Marianne Antonia Kirchgessner, also Mariana Kirchgessner, Kirchgäßner, (5 June 1769 inBruchsal,Holy Roman Empire,[1] – 9 December 1808), was a Germanglass harmonica player. She was blind from eye disease caused bysmallpox when she was four years old.[2] Kirchgessner's artistic qualities brought her the attention of great composers such asMuzio Clementi,Johann Gottlieb Naumann,Johann Friedrich Fasch,Johann Friedrich Reichardt andFranz Anton Hoffmeister.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, inVienna, in the last year of his life, composed for her—producing one of the best works for this instrument, theQuintetAdagio and Rondo for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello in C major K. 617,[2] as well as theAdagio for glass harmonica solo K. 356/617a.[2]
As the fifth daughter of Joseph Anton Kirchgäßner, a chamber paymaster fromSpeyer, and his wife Maria Teresa, née Waßmuthin,[1] she began playing theclavier with great skill and expression at the age of 6. At 11 she commenced instruction on the glass harmonica withKapellmeister Joseph Aloys Schimittbauer (1718–1809) inKarlsruhe, which lasted ten years.[3] In the spring of 1791 she went on her first tour in the company of music journalist and biographerHeinrich Philipp Bossler (1744–1812) and his wife.[4]
After that, she traveled throughout Europe for ten years, visitingPrague,Dresden,Leipzig,Berlin,Hamburg, andMagdeburg. She played four times at thePrussian court for KingFriedrich Wilhelm II inBerlin.[1] During her two-year stay inLondon between 1794 and 1796, the German-born mechanic Fröschela built a new instrument for her.[4] She used that instrument on all her subsequent tours.
She continued touring and giving concerts inHanover,Frankfurt,Stuttgart, Leipzig, Berlin—and inCarlsbad, where she metJohann Wolfgang von Goethe in the summer of 1808.[5] A concert tour in the cold winter of that year was Marianne's first and last visit toSwitzerland.[1] She caught a cold on a journey fromRadbruch toOdenheim, and then on to Schaffhausen. She died of fever due to lung inflammation in the early hours of 9 December 1808.[5]
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