Emmerich Bartzer

Adalbert Emmerich Bartzer (born September 1, 1895 in Lovrin , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary ; † May 5, 1961 in Jimbolia ( German  Hatzfeld , People's Republic of Romania )) was a Romanian-German violinist , conductor , educator and composer from the ethnic group of the Banat Swabians .

Life

Adalbert Emmerich Bartzer was born on September 1st, 1895 as the second of four sons of the master miller Stefan Bartzer and the merchant's daughter Maria, née. Reitter, born in Lowrin. All four sons received instrumental lessons, Emmerich played the violin and piano . After the parents' divorce in 1906, the now destitute mother and children moved first to Groß Sankt Nikolaus and in 1911 to Szegedin , where the brothers K. u. K. attended industrial school. Here Emmerich founded and directed a school orchestra. In 1916 he was called up for military service, which he survived unharmed. In 1919 he found a job as a violinist in the theater and later in the cinema orchestra in Szegedin. During this time he took lessons in harmony , counterpoint and composition with the director of the municipal music school, Peter König (Kilraly) and with the inspector for military bands, Alexander Fichtner. His Opus 1, the piano song Búcsú , appeared in print in Szeged. He composed a lot, for choir , chamber music , orchestral music .

For economic reasons he moved to his hometown Lowrin in 1922, where he ran a repair shop for agricultural machines with his brothers Stefan and Nikolaus. In 1924 he married the Budapest teacher Elisabeth Filipecz. The couple had two children, Richard (1926–1998) and Brigitte (1929–1988). Here in Lowrin, the change took place from the Hungarian-influenced to the Banat Swabia consciously reflecting on its German roots. He founded the association of "Lowriner Musikfreunde", a semi-symphonic orchestra with which he developed a demanding repertoire, including Franz Schubert's " Unfinished " , and for which he composed a number of orchestral pieces in the Viennese operetta tradition. Two of these pieces, the waltz Banater Leben and Heimatbilder , were broadcast live on the Budapest radio. He soon took over the “Lowriner Männergesangverein und Frauenchor”, for which he wrote several choral pieces, including the eight-part Am Felde and spring mood . He became a member of the Romanian Association of Instrumental Artists, and later also of the Composers Association.

In 1933 Bartzer followed the call of the " Hatzfeld Gewerbegesangverein", of which he was director until it was dissolved in 1942 due to the war. The Lowriner and Hatzfeld years until 1944 are his most productive. He composed two song cycles of eleven songs, one and one to the in Folk art songs of romance oriented. He most often set music to the Banat local poet Peter Jung, with whom he had a close friendship. From the songs in the folk tone are According to your traces , I have highlighted in sweet dreams and Wie a Roserl am Baum , from the art songs O star-studded firmament , little flowers , What will my fate be? and the reed song . He makes the high demands on composing clear in his string quartet movement in G minor, a strictly contrapuntal work with a romantic sense of sound. His most important work was the operetta Grüßt mein Banat, based on a libretto by Annie Schmidt-Endres with the assistance of Daniel Wersching. The material is based on the historical fact that in times of the economic crisis children from Austria spent the summer holidays on Banat Swabian farms. In the operetta, the farmer's son Hans falls in love with the Viennese girl Mizzi. From the abundance of appealing song numbers, the two duets Hans and Mizzi Mädel, you don't know how it's all about me and And if you leave me, as well as the song of Mizzi and the Viennese girls greet my Banat, are highlighted. In 1937 he co-founded the "Werkgemeinschaft Schwäbischer Künstler und Kunstfreunde". In his capacity as a teacher at the Deutsches Knabengymnasium and at the German apprenticeship school, as a violin teacher for generations of students and as the artistic director of the Gewerbegesangverein, which also performed operettas, for which he had to write orchestral parts by hand for nights on end, composing was often neglected. The approaching war brought this lively activity to an abrupt end.

In 1944 his son Richard was drafted into the armed forces. The family fled via Budapest, where Richard came back, and Vienna to Lower Austria , where they stayed in a small village near Zwettl for the winter. After the end of the war, the refugees were forced to return to the Banat. Disenchantment spread. Bartzer was immediately used by the communists for their purposes and had to compose “Russian” music, which he drew with a pseudonym. He was commissioned to found and lead factory choirs that did not last long because of the compulsory communist repertoire. The choir was most successful as part of the "Apărarea patriotică", for which he composed two operettas on libretti by his friend Cornel Poledna: Ad love and When hearts speak . Both were performed several times in Hatzfeld and the surrounding area. Musically they were based on the fashion dances of the time. But he had the most consistent success with his "Swabian Folk Orchestra", whose members came from all over the area. But his creativity was broken. The living conditions in the Stalinist and post-Stalinist era of the 1950s made him bitter. He found late recognition when he and leading Romanian German intellectuals were called in by the daily newspaper Neuer Weg to work out the guidelines for the design of German-language broadcasts on Romanian radio. With modifications, these applied until the turn of 1989.

While his orchestra was taking part in a competition in Timisoara in April 1969 , he suffered a stroke , which was followed by more. He died on May 5, 1961 in Hatzfeld. A great funeral procession accompanied him on his last journey.

Emmerich Bartzer was one of the leading musicians in the Swabian Banat between and after the war.

Works (selection)

Song cycles:

• Songs in folk tone (see above)
• Art songs (see above)

Instrumental music:

• String quartet movement in G minor
• Intermezzo for orchestra
• Banat Life ( Waltz for Orchestra)
• Heimatbilder (waltz for orchestra)
• Im Banat (for piano, arrangements for wind orchestra and for six-part choir)
• Evening mood for string orchestra
• Six country dances for accordion

Operettas:

• Greet my Banat
• Advertising love
• When hearts speak

Choirs ac :

• The Lenz ( Lenau )
• To spring ( Schiller )
• On the field ( Peter Jung )
• Spring mood (own texts)
• Four male choirs based on texts by Peter Jung
• Hans stay do (folksong arrangement)
• Zwa Sterndlan (folk song arrangement )
• I'm not going (folksong adaptation)

Countless arrangements of German, Hungarian and Romanian folk songs and dances for different line-ups

Web links

• Franz Metz : Bartzer, Emmerich (1895-1961) on suedost-musik.de
• Bartzer, Emmerich on composers-classical-music.com