Konrad Kocher

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Konrad Kocher around 1860, lithograph by Conrad Schacher

Konrad Kocher (born December 16, 1786 in Ditzingen , † March 12, 1872 in Stuttgart ) was a German musician and composer , mainly of church music .

Life

Appointment of Konrad Kocher as honorary member of the Stuttgarter Liederkranz, 1871 (Ditzingen City Archives)
Appointment of Kocher as an honorary member of the Swabian Singers' Association, 1871

Konrad Kocher was born in 1786 as the son of the shoemaker Georg Jakob Kocher and his wife Anna, b. Wolfangel, born. The house where he was born in Ditzinger Marktstrasse no longer exists. Teachers and local pastors recognized the pupil's talent early on, so that the fourteen-year-old received training as a primary school teacher. His favorite pastime, however, was playing the organ. Unsatisfied with his assistant teacher life in Esslingen, Konrad Kocher traveled on foot and by ship to St. Petersburg in 1805 to earn his living there for almost seven years as a private piano teacher. In the Russian capital he met the composer and piano entrepreneur Muzio Clementi , who encouraged Kocher to devote himself entirely to music. The Swabian received musical training from Clementi's students, the pianists Ludwig Berger and August Alexander Klengel .

In 1811 he returned to Württemberg and settled as a piano teacher in Stuttgart. Now he also began to compose; initially some piano pieces and a total of four operas, two of which ( Der Käficht , Der Elfenkönig ) were performed at the Court Theater in Stuttgart. Thanks to the mediation of the Stuttgart publisher Johann Friedrich Cotta , he was able to personally present the setting of Goethe's Singspiel Jery ​​und Bätely to the poet in Weimar. Kocher's first oratorio The Death of Abel was then premiered in Leipzig. Kocher was acquainted with Christian Zais , who came from Cannstatt and who, as an urban planner, brought Wiesbaden to bloom by building the first Kurhaus. In 1819 he introduced Sulpiz Boisserée "to the young composer Konrad Kocher". From 1819 to 1821 Kocher was studying church music in Italy, especially in Rome, financed by his patron Cotta. In Rome, Kocher worked closely with the Prussian legation secretary Christian Karl Josias Freiherr von Bunsen . Both were united by a love of old Italian music and the desire to help improve church singing in Germany. In October 1821 he and the piano maker Johann Baptist Streicher visited the factory owner Wilhelm Zais in Cannstatt , who owned "one of the most excellent London pianoforte, a Broadwoodsch instrument, and an excellent harp.

Konrad Kocher School in Ditzingen

Back in Stuttgart in 1823, Kocher published his little work Die Tonkunst in der Kirche, or ideas for a general four-part chorale and figural chant for a small choir, along with views on the purpose of art in general . In it he called for a church chant that was based on the ideal of simplicity and should also be accessible to the poorest farmers. Kocher was now very committed and publicly supported in improving the church music of Württemberg, u. a. by founding the Stuttgart Church Music Association. Together with Friedrich Silcher (Tübingen) and Johann Georg Frech (Esslingen), he wrote the four-part chorale book for organ and piano players in 1828 . This was also intended to advance the establishment of four-part congregational singing - in the context of the church music reform, this was Kocher's favorite project, but which he had to regard as a failure in the 1840s.

Konrad-Kocher-Strasse in Ditzingen

When the Stuttgarter Liederkranz was founded in 1824, Kocher, a supporter of Hans Georg Nägeli and a staunch advocate of singing as a popular education, was a very productive composer of polyphonic choral songs for the wreaths of songs that were created all over Württemberg for several years. From the 1830s he concentrated his composing activities more on the area of ​​church music. Kocher was appointed organist of the Stuttgart collegiate church, the main Protestant church of the Kingdom of Württemberg, in 1827 and advanced to become the most recognized church musician in Württemberg in the first half of the century. In recognition of his services, the University of Tübingen awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1852. Even after his retirement in 1865 and almost until his death in 1872, Kocher continued to work tirelessly: collecting and composing songs, chorales and organ pieces.

Kocher was married to the Ulm pastor's daughter Wilhelmine Neuffer since 1828. The marriage remained childless.

Only a few of Kocher's compositions are performed today, including his demanding organ pieces and some of his motets. The Evangelical Hymn of Württemberg contains three songs by Konrad Kocher (nos. 561, 631, 678).

Honors

Kocher had been an honorary member of the Stuttgarter Liederkranz and the Swabian Singers' Association since 1871 . A street, a school and a hall were named after him in his hometown of Ditzingen.

Audio sample

Publications

  • The power of song set by Schiller for 4 male voices . Stuttgart, 1826
  • Four-part chorale book for organ and piano players . With Friedrich Silcher and GG Frech. Stuttgart: JB Metzler, 1828 ( digitized version )
  • Four-part figural chants for the Protestant church. On all Sundays and holidays of the year . Stuttgart: Zumsteeg, [around 1830]
  • Bardenhain. A collection of more choice songs of the poets German tongue ... . Stuttgart: Karl Erhard, 1833 (as editor)
  • The Christian at the graves of his consummate. A collection of funeral chants for use in choirs of all kinds. Poemed by Ludwig Neuffer. Set to music by Konrad Kocher . Stuttgart: Hallberger'sche Verlagshandlung, 1837
  • Voices from the kingdom of God. An exquisite collection of old and new Protestant core songs with attached four-part chorale melodies arranged for singing, piano and organ playing from the origins of the chorale to the present day. Stuttgart: Hallberger'sche Verlagshandlung, 1838 ( digitized version )
  • King Wilhelm. 3 songs for the highest jubilee of his 25-year glorious government: for gem. and male choirs set . Stuttgart: Beck and Fränkel, [1841]
  • Christian house music. A collection of monophonic and polyphonic, old and new songs, arias, choirs etc. with accompaniment of the piano . Stuttgart: Wagner, 1846
  • Organ playbook: a collection of church-class organ pieces by old and new masters with finger and foot set, plus an introductory organ school; for use in churches and for study in seminaries . Stuttgart: Metzler, 1851
  • Zion harp. A chorale treasure from all centuries and from all confessions of the Christian church collected for edification in the family as well as in the community and arranged for singing choirs, organ and piano in four parts by Conrad Kocher . 4 volumes, Stuttgart: Metzler, 1855
  • Harmony. The art of composition was developed theoretically from the basic elements and presented in practice . Stuttgart: Nitzschke, 1859
  • Piano playbook. A theoretically and practically developing u. through hundreds of preliminary exercises and Clay pieces methodically progressive introduction to the game u. Understanding of the classics . Stuttgart: Nitzschke, [1859]

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.goethezeitportal.de
  2. ^ Sulpiz Boisserée Diaries, Volume 1; Eduard Roether Verlag Darmstadt, 1978
  3. ↑ HISPERUS, No. 73, Monday, March 27, 1826
  4. ^ Uta Goebl-Streicher, The travel diary of the piano maker Johann Baptist Streicher 1821–1822, Hans Schneider Verlag
  5. ↑ Konrad Kocher as namesake ( memento of the original from June 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.google.de
personal data
SURNAME Kocher, Konrad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kocher, Conrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German organist and composer of church music
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1786
PLACE OF BIRTH Ditzingen
DATE OF DEATH March 12, 1872
Place of death Stuttgart