Franz Herzog (choir director)

Franz Herzog

Franz Herzog (born May 30, 1917 in Elsterberg ; † February 28, 1986 in Göttingen ) was a German choir conductor , music teacher and composer .

Life

Franz Herzog grew up in Elsterberg (Vogtland) and from 1928 was a member of the Dresden Kreuzchor and a student of Kreuzkantor Rudolf Mauersberger . From 1934 to 1937 he was choir prefect at the Kreuzchor, d. H. Representative of the Kreuzkantor, and even as a teenager took on the artistic direction of concerts and Vespers of the Kreuzchor up to the rehearsal of new works, including his own compositions. From 1937 to 1940 Herzog studied composition and conducting at the Dresden Conservatory and passed his choir master's examination in 1938. His teachers included u. a. Walther Meyer-Giesow , Ernst Hintze and Herbert Viecenz . He also received piano lessons from Karl Weiß . In 1939 Herzog married and shortly afterwards was drafted into military service, which did not end until the end of the Second World War in 1945. During a home leave in 1940, he passed the Kapellmeister examination.

After the war, Herzog was a music teacher at the high school for boys in Peine from 1945 to 1953 , and from 1947 to 1955 he was also director of the Peine municipal choir and from 1949 to 1953 conductor of the Braunschweigische Musikgesellschaft. In 1953 he took over the position of music teacher at the Felix-Klein-Gymnasium in Göttingen , which at that time was also a boys' high school . In addition, from 1953 to 1964 he directed the Catholic male choir Cäcilia and for a few years the school orchestra of the Felix-Klein-Gymnasium. As a music teacher, he built up an efficient school choir. The first radio recordings were made in 1957 by Norddeutscher Rundfunk . In 1957 an anniversary concert of the German General Singers' Association with the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra and a project choir under the direction of Franz Herzog took place in the Felix-Klein-Gymnasium , for which he had composed his own great Antigone music (FHWV 45). At this event he was awarded the “Golden Badge of Honor” in recognition of his great services to choral singing. In 1962 the school choir at the Felix-Klein-Gymnasium was renamed the Göttingen Boys Choir after plans to take over the Kreuzkantorat as successor to Rudolf Mauersberger could not be realized.

Until 1979 Herzog worked as a music teacher at the Felix-Klein-Gymnasium, but had to. a. For health reasons he gave up the leadership of the boys' choir in 1980. During the 18 years that he directed the Göttinger Knabenchor, he performed concerts with his ensemble at home and abroad, organized concert tours in Germany and others. a. to England , France , Poland , Sweden , Switzerland and the USA , made radio recordings with North German and Hessian radio and produced 7 records. In addition, TV recordings were made on the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in 1969 and 1977. As the town's choir, the Göttingen Boys' Choir took part in the laying of the foundation stone and inauguration of the town hall and the synagogue memorial, as well as in university congresses and town events. Partnership relationships with boys' choirs at home and abroad have been cultivated and expanded.

From 1967 to 1979 the Göttinger Knabenchor participated as an oratorio choir at the Göttingen Handel Festival , a. a. at the performance of Messiah in 1973 and by Judas Maccabäus in 1977 together with the Poznan Nightingales as part of the German-Polish friendship, plus Saul in 1975 with the Stockholm Boys' Choir. In 1978 Franz Herzog was awarded the " Medal of Honor of the City of Göttingen " in recognition of his services . In 1982 the city of Göttingen officially adopted him from his office in the old town hall during a ceremony. He died on February 28, 1986 in Göttingen.

Works

Franz Herzog left a rich musical oeuvre, with compositions from many areas, including a. 4 masses , works for orchestra , sonatas , chamber music , songs , motets , choral works with instrumental accompaniment, folk song arrangements, etc. a. also arrangements of songs by the Beatles .

The catalog raisonné contains around 200 compositions. Herzog composed a lot for his choirs and orchestras and tailored them to their qualities. A number of works are available in recordings by the Göttingen Knabenchor, others in recordings, e.g. Well-known performers such as the Dresden Kreuzchor , the Hannover Girls Choir or the Hannover Soloists' Association under Wilfried Garbers.

literature

• Vitus Froesch: Franz Herzog - a Crucian in Göttingen. Choir conductor and composer . Tectum Wissenschaftsverlag, Baden-Baden 2017 (Dresdner Schriften zur Musik 10), ISBN 978-3-8288-3954-0 .
• Göttinger Knabenchor (Ed.): 50 Years of the Göttinger Knabenchor 1962–2012 , Göttingen 2012.
• Franz Herzog: The student greets his teacher . In: Erna Hedwig Hofmann, Ingo Zimmermann (ed.): Encounters with Rudolf Mauersberger. Life path and life achievement of a Dresden Kreuzkantor. Evangelische Verlagsanst., Berlin 1964, 6th edition 1977, pp. 73f.
• Gisela Krahmer, Herbert Schur (eds.): Franz Herzog and the Göttinger Knabenchor 1960–1980. Goettingen 1990.
• Matthias Herrmann (Ed.): Rudolf Mauersberger: From the workshop of a cross cantor. Letters, texts, speeches. Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2014 (Writings of the Dresdner Kreuzchor 1), ISBN 978-3-8288-3317-3 , pp. 263–266.

Web links

• Literature by and about Franz Herzog (choir director) in the bibliographic database WorldCat

Individual evidence

1. ^ Herbert Schur: Franz Herzog (1917–1986). Laudation on the occasion of the unveiling of the memorial plaque for Franz Herzog on September 23, 2017 at the Felix-Klein Gymnasium in Böttingerstraße 17. In: Geschichtsverein für Göttingen und Umgebung eV (Ed.): Göttinger Jahrbuch 2018 (Volume 66). Göttingen 2018, ISSN 0072-4882, pp. 283-286.
2. ↑ Vitus Froesch: Franz Herzog - a Crucian in Göttingen. Choir conductor and composer . Tectum Wissenschaftsverlag, Baden-Baden 2017 (Dresdner Schriften zur Musik 10), pp. 111–157.