Józef Antoni Franciszek Elsner
(1769–1854)
Józef Antoni Franciszek Elsner (1769–1854) – composer, conductor, pedagogue, and organizer of musical life, born on June 1, 1769, in Grodków (in present-day Opole region), died on April 18, 1854, in Elsnerów near Warsaw.
From 1774 to 1781, he attended a public school in Grodków and sang in the local church choir. Beginning in 1781, he studied at a Dominican-run school and later at the Jesuit Gymnasium of St. Matthias in Wrocław. He participated in the school’s musical life as a choir member and studied violin and figured bass. In 1782, his first known composition – the motet Ave Maria gratia plena for two solo voices and instrumental accompaniment – was performed in St. Adalbert’s Church in Wrocław.
In 1786, Elsner began theological studies at the University of Wrocław, which he soon switched for medical studies. In autumn 1789, he traveled to Vienna to continue his education in medicine. However, a serious illness during his two-year stay in the Habsburg capital led him to abandon a medical career and return to music. In 1791, he moved to Brno, where he worked as a violinist in a theater orchestra. In the spring of 1792, he relocated to Lviv, taking up the post of conductor at the imperial-royal theater. He held this position until 1795 and staged two of his own operas there with German librettos: Die seltenen Brüder and Der verkleidete Sultan.
In 1795, Wojciech Bogusławski took over the theater’s management, and Elsner became one of his close collaborators. He began giving private music lessons and founded a Music Academy – a society aimed at uniting musicians and music enthusiasts and promoting concert activity. The Academy held weekly concerts featuring symphonies by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pavel Vranický, and Elsner himself, along with solo instrumental concertos and vocal works.
In 1799, Elsner moved permanently to Warsaw. From 1799 to 1824, he directed the opera at the National Theatre, enriching its repertoire with his own works – composing 30 operas and 2 ballets. Between 1802 and 1806, he ran his own music engraving workshop and published A Selection of Beautiful Musical Works and Polish Songs from 1803 to 1805, comprising 24 volumes. In 1805, he undertook an artistic journey to Germany and France, where he established connections with prominent musicians and publishing houses, resulting in the publication of several of his works in Leipzig and Paris. That same year, he became a member of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning.
From 1805 to 1806, Elsner was involved with the Musical Resursa, particularly in organizing symphonic concerts. Simultaneously, he engaged in music criticism – from 1802 to 1825 writing reviews and articles for Polish periodicals, and from 1811 to 1819 contributing to the prestigious Leipzig journal Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, focusing on contemporary Polish composers and Warsaw’s musical life.
In 1814, he founded the Society for Sacred and National Music, dedicated to organizing concerts and training future music educators, organists, singers, and instrumentalists. Concurrently, he pursued extensive pedagogical work: from 1814 to 1817 he taught at Bogusławski’s Drama School, and later ran several institutions under his own direction – the Elementary School of Music and Dramatic Art (1817–1821), the Institute of Music and Declamation (1821–1826), and the Main School of Music (1826–1831), where he educated numerous Polish composers, most notably Fryderyk Chopin. In a school report, Elsner described Chopin as possessing “exceptional talent, a musical genius.” From 1835 to 1839, he also taught at the Singing School affiliated with the Grand Theatre, and later at the Institute for Governesses.
Józef Elsner was an honorary member of numerous musical societies in Poland, including the Kraków Society of Friends of Music, as well as foreign institutions such as the Leipzig Musikverein der Universitätskirche St. Pauli. He was also active in Freemasonry – in 1814 he became a cathedral deputy of the Temple of Constancy lodge, in 1820 a member of the supreme chapter, and in 1821, a lodge master. In recognition of his contributions to Polish musical culture, he was awarded the Order of Saint Stanislaus in 1823.https://culture.pl/pl/tworca/
Based on the article: https://culture.pl/pl/tworca/jozef-elsner
