August boy

August Knabe (born November 22, 1847 in Osterwieck ; † December 12, 1940 in Soest ) was a German Protestant church music teacher , composer and choir director.

August Knabe had a great influence on the development of Protestant church music in Westphalia at the beginning of the 20th century and on the training of church musicians as a profession. In addition, he determined the musical life of the city of Soest during his time as a choir director, royal music director and composer. The short biography authorized by himself in his chorale book 1938 lists the following stations:

" * November 22nd, 1847 in Osterwieck (Harz). From 1868 was a teacher in Halberstadt, 1874 trainee at the Academic Institute for Church Music in Berlin, 1876–1914 seminar music teacher in Soest. In addition, he was organist at St. Thomä for a number of years and, for many years, conductor of the Soest Musikverein and the Märkischer teacher's choir. Was Kgl. Music director and in 1932 D. theol. Lives in Soest. "

The choirmaster

The Soest Musikverein experienced a heyday under the direction of August Knabe. The focus of his work was the development of important oratorios in music history. Many works - such as Bach's St. Matthew Passion in 1894 - were premiered in the city under boys. Your selection not only indicates a high artistic standard, it also documents an astonishing variety of programs. Between 1884 and 1906, when Knabe had to give up his job as a choir director because of increasing hearing loss, works by Handel (Messias, Judas Maccabäus, Samson), Schumann (Paradise and the Peri), Mendelssohn (Elias, Paulus), Brahms (Requiem), Haydn came among others (Seasons), Mozart (Requiem), Beethoven (Missa solemnis) for the performance, a workload that, in addition to the main professional activity as a teacher and seminar director, as well as numerous other tasks (including management of the Märkischer teachers choir, organist at St. Thomä, private music lessons) had to cope with and arouse admiration.

The music teacher

In 1876 Knabe moved to Soest as a seminar music teacher and lived in the house at Walburger Str. No. 14. Until his retirement in 1916, as an obituary says, he had all the students of the Soest teachers' seminar in singing, organ, piano, violin and Theory trained, around 1400 organists in total. The most prominent of his students was undoubtedly Wilhelm Middelschulte (1863–1943), who made a great career in America as a composer and organ virtuoso. The students also include the Dortmund church musician and Felix Schröder (1876–1966), who worked in Getmold after the Second World War .

The composer

Knabe's compositions are part of time-bound utility music . They range from simple, sometimes trivial sentences for children and amateur choirs to psalms and motets to more ambitious compositions for choir and orchestra (choral motet "Hosanna" for male choir and orchestra or mixed choir using the chorale melody "How should I receive you") .

The chorale book

The significance of this work can only be understood against the background of Natorp's efforts to reform Protestant church music in the 19th century. In the 1820s the “Choral Book for Protestant Churches was created. The chorales are critically edited and arranged by BCL Natorp and Fr. Keßler, set for four voices and provided with interludes by CH Rinck ”(Essen 1829, 2/1836, 3/1870). With this chorale book, which was widely used up to around 1900, the editors believed they could provide a model for the “art of pure composition”, but it had a simple and imaginative four-part voice with an undertone of sentimental loveliness and a trivial neediness, as Walter Salmen thinks. A change liberating from these lowlands took place, along with other attempts, with August Knabe's “Choral Book for the Evangelical Hymn Book for Rhineland and Westphalia”, which he published in Soest in 1894. When harmonizing the chorales, he orientated himself again to the rules of strict counterpoint. This chorale book is an important document in the laborious, slow process of turning away from the solemn, unrhythmic, ¾-beat congregational singing of the 19th century towards a fresher chant, as it is common today. The chorale book, which became more and more complete over the years, was completely revised in 1931 after the publication of the new hymn book for Rhineland and Westphalia. The nature of the content remained almost the same; only the interludes were omitted because they had outlived each other. It was reprinted in quick succession and was in use in Westphalia until the 1960s .

Honors and death

Birthplace in Osterwieck

The "old man from Soest", as he was called, received many honors. In 1896 he was the first in Westphalia to be awarded the title of “Royal Music Director” and in 1927 he was awarded the Church Medal of Merit. On his 85th birthday in 1932, appointed him University of Münster for D. theol .

August Knabe, who had been married to Röschen Loose from Halberstadt since 1877 and had two children with her, died at the age of 93 on December 12, 1940 as a result of a broken thigh. He was buried in the St Thomas Cemetery. His grave still exists today (field Th 3), is overgrown with ivy and is quite well cared for. However, the right of use has expired.

A street in Soest bears his name. A memorial plaque is attached to the house where he was born at Mittelstrasse 22 in Osterwieck .

Works

• Choral book for the Protestant hymn book for Rhineland and Westphalia for church, school and home, edited by D. theol. August Knabe, Essen: Verlag der Essener Druckerei Gemeinwohl GmbH 1931 (6th edition 1941 with art print sheet as frontispiece: portrait photography, next to it an obituary, signed with "Flöttmann")
• "Open the door, the gate opens!" 2-part choral movement with 6-part instrumental movement in: O joyful day. Advent and Christmas carols from old and new times with valuable musical settings. G. Ihloff & Co., Ev. Bookstore, Neumünster i. Holstein 1941

literature

• Walter Salmen: History of Music in Westphalia II, History of Music in Westphalia in the 19th and 20th centuries. Kassel-Basel-London-Paris-New York: Bärenreiter-Verlag 1967, pp. 33, 93, 95, 128–130, 150, 275.
• Soest City Archives: August Knabe estate (signature P 8), some undated material (newspaper clippings, photos).
• Ulrich Bartels: August Knabe (1847–1940), royal music director in Soest - a memory. KM look around. Announcements from the church musicians' associations in the Evangelical Church of Westphalia 2001 No. 3, pp. 21–26.
• Märkischer Lehrergesangverein (Ed.): Knabe, Festschrift for the 63rd Märkischer Lehrersangfest Witten, 1910

Web links

• Literature by and about August Knabe in the catalog of the German National Library