Adelheid Maria Eichner

Adelheid Maria Eichner (1762–1787) was a German composer, singer and pianist who was noted during her brief lifetime for her fine three-octave singing voice and vocal technique. She was the only child of bassoonist and composer Ernst Eichner and his wife, Maria Magdalena Ritter. Critics claim her compositions to be more effective instrumentally than vocally. As a composer, Adelheid Eichner had difficulty combining words and music effectively. Early years Adelheid Eichner grew up in Zweibrücken, in the homonymous state. Her father, Ernst Eichner, was employed in the Hofkapelle of Duke Christian IV of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld from autumn 1762 to November 1772. She was taught singing in Mannheim by an elderly Italian castrato of a good school while it is thought her father taught her the piano. At the end of 1773 she and her mother joined her father in Potsdam, in the Kingdom of Prussia. He had travelled to Paris and London to give concerts and had begun his employment in the Hofkapelle of the Prince Frederick William in August 1773. Career From 1773, Adelheid was employed in the Hofkapelle, with her father, as the only German woman singer. She appeared in public concerts in Berlin as t