website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
Prof. Richard
Hardege
Hardege, Richard, b.
Hardege, Richard, 1913, 103 E Main,
music teacher
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1890
HARDEGE’S ORCHESTRA
1893
PROFESSOR OF MUSIC at North Western University
1893 Watertown City Directory
1894
12 05 HARDEGE’S
ORCHESTRA AT ANNUAL THANKSGIVING BALL
The annual Thanksgiving Ball of the Concordia Society was held at the
Opera House. The attendance, while not
large, was select, and the pleasures of the dance, enhanced by the excellent
music of Hardege’s Orchestra, was zealously entered into. At
midnight luncheon was served in the lower hall. WR
c.1910
HARDEGE’S STUDIO IN WATERTOWN
1922 DEATH OF PROF. RICHARD HARDEGE
Prof. Richard Hardege
Musician and
composer
1853 - 1922
Was a Noted Violinist and Teacher of Piano
and Violin
Studied Music in Leipsig,
Germany
The death of Prof. Richard Hardege, noted musician and musical composer and teacher of
music for many years in Watertown, occurred in the family home, 408 Lincoln
Street, Thursday afternoon. Death
followed an attack of pneumonia from which he had suffered but a few days, and
but few of his friends were aware that his condition was serious. Up to the time he was stricken he was in his
usual health and able to attend to his musical teaching, and his death will be
a shock to his many friends in Watertown and elsewhere where he was well known
in musical circles.
Richard Hardege
first saw the light of day at Haverstraw, N.Y., where he was born September 1,
1853 the son of the late Henry Hardege and Mrs.
Louisa Hardege.
When a child of three the family removed to Watertown and with the
exception of a few years spent in Columbus he has resided in Watertown every since. Here he
received his education in the public schools.
He early evinced talent for music and began the self study of the art,
soon acquiring skill on the piano and later on the
violin, both of which instruments he mastered.
He then went to Europe where he studied under the masters at Leipsig, Germany, remaining there more than three years,
when he returned to Watertown a master of the instruments he loved so well, and
opened a studio for the teaching of music which he followed the rest of his
life.
He became widely known as an
artist of great merit and a musical composer of considerable talent and he
appeared in some of the best appointed orchestras of
the country. But he cared little for the
plaudits of the world and preferred the quiet life of his studio and the
teaching of his pupils. Music was with
him a passion to which his whole life was devoted and
he was always the apt student.
His compositions for violin and
piano were many, but few of them were published. His compositions also included orchestra
numbers and an operetta, but never allowed but one to be published as he cared
little for the publicity which his cherished art would bring him. He was heard on several occasions in
Watertown and delighted his audiences who were enraptured with the melodies
with which he favored them when prevailed upon to do so.
During his early career Prof. Hardege served as director of the old Concordia Society, and the Harmony
Singing Society and was also director of the musical department of the Turner Society.
Mr. Hardege
was possessed of a fine character and was endowed with many fine
attainments. To those who knew him best
he was a friend and adviser whose friendship was of the kind that lasts. He possessed a genial disposition which was
ever in evidence when with friends and was kindhearted and charitable to a
remarkable degree. But his whole soul
was wrapped up in music, which developed in the cradle and lasted until the
whisper of the angel of death.
He is survived by his mother, 93
years of age and an invalid, one sister, Miss Emma Hardege,
at home and two brothers, Arthur and Eugene Hardege, at home.
The funeral will take place on
Sunday afternoon from the chapel of the Schmutzler
Furniture Co. at 1:30 o’clock where service will be held.
The burial will be in Oak Hill
cemetery.
1935
05 23 HARDEGE COMPOSITION IN LIBRARY EXHIBIT
Compositions by a number of Watertown composers are included in the music
exhibit which is now on display at the public library under the auspices of the
Watertown Historical Society.
Among those represented are E. J.
Brandt, Emil C. Gaebler, Otto Goeldner,
Richard Hardege, John W. Keck, and William Weber.
Of all the musicians Watertown
has had, the name of Richard Hardege had probably
attracted more notice than any other. His death some years ago removed a man of
Genius.
Mr. Brandt some years ago wrote a
sketch of Mr. Hardege and it is reprinted here:
Richard Hardege
was born at Haverstraw near New York city in 1853. When a young man he took up the study of the
violin and also of the piano and spent several years
in the musical atmosphere of Leipzig, Germany, during this time. He has marked native talent as a composer and
his ability as a violinist is well known.
Mr. Hardege has composed a considerable number
of songs as well as compositions for instruments and in former years was sought
as a solo violinist. In later years it
has been difficult or perhaps impossible to induce him to appear in public.
Mr. Julius Klauser,
author of “The Septonate and the Centralization of
the Tonal System”, a work on higher education in music, and of other works on
music, was Mr. Hardege’s particular
friend and induced him to have one of his compositions, a symphony for
orchestra, in two movements, produced in Milwaukee. It was Mr. Hardege’s
thought to produce and publish his works in a musical center in Germany, but
circumstances prevented this.
One or two incidents in
connections with the above may be of interest: Several years ago
Skovgaard (pronounced Skoogawt)
the Danish violinist passed through this city stopping off for a few hours at
the leading hotel. While playing on his
violin in his room there he heard an answering theme on another violin not far
away. After these answers reached his
ears several times he became curious to know who it
was that could follow his musical thought in this manner. On following the sound
he discovered that they originated in Mr. Hardege’s
studio nearby and from this time dates the friendship of the two
violinists.
It may also be of interest to note
that the initial rehearsal of the Theodore Thomas orchestra was conducted at
the home of Karl Klauser the father of Julius Klauser, who also revised to Schirmer Editions of music for a long time.
1948
05 10 ADJUSTABLE
BRASS LAMP DONATED TO OCTAGON HOUSE
In one corner of the
room which was used as a music room by the Richards family will be the
adjustable brass lamp with an especially designed stand of brass and marble
which was given by the
faculty of Northwestern College to Prof. Richard Hardege,
a violin virtuoso and composer here.
It was used by him at his home at 408 Lincoln
Street and will be remembered by many of his pupils.
1962
08 09 UNMARKED GRAVE
The Watertown Historical Society
held a meeting of the board of directors at the Octagon House last night. A committee was named to check into
circumstances for a marker on the grave of Prof. Richard Hardege
in Oak Hill cemetery.
Prof. Hardege,
who died many years ago, was an outstanding musical talent here and his grave
to this date has not been marked with a stone or monument, although at one
time, shortly after his death, the Euterpe Club had expressed a wish that
something be done along that line to honor a Watertown genius. WDT
______________________________________________
MR. MUSIC OF WATERTOWN
Following from Watertown Remembered, by Elmer Kiessling, 1976.
E. C. Gaebler's successor as Mr. Music of Watertown was
Richard Hardege, a graduate of the Leipzig
Conservatory. A violin concert he gave
on his return home in May, 1876, received this accolade in the Watertown Republican:
Last Friday evening Turner Hall
was filled with one of the largest and most, appreciative audiences ever
assembled in Watertown to greet a young violinist, Mr. Richard Hardege, and bear testimonial to his merits and ability as
a musician.
He was equally proficient as a
pianist, teacher and conductor. His orchestras
sometimes furnished music for the prestigious "socials" of
Watertown's most famous dancing master, Paul Thom. Hardege was rather
shy and absent-minded. He was the man
who allegedly left the train without his bride on their honeymoon. Someone composed this couplet on him:
Richard ja stets sehr puenktlich ist,
Wenn er die Stunde
nicht vergisst.
(Richard is punctual and never
late,
Except when he forgets the date.)
Well known is the anecdote about Hardege and the Danish concert violinist Skovgaard. The
latter happened to be on a concert tour and was practicing in a Watertown hotel
room when he heard an answering theme played on a violin not far away. After several responses of this kind, Skovgaard determined to look for the invisible
fiddler. His search led him to Hardege's studio, which was then located downtown. The two men became friends.
In his later years Hardege taught his pupils in a simple room in his home on
Lincoln Street. Though he was
usually dressed in frayed clothes, there was something striking about the old
master, and a violin lesson with him was always a moving experience. He had the custom of playing completely
through a difficult exercise in his brilliant way to show a less than brilliant
student how it should be done. He once
confided that his two best violin pupils had been the late Frank Bramer and
Hugo Anhalt of Jefferson, a longtime professor of music at Milwaukee Normal,
now the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Frank Bramer and his wife Edna were a
violin-piano duo that provided the music for countless local affairs. Hardege had
composed two songs, and there was a widespread belief that he had stacks of
other compositions hidden somewhere among his belongings, but nothing was found
after his death in the 1920s.
Cross
reference:
c.1900: Gust Bach
“Babe Bach” Band Leader / Tie to Prof. Richard Hardege
History of Watertown,
Wisconsin