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Karl Merz (September 10, 1834 – January 30, 1890) was an American composer, author, editor, and arranger of German descent.
Merz was born September 10, 1834, in Bensheim, near Frankfort-on-Main, Germany.[1][nb 1]. He received his early musical instruction from his father, a violinist and organist at the church in their hometown. But for the most part he is considered self-taught. By the age of eight or nine he was playing violin in a quartet club which met at the residence of Baron of Rodenstein. He is also known to have frequently played at "musical gatherings" at the castle of the baron of Rodenstein. At the age of eleven he had "assumed his father's duties as organist" at the church.[1] He was educated at a seminary and graduated from college in 1853. For a year he taught school near Bingen am Rhein.[1]
During a trip home he met a man from Philadelphia who invited him to the United States. Accepting the invitation he arrived in the U.S. in late 1854.[1] After losing a job as a store clerk in Philadelphia because of his lack of English he found a place with a band of musicians. For a year he was an organist at the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.[1]
Wolsieffer, who had a German musical journal, hired him as a critic for that publication.[1]
In 1856 Merz went to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. to teach at a seminary. Between 1859 and the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 he was somewhere in the South.[3] After returning to the North, around September 1861 he became a professor of music at Oxford Female College in Oxford, Ohio.[3]
| As we enjoy sunsets the best when seen from our own porch, so music sounds sweetest in our own homes. As the simple words of the loved ones are sweeter than the most winning phrases of strangers, so music sounds sweeter if coming from the lips we love best. Yet music may lift us higher and higher, until the whole world appears as one family.-- From "Merz' Musical Hints" published in the "Moline Organ Instructor. A Complete Method for Parlor Organ. New Easy Method for the Reed Organ, Containing Complete and Thorough Instructions and a Choice Selection of Vocal and Instrumental Music" (1892).[4] |
He started his career as a musical writer in 1868 and made contributions to Brainard's Musical World. He became known for his "musical hints." As his popularity rose he was made assistant editor and in 1873 he became the sole editor.[3]
In 1882 he relocated to Wooster, Ohio and founded and organized the Musical Department at Wooster University.[5]
During his career he wrote a vast number of musical pieces consisting of operettas, sacred pieces, choruses, songs, piano solos, waltzes, dances, and pieces in almost every vocal and instrumental form.[3]
After his death a group of music lovers contributed $2,000 to purchase his library of approximately 1,450 titles and they became a part of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.[6]
A partial list of his works from "A Handbook of American Music and Musicians: containing biographies of American musicians, and histories of the principal musical institutions, firms and societies" (1886):[3]
According to OCLC WorldCat Identities, Merz has 181 works in 284 publications in 2 languages, including:[7]
