Erich Schmidt (church musician)

Erich Schmidt (born August 6, 1910 in Metz ; † June 8, 2005 in Radebeul ) was a German church musician .

Live and act

Erich Schmidt was born in Metz in 1910. He received his first musical training as a member and first prefect of the Thomanerchor under Karl Straube . He also studied psychology , philosophy, German and theology in Leipzig . Schmidt received his doctorate in 1939 as a psychologist with a thesis on the "structure of rhythmic shapes".

After his time as a soldier in World War II, Erich Schmidt became involved as a choirmaster in Holzhausen near Leipzig in 1945 . Then he worked from 1950 to 1980 as cathedral choirmaster at Meißner Cathedral . There he reorganized the cathedral choir and was the founder of the Meißner Kantorei in 1961 . Another field of activity was the musical work at the newly founded Evangelical Academy in Meissen and the management of numerous singing weeks.

From 1952 to 1986 Schmidt was a lecturer in choral conducting and until 1983 deputy director at the church music school of the Evangelical Lutheran regional church in Dresden (today the University of Church Music Dresden ). In the latter position, he headed the institute for two longer vacancies.

With the Meissen Kantorei in 1961 he gave world premieres of works by the composers Volker Bräutigam ( Whitsun story , Three Psalms ), Herbert Gadsch (Missa de angelis) , Kurt Hessenberg (The Parable of the Great Supper) , Wolfgang Hufschmidt ( Beatitudes , Kontrafaktur II ) and Manfred Weiss (triptych) . Dedicatee is he of Jörg Herchets 1978 incurred Bußkantate (for soprano, alto, baritone, mixed choir, percussion, harp and organ on the text by Jürg Milbradt).

In 1968, despite major political difficulties, he led the performance of the Meissner Te Deum, composed for the occasion by Wolfgang Hufschmidt based on texts by Martin Luther and Günter Grass , with Hartmut Haenchen as the baritone , in the Meissen Cathedral for the 1000th anniversary of the Meissen Diocese . A second performance, also as part of the Saxon State Church Congress in 1968, took place on May 26th in Dresden's Martin Luther Church .

The establishment of the Meissner Kantorei , directed by Erich Schmidt until 1980, was related to the performance of Willy Burkhard's composition Das Ezzolied . The numerous contemporary works, most of which he performed for the first time in the GDR, include those by Günter Bialas , Benjamin Britten , Paul Constantinescu , Johann Nepomuk David , Petr Eben , Bengt Hambraeus , Arthur Honegger , Klaus Huber , Charles Ives , Rudolf Kelterborn , Frank Martin , Günter Raphael and Siegfried Reda .

As an organist , for example, he performed Anton Schoendlinger's Toccata and Fugue for organ in 1956 .

Erich Schmidt was married to Annemarie Schmidt born in 1940. Becker († 2003) and father of the harpsichord maker and musical instrument restorer Martin-Christian Schmidt (1946–2000). Since his retirement in 1980 he lived in Radebeul, where he died in 2005 at the age of 94.

Appreciation

“Erich Schmidt has rendered outstanding services to the development and propagation of contemporary church music. In the second half of the 20th century, his achievements made him one of the most important personalities in Saxon church music. "

"His main goal was to make singing a liberating, healing, joyful expression of spiritual depth and to bring new music to life in the church."

“Last but not least, it was the personality of Dr. Erich Schmidts, who attracted many young people and was able to gather around them. Great spiritual values, profound philosophical-theological worldview and a firm foundation in the Christian faith characterize him. "

Awards

• 1981: Straube plaque from the Association of Protestant Church Musicians in Germany
• 1998: Saxon Order of Merit

Sound recordings

• Wolfgang Hufschmidt: Meissner Te Deum. Recordings of the first performance in 1968 (with Barbara Hoene, (soprano), Hartmut Haenchen (baritone), Meißner Kantorei, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig , Erich Schmidt (conductor)) and the re-performance in 1997 (with Antje Bitterlich (soprano), Martin Lucaß (baritone), choir and orchestra as well as vocal and instrumental soloists from the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen, Hartmut Haenchen (conductor)). SACD. Cybele, 2003.

Fonts

• About building rhythmic shapes. Dissertation. CH Beck , Munich 1939.
• Meissen Cathedral and the musica sacra - Cathedral Cantor Erich Schmidt: “The call to Meissen”. In: Triangle. Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Halle 1997, ISSN  1432-9476 , pp. 20-29 (excerpt from Erich Schmidt's vita, on the occasion of the re-performance of the Meissner Teeum in October 1997).

literature

• Christfried Brödel : Dr. Erich Schmidt, August 6, 1910–6 June 2005. In: Music in Saxony. Saxon Music Council , Dresden 2005, p. 9.
• Christfried Brödel: On the 90th birthday of Dr. Erich Schmidt. In: Der Sonntag - weekly newspaper for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony. Leipzig August 2000.
• Wolf Dähne: Singing as the breath of the soul - Dr. Erich Schmidt on his 85th birthday. In: Der Sonntag - weekly newspaper for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony. No. 31, Leipzig 1995.
• Wolf Dähne: Memories of Erich Schmidt. In: Forum Kirchenmusik , November / December 2005. Strube, Munich 2005.
• Helmut Werkle: Cathedral Cantor Erich Schmidt in Meißen for his seventieth birthday. In: Musik und Kirche , No. 50, 1980, pp. 280–281.

Web links

• Erich Schmidt in the Saxon State Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Choir anniversary. 80 years and still so active! (PDF; 839 kB) on the website of the Evangelical Lutheran parish in Holzhausen, accessed on October 24, 2011.
2. ^ History ( memento of September 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the University of Church Music, accessed on October 24, 2011.
3. ↑ Christfried Brödel: Meißner Kantorei - world premieres and first performances 1961–1981.
4. ↑ In the online catalog ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of Edition Peters , accessed on October 25, 2011.  
5. ↑ Wolfgang Hufschmidt: Encounter in Meißen (with repetition). In Hartmut Haenchen 60 - Festschrift for the 60th birthday. Published by the staff of the Dresden Music Festival, printing and publishing company Christoph Hille, Dresden 2003, p. 27, para. 4. Online (PDF; 3.6 MB) on Hartmut Haenchen's website, accessed on February 3, 2016.
6. ^ Gerhard Müller: Wolfgang Hufschmidt: Meissner Tedeum (1968). ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Triangle, program journal of the MDR. October 1997, p. 32. Quoted from the Musikforum website at Schott Music , accessed on October 24, 2011. 
7. ↑ Barbara Lieberwerth: “Should I praise the chaos?” A German-German dialogue composition after 30 years. In. Neue Musikzeitung (NMZ) 11/97, accessed on October 24, 2011.
8. ^ Anselm Weyer: Günter Grass and the music. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-3-631-55593-4 , p. 102.
9. ^ Peter Krause: Meissen. In music past and present . Sachteil Volume 6, p. 5; and list by Chr. Brödel (see above).
10. ^ Richard Witsch: Anton Schoendlinger - A Danube Swabian composer in Germany. Gehann-Musik-Verlag, Kludenbach 2003, ISBN 3-927293-25-3 , p. 205.
11. ↑ Medal bearer Dr. Erich Schmidt. ( Memento from April 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) On the Saxony website yesterday and today of the Saxon State Chancellery , accessed on October 24, 2011.
12. ↑ Christfried Brödel: On the 90th birthday of Dr. Erich Schmidt. In: Der Sonntag - weekly newspaper for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony. Leipzig 2000.
13. ↑ Christfried Brödel: Contemporary church music in the Dresden area - The Meißner Kantorei 1961. In: Matthias Herrmann (ed.): The Dresden church music in the 19th and 20th centuries. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 1998 (= series of publications Music in Dresden of the Academy of Music "Carl Maria von Weber" Dresden, Volume 3), pp. 501–506.
14. ↑ Medal bearer Dr. Erich Schmidt. ( Memento from April 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) On the Saxony website yesterday and today of the Saxon State Chancellery, accessed on October 24, 2011.
15. ↑ Günter Grass interprets the "Te Deum". Review at Klassik.com on July 4, 2009, accessed October 25, 2011.