Eduard Büchsel

Eduard Hans Martin Gottfried Büchsel (born May 1, 1917 in Schweicheln near Herford ; † June 17, 1980 in Herdecke ) was a German organist and cantor and church music director .

Life

Eduard Büchsel was born in Schweicheln as the fifth of seven children of the pastor Hermann Johannes Gottlob Büchsel and his first wife Charlotte Mathilde Ida Elisabeth Siebold. At the age of 18 he began his music studies at the Leipzig State Conservatory of Music and during this time became a member of the Christian student union Leipziger Wingolf . While still a student, the Thomaskantor Günther Ramin appointed him deputy organist at the Thomaskirche in 1936 . In 1939 he became organist in Völklingen .

In 1941 he finished his church music studies with the A-exam and went to the Trinity Church in Łódź, which was occupied by Germany at the time, as a cantor . In 1944 he was drafted into the war and in 1945 he was taken prisoner by the British .

After returning home from captivity, Büchsel worked as a cantor in Münster in October 1945 . In May 1946 he applied to Gütersloh as organist and cantor , where he took up his position at the Martin Luther Church in July 1946. In September of the same year he founded the Gütersloh Bach Choir and a children's choir at the end of 1947. From 1948 onwards, the Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation engaged the outstanding organist for numerous radio recordings with organ music.

In 1955 the parish of Gütersloh considered dividing the church music work. In 1957 Büchsel handed over the leadership of the choirs to his successor Hermann Kreutz , who led the Bach choir to national recognition in the following years. Büchsel, on the other hand, mainly devotes himself to artistic organ playing. Among other things, he played a key role in the construction of a new Steinmeyer organ in the Martin Luther Church in Gütersloh.

In 1960 he followed the call to the Reinoldikirche in Dortmund, where he was appointed church music director. Here he leads the Dortmund Bach Choir and performs major works for choir, solos and orchestra from the baroque to the moderate modern and unaccompanied choral music. He also continues his work as an organist, among other things in the regular "organ celebration hours" at the large organ of the Reinoldikirche (IV / P 72, Walcker, 1958). Works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Max Reger are the cornerstones of his repertoire.

A few weeks after his retirement and three months after the last performance of the St. Matthew Passion by JSBach, Büchsel died at the age of 63 after a brief serious illness.

Büchsel's artistic conceptions as an organist are shaped by the Leipzig School. His Reger interpretations understand this music from the tradition of late romanticism and do not try to objectify it in the sense of the organ movement. As a Bach interpreter, Büchsel is close to his teacher Günther Ramin. His performances of Bach's Passions are also reminiscent of Ramin with broad tempos, a large cast, modern orchestral sound and highly expressive design of the choral parts.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Verband Alter Wingolfiten eV (Ed.): Vademecum Wingolfiticum , 17th edition, Lahr / Schwarzwald 1974, p. 103.