Albert Jenny

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Albert Jenny (1983)

Albert Jenny (born September 24, 1912 in Solothurn ; † March 22, 1992 in Lucerne ) was a Swiss composer , church musician , choir director , conductor and music teacher . His main places of activity were in Lucerne and Solothurn. His compositional work includes sacred and secular choral music, solo chants, instrumental music, incidental music and music for festivals.

Life

Albert Jenny was born the second of three sons to Fritz Jenny and Hedwig Jenny-Jeger. The family took an active part in the cultural life of the city of Solothurn. Albert Jenny received his musical education, who was noticed at an early stage due to his musical talent and inclination, in Solothurn from Max Kaempfert (theory) and at the Conservatory in Bern from Lorenz Lehr (cello) and Franz Chardon (piano), parallel to secondary school education at the grammar school in Solothurn. On the advice of his musical teachers and because there was no training facility in Switzerland to familiarize himself with the various disciplines of church music , Albert Jenny decided to continue his musical education abroad.

In 1931/32 he studied at Dr. Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, among others with Bernhard Sekles and Hermann von Schmeidel . In Frankfurt, Jenny dealt intensively with Arnold Schönberg and his theories and met Paul Hindemith. From Frankfurt he moved to the State University of Music in Cologne , where he completed his studies in 1935 with a diploma in management, organ and Catholic church music. His teachers there included Philipp Jarnach , Heinrich Lemacher , Hermann Abendroth , Walter Braunfels , Johannes Mölders , P. Dominicus Johner and Hans Bachem .

From 1936 to 1944 he was a music teacher at the St. Fidelis College in Stans . In 1941 he married Nelly Fischer, with whom he had a daughter and two sons. In 1944 he moved to Lucerne, where Albert Jenny gave music lessons at the municipal schools and taught theory and composition at the Conservatory from 1944 to 1985 and at the Academy for School and Church Music from 1947 to 1985. In the mid-1960s, Albert Jenny moved to Ebikon near Lucerne, where he lived until his death in 1992.

In addition to his teaching activities, Albert Jenny worked as a choir and orchestra conductor. Albert Jenny directed the Frohsinn Lucerne men's choir from 1944 to 1968, the Caecilienverein of the City of Solothurn from 1944 to 1979, the Lucerne Municipal Concert Association from 1946 to 1979, the choir of the Lucerne International Music Festival from 1946 to 1962 and the Solothurn men's choir from 1962 to 1978 . From 1944 to 1956 he led the church choir at St. Karl's Church in Lucerne, and at the “Stift” of the Hofkirche St. Leodegar , he led the choir as the collegiate bandmaster and successor to Johann Baptist Hilber .

Above all, however, he was active as a composer. His oeuvre includes vocal music, consisting of secular, sacred and liturgical choral music , secular and sacred solo chants with instruments and orchestra, instrumental music consisting of orchestral music , chamber music , piano music , organ music and brass music as well as stage and festival music .

The Catholic hymn book Praise God (GL) contains its antiphons for Easter Vigil and for Pentecost Send from your Spirit, and the face of the earth will be new (312.2, 645.3). In the Swiss KG it is at No. 489, in the hymn book of the Evangelical Reformed Churches in German-speaking Switzerland (RG) under No. 63.

Appreciation

The musicologist Max Lütolf describes Albert Jenny as a composer who was not interested in “modernity at any price”, who was familiar with composition techniques such as seriality , polytonality or the layering of equal intervals. However, “critical trial and error” led to them “playing a subordinate role in his recognized work [...]”.

The musicologist Alois Koch says: «As a composer, conductor, collegiate bandmaster and lecturer, Albert Jenny (1912–1992) was an important figure of lasting importance for Central Switzerland in the time around and after Johann Baptist Hilber. While his great oratorical works ( The Unknown God , The Song of Creation , The Great Circle ) are hardly known today, his church music contributions, which emerged in the context of the liturgical and aesthetic upheaval of the 2nd Vatican Council , still document the artistic contributions made at that time Redefinitions. "

Angelo Garovi points out that, thanks to the International Music Festival in Lucerne, there has been an open-minded, non-dogmatic group of composers since the 1950s, including Albert Jenny. He counts Albert Jenny's oratorio The Unknown God, premiered in 1956, based on a text by Herbert Meier, alongside Arthur Honegger's scenic oratorio Nicolas de Flue and works by other composers, among the most important musical and dramatic works in Switzerland in the 20th century, dating back to the 19th century Include the tradition of oratory choral culture.

Awards

Works

see catalog of works by Albert Jenny

Discography (selection)

  • Spring cantata based on texts by German baroque poets ( Robert Roberthin , Georg Philipp Harsdörffer , Simon Dach , Barthold Heinrich Brockes ). Chamber choir and chamber ensemble from Radio Bern, conductor: Walter Furrer. Swiss composers series . CTS 45.
  • Lauda anima mea , Et audivi vocem magnam. Zurich Chamber Choir, conductor: Johannes Fuchs , organ: Josef Bucher. Swiss composers series , CT-64-29.
  • Tollite portas. Organist: Georges Cramer. On: Cloches et orgue du Sanctuaire de l'Expo. FONO FGL 17-4001,
  • Mass in honor of St. Francis , Prelude Tollite portas , Jubilate deo , Beata-Magnificat , Justorum animae , Et introibo ad altare Dei . Ursula Buckel (soprano), Eduard Stocker (bass), Stiftschor der Hofkirche St. Leodegar Luzern, Lucerne Chamber Orchestra ad hoc, Eduard Kaufmann (organ), conductor: Albert Jenny. FONO FGL 25-4305.
  • Postlude on the “Ite missa est” of the XI. Fair. Organ: P. Norbert Hegner, OSB. FONO FGLS 3O-4304.
  • Be happy for an hour , good advice . On: 43rd Lucerne Cantonal Song Festival Hitzkirch, 23./24. June 1979. Duraphon-Records album HD 332.
  • Scherzoso for string orchestra. Festival Strings Lucerne , director: Rudolf Baumgartner. On: 40 years 1942–1982 Lucerne Conservatory. Double LP. Conservatory Association Lucerne, K 81 / 1. as well as: Music in Lucerne - Works for String Orchestra. Gallo CD-727
  • Dialogues , for oboe solo and small wind orchestra. Wind orchestra Stadtmusik Luzern, conductor: Franz Schaffner. On: Music in Lucerne - symphonic brass music. Gallo CD-885,
    Albert Jenny,
  • Dies sanctificatus , Prelude in E major . Organ: Karl Raas. On: Music in Lucerne - organ music at the Hofkirche. Gallo CD-754.
  • Suite for brass music (instr. Tony Kurmann). Siebnen Wind Orchestra, 1998 winter concert. Liverpool Records, DMR 612.

An extensive collection of other works on historical sound carriers is in the Swiss National Sound Archives in Lugano.

literature

see Max Lütolf : Catalog raisonné Albert Jenny . Swiss Music Archive, Zurich 1985 (here with additions)

  • Jenny, Albert. In: Musiklexikon (Swiss Music Book II). Edited by Willi Schuh and Edgar Refardt . Zurich 1939, p. 112.
  • Albert Jenny. In: Swiss composers, report and confession. In: Heinrich Lindlar (Hrsg.): Musik der Zeit , Issue 10. Bonn 1955, p. 51f.
  • Albert Jenny. In: 40 Swiss contemporary composers. Edited by the Swiss Tonkünstlerverein, Amriswil 1956, pp. 85–89.
  • Herbert Meier , The Unknown God. Text to the music of Albert Jenny. (Design: Hans Bächer based on a design by Max Brunner). Arche, Zurich 1956.
  • Hans Ehinger : Jenny, Albert. In: The music in past and present , Volume 6. Kassel / Basel / London 1957, Sp. 1883f.
  • Heinrich Lemacher : Profile: Albert Jenny. In: Musica sacra , 81, 1961, pp. 250-254.
  • Ronald Bisegger: Albert Jenny. In: Katholische Kirchenmusik , 87th year 1962, pp. 259–263.
  • Jenny, Albert. In: Swiss Musicians Lexicon 1964. Edited by Willi Schuh, Hans Ehinger, Pierre Meylan and Hans Peter Schanzlin on behalf of the Swiss Tonkünstlerverein. Zurich 1964, p. 196f.
  • Albert Jenny. In: Hans Steinbeck and Walter Labhardt: Swiss composers of our time - biographies, catalogs of works with discography and bibliography. Zurich 1975, pp. 87f.
  • Jenny Albert . In: Almanach '81, music. Solothurn 1981.
  • Alois Koch : Albert Jenny. Three Latin chants for Holy Mass. In: Katholische Kirchenmusik , 107th year 1982, p. 157.
  • Linus David : Albert Jenny. In: 100 Years of the Abbey Choir Lucerne 1882–1982. Edited by the Stiftschor Luzern, Luzern 1982, pp. 35–38.
  • Albert Jenny. In: Mathes Seidl and Hans Steinbeck: Swiss composers of our time - biographies, catalogs of works with discography and bibliography. Winterthur 1983, p. 121f.
  • Werner Bloch: Albert Jenny 1912–1992. In: Solothurn calendar 1993 , 140th year of the Sankt-Ursen calendar, pp. 44–45.
  • Linus David: Albert Jenny: Composition made a life's work, workshop discussion between the composer and Linus David. In: Katholische Kirchenmusik , 112, 1987, pp. 166–168.
  • Max Lütolf: Albert Jenny laudatory speech for the Central Switzerland Culture Prize. In: Katholische Kirchenmusik , 113, 1988, pp. 166–169.
  • Albert Jenny . In: Swiss composers of our time - biographies, catalog raisonnés with discography and bibliography. Jean Balissat, SUISA Foundation for Music, Winterthur 1993, pp. 205–207.
  • Angelo Garovi : Music History of Switzerland. Stämpfli, Bern 2015, pp. 94, 127.
  • Alois Koch: Albert Jenny on his 100th birthday: composer, church musician, conductor and teacher. In: Musik & Liturgie , ISSN 1660-8135, vol. 137, 2012, no. 5, pp. 9-14.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Max Lütolf: Albert Jenny. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . February 8, 2007 , accessed July 6, 2019 .
  2. ^ A b Max Lütolf: Catalog raisonné Albert Jenny. Swiss Music Archive, Zurich 1985, pp. 5–7.
  3. ↑ Alois Koch: «… the possibilities of tonality are far from exhausted». Albert Jenny (1912–1992), composer between practice and avant-garde. Presentation at the symposium The Oratorio in Switzerland in the 20th Century. Lucerne School of Music, September 2012. Abstracts and biographies ( memento from January 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) for the symposium, on the Lucerne Festival website , accessed on January 11, 2016. p. 6.
  4. ^ Angelo Garovi: Music history of Switzerland. Stämpfli, Bern 2015, p. 127.
  5. ^ Angelo Garovi: Music history of Switzerland. Stämpfli, Bern 2015, p. 94.
personal data
SURNAME Jenny, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss composer
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Solothurn
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1992
Place of death Lucerne