogical influence is evident through his students; he taught composition to Johann Nepomuk Jauch, who later became a professor at the normal primary school of Strasbourg and opened a successful piano school there, as detailed in Fétis’s Biographie universelle des musiciens (1883). Similarly, Karl Gollmick, a writer and composer, studied music under Spindler while a theological student at Strassburg, before settling in Frankfort as a teacher and later serving as a drummer and chorusmaster under Spohr (Dictionary of Music, 1896). Spindler’s own popular pieces included ‘Wellenspiel’ (op. 6), ‘Schneeglocklein’ (op. 19), and ‘Husarenritt,’ alongside transcriptions of operatic works like ‘Tannhauser’ and ‘Lohengrin’ (Grove’s Dictionary, 1883). He died near Dresden in Niederlossnitz on December 26, 1905.