Franz Eckert (composer)

Cover draft by Curt Adolph Netto for the score of the Japanese national anthem edited by Franz Eckert

Franz Eckert (born April 5, 1852 in Neurode , Glatz district , province of Silesia ; † August 6, 1916 in Keijō , former Japanese Empire , now South Korea ) was a German composer and, among other things, the creator of the western version of the Japanese national anthem Kimi Ga Yo as well the Korean hymn Daehan jeguk Aegukga .

Time in Germany

Franz Eckert was born the son of a court clerk. He attended various schools and excelled particularly in music . He graduated from the Conservatoire in Breslau and Dresden . He then became a military musician in Neisse . During that time, he received a call to Wilhelmshaven , where he Marine - conductor should be. His main instrument was the oboe. Since the German administration was looking for a musician for the Japanese Navy , Franz Eckert was made available. In 1879 he arrived in Tokyo .

Working in Japan

Western music was almost unknown in Japan at the time. Eckert did pioneering work by not only teaching foreign instruments , but also western melodies and harmonies . As of the spring of 1880 Eckert introduced German military music as a naval bandmaster . From 1883 to 1886 Eckert worked in the Ministry of Education for the music examination committee in the field of brass and string music.

In March 1888, he moved to the Classical Music Department of the Imperial House and Court Ministry, where he got to know the ceremonial music of Japan. Between 1892 and 1894 he worked part-time as a teacher for German military music with the military band in Toyama . It was around this time that he also founded the Tokyo Imperial Household Orchestra . The most important task for him at that time was the publication of the songbook for Japanese elementary schools , the 2nd and 3rd volumes of which he was responsible for.

In 1897 Eckert composed the song Kanashimi no kiwami (Immeasurable Pain) on the occasion of the funeral of the Empressmother Eisho Kotaigo , which has been played on such occasions at the Japanese court since then .

In 1880, Franz Eckert was asked by the Japanese Navy Ministry for help in developing a national anthem that should be internationally acceptable and playable at sea. Eckert decided among several suggestions for a melody presumably composed by Oku Yoshiisa and Hayashi Hirosue but authorized by Hayashi Hiromori in the gagaku key "ichikotsu-rissen", which roughly corresponds to the Doric mode of the western church keys. He harmonized these and orchestrated them for western military bands. This setting of the old verses Kimi Ga Yo was performed for the first time on November 3rd on the occasion of the birthday of Meiji-Tennō in the imperial palace . Eckert's compatriot, the metallurgist Curt Adolph Netto (1847–1909) designed the cover sheet for the notes presented on the occasion . Eight years later, the score was published by the Navy Department and made popular.

Eckert certainly has great merit in not only making German songs and German music known in Japan, but also making them popular. In contrast to Germany, concerts by the Berliner Philharmoniker are now broadcast live to Japan.

Return to Germany

On March 31, 1899, Eckert resigned for health reasons and went to Germany, where he was appointed Royal Prussian Music Director shortly after his arrival.

Working in Korea

Since the 1880s, efforts were made in Korea to give the emperor's court a musical band based on Western models. The trigger may have been a performance by the German naval band on November 26, 1883, which came to Korea with the corvette Hertha . Franz Eckert was also noticed in Korea due to his many years of successful work in Japan. And so he received a call to Korea - mediated by the German representative in Seoul , Heinrich Weipert - to set up a court orchestra there and train musicians on European instruments . Eckert's health had improved again, so that on February 19, 1901, he followed the call to Korea.

His duties in Korea were comparable to those in Japan. Even in the long hermetically sealed Empire of Korea, no Western music was known. However, Eckert was able to fall back on his experience in Japan in order to plan and carry out the necessary basic work. He soon set up a small court orchestra with two dozen musicians, which he increased to 70 members in the following years.

The chapel was a great success. She not only performed regularly at court, but also made music every Thursday in the Pagoda Park. The foreigners residing in Seoul gratefully took up the opportunity to hear works by Eckert that they had composed themselves, as well as Richard Wagner's overtures .

Right from the start of his work in Seoul, Eckert composed or arranged a Korean national anthem Daehan jeguk Aegukga , which was based on the melody of a Korean folk song transcribed by Homer Hulbert, following a government commission. It was probably premiered on January 1, 1902. In December Eckert subsequently received by Emperor Gojong the Merit Tai keuk awarded the third class. However, this Korean national anthem was replaced by the Japanese one after Korea's incorporation into the Japanese Empire in 1910, the arrangement of which came from Franz Eckert.

Today 's North Korean national anthem was created by the North Korean composer Kim Wŏn'gyun (1917–2002). Today 's South Korean national anthem is a work by the South Korean composer Ahn Iktae (1905–1965).

First World War

During the First World War , the means were limited, so that the chapel was downsized. Renewed health problems also prevented Eckert from continuing his duties. In early 1916 he therefore handed over the management of the chapel to Pak, the first flautist , whom he had previously trained as a conductor.

Franz Eckert died of stomach cancer on August 8, 1916 in Seoul after a long and serious illness. He is buried in the capital's foreigners cemetery. The court band he founded played at his funeral.

literature

• Masajiro Tanimura: Franz Eckert (1852-1916). Spiritus rector of brass music in Japan. Editor of the Japanese national anthem. In: Japanese-German Center Berlin and the Japanese-German Society Tokyo (ed.): Bridge Builders. Pioneers of the Japanese-German cultural exchange. iudicium, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89129-539-1 .
• Hermann Gottschewski : Hoiku shôka and the melody of the Japanese national anthem Kimi ga yo. In: Journal of the Society for Research in Asiatic Music [of Japan]. (Tôyô Ongaku Kenkyû), no.68, 2003, pp. (1) - (17), (23) - (24).

Web links

• National anthem of Japan to listen to

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eckert's gravestone in Seoul, illustrated and cited in: Hermann Gottschewski and Kyungboon Lee: “Franz Eckert and 'his' national anthems. An introduction ”, in: OAG-Notizen Heft 12/2013, p. 28. url: Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Official statement of reasons for the award of the Order of Merit 6th grade to Oku Yoshiisa in 1933 ( memento of the original from November 29, 2014 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. , Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan, Reference No. A10113114200. For the background to the composition of this melody, see also Hermann Gottschewski: Hoiku Shôka and the melody of the Japanese national anthem. Kimi ga yo. In: Journal of the Society for Research in Asiatic Music [of Japan . ( 東洋 音 楽 研究 ), no.68, 2003, pp. (1) - (17), (23) - (24).  
3. ^ Franz Eckert: The Japanese national anthem. In: Communications from the German Society for Nature and Ethnology of East Asia. Issue 23 (1881), p. 131.
4. ↑ Kyungboon Lee, Hermann Gottschewski: Was Franz Eckert the Composer of the "Korean National Hymn"?: A reconsideration of the first Korean national anthem. (in Korean, with an English abstract). Online in DBpia Korean ejournal portal
5. ↑ Hermann Gottschewski, Kyungboon Lee: The Discovery of a Korean Folk Song Hidden in the "Daehan Jeguk Aegukga" -Franz Eckert's arrangements of the National Anthems of Japan and Korea Reconsidered-. In: Journal of the Society for Research in Asiatic Music [of Japan]. No. 78 (2013), pp. 1–21. (in Japanese, with an English abstract)
6. ↑ Richard Wunsch: Doctor in East Asia: authent. Reports on medicine and the like Current affairs from 1901 to 1911 in Korea, Japan a. China from d. Feather d. imperial-korean. Court physician . Ed. U. ext. by Gertrud Claussen-Wunsch. Krämer, Büsingen / Hochrhein 1976, ISBN 3-921611-01-5 , p. 89.
7. ↑ Yanghwajin Cemetery in Hapjeong-dong Mapo-gu, Seoul.