Eugenie Menter

Eugenie Menter was born on 19 May 1853 in Munich (Germany). She was born into an exceptionally artistic family with her mother Wilhelmine being a singer and actress, her father Joseph being a cellist and composer and one of her older sisters Sophie being an acclaimed pianist. Eugenie Menter received her first piano lessons from her sister Sophie and was a student of Hans von Bülow from 1867 to 1869.
Eugenie Menter gave her concert debut in 1873 and then toured as a concert pianist through Europe for the next 15 years. She also gave piano lessons with Hugo Reichenberger being her most famous student. In 1887 Eugenie Menter married the artillery captain D. Schulze and was known under name Eugenie Schulze-Menter or Menter-Schulze. With her marriage Eugenie Menter quit her concert career and just performed on charity events.
Eugenie Menter died on 27 September 1934 in Munich (Germany).

Although Eugenie Menter was a highly talented and valued pianist she didn't get the attention of her sister Sophie. Even worse she seems to be so much overshadowed by her famous sister that her life and work was neglected and quickly forgotten. Therefore it is little known about the life of Eugenie Menter nowadays. This is also true for her compositions. The work catalogue of Eugenie Menter counts up to op. 35 at the least, but only two works were published and are known today. Her "Gavotte for piano" was published by Ries & Erler and Simrock released her arrangement for 2 pianos of Brahms' "Variations on an Original Theme op.21" in 1908.

In my possession is an handwritten manuscript of the composition "Just die Eine! op.35" for male quartet by Eugenie Menter. I don't know if the manuscript is an autograph, because I could not find other autographs of her or an archive with her documents. But the manuscript was part of the estate of the pianist Ernst Riemann, who was a grandnephew of Eugenie Menter. The handwriting is different to the one by Ernst Riemann and with the fact that I could not find any other reference for this composition, it seems likely that it is an autograph.

The composition "Just die Eine!" sets a poem by Franz Freiherr von Godin into music and is scored for two tenor and two bass voices. The manuscript is not dated.