Erich Robert Sorge

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Erich Robert Sorge (1992)

Erich Robert Sorge (born June 6, 1933 in Petersdorf bei Jägerndorf , Czechoslovakia ; † April 18, 2002 in Steinfurt ) was a German church musician and composer.

Life

After fleeing and being expelled, he grew up in Ottobeuren and received piano lessons from Mathilde Rüdinger. A scholarship enabled him to train as a pianist and conductor at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory (now the Leopold Mozart Center ) in Augsburg . At the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne he then studied organ and composition with Frank Martin , Hermann Schroeder and Josef Zimmermann , and in 1962 he graduated with a master class in both subjects.

He worked as cantor and choirmaster in St. Marien in Cologne-Kalk and in St. Suitbertus in Remscheid, before he was appointed to the church music school in Münster in 1963 as a lecturer in composition and counterpoint . When this was closed in 1974, he switched to teaching at the Episcopal Gymnasium Collegium Johanneum at Loburg Castle and later at the Episcopal Canisius School in Ahaus. He declined offers to the universities of Munich and Regensburg for family reasons. Together with Heinrich Fischer, he founded the Laer Madrigal Choir in 1979 , with which he developed challenging works and performed them in the “Laer Whitsun Concerts”. In 1980 he was awarded the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft's cultural prize for music .

His oeuvre includes around 80 compositions, many of his works were premiered and broadcast by WDR by 1970, and he has worked as an organist in live broadcasts for Deutschlandfunk. His musical legacy is administered by the Sudeten German Music Institute (Oberpfalz district). A biography with a list of works can be found in the Lexicon of German Music Culture Bohemia, Moravia, Sudeten Silesia , the Hochseekuh-Verlag from Vienna has been publishing its works since 2012, which have not yet appeared in print, the publisher's Facebook page shows examples of his artistic work, Examples of his compositions can be found on Youtube.

The musical work

As a composer, Sorge is in the tradition of his teachers Heinrich Lemacher and Hermann Schroeder, who, together with the Cologne cathedral organist Josef Zimmermann, were among his special patrons. His first publicly performed composition can be traced back to 1954, and 19 over the next six years. From 1960 to 1970 there were 33 compositions - from 1970 to 1981 there were nothing except a few choral movements. From 1981 to 1990 another 20 works and arrangements were made.

Works for organ

In the reviews his works were z. B. referred to as "new sacred music that really shows new ways" (Mittelbayrische Zeitung in the Feuilleton, October 2, 1968). The premiere of the 'Concertino for organ, two percussionists and four brass players' triggered a scandal in Regensburg in 1968 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the General Association of Cecilia (ACV) . While the press rated the work very positively, Sorge was exposed to massive criticism from the Honorary President and the President of the General Cecilia Association, Prelate Johannes Overath (1913–2002, Peritus of the Second Vatican Council, member of the Broadcasting Council of the WDR) and Father Wilhelm Lueger (1911–1971, professor of liturgy and Gregorian chant at the church music academy in Cologne) condemned the work as unreligious and jazzoid. After the only commission that followed this scandal ('Exaudi' - Invention over a Tetracord, 1970), the WDR's composition commissions ended and only a few more recordings were broadcast. Most of these recordings can no longer be found in the archives of the WDR, but can nonetheless be documented with private recordings of the respective program.

  • Veni Creator Spiritus - Toccata and variations on the Pentecost hymn (1958, Verlag Hochseekuh)
  • Regina Caeli - Mediation on the Marian Antiphon for Organ (1958)
  • Stabat Mater Dolorosa - Meditatio (1958)
  • In a silent night - Meditatio (1959)
  • Concerto for organ, string orchestra and percussion (1963)
  • Partita I 'In dulci Jubilo' (1965, Verlag Heinrichshofen)
  • Partita II 'Born in Bethlehem' (1965, Verlag Heinrichshofen)
  • Partita III 'In Festo resurectionis Domini nostri' (1966, Verlag Heinrichshofen)
  • Concertino for organ, 2 percussionists and 4 brass instruments (1968, Verlag Hochseekuh)
  • "Hermengildis Chorale" - 213 organ movements for laudation (1969/1970)
  • Improvisation "O Jesus, you are all of my life" (1987, Verlag Hochseekuh)

Works for piano

  • Sonatina in E minor (1953)
  • Suite of European Folk Songs for Two Hands (1959)
  • Eight changes about 'Winter has passed' for four hands (1959, Musikverlag Hans Gerig)
  • Sonatina in G for four hands (1961, Verlag Heinrichshofen)
  • 7 miniatures - pieces in the five-tone room for four hands (1964, Verlag Heinrichshofen)
  • Suite for A. for four hands and an IKEA pencil or egg spoon (2000)

Works for choir a cappella or with accompaniment (selection)

  • Folksong arrangements for singing class and piano (1954)
  • Songs for a singing group based on texts by Hermann Hesse for a singing class with strings and woodwinds (1954)
  • 1st Mass for a cappella choir (1954)
  • Cheerful herbarium for four-part choir based on poems by Karl Heinrich Waggerl (1955, Verlag Heinrichshofen)
  • Five summer songs for unison choir, oboe and strings (1956)
  • 3 choirs on Ascension Day for mixed choir (1957)
  • Missa Parva for 3-4 upper voices a cappella (1961)
  • Proprium post Pentecoste for choir a cappella (1964)
  • 2 Marienlieder for three-part female choir (1964)
  • German Ordinarium for Choir, Congregation and Organ (1965, Orbis Verlag)
  • 2. Lied Mass for a cappella choir (1965)
  • Simple Ordinarium for Choir, Congregation, Organ (1965)
  • Proprium nativitatis for a cappella choir (1965)
  • Proprium for the 2nd Sunday of Lent for cantor, schola, congregation and organ (1966)
  • German Proprium for a cappella choir (1966, Orbis Verlag)
  • Proprium de Spiritu Sancto for choir and brass instruments (1966, Verlag Heinrichshofen)
  • Triptych on 'Power up the door' for organ, choir and community ad. lib. (1967)
  • Songs for a cappella choir (1967, Bieler Verlag)
  • Christmas singing WDR, 7 song sets for mixed Choir, Wind Instruments and Congregation (1968)
  • Proprium for three equal voices and organ (1969)
  • Open summer singing - for mixed choir, wind instruments and audience (1981)
  • Leaves of my language - for mixed choir, alto solo and clarin horn based on texts by Dietmar Scholz (1982)
  • 4 antiphons and 2 canons - schola, choir, congregation, wind instruments, strings, organ (1983)
  • Hymnus Veni Creator Spiritus n. Titelouze - for choir and orchestra (1983)
  • Laerer Christmas Singing - for mixed choir, wind instruments + congregation (1984)
  • Bartholomäus Mass for four-part choir and fire brigade band (1985)
  • 6 movements of Silesian songs for mixed Choir (1986)
  • Songs without words - arrangements by Bach, Mendelssohn and Mozart for choir (1990)
  • 2 Sudeten German folk dances - for 3 clar., Position tuba, mixed choir (1991)
  • various choral movements for liturgical use

Other sacred works

  • Christmas cantata for a cappella choir with boy solo (1952, sponsorship award from the Federal Ministry of the Interior)
  • Mass in Adventus for soprano or tenor and organ (1956)
  • Christmas cantata for tenor, soprano, three-part girls' choir, piano and cello (1956, music publisher Hans Gerig)
  • Instrumental movements about Christmas carols (1960, Verlag Heinrichshofen)
  • Te Deum for solos, choir a. large orchestra (1962)
  • Advent Cantata 1 (1964)
  • Advent Cantata 2 (1965, Verlag Hochseekuh)
  • Prizes Tongue, the Secret - 24 processional songs for wind instruments (1967, Orbis Verlag)
  • Exaudi - Invention of a Tetrachord (1970)
  • 14 song sets for equal voices (1974)
  • Greetings Mother - for voice and organ (1977)
  • Hear us - for voice and organ (1982)
  • You alone - for voice and organ (1984)

Songs

Other works and arrangements

  • A Hunter from Electoral Palatinate for two horns and piano (1954)
  • 3 pieces for recorder and piano (1957)
  • Sorting: Arnolt Schlick - Tablature on the organ (1511/1958)
  • Rommel Dommel for children's choir and percussion (1960)
  • Sonatina in A for 3 violins (1961)
  • Wind anthem for wind orchestra (1967, Orbis Verlag)
  • Zwitschermusik - for recorder quartet and 4 Alsatian forest and water birds (1984)
  • Bartholomäus March (1985, Verlag Hochseekuh)
  • Nativity march "An angel came" for Bfl. C'-FC, 2 Trp. B, 2nd item, I + II. Viol., III. Viol./Viola, Vlc. (Kb.), Pk. CG (1985?)
  • Cantus Litaniae, arrangement of the motet "Litaniae Beatae Mariae Virginis" from the Symphoniae Sacrae by Giovanni Gabrieli (1987, Verlag Hochseekuh)
  • A little laugh music after WA Mozart - for Bfl in c, 3 Fl, Klar, Va, Vc, 2 tuba, Kl for 4 hands (1990)
  • Sonatina in d (arrangement of Sonatina in a, 1961) - for 3 cellos (1992)

Sound documents and composition examples

In April 1984, Erich Robert Sorge presented himself in a self-portrait as part of the Sudeten German Music Days; As part of these events, two works were premiered and audio files with examples were played. The files on Wikipedia are private recordings of this event. The music examples give an impression of Sorge's compositions, his performance is a (even if subjectively colored) document of the times.

File content
Part 1/8
 Introduction to the lecture
Part 2/8
 1st world premiere of 'Zwitschermusik (1984)'
Part 3/8
 2. Childhood & Displacement
Part 4/8
 3. Training
Part 5/8
 4th premiere of the 'Sonatina for 3 Violins (1961)'
Part 6/8
 5. Cologne, Remscheid, Münster
Part 7/8
 6. Playback of a tape recording of 'Veni Creator Spiritus (1962)'
Part 8/8
 7. In school service
1st example
 Music: Concertino 'Te Deum Laudamus (1968)', recording of the performance on September 28, 1987
2nd example
 Music: 'Exaudi (1970)'
3rd example
 Music: 'Bartholomäusmarsch (1985)'

The pictorial work

Sorge has also been working graphically / pictorially since the late 1950s. In the mostly abstract works, he designs the surface (or the space), which he relates to one another using shapes and colors, as in a musical composition. The oeuvre can be grouped both in terms of time and in terms of the materials used, essentially it is:

  • Carving (1958–1960)
  • Linoprints (1960–1964)
  • Tin paintings (1968–1977)
  • Watercolors (1968–1976)
  • Line drawings (1974)
  • Wood Pictures (1998-2001)
  • Postcard-sized caricatures (1998)
  • Other works and painted objects of daily use

While the wooden pictures can be seen as a permanent exhibition in the rooms of the Sudeten German Music Institute, the other pictures are owned by the family, and Hochseekuh-Verlag documents the work and its whereabouts.

Sound carrier

  • My darling comes from far away - folk songs from Silesia, Bohemia and Moravia (LP, Laumann Verlag 1987)
  • Music for organ and horn in the Kaufungen collegiate church (CD, Black Cat Classics, 1995)
  • Organ music for Pentecost from Münster Cathedral (CD, Vox Humana 1999)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Worry, Erich Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German church musician and composer
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Petersdorf bei Jägerndorf , Czechoslovakia
DATE OF DEATH April 18, 2002
Place of death Steinfurt