Felix Knubben

Felix Knubben (born September 11, 1880 in Aachen , † January 24, 1934 in Bad Ems ) was a German church musician and composer .

Life

Knubben grew up in Aachen as the son of the organist and choirmaster of the St. Paul's Church in Aachen, Franz Knubben, from whom he also received his first piano and organ playing lessons. Karl Simoneit, organist in St. Jakob , continued teaching him from 1897 to 1899 when his own father was already very weak due to illness. At this time Knubben had to take over the organist service for his father regularly in St. Paul, an office that was completely entrusted to him in 1906, two years before his father's death. Knubben's mother, Katharina, had died in 1893.

From 1906 onwards, Knubben was a private student of the then city music director Eberhard Schwickerath , who wrote about Knubben in a certificate:

“He has developed his technique to a very considerable level, at the same time developing taste and a sense of style to a high level. I cannot praise enough the seriousness with which Mr. Knubben devoted himself to his studies. "

- quoted from: Lothar Knubben: "Felix Knubben (1880–1934), church musician and composer" In: Hohenzollerische Heimat, magazine of the Hohenzollerisches Geschichtsverein, 59th year, issue 2/2009

In 1913, Knubben was appointed organist at the Beuron Archabbey as the successor to Ernest von Werra. Associated with the position of organist was teaching for organ, piano, theory and choral singing at the Beuron church music school. Knubben stayed in Beuron until the church music school closed in 1919. During this time he also wrote his first compositional works and Knubben gave several concerts during this time. In 1919 Knubben returned to Aachen to the Church of St. Paul. From now on there were more concerts and performances of his works. Knubben is said to have always played all the works by heart, a fact which is said to have brought him the "highest recognition" of Prince Wilhelm von Hohenzollern after a concert in Sigmaringen .

In Aachen he continued to lead several choirs and also gave lessons. His most famous student was probably the baritone Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender . In 1922 and 1923 he appeared twice as organist at the Aachen symphony concerts under the direction of Peter Raabe .

Knubben married Theresia Blattner in Gengenbach in 1927 . He had met the woman, with whom he would later have three children, three years earlier on a vacation in Beuron . Seven years later, in January 1934, Knubben died completely unexpectedly during a stay in Bad Ems.

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During his time in Beuron, Knubben composed the first six larger compositions, which were published by the publishing house of the Beuron Art School. It was Christian choral music. The mass in honor of St. Jude Thaddäus, designated as op. 5, became particularly well known. The work, which premiered on October 5, 1920 in Aachen, received a lot of attention in the local press and in the following years was performed first in Aachen, but later in the entire Rhenish region, as well as in Belgium and Holland, and broadcast several times on the radio.

His greatest work is the Missa Media Vita for baritone, solo quartet, double choir and organ , written in the early 1920s . At the world premiere on January 22, 1924 in Aachen with over 300 singers, the later Kreuzkantor Rudolf Mauersberger took over the organist role . Alfred Kase sang the baritone solo.

When the Paulskirche in Aachen was destroyed in the Second World War, many of Knubben's notes were lost. Among other things, there was only one original of the Missa Media Vita left, which was only printed again in the 1980s and performed in Aachen and Wuppertal in 1997. Five years later, Knubben's music returned to his previous sphere of activity in southern Germany, when the Missa Media Vita was first performed in a benefit concert in Sigmaringen in 2002 and finally the Judas Thaddäus Mass in the Beuron Abbey Church in 2007 under the direction of Knubben's grandson, the church music director Christian Schultze, rang out.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stefan Blanz, Peter Häger, Jakobus Kaffanke OSB (ed.): “Beuroner Forum Edition 2011 - Cultural, Monastic and Liturgical Life in the Archabbey of St. Martin” p. 75. ISBN 978-3-643-11209-5

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• Lothar Knubben: "Felix Knubben (1880–1934), church musician and composer" In: Hohenzollerische Heimat, magazine of the Hohenzollerisches Geschichtsverein, 59th year, issue 2/2009