Bernd Witthüser

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Bernd Witthüser (born February 29, 1944 in Winterberg , Sauerland ; † August 4, 2017 , Grosseto , Italy ) was a German folk musician . He became known in the late 1960s and early 1970s when he formed the duo Witthüser & Westrupp with Walter Westrupp . After the end of this duo, Witthüser turned primarily to street music . As a one-man band or in a duo with colleagues, he performed under the pseudonym Bernelli (also Bärnelli and Barnelli ). Most recently he lived in Italy.

Life

In 1960 Witthüser played with the birdhouse skiffel group in Essen, later he made a name for himself as a protest singer , initially setting texts by Thomas Rother to music. In 1967 he was involved in the establishment of the Essen Jazzkeller Podium , in which a wide range of musicians performed. With the experiences made on the podium , he was able to organize the Essen Songtage 68 . The groups seen there gave him the impulse to turn away from the political protest song and to found a new kind of psychedelic folk duo together with Walter Westrupp , whom he knew from working on the podium .

The duo Witthüser & Westrupp performed from 1969 to 1973, made several records and was a frequent guest on television and radio. The record company tried to launch a German edition of T. Rex with the duo or to jump on the Sakropop bandwagon , but Witthüser and Westrupp were on the one hand too stubborn and on the other hand they weren't up to the demands of the commercial music business. Nevertheless, the musicians were also worn out by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser in endless psychedelic sessions, from which Kaiser generated further LPs. In 1973 the duo separated and the musicians said goodbye to the public for the time being. Witthüser went on a long trip to India and there came up with the idea of ​​street music.

His first appearances with self-made instruments in the streets of Berlin were successful, at least the income was enough to live on. Witthüser withdrew from bourgeois society, lived in his car and performed whenever and wherever he wanted. In order to finish his successful years with Witthüser & Westrupp himself , he took the stage name Bernelli , which he later varied to Bärnelli , Barnelli and Takkabanda Barnelli . By chance he was discovered by Italian television as a one-man band in 1977 during an appearance at an Italian village festival, which resulted in a surprising second media fame. He soon turned his back on the media and devoted himself to street music on a regional level.

From 1977 to 2002 he formed the street music duo Otto & Barnelli with the violinist Otto Richter . The filmmaker Marie Bardischewski , who shot a film about the duo for Bavarian television in the series "Lebenslinien", writes about this:

“Classifying them is not easy. When the two vagabonds, jugglers or artists - poets of the street - appear somewhere, a crowd gathers immediately and stares in fascination at the happening in the open air. Bärnelli plays the electric guitar, Otto the violin. You gesticulate with everything, including your feet. Drums, cymbals, rattles and bells are attached to the body. Both are passionate musicians and they mostly play their own compositions, which have also been released on CD. Their music is very special: on the one hand naive, but at the same time full of irony. When they're warmed up, they do free jazz and act like fools. The two strangely dressed figures, one tall and thin, the other small and robust, are somewhat reminiscent of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. "

- Marie Bardischewski

Bernd Witthüser alias Barnelli used different instruments at the same time with a total weight of 25 kilograms, which made him a one-man band. He himself described how this should be imagined:

“I have a small bass drum on my back that is operated with my right foot using a modified foot machine with a cable pull. There is a basin on the drum, which is operated with the right arm using a modified foot machine and a cable pull. In the bass drum there are two amplifiers for the electric guitar, which I wear and play in the conventional way. There is a bicycle horn on the bass drum on the left, which is operated with the left elbow. on my head i have a golden lacquered plastic helmet to which two maracas are attached, which i make to sound by shaking my head. in front of my face I have a small curtain that I can open with my left hand and close with my right hand. behind the small curtain i have a face with which i can make a lot of faces or not. (Because of its strong personal expressiveness, this face does not tolerate make-up.) on the suspension of the face curtain are attached: a harmonica and a classic belgian kazzoo , both of which are played with the mouth. the batteries and the effect devices for the guitar amplifiers are attached to the belt. a tambourine and indian bells are strapped to the left boot. Sardinian and Indian bells are on the right boot. I create chants and other sounds with my mouth. "

- Bernd Witthüser alias Bernelli

After moving to Tuscany and only performing as a street musician Barnelli in Italy for a long time , Bernd Witthüser started studying old songs again from around 2003/04 in order to perform again in Germany under his own name. Now recognized as a follow-up legend, he promptly received inquiries from the Herzberg Festival and other first-class folk festivals. He still lived in Murci , Italy, where he lived in a trailer and a yurt . He often covered the distances to the performances on a motorcycle, but in 2013 he suffered a serious accident.

Discography

  • Songs of vampires, nuns and dead (LP, 1970, actually by Witthüser & Westrupp , although the LP front cover only mentions Witthüser)
  • Lord Krishna von Goloka by Sergius Golowin (LP, 1973)
  • Otto & Bärnelli: Situation® report, a production of the "mobile fgz group" (LP from ZYX Records , 1981)
  • Old recipes (LP, 1985)
  • Kasablanka (LP, 2010)

as a guest:

  • Edelzwicker / Repeat . Joint recording of the title At the Seasons (double CD, 2008)
  • Manfred Pohlmann: Live - 30 years onnerweschs (double CD, 2004)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The songwriter Bernd Witthüser died in: Badische Zeitung of August 7, 2017, accessed on August 16, 2017
  2. ↑ Addio a Barnelli, artista scoperto since Renzo Arbore - Cronaca - Il Tirreno . In: Il Tirreno . August 5, 2017 ( gelocal.it [accessed September 3, 2017]).
  3. ↑ Alexander Simmeth: Krautrock transnational, the reinvention of pop music in the FRG 1968–1978. 2016, p. 99.
  4. ↑ Interview with Bernd Witthüser at Der Wahrschauer, March 27, 2013. Online: http://www.wahrschauer.net/music-a-more/518-interview-mit-bernd-witthueser.html
  5. ↑ http://www.wahrschauer.net/music-a-more/518-interview-mit-bernd-witthueser.html
  6. ↑ So z. B. the announcement for the Speyerer Liederfest 2015, online: http://www.kulturing.com/2015/01/04/4-speyerer-liederfest/
  7. ^ Richard Witthüser: Magical places. A year on the road in Europe. 2015, p. 46/47.
  8. ↑ Pictures of Barnelli's yurt and the motorcycle accident on his website Archived copy ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.barnelli.it
personal data
SURNAME Witthüser, Bernd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bärnelli (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German folk musician
DATE OF BIRTH February 29, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Winterberg
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 2017