Alois Franz Peter Glutz from Blotzheim

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Alois Franz Peter Glutz von Blotzheim (also Aloys Glutz; born April 2, 1789 in Olten , † September 6, 1827 in Schwyz ) was a Swiss composer and traveling singer.

life and work

Alois Glutz's father, Bernhard Josef Malachias, was the town clerk of Olten. In 1792 the family moved from Olten to Solothurn , where the father was assigned the office of clerk. The then blind three-year-old Glutz had eight siblings, three of whom died as young children.

The parents, aware that their son had to receive the best education so that he could survive life despite his blindness, also let him train linguistically and musically. Glutz played guitar, piano and flute. On the piano he played works by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, which his music teacher Traugott Pfeiffer and later Carlo Zaneboni practiced with him. By the age of twelve, Glutz spoke French and Spanish and was well on his way to learning the profession his father had devised for his son, namely an interpreter.

When his mother died in 1803 and his father died in 1811, Glutz came under the tutelage of his brother Franz. As Glutz lost more and more family support - they tried in vain to find a place for him in the Zurich institution for the blind - his siblings were looking for a companion for him that was found in the young Ludwig Rotschi. Together they wandered the country, sang and made music on different occasions in different places. Rotschi noted down the songs that Glutz wrote and set to music and supported the visually impaired composer with their publication. In the Solothurn dialect they performed the songs written and set by Glutz, which succeeded dialect poets such as Gottlieb Jakob Kuhn , Johann Rudolf Wyss or Johann Peter Hebel .

With the death of his parents, Glutz inherited a considerable fortune with which he could buy food during the famine years of 1816/1817, which he distributed to the poor. His companion Rotschi later joined the Marienstein monastery school and became known as a music teacher at the college and music director and founder of the Solothurn Liedertafel. In 1918, the Solothurn composer Edmund Wyss planned the first systematic collection of Glutz's musical works, which he counted "among the best folk songs that Switzerland has produced". He was no longer able to realize his plan to publish a comprehensive Alois Glutz monograph .

Glutz often played in the same place for weeks with his new companion, Franz Ludwig Suter. Their concerts, which they also played with other musicians, enjoyed great popularity. Since his companion entered the Franciscan order in Solothurn in 1822, Glutz had to look after another companion, whom he found in his cousin Alexander Zeltner. After two years of wandering through French-speaking Switzerland to Valais , his companion died. Glutz then moved to Aarau , where he found shelter with the widow of his former singing teacher Zaneboni and a sensitive mentor in Traugott Pfeiffer.

Well-known musicians like the composer and publisher Hans Georg Nägeli from Zurich and the young Theodor Fröhlich frequented Aarau . Many of Glutz's songs that were composed during this period were included in the “Collections of Folk Songs” published by Nägeli. 33 songs by Glutz are known, 21 of them in High German and 12 in the Solothurn dialect . 30 sound works similar to chamber music , mainly duos with flute and guitar as well as solo compositions for the pianoforte, including six "Länders-Täntz", as he himself put it.

Alois Glutz died in Schwyz in 1827. Bethli Fröhlicher († 1863), a childhood friend from Solothurn, whose name Glutz mentioned in many songs, tended his grave for years. Ludwig Rotschi became Glutz's administrator. Some of Glutz's songs, etc. a. Morning early, eh d'Sunne laughs, live on in Swiss school hymn books .

In 2018 a three-volume work was published in which all the songs discovered so far and the instrumental music by Glutz are combined. Verena Bider, the former director of the Solothurn Central Library , suggested taking stock of the songs and instrumental works. The edition is the first comprehensive monograph on Glutz's work to date. This new edition also points out missing parts and works and can be described as advanced preparatory work for a future complete edition.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Glutz von Blotzheim, Alois Franz Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Glutz, Aloys
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss composer and traveling singer
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1789
PLACE OF BIRTH Olten
DATE OF DEATH September 6, 1827
Place of death Schwyz (municipality)