Hans Sommer

Hans Sommer, whose full name was Hans Friedrich August Zincke, was a German composer born and died in Brunswick (1837–1922). His career is of interest because, for decades, he combined a scientific career with composition, an unusual path in German music of the late nineteenth century.

He trained in mathematics at Göttingen, where he took his degree in 1858. Between 1859 and 1884 he taught at the Technische Hochschule in Brunswick, of which he became director in 1875. There he founded a Verein für Konzertmusik. In 1883 he gave up science to devote himself entirely to music, and the following year he visited Liszt in Weimar. He then lived in Berlin (from 1885), returned to Weimar in 1888, where he struck up a friendship with Richard Strauss, and settled permanently in Brunswick in 1898. That same year he took part, together with Strauss, Schillings and Rösch, in founding the Genossenschaft Deutscher Komponisten, an authors' rights society that later became known as the Genossenschaft Deutscher Tonsetzer.

His most highly regarded output was for the stage. Several of his operas, often with librettos inspired by fairy tales, premiered in Brunswick, among them Der Nachtwächter, Loreley, Rübezahl und der Sackpfeifer von Neisse, Riquet mit dem Schopf and Der Waldschratt. Others, such as Saint Foix and Der Meermann, reached stages in Munich and Weimar, while Augustin and Münchhausen were never staged. He also composed songs, cycles such as Der Rattenfänger von Hameln and Sapphos Gesänge, orchestral works and works for male choir. He took great care over the literary quality of his librettos and corresponded with numerous librettists and composers.

His historical importance rests above all on his commitment to reforming copyright law, whose text in force dated back to 1870. In 1898 he published the essay Die Wertschätzung der Musik, which lay behind the founding of the composers' society.