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.

1869 portrait of Catharina Pratten

She was born Catharina Josepha Pelzer in Mülheim on the 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 own 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. 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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