August Reiser (musician)

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August Reiser

August Reiser (born January 19, 1840 in Gammertingen , † October 22, 1904 in Haigerloch ) was a German musician , composer and journalist .

Live and act

August Reiser was born in Gammertingen as the eldest son of the businessman and long-time mayor Bonaventura Reiser (1802-1860) and Caritas Reiser (1813-1880). The maternal grandfather was the teacher Anton Reiser (1787–1838), an ambitious violin player, known as the "Geiger-Toni", whose musical talent August may have inherited.

August received private music lessons from his uncle Heinrich Reiser , the head of the school in Gammertingen, who enjoyed an excellent reputation as a music teacher. August was ambitious as an instrumentalist and singer and hoped for training as a musician like his cousin Fritz (1839–1879), who was specifically prepared by Heinrich Reiser for a visit to the Conservatory in Munich. However, August's father insisted on a down-to-earth education, so that the music-loving boy had to complete a commercial apprenticeship in Biberach an der Riss after attending school and then worked as an employee in Sigmaringen and Stuttgart. August was supposed to prepare himself in this way for the takeover of his parents' shop in Gammertingen. After his father had a stroke at the end of 1860, August Reiser was forced to join his parents' business. Only reluctantly did he take on the associated duties and instead sought further musical training, among others with the Hechinger Kapellmeister Thomas T Tagesbeck . In 1863 Reiser married the daughter of a merchant Rosalie Mock (1839–1921) from Haigerloch; but the marriage did not improve his motivation as a businessman either.

In 1865 Reiser sold the heir shop and house and began a restless wandering life, much to the displeasure of his father-in-law, who feared for his daughter's future. Reiser sought his fortune overseas, traveling to South Africa, India and North America. In Chicago he lived for some time with his mother's brother, David Reiser (1822–1916), who had emigrated to the United States in 1848, and then toured the American Midwest with an opera company. He returned empty-handed in 1871.

In Freiburg im Breisgau, August Reiser found a job in a music store, probably mediated by his sister Hulda (1844–1930), who had married the printer and publisher Josef Xaver Dilger (1840–1904) there. Soon afterwards Reiser moved to the Schiedmayer'schen Pianofortefabrik in Strasbourg , where he became a successful branch manager. Now he found time again to pursue musical studies and to compose. In 1879 he followed a tempting call to Cologne, where the publisher Peter Josef Tonger (1845–1917) offered him the editor of the Neue Musikzeitung . In addition to his work as an editor, Reiser took over the management of the Kölner Gesangverein Sängerkreis and taught as a singing teacher at the Cologne Realgymnasium. He wrote opera reviews for the Kölnische Zeitung .

Despite these diverse activities, Reiser was always active as a composer. Its spectrum ranged from simple folk songs to overtures and symphonies. He created orchestral illustrations for fairy tales, edited a choir collection, set children's and youth songs to music and composed masses for Cecilia choirs. His Reform Piano School found widespread use in a short time. Reiser was a specialist with his melodramatic Christmas and concert performances for solos, choirs and declamations with piano accompaniment, which were considered the best material for lovers' performances.

A gout disease finally forced Reiser to say goodbye to Cologne; the writer Elise Polko sums up his contributions to the musical life of the cathedral city in an article in the Neue Musikzeitung. Reiser and his wife moved back to their homeland in Hohenzollern. In 1886 they settled in Haigerloch, the hometown of Rosalie Reiser, where the patient sought relief in the Imnau steel bath. But even there he was soon asked as choirmaster the management of the two male choirs, the Choral Society and the Liederkranz to take over a task he took over many years with great success. His affable nature and his inexhaustible humor made him popular with singers and fellow citizens.

Among the members of the Haigerloch Museum Society, he shone as a brilliant narrator, especially when he reported from his time in Cologne. He composed, took part in singing festivals with his choirs and was often in demand as a judge. After 1900 his gout condition worsened. He sought relief during spa stays in Wildbad, Wörishofen, Baden-Baden and Rippoldsau. A severe relapse confined him to bed for three months. Jaundice also made him weak. August Reiser died on October 22, 1904. A large mourning community said goodbye to the man who for years was the focus of intellectual, artistic and social life in the small Hohenzollern town.

Works (selection)

August Reiser: Kaiserblumen, title page
  • Imperial flowers. Poemed by Albert Reiser. For a voice with accompaniment from the pianoforte. Op. 45, Cologne: Tonger, around 1880
  • German Federal Song J. Firmenich. For male choir. Op. 49, Cologne: Tonger, undated (excerpts online in: Album August Ferdinand Möhring, 1840–1883, Staatsbibliothek Berlin http://resolver.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/SBB00020089004E0000 ).
  • Under the linden tree. Folksong cycle for male choir with melodramas, connecting text, piano and event. living pictures, text by Johanna Baltz (1890)
  • My love left me. Magdeburg; Heinrichshofen, undated (around 1890)
  • Mass in honorem St. Annae. Ad quattuor voces inaequales et organum. Horb: Christian, undated (around 1890)
  • Fifty children's and youth songs by Hoffmann von Fallersleben a. a. Edited according to well-known and popular ways, with piano accompaniment (and fingering), ed. by August Reiser, 4th edition. Stuttgart: Nitzschke, undated (1892)
  • Doctor Strix. Cheerful singspiel in one act based on Schenk's opera 'Der Dorfbarbier' a. a. Mühlhausen i. Th .: Danner, 1896
  • Christmas in the snow. Seal by Julius Theobald. Leipzig: Seal, 1900
  • In the realm of the forest fairy. Christmas fairy tale by Marie M. Schenk. Stuttgart: Luckhardt, undated (around 1900)
  • Der Geiger von Gmünd: religious singspiel based on the legend of the same name by Justinus Kerner, freely composed by Elise Miller; for solos, choir, melodramas, children's voices, violin etc. Piano. Kempten: Kösel, 1901
  • Sancta Cäcilia: melodramatic legend according to Justinus Kerner; for solos, choir, children's voices, violin and piano accompaniment with a connecting declamation. Kempten: Kösel, 1903
  • The song: poem by Marie M. Schenk, male choir 4stg., 1903
  • Winter solstice. Melodramatic spinning room fairy tale in 3 parts by Marie M. Schenk. Berlin-Groß-Lichterfelde: Vieweg, undated [1903]
  • A eight-four z'ger. Swabian Singspiel by Gustav Schwegelbaur. Stuttgart: Auer, 1904
  • D'r o'recht 'bridegroom. Swabian Singspiel by Gustav Schwegelbaur. Stuttgart: Auer, 1904
  • St. Odilia. Musical legend for mixed and female choir, text by Marie M. Schenk. Düsseldorf: Schwann 1906
  • Christmas Eve. You sleep too; Humble luck; Singing and piano, music by August Reiser, Zurich 2011

Song collections

  • Loreley. Collection of 172 selected male choirs. Cologne: Tonger, 1879
  • Second series of male choirs in popular tone. Op. 41. Cologne: Tonger, undated (5th edition)
  • Troubadour. Collection of selected choirs and folk songs. Cologne: Tonger, 1880
  • Wreath of songs from Swabia. Collection of selected male choirs. Stuttgart: Nitzschke, 1894

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Reiser, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musician, composer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Gammertingen
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1904
Place of death Haigerloch