Ernst Christian Hesse

Ernst Christian Hesse (14 April 167616 May 1762) was a German gambist and composer.

Biography

Born at Großengottern, which was then in the Electorate of Saxony, he attended school in Langensalza and Eisenach. He studied law at Giesen, then viola da gamba in Darmstadt. In 1692, aged 16, he performed for the Landgrave Ernst Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt, who engaged him for his court. The landgrave then sent him for further study in Paris, under the two leading composer-performers of the day, Marin Marais and Antoine Forqueray. But Marais and Forqueray were bitter rivals, and Hesse could not study under both – at least, not under the same name. So, he called himself by his real name Hesse for one of the teachers, and "Sachs" for the other. The plan foundered when the two rival teachers chose to show off their star pupils in a public competition, not realising they were the same pupil. Hesse was able to please both masters by playing in their styles in turn, and this led to a rapprochement between them. He returned to Darmstadt, where he died in 1762, aged 86.

Most of his compositions (operas, sonatas, church music) are lost, but an opera and some gamba pieces are extant, and there are some recordings of his music.

Family

His first two wives, Katharina Magdalena Merck and Anna Katharina Merck, half-sisters, were daughters of the royal court apothecary (1647–1715). He had 18 (or 20) children by his latter two wives. His son (1716–1772) also became a prominent gambist who worked alongside Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who wrote pieces for him. His only other pupil was Johann Christian Hertel.