Alfred Leonz Gassmann

Alfred Leonz Gassmann (born December 31, 1876 in Buchs LU ; † August 8, 1962 in Vitznau ) was a Swiss musician and composer .

Life

At the teacher training college in Hitzkirch he studied organ with Josef Schildknecht , the author of a well-known organ school. As a primary school teacher in St. Urban, he also worked as an organist at the monastery church of the former Cistercian abbey and later held the same position in Weggis . Finally, he studied in Geneva at Otto Barblan composition and organ and Émile Jaques-Dalcroze harmony and rhythmic gymnastics. In 1909 he became music director in Sarnen and music teacher at the Benedictine college there . From 1921 until his retirement in 1943 he worked as an organist at the collegiate church St. Verena in Zurzach . He spent his old age in the "Schweizerheim" and then in the "Walpurga" in Vitznau , where he died on August 8, 1962. In 1985, a fountain was built in his memory at the Reformed Church.

Gassmann was the initiator and co-founder of the Swiss Folk Song Archive in Basel, a successful composer and music teacher. His greatest and lasting merit, however, is his work as a collector from 1899 to 1951. He systematically notated folk songs and instrumental music as they were cultivated in the cantons of Lucerne, Schwyz, Obwalden and Nidwalden. Already at the turn of the century he had published the songs collected in Lucerne's Wiggertal; In 1914, Gassmann's folk song book for young Swiss people “Juhui” was a great success.

He also did pioneering work in his “Tonpsychologie des Schweizer Volksliedes” (1936), in which he tried to explain the Swiss folk song from the landscape (soil design, climate), 50 years before Bruce Chatwin's book “The Songlines” (Ger. «Dream Paths»). In 1938 he wrote “Blast mir das Alphorn once more”, a demanding school of alphorn playing, the language of which betrays the pathos of the patriotic Landi spirit tone of the time, but which is still a standard work for serious alphorn players today. The fact that Gassmann did not exclude the not well-tempered, "wrong" natural tones, i.e. the "alpine blue notes" (Hans Kennel), but, on the contrary, expressly included them in the alphorn play deserves special mention.

His monograph “Das Rigilied - Vo Luzärn uf Wäggis zue” appeared as early as 1908, in which he documented no less than 33 melodic versions and 40 text variants with great dedication to collectors. In 1961, a year before his death, he published the main result of his collecting activities under the title “What our fathers sang”.

Publications

• Alfred Leonz Gassmann, Johann Lüthi: The Rigilied: “Vo Luzern uf Wäggis zue”: its origin and distribution, along with biographical notes and an appendix of other creations by the author . Ernst Haag publishing house, 1908
• Alfred Leonz Gassmann: On the sound psychology of the Swiss folk song . Hug & Cie. Publishing house, 1936
• Alfred Leonz Gassmann: What our fathers sang: Folk songs and folk music from Lake Lucerne, from Urschweiz and Entlebuch . Volume 42 of the writings of the Swiss Society for Folklore , Swiss Society for Folklore, 1961

literature

• Gabriela Schöb: Gassmann, Alfred Leonz. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Web links

• Works by and about Alfred Leonz Gassmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Portrait and works by Gassmann at the Federal Yodel Composers and Singers Association

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alois Häfliger: Memorial fountain for Alfred Leont Gassmann in Buchs. Local history Wiggertal, accessed on July 1, 2020 .