Carl Leibl

The cathedral music director Carl Leibl, painting by Wilhelm Leibl , 1866

Carl (Karl) Leibl (born September 3, 1784 in Fußgönheim ( Palatinate ), † October 4, 1870 in Cologne ) was a musician, conductor, cathedral organist and cathedral bandmaster in Cologne.

Life

Carl Leibl comes from a Bavarian family of civil servants and hosts and first learned the cooper's trade before he could devote himself to music. Leibl initially worked as a music teacher at the Bavarian Court . In 1826 he became cathedral music director in Cologne, where he headed the association of cathedral music and lovers' concerts . In the same year he also took over the management of the Städtischen Singverein , which merged with the Musical Society in 1827 to form the new Cölner Concert-Gesellschaft , whose choir still exists today as the Gürzenich Choir . This society, under the patronage of wealthy citizens, organized its concerts in Cologne's Gürzenich from 1857 - this ultimately also gave rise to the Gürzenich Orchestra of the City of Cologne, which still exists today . Leibl was active at a difficult time of political and social upheaval. Due to the laws following the Napoleonic occupation since 1794, the guilds were dissolved and spiritual foundations, monasteries and 42 Cologne churches were closed in the course of secularization . Thus, the main elements of urban musical life were now missing. In 1815 the city of Cologne became Prussian . The following economic upswing favored the development of musical life, which was professionalized under Leibl's direction. Through Cologne's participation in the Niederrheinische Musikfest , which was founded in 1817 and also took place in Cologne from 1821, the city became a magnet for foreign musicians.

Family grave at the Melaten cemetery in Cologne

During Leibl's time, the rise, the climax and the end of classical-romantic church music at Cologne Cathedral in the 19th century. In 1863 the reform movement of Cäcilianism ensured that orchestral choral music was banned in Cologne . The musical participation of women in church services as choir or solo singers was also prohibited.

As a Leibl music collection, the music from the Cologne Cathedral Chapel is a treasure trove of the Cologne Diocesan Library .

Leibl was married to Maria Gertrud Lemper, daughter of Jakob Lemper, professor at the Gymnasium Montanum in Cologne, and Anna Catharina Franziska Blanck. One of the six children of the Leibl couple was the painter Wilhelm Leibl , who was born in 1844. The family lived in Cologne at 22 Sternengasse .

His grave is in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (lit. L, between HWG and lit.P).

Leiblplatz in Cologne-Lindenthal was named after him.

Works

• Festival cantata to celebrate the laying of the foundation stone for the continuation of Cologne Cathedral in 1842; appeared in the series Monuments of Rhenish Music
• Masses, including Mass No. 3 in E flat major, edited by Eberhard Metternich in the first edition in the series Monuments of Rhenish Music
• Proprium settings for choir and large orchestra
• Cantatas
• Carnival songs (e.g. Jerum melody)

literature

• Gottfried Göller: The Leibl collection. Catalog of the music of the Cologne Cathedral Chapel. Cologne: Arno Volk 1964.
• Heinrich Hack: The Cologne Cathedral Music Band, edited from the cathedral files. in: Yearbook of the Cologne History Association 5, 1922, pp. 144 ff.
• Stefan Klösges / Christoph Müller-Oberhäuser: The Leibl Music Collection. New cataloging of the music of the Cologne Cathedral Orchestra of the 19th century based on the catalog by Gottfried Göller . Archbishop's Diocesan and Cathedral Library with St. Albertus Magnus Library, Cologne 2016.
• Julius Mayr : Wilhelm Leibl, his life and his work . Cassirer, Berlin 1906; 4th edition Verlag F. Bruckmann, Munich 1935, p.
• Paul Mies: The musician Carl Leibl (1784-1870). The father of the great painter. Kempen 1938. Reprint Cologne: Arno Volk 1976.
• Oliver Sperling: Carl Leibl and the Cologne Cathedral Chapel. in: Carl Leibl, Mass in E flat major, piano reduction, Cologne: Dohr 2007, pp. 6–10.

Web links

• Works by and about Carl Leibl in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Eduard Prüssen (linocuts), Werner Schäfke and Günter Henne (texts): Cologne heads . 1st edition. University and City Library, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-931596-53-8 , pp. 96 .