Ernst Häublein

Ernst Häublein (1939)

Ernst Häublein (born August 5, 1911 in Nuremberg , † March 10, 1971 in Erlangen ) was a German composer and music teacher .

Life

Ernst Häublein was born as the second son of the fitter Eberhard Häublein and his wife Rosine, nee. Pope born. The family came from a rural background in Upper Franconia . As a teenager, Ernst Häublein showed a keen interest in concerts and opera performances as well as in house music . After attending Kreisrealschule III (the later Martin-Behaim-Gymnasium ), he passed the Abitur in 1930 at the Alte Oberrealschule , today's Hans-Sachs-Gymnasium in Nuremberg .

Häublein received his first music lessons in his hometown from Otto Döbereiner (1890–1969), who became his lifelong mentor . He completed his training at the Nuremberg and Würzburg Conservatoires . In Würzburg he was a student of Hermann Zilcher . On January 25, 1934, Zilcher conducted the world premiere of Häublein's Chamber Symphony in A minor (Opus 1) . In 1936 Häublein got a job as a music teacher at the advanced school (the later Wolfram-von-Eschenbach-Gymnasium in Schwabach ), where he worked as a high school professor and specialist music supervisor until his death . Häublein was regarded as a highly committed, enthusiastic, methodically well-versed, multi-faceted educator and he looked after his students with impressive authenticity, humor, humanity and empathy. As part of the school, Häublein performed a total of five Singspiele (texts mostly by Johannes Geyer) and three stage music (see catalog of works). Many of his compositions grew out of teaching practice.

On April 29, 1939, Ernst Häublein married the school musician and piano teacher Rosina Maria Strauss (1912–1990) from Schweinfurt. They had three children: Hans (* 1940, principal cellist of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra ), Ernst (* 1942, high school teacher) and Maria Barbara (* 1950, elementary school teacher ).

In September 1940, Häublein was drafted into the Wehrmacht and served as a radio operator in the Balkans , southern Russia and France . He later referred to this time as his "five lost years".

In 1946 he founded the Schwabach Chamber Choir , which he also directed afterwards. A lively artist friendship linked Häublein with his composer colleague Armin Knab , who lived in Kitzingen until his death in 1951 . Häublein directed the world premiere of Knab's Das Gesegnete Jahr on July 12, 1947. Häublein was very productive in getting ideas for his own works from the works of Hugo Distler and Paul Hindemith, among others .

Ernst Häublein fell ill in the 1960s. On March 10, 1971, the practicing Protestant Christian succumbed to his incurable disease in the Erlangen University Hospital .

plant

Ernst Häublein's oeuvre comprises 42 works as well as some works without an opus number . The composer wrote eight performance and stage music, a number of instrumental works, solo songs on texts by Matthias Claudius ( alto ), Georg Trakl ( soprano ) and Josef Weinheber ( mezzo-soprano ), sacred choral works, church music in the broader sense as well as approx. 130  folk song settings and approx. 60  canons . During Häublein's lifetime, his works received sustained support from his teacher Otto Döbereiner and his Nuremberg Madrigal Choir . The Schweinfurt church musicians Raimund Böhm, Martin Seiwert with the Heilig-Geist Choir , Andrea Balzer and the Erlangen Joachim Adamczewski with his Vocanta choir also took on Häublein's works. The complete work is accessible in the city ​​archive of the city of Nuremberg.

In his “self-portrayal”, Häublein sketched his compositional commitment. He attached importance to "... clear subject matter, clear design and polyphonic coherence of the sentence structure" . He paid special attention to recognizable and singing melodies. In multi-part works, each individual part should represent a coherent, independent melody, if possible. The composer always found aspects of sound and instrumentation stimulating. He believed that "... the possibilities of tonality can hardly be exhausted ..." . He followed the musical tendencies of his time very carefully, but did not want to commit himself to systems. Although he also wrote serial music , he felt - besides the old masters - more "... drawn to P. Hindemith , B. Bartok and I. Stravinsky (also Carl Orff ) than to Schoenberg's direction." Hugo Distler was the most significant for him "... the genius of modern choral music." Häublein emphasized that "... the degree of invention and the power of the statement ..." was particularly important to him.

Häublein's tonal language can be considered original, with a clearly recognizable, characteristic profile. Outstanding features are technical security, transparent and coherent themes and structures as well as well-thought-out architecture. He worked through his material with concentrated motive work, did not allow any arbitrariness, aimed at transparent typesetting and polyphonic structures (imitation, fugato passages, etc.). He knew how to combine song-like and memorable melodies with natural flow. There is also a dedicated melos in twelve-tone works (for example in the organ prelude, Down is the Sunshine ) . Häublein's works have a powerful habitus, gripping motor skills and rhythmic vitality, but also remarkable tenderness and occasional melancholy, even mystical inwardness. Many works impress with a variety of compositional techniques (cf. the 10 organ choirs) and a pronounced joy in playing (cf. the string trios, the house concert).

Characterization of selected works by Häubleins

• Opus 9 ( summer and winter choir cycle ) is a “heated battle dialogue”, a “miniature choir opera” between female and male voices.
• Opus 11 ( Eight Marienlieder ) are expressive, popular and intimate soprano songs.
• Opus 17/18 ( Shout to God, all lands ). This motet is a very vocal work full of “Distler tension”.
• Opus 34 (Motet One Carrying Another's Burden ) is a mature, "impressive composition".
• Opus 15 ( play music for an old Christmas call ) and Opus 16 ( Easter music for string trio) are fresh trios suitable for amateur ensembles with virtuoso passages for the viola (see also Opus 30, Small House Concert ).
• Opus 19 ( Sacred Concerto for Soprano, Viola and Organ , Psalm 57) is Häublein's most impressive, “intensely dramatic work”, a “fervent prayer”.
• Opus 21 ( Concertino for violin and orchestra ) was premiered by Ruth Meister-Thauer and the Franconian State Orchestra under Max Loy . It is a concert full of verve , agogic , brilliance, ingenious thematic work through as well as an "extremely colorful palette of the orchestra."
• Opus 33 ( Ten Preludes for Organ with Choral Movements for Organ or Choir). It impresses with "concentrated motive work" and the use of diverse techniques, for example canonical forms , bitonality in the Phrygian church mode ( Alone to you ), a dance melody in the trio style, ostinato forms and twelve-tone passages with a concertante- toccata-like character ( Verleih uns Frieden ) .
• Opus 41 ( Lied Mass for 4-part mixed choir ) was premiered in 1972 by Gottfried Wolters . Eckhardt van den Hoogen describes it as Häublein's main work. It is a delightful dialogue between old German chorales and the Latin fair texts.
• The song cycles (Opus 2: Claudius-Lieder for alto; Opus 22: Trakl-Lieder for soprano; Opus 36: Weinhaber-Lieder for mezzo-soprano) are decidedly modern, but always vocal, reflexive solo songs with sensitive text interpretation and variable, subtle accompaniment.

Works (selection)

Most of Häublein's works were published posthumously .

• Song mass. Based on German liturgical chants for mixed choir. Möseler-Verlag , Wolfenbüttel 1972, OCLC 165668349 .
• A small house concert. For recorder in C (soprano) string trio a. Harpsichord (piano). in: house music. 106. Möseler-Verlag, Wolfenbüttel 1973, OCLC 165668317 .

Recordings / sound carriers

• Three chorale preludes , interpreter: Jürgen Roßmeißl (recording from 1971), on CD 2 of the double CD Musik in Nürnberg from the time of A. Dürer to the present of the Colosseum label (COL 9014-2.2), published in 2000.
• Motets: One carries the other's burden and cheers God, all lands , interpreter: Kammerchor Erlanger Grillen , conductor: Joachim Adamczewski (recording from 2003), on the CD Da pacem. Sacred choral music by Franconian composers of the same - now called Vocanta - choir.

Web links

Commons : Ernst Häublein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Tongues as sharp as swords - music for the passion on mainpost.de
• Gloria in excelsis Deo - Honor to God alone musicanet.org

Sources and individual references

1. ↑ Annual reports of the Wolfram-von-Eschenbach-Gymnasium Schwabach 1971, 1976 and 1981
2. ↑ Klaus Schultz: Schwabacher Tagblatt from 14./15. March 1981 and August 5, 2011
3. ↑ The WEG honors Ernst Häublein in the Schwabacher Tagblatt of June 21, 2012
4. ↑ Music lived: Ernst Häublein ( Memento from January 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) schwabach.de (PDF, p. 15)
5. ↑ Quotations are taken from the composer's "Self-Presentation" on August 4, 1969.
6. ↑ Otto Döbereiner in the Schwabacher Tagblatt from May 20, 1959
7. ↑ FON / AV, 8 o'clock sheet of October 27, 1959 and Nürnberger Zeitung of October 6, 1971
8. ↑ www.vocanta.de ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2012 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. , accessed November 1, 2015  
9. ↑ Elke Tober-Vogt in the Schweinfurter Tagblatt of March 10, 2015, page 27
10. ↑ Elke Tober-Vogt in the Schweinfurter Tagblatt from March 19, 2013
11. ^ Theo Kretschmar in the Nürnberger Zeitung of June 13, 1955
12. ^ Rudolf Stöckel in the Nürnberger Nachrichten of October 26, 1959
13. ↑ Eckhardt van den Hoogen: Text to the booklet of the double CD Music in Nuremberg from the time of A. Dürer to the present , page 20
14. ↑ Knut Gramß in: Intervalle 6 , amj-Information, December 1972 / January 1973, pp. 54-55.
15. ^ Vocanta Choir ( Memento from February 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF).

• Biographical details according to the "materials on Ernst Häublein" in the city archive of the city of Nuremberg, No. StadtAN E 10/152. There is a “self-portrayal” of the composer from August 4, 1969.
• Regarding the biographical details cf. Eckhardt van den Hoogen: Text to the booklet of the double CD music in Nuremberg from the time of A. Dürer to the present , COL 9014 - 2.2., 2000
• see also Oskar Stollberg: Schwabach in the history of music. Pp. 265-267; in: 600 years of the city of Schwabach 1371–1971. Festschrift for the 600 year celebration of the city of Schwabach.