Franz Biebl

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Franz Xaver Biebl (born September 1, 1906 in Pursruck , Upper Palatinate , † October 2, 2001 in Munich ) was a German composer , mainly of choral music .

Life

Biebl attended the humanistic high school in Amberg from 1916 to 1925 . From 1926 he studied composition and conducting at the Munich Music Academy , with Joseph Haas among others . During his studies he became a member of the AGV Munich . In 1932 he became choir director at the Munich- Thalkirchen parish church , and in 1939 lecturer in music theory and choral singing at the Mozarteum Music Academy and Youth Music School in Salzburg . In the same year he married.

In 1943 he was called up for military service during World War II . In 1944 he got into Italy in American captivity , he largely in Fort Custer in Michigan spent and from which he was released 1946th

In America, Franz Biebl made the acquaintance of American folk songs, gospels and spirituals . However, the arrangements available at the time were too difficult for amateur choirs, which led him to write simpler, yet effective sentences.

After his return to Germany in 1947 he became choir director at the parish church in Fürstenfeldbruck . From 1949 he worked again for the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation , as he did before the war . In 1959 he was given the choral department there, which he headed until his retirement in 1971. He mainly devoted himself to promoting amateur choirs. For his services in this area he was awarded the Nordgau Culture Prize of the city of Amberg in 1974; In 1976 he also received the East Bavarian Culture Prize .

In 2001 Franz Biebl died after a short illness. He was buried in the forest cemetery in the Solln district of Munich next to his wife Ricarda, who died in February 2000.

Works

The focus of Franz Biebl's musical work is on a cappella choir music, especially folk songs . He always attached great importance to simplicity, so that his compositions and movements can also be sung by laypeople . Stylistically, Biebl, although he lived in the 20th century , is more likely to be assigned to Romanticism , which is in the tradition of Friedrich Silcher and similar composers.

Biebl published around 50 arrangements of the aforementioned American gospels and spirituals alone. Most of the compositions, however, are German folk songs in the broader sense, both arrangements of existing pieces and completely new settings of foreign and own texts. During the Third Reich , Biebl also set National Socialist marching songs to music ( The drum beats and smashes (1940), The columns move towards the enemy (1940), Here we are today, where we are tomorrow (1942), etc.). But these form only a small part of his work: In total, Biebl wrote hundreds of pieces on all subject areas of human life, both for male choir and for mixed choir. Thanks to their simplicity and accessibility, Biebl's compositions quickly became very popular and found their way into the repertoire of most amateur choirs in German-speaking countries, but also of professional ensembles such as the Regensburger Domspatzen or the Maulbronn Chamber Choir .

His best-known work is an Ave Maria , which he originally wrote in 1964 for male choir and only later arranged for mixed choir. It was the 1970 vocal ensemble of Cornell University had met that Biebl from a concert tour of Germany in Frankfurt, premiered in the United States and was here soon became very popular, particularly by including it in the repertoire of the professional vocal ensemble Chanticleer .

literature

  • Matthew Oltman: The Iconic One-Hit Wonder: The History and Reception of Franz Biebl's Ave Maria. DMA Thesis, University of Nebraska 2017 ( digitized version )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Association of Alter SVer (VASV): Address book and Vademecum. Ludwigshafen am Rhein 1959, p. 24.
  2. ↑ See Franz Biebl's list of works at deutscheslied.com
personal data
SURNAME Biebl, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Biebl, Franz Xaver
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Pursruck
DATE OF DEATH October 2, 2001
Place of death Munich