1869 portrait of Catharina Pratten

Catharina Josepha Pratten (15 November 1824 – 10 October 1895) was a German guitar virtuoso, composer, and teacher, also known as Madame Sidney Pratten.

She was born Catharina Josepha Pelzer in Mülheim on 15 November 1824,[1] the daughter of the German guitarist and music teacher Ferdinand Pelzer. Her family moved to England in 1829.[2] On 24 September 1854, she married the English flautist Robert Sidney Pratten.[3][4]

Catharina began touring in Europe from the age of eight, and by 1844 was well known in England as a composer and guitar teacher. She soon established her school - Madame Sidney Pratten's Guitar School - and published tutorials, including Guitar School: a Book of Methods (1859)[5] and Learning the Guitar: Simplified (1874), which advocated the use of alternative tuning in E major.[6] Her pupils included Queen Victoria’s daughters Louise, Princess of Wales and Beatrice, and the actor, singer, guitarist, and composer Ernest Shand.[2]

She composed some 250 works, most of them for solo guitar or voice and guitar.[7] Heike Matthiesen has recorded some of the guitar pieces, including the variations on Carnaval de Venise, the two Fairy Sketches, and the Serenade.[8]

Her residence in London was 22 Dorset Street, Portman Square, where she lived after the death of her husband in 1868, and where she died on 10 October 1895.[9] Her sister, Giulia Pelzer (also a teacher), continued to run the guitar school after Catharina’s death. Catharina is buried at Brompton Cemetery, London.[10]

She owned many guitars herself and selected others for her pupils, often with her label inside. One - "in splendid condition" - was advertised for sale in The Times in 1939.[11]

References

  1. ↑ see Nicoletta Confalone in "il Fronimo" n.181, Jan. 2018, who at p.21, note 3. refers about the discovery by Ulrich Wedemeier of the birth certificate
  2. 1 2 Rosie Pentreath. 'Ever heard of Catharina Pratten, the star guitarist, and composer who taught Queen Victoria’s daughters?', biography at Classic FM
  3. ↑ "Madame Sidney Pratten (Catharina Josepha Pratten (née Pelzer)) (1821-1895)". NPG. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "Pratten, Robert Sidney". DNB. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
  5. ↑ 'Guitar School (Pratten, Catharina Josepha)', at IMSLP
  6. ↑ Learning the Guitar: Simplified, Internet Archive
  7. ↑ Aaron I Cohen. International Encyclopedia of Women Composers (1981), p. 369
  8. ↑ Guitar Divas, Ars Produktion ARS38355 (2023), reviewed at MusicWeb International
  9. ↑ Frank Mott Harrison. Reminiscences of Madame Sidney Pratten (1899)
  10. ↑ "FIFTY NOTABLE PERSONALITIES - The Friends of Brompton Cemetery". brompton-cemetery.org.uk. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  11. ↑ "Eighty-year-old guitar for sale". Classified Advertising. The Times. No. 48298. London. 6 May 1939. p. 2.


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