Friedrich Burgmüller

Born

4 December 1806, Regensburg, Germany

Died

13 February 1874, Beaulieu, FranceOne source gives Fontainebleau

Life

Burgmüller was born in Regensburg on 4 December 1806, and his family moved to Düsseldorf a year later when his father became music director there. After his father died in 1824 he taught music in Mulhouse and played cello in Basel.

Around 1832 he settled in Paris, where he quickly made his name as a piano teacher, arranger and composer, and in 1842 he became a French citizen. His best-known stage work is the ballet music La Péri, but he wrote mainly easy salon pieces and studies for the piano. He died on 13 February 1874.

Why play Burgmüller

His 25 Études faciles et progressives, Op. 100, were first published in Paris in 1851, "composed and fingered expressly for the reach of small hands". They get harder step by step, and every one is a little character piece with a title, like Arabesque or Tender Flower, rather than a dry exercise.

That makes them a perfect ladder for adult learners too: start with La Candeur, No. 1, and climb to the stormy Ballade.

When Burgmüller lived