Ferdinand Samuel Laur

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Portrait from a card for the 75th anniversary of the Basler Gesangverein

Ferdinand Samuel Laur (born February 22, 1791 in Markdorf on Lake Constance; † July 2, 1854 in Egelshofen near Kreuzlingen ) was a Baden-Swiss composer, conductor, choir director and music teacher who founded the Basler Gesangverein in 1824 . Since 1967 the melody of Laur's choral song Freiheit has been used as the national anthem of the Kingdom of Lesotho .

Life

Training and first activities

Ferdinand Laur was born as the son of Maximilian Martin Laur, council clerk in Markdorf, and Maria Therese Laur (née Guldin) on February 22, 1791 in Markdorf on Lake Constance. He received his pedagogical training at the teachers' seminars in Meersburg and Karlsruhe. After a year at the educational institute in Gottstatt near Biel (Canton Bern) in Switzerland, he taught music and singing from 1810 to 1820 at the Hofwyl educational institute near Bern, which was directed by the Swiss pedagogue Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg . In addition to his own teaching activities, he studied instrumental playing and orchestral conducting.

Main creative time in Basel

In 1820 Laur was appointed to Basel. There he taught singing at the grammar school and the daughter school founded in 1780 and founded the Basler Gesangverein in 1824. As the first mixed choir in Switzerland, it dedicated itself to the performance of great choral works such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem (performance: 1827) or Joseph Haydn's creation (performance: 1828).

In 1826 Laur received citizenship of the city of Basel and married Maria Laur, b. Zäslin (born March 29, 1807, † August 7, 1866), with whom he had six children.

From 1828 to 1830 Laur gave lectures on music theory with a focus on singing and harmony at the University of Basel and founded the university practice choir as a forerunner of the academic men's choir based in the Zofinger Association , in which primarily sociable and native student songs were maintained. In 1836 Laur was appointed director of the Basler Konzertgesellschaft, which aimed to spread instrumental music.

Federal Music Festival 1840

The highlight of Laur's work was the organization and musical direction of the Swiss Federal Music Festival in Basel in 1840. On the occasion of this festival, with the participation of 570 musicians, he conducted Georg Friedrich Handel's oratorio Samson , the 2nd symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven and Psalm No. 42 by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. In the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , founded by Robert Schumann in Leipzig in 1834, the festival was reported in detail:

“Great, appropriate preparations had been made for this ceremony and, since the beginning of the year, the difficult oratorio 'Samson' by Handel and Mendelssohn Bartholdy's 42nd Psal under the direction of our well-deserved Mr. Ferdin. Laur has been rehearsed. On Monday the 6th the whole city was on the move to watch [...] the arrival of the Zurich, St. Gallen and Graubündtner festival guests who came down the Rhine in several ships. […] Tuesday the 7th, in the afternoon from 3 to around 8 o'clock, there was a big rehearsal. Although this was the only occasion that gave the singers and artists from different regions the opportunity to perform together before the main performance itself, and one could easily have assumed that those who were not yet used to working together would only gradually come together, it was still going Here everything is so pure and tactful that this surprising circumstance can only be ascribed to the excellent management of Mr. Laur, who had built a solid foundation for himself through restless zeal in the local choir and orchestra. "

retreat

A year before the music festival, Ernst Reiter succeeded Laur as director of the concert company, and in 1845 he also took over the management of the choir. In 1846 Laur ended his engagement with the academic men's choir, was relieved of his teaching position and retired at his own request. The family moved to Egelshofen near Kreuzlingen, where Laur died on July 2, 1854.

Works

General

Laursche melody of the Lesothic national anthem in the version "Des Lebens Güter" from the songbook for Swiss youth from 1825

Laur's compositional oeuvre primarily comprises secular and sacred choral songs that arose in the context of his various activities: initially two collections of songs for school use and a compilation of patriotic songs were published. In the course of his activities around the academic university choir, Laur published a new edition of the Zofingerliederbuch with singing styles for three male voices in 1825. In addition to some art songs, a collection of canons has appeared. Compositions by Laur can be found in countless German-language as well as French song collections and choir books.

National Anthem of Lesotho

National anthem of Lesotho in the typical tonic-sol-fa notation, printed in "Lipina tsa Likolo tse Phahameng" ("Songs for School"), here in a print from 1918

Until Lesotho gained independence from Great Britain in 1966, God save the King / the Queen was the country's national anthem. A year later - in 1967 - a version of Laur's three-part song "Freiheit" (text: Friedrich Schlegel) replaced the British anthem and has been the official state song since then as " Lesotho Fatse La Bontata Rona ". François Coillard (born July 17, 1834 in Asnière-sur-Seine, France, † May 27, 1904 in Lealui, Zambia), a French missionary of the Société des missions évangéliques de Paris (SMEP), brought the song to Lesotho in 1879. He wrote a new text in Sesotho, whereupon the song appeared under the title "Lesotho" in the mission song book Lipina tsa Likolo tse Phahameng in 1870. The Laursche Lied with a new text in the national language spread rapidly, developed into a folk song and was ultimately designated as the national anthem.

Others

Laur was the grandfather of Ernst Ferdinand Laur (* March 27, 1871; † May 30, 1964), agronomist and long-time president of the Swiss Farmers' Association.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Albert Burckhardt and Rudolf Wackernagel : Basler Jahrbuch 1890 . C. Detloffs Buchhandlung, Basel 1890, p. 94.
  2. ^ Hermann Mendel: Musical Conversations Lexicon. An encyclopedia of the entire musical sciences . Sixth volume. Robert Oppenheim, Berlin 1876, p. 263: https://archive.org/stream/musikalischesco09reisgoog#page/n270/mode/2up .
  3. ^ Albert Burckhardt and Rudolf Wackernagel: Basler Jahrbuch 1890 . C. Detloffs Buchhandlung, Basel 1890, p. 95.
  4. ^ Rudolf Thommen: Festschrift to celebrate the centenary of the Basler Gesangverein 1824–1924 , Basel 1924. P. 2 and P. 19.
  5. ^ Dora Iselin: Musicology at the Swiss Universities . In: Mitteilungen der Internationale Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft 1 (1929), pp. 31–32.
  6. ^ [Without author]: Swiss Music Festival in Basel from July 6th to 9th . In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 13 (1840), pp. 59–60 ( full review , pp. 59 f. And 67 f.
  7. ↑ Ferdinand Laur: 24 two-part religious songs in very easy and comprehensible melodies for elementary schools . Basel without a year [around 1820?]; Ferdinand Laur: 50 two-part chants in the most common major and minor keys for schools and high schools . Basel without a year [around 1830?]; Ferdinand Laur (Ed.): Patriotic songs to celebrate August 26th as the anniversary of the Battle of St. Jacob . H. Bienz Sohn, Basel 1824.
  8. ↑ Zofinger Associations of Swiss Students (Ed.): Songs for Swiss Youth. Second edition. With singing styles for three male voices . CA Jenni, Bern 1825.
  9. ^ Ferdinand Laur: Spring song . Bienz Sohn, Basel undated
  10. ^ Ferdinand Laur: Kreisgesänge for three equal voices . Bienz Sohn, Basel undated
  11. ↑ For example in: Music Commission of the Federal Singers ' Booklet in Olten (Ed.): General song collection of the Federal Singers' Association. Second issue . RJ Wuss, Bern 1860. Without publisher [Borrani]: Mélodéon. Recueil de chants popular anciens et nouveaux a une ou plusieurs voix, pour les écoles et les familles . Without a place, without a year [Paris 1851?]: Mélodéon
  12. ↑ Albert Brutsch: From Work Song to National Anthem . In: Lesotho. Notes and Records 9 (1970/1971), p. 8.
personal data
SURNAME Laur, Ferdinand Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Baden-Swiss composer, conductor, choir director and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1791
PLACE OF BIRTH Markdorf on Lake Constance
DATE OF DEATH July 2, 1854
Place of death Egelshofen near Kreuzlingen