Friedrich Wolf (choir director)

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Friedrich Wolf (1997)

Friedrich Wolf (born April 5, 1935 in Loosdorf , Mistelbach district , Lower Austria ; † December 14, 2008 in Vienna ) was an Austrian choir director , music teacher and composer . He was the founder of the St. Augustine Choir Association .

Life

Friedrich Wolf studied choir conducting with Reinhold Schmid and composition with Otto Siegl at what was then the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and passed his diploma examination with excellent results in 1962. He also took lectures in musicology at the University of Vienna .

From 1980 he held a teaching position for didactics of music education and piano at the Federal Pedagogical Academy in Vienna, where he was appointed professor in 1983.

In 1985 he received the academic degree Magister artium at what is now the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna for the academic review of the church music oeuvre of the Bohemian composer and Mozart contemporary Wenzel Pichl .

From 1955 to 1974 he worked as an organist at the Karlskirche in Vienna . In 1957 he was appointed head of church music at the Servitenkirche in Vienna-Alsergrund, where he worked until 1970. During this time, the Austrian radio broadcast 10 high offices with classical and contemporary Austrian church music (works by Hans Bauernfeind , Vinzenz Goller , Josef Lechthaler , Ernst Tittel , Otto Siegl and others).

In autumn 1969 he was appointed Regens Chori at the St. Augustin Church in Vienna's Inner City, where he established a center for classical, romantic and contemporary church music. In 1971 the St. Augustin Choir won the 2nd prize at the 8th International Choir Competition in Spittal an der Drau with the interpretation of motets by the composers Orlando di Lasso , Anton Bruckner and Anton Heiller .

From 1969 to 1993 he was responsible for the musical design of around 1200 high offices and 80 concerts.

Important appearances were made at the Vendsyssel Festival in Denmark, at the "European Weeks" in Bruneck, in the Cathedral of Aquileia , at the Festival Barocco in Viterbo, at the Festival di Musica Sacra in Vetralla (Italy), at the Meeting per l'amicizia fra i popoli in Rimini, at the Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Wroclaw (Poland).

On the occasion of a festive mass in the cathedral of St. Peter in Rome, he performed the G major mass by Franz Schubert in 1986 . This appearance was followed in 1987 by an invitation to the papal mass for Peter and Paul in the cathedral of St. Peter in Rome, where he conducted the mass in E minor by Anton Bruckner . On the 200th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's death, Mozart's "Requiem" was performed in the Matthias Church in Budapest.

In 1993 he converted the "Choir of St. Augustin" into the "Choir Association St. Augustin", which, after a few intermediate stops, found a new place of activity in the University Church (Jesuit Church) in Vienna's Inner City from 1994 . In addition to around 500 high offices with major church music works, he has given this ensemble numerous concerts with important compositions from the choral literature. In 1993 the "Choir Association St. Augustin" under the direction of Friedrich Wolf brought the "Missa" by the American composer Richard Bing to the Austrian premiere in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna . In 1996 she went on a concert tour to the "Festival di Musica Sacra" in Bolzano and Bressanone and Trento, in 1997 she performed "The Messiah" by Georg Friedrich Handel in Varese / Italy, and in 2000 she organized a gala concert for the 250th birthday of Antonio Salieri at the Teatro Salieri in Legnano.

In his rich discography, which includes all common mass compositions of the Viennese Classic and important works of the Romantic period , the complete recording of all Schubert masses, the recording of the Requiem and the E minor Mass by Bruckner, Dvořák's Mass in D major, Beethoven's C. Major Mass and the Brahms Requiem deserve special mention.

With the Christmas mass in 2003, Friedrich Wolf ended his longstanding activity as choirmaster of the St. Augustin Choir Association.

In the last years of his life he devoted himself increasingly to playing the organ in masses and concerts in his home town of Laa an der Thaya and Mistelbach / Lower Austria. It was with this choir that his "Missa Mariana" premiered in 2007 under his direction.

Friedrich Wolf was buried at Döblinger Friedhof (group 36, row 5, number 35) in Vienna.

Friedrich Wolf's grave

Works

  • Latin mass for solos, choir, woodwinds and organ. First performance in 1960
  • German Ordinarium for cantors, people, choir, organ and wind instruments. First performance in 1967
  • "Missa Mariana" based on songs from Mary. First performance in 2007
  • Several "German Proprien"
  • Latin motets
  • Song arrangements for Advent and Lent
  • Christmas carol arrangements for voice and instruments
  • Numerous songs to "Praise God"
  • Folk songs

Awards and honors

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Fastl: Wolf, Friedrich. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-7001-3067-8 .
  2. ↑ http://www.chorvereinigung-augustin.at./
  3. ↑ http://www.doblinger.at/prosearch.asp?searchmode=field
  4. ↑ http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/AB/AB_10542/imfname_251156.pdf
personal data
SURNAME Wolf, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian choir director, music teacher and composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Loosdorf , Mistelbach District , Lower Austria
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 2008
Place of death Vienna