Eduard Mertke
1833 — 1895
Eduard Mertke was a Baltic German composer.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Eduard Mertke.
From the period sources
Eduard Mertke, a pianist and composer born in Riga in 1833, embarked on extensive concert tours as early as 1850, according to Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1889). He later settled into a teaching career, living at various times in Wesserling (Alsace), Lucerne, and Mannheim, before his appointment in 1869 as a professor of pianoforte at the Cologne Conservatorium, a position he held until his death in 1895, as noted in Dictionary of Music (1908). At Cologne, Mertke was among the “present teachers” alongside figures like I. Seiss and G. Jensen, and notably, he was a piano instructor to the young Engelbert Humperdinck, who would later achieve fame for his opera Hansel und Gretel, as recorded in A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1900).
Beyond his teaching, Mertke was also known for his compositions, which included the opera Lisa oder die Sprache des Herzens, produced in Mannheim in 1872, and the printed cantata Des Liedes Verklärung. He also published a collection of Russian folk-songs, various piano pieces, and technical studies for the instrument. Furthermore, Mertke contributed to the broader musical landscape through his editorial work, producing an edition of Chopin’s works, as well as concerted pieces by Weber, Hummel, and Mendelssohn, according to The New Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1924). His Chopin edition is specifically mentioned as one of the “best and earliest” complete editions to appear after the copyright expired in 1879, alongside those by Carl Klindworth and Hermann Scholtz, as detailed in A History of Pianoforte-Playing and Pianoforte-Literature (1897).