Pauline Volkstein facts for kids

Pauline Volkstein was a German composer who lived from 1849 to 1925. She was an amazing musician who wrote over 1,000 songs!

Early Life and Musical Family

Pauline Volkstein was born in a town called Quedlinburg, Germany, on January 19, 1849. Even though she didn't have a lot of official music lessons, music was definitely in her family! Her mother had studied a special music skill called "counterpoint" with a famous teacher named Friedrich Schneider. Her uncle, Bernhard Cossmann, was also a talented musician who played the cello and composed music.

Pauline lived in many different places during her life. She spent time in exciting cities like Paris, France, and Dresden, Germany. She also lived in Murano and Naples in Italy. Finally, in 1905, she settled down in Weimar, Germany, with her sister. It was around this time that her first songs started to be published for everyone to hear.

Her Music and Inspirations

Pauline Volkstein was very creative. She didn't just write music; she also wrote her own poems and then turned them into songs! She also took poems written by many other famous poets and composed music for them. Some of these poets included Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, and Theodor Storm.

She wrote some songs with piano or guitar music to go along with them. But many of her melodies were created to be sung on their own. Later, other composers like Armin Knab and Justus Hermann Wetzel added musical accompaniments to her stand-alone tunes.

Pauline Volkstein even published some of her own music. Some of her songs with guitar music appeared in a magazine called Der Wächter. This magazine was popular with the German youth movement in the 1920s and 1930s. Other companies, like Fritz Schuberth and Ries & Erler GMBH, also published her music.

Notable Compositions

Pauline Volkstein wrote a huge number of songs. Here are some examples of her musical works:

• 12 Folksongs
• 12 Lieder (Lieder means "songs" in German)
• 12 Lieder (with piano music added by Justus Hermann Wetzel)
• 20 Songs with Guitar Accompaniment
• 24 Folksongs with Simple Accompaniment
• Bloom, Dear Violet (arranged by Armin Knab)
• Jungfrau Zimperlich (with words by Ludwig Pfau)
• Melodies (with piano music added by Justus Hermann Wetzel)
• New Folksongs (published in 1922)
• Piano compositions
• Spinning Song (arranged by Armin Knab)