Alfred Zehelein

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Alfred Zehelein (born March 25, 1902 in Miltenberg ; † October 25, 1978 in Volkach am Main) was a German composer , musicologist , music teacher and church musician . He devoted himself mainly to sacred music and chamber music . The spectrum of 400 compositions ranges from concerts, instrumental and chamber music, songs and choral singing to church music and organ works. His work has 108 opus digits .

biography

Zehelein began his church music work in 1923 as choir director at the St. Sylvester Church in Munich-Schwabing, to which cathedral conductor Ludwig Berberich encouraged him. He created a choir, which through his training matured to perform demanding works of church music literature. The musical palette ranged from Palestrina to the masters of the 20th century, both for the liturgical church year and for church concerts.

Zehelein has always been committed to maintaining contemporary music. Composers such as Joseph Haas , Ludwig Berberich, Joseph Meßner were an integral part of his performance practice. His Latin and German motets for mixed choir and organ for liturgical use were premiered in St. Sylvester.

The Doric Mass for solo soprano, solo bass, mixed choir, wind instruments and organ was performed for the first time at the 1960 Eucharistic Congress. The first (op. 61) and second organ books (op. 91) with toccatas, preludes, postludes, variations and chorale preludes were also written here.

Zehelein was also active as a concert organist at home and abroad, particularly as an interpreter of early baroque and contemporary organ music, not least with the performance of his own works.

Compositional work

As with Hans Pfitzner , Gustav Mahler and Max Reger , Zehelein's compositional starting point is the late Romanticism. He set songs from Eichendorff to music, including Japanese and Chinese texts. Here he turns away from the all too human flush of emotions and looks for clear proportions. He strives away from chromatics, tonal expenditure and pathos and towards pure diatonic, the transparent guidance of a few voices that combine to form harsh sounds. From his early chamber music, the Pastoral Suite for flute and piano received a great deal of attention. The evolution in music after the world wars is also evident in Zehelein's compositional style. His late romanticism flows into impressionism. Further song compositions emerge. From a large number of organ works, for example, the variation on the solemn ite missa est should be emphasized.

The years after 1950, in which he took the step towards partial atonality, were decisive for Zehelein. The Statica for organ and its music for the opening of an exhibition for percussion are evidence of this. Zehelein liked to deal with ideological questions, the natural sciences and astronomy . The rules that prevail here lead him to the strict structures and the absolute logic of Anton Webern in the 1960s. Like Webern, Zehelein makes use of the twelve-tone tone found by Schönberg, but uses the law of logic in his own way. The selective and athematic style leads to concentration on the most concise forms. Zehelein shows the serial composition technique of twelve notes in his piano concerto from 1971, a composition commissioned by the City of Munich. The four statics for organ are characterized by a "static twelve-tone": the 12 tones are fixed like fixed points in space, the musical event develops from continuous rhythmic dialogues of the individual static points. Also in the later cantatas, e.g. B. The year according to ancient Japanese verses makes this clear. Zehelein's connection to antiquity resulted in the Attic cantata and The Young Pan . Zehelein documents his admiration for Webern in his Metamorphoses on a theme by Anton Webern . The composer himself premiered it on the centenary of the Regensburg Church Music School (today the University for Catholic Church Music and Music Education ), whose pupil he was; Karl Maureen played this work at the second Bavarian Tonkünstlerfest in 1977 in Augsburg. In contrast to this style, Zehelein consciously continued neo-modal tendencies in his sacred music. Since his musical history was particularly interested in the Italian Renaissance, the great master Frescobaldi - of whom Zehelein edited and published some works - was a model in this direction. As is well known, Frescobaldi's “chromatic modality” suddenly breaks off with the death of the master. This is where Alfred Zehelein wanted to pick up. Works such as the Variation on a Theme by Frasobaldi (1974) or the Four Inventions for Harpsichord (1976) and the Baroque Suite for Harpsichord were created .

By Bayerischer Rundfunk the oratory were from the beauty of the world , the cantata From the goodness in the words of Lao added Tse and sent, as well as the Concerto for Harp and Orchestra , the Concert for Zither and string quartet , the three meditations , many organ pieces and many of his over 100 song compositions.

Musicologist and music teacher

In 1928 Zehelein took over a position as a lecturer for musicological subjects at the Trapp Conservatory in Munich. In 1945 he ran this institute in trust as the Handel Conservatory . In 1962, after the institute was transferred to the Richard Strauss Conservatory of the City of Munich (today the Munich University of Music ), he became head of the department for Catholic church music until he retired in 1969. He held in the American houses of the Federal Republic and in the adult education centers in Bavaria Lectures. From 1968 he directed the folk music teacher exams. In 1975 he wrote the Ecumenical Mass for folk musical instruments , solo bass and choir as well as arrangements for wind instruments, for organ and for strings.

Zeheleins composed a number of works for music education, such as the school opera Die Barke des Odysseus, which premiered in Bamberg in 1960, based on the poetry of Friedrich Deml, as well as numerous chamber music for solo instruments, piano and chamber orchestra. Together with Heinrich Simbriger he wrote the manual for musical acoustics . He initiated the magazine for sacred music . In 1928 he founded the Bruckner Community for the Care of Sacred Music and performed with this choir in Berlin, in southern German cities and in Austria. Both institutions were suppressed by National Socialism. In 1945/46 he was a city councilor in Munich's first local parliament. In 1966 he was appointed to the board of the Association of Münchner Tonkünstler eV.

On a lecture tour in October 1978, Zehelein died of cardiac death in Lower Franconia. He found his final resting place in Weilheim. His original scores are incorporated in the manuscript department of the State Library in Munich .

His students include a .: Rudolf Bojanovski, Josef Brandlmeier, Gerhard Dorda and Raimund Walter Sterl .

Works

  • Siegfried Frischmuth, Alfred Zehelein: Alfred Zehelein. Catalog raisonné . 2002
  • Guiding principles for pedagogy . Small series of music studies, Musikverlag Preissler, 1975
  • with Heinrich Simbriger : Handbook of musical acoustics . J. Habbel, 1951; New edition 1974
  • The story of a mother. In: Tim Klein, Hermann Rinn (ed.): Book of the victim . With pictures by Hans Meid. Höfling, 1934, pp. 11-17.
  • Joseph Michl (1745–1810), a forgotten southern Bavarian composer: his life and works . Dissertation, W. Berntheisel, 1928

honors and awards

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Zehelein, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, musicologist, music teacher and church musician
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Miltenberg
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1978
Place of death Volkach am Main