George of Albrecht

Georg von Albrecht (born March 19, 1891 in Kazan ; † March 15, 1976 in Heidelberg ) was a German pianist , composer and university professor. As a composition teacher, he conveyed all currents of New Music - in the time of National Socialism even against resistance . As a composer, he combined forms , compositional styles and musical characteristics of Eastern European and Asian folk music , the ancient tetrachords , the Russian and Greek Orthodox liturgy , the baroque , the classical and romantic epoch , the Russian impressionism and the twelve-tone technique in his independent work . Typical characteristics of his music are a vocal melody of all voices and the resulting floating harmony .

Origin and education

Georg von Albrecht's father Johann Gottlieb David von Albrecht, German by birth, was a mathematician and university inspector in Kazan, today's capital of Tatarstan . As a real councilor of state he was awarded the hereditary title of nobility . Albrecht's mother Barbara, née Mishchenko, was the daughter of a Russian Cossack colonel . She was a trained pianist with a concert qualification, but did not practice her profession in public after the wedding. Georg von Albrecht was the fifth child. When his father became a university inspector in Saint Petersburg , the family followed him there. Albrecht received basic school lessons at home. It was not until he was 10 years old that he entered a high school . From then on, the world of science and music became decisive for the boy, who already during his school days dealt with and recorded folk melodies from the Crimea , the Caucasus and the Ural Mountains .

After the father's retirement, the family moved to Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin ) in 1908 . There Albrecht passed the Abitur with the highest distinction. He then began studying philosophy at the University of Saint Petersburg , which, however, disappointed him.

Thanks to the lessons from his mother and the music student Kisselew, his piano playing was so advanced that his father agreed to introduce him to Max von Pauer , who gave a concert in Saint Petersburg in 1910/11. This only succeeded in Stuttgart , where Albrecht traveled with his parents in 1911 and where he successfully passed Pauer's entrance examination for studies at the Royal Conservatory . His father traveled back, his mother stayed with him. Now Albrecht studied with Max von Pauer, Theodor Wiehmeyer and Heinrich Lang first the piano and the associated subjects, and finally composition. He passed his exam as a concert pianist in a public concert in 1914.

When the First World War broke out , he spent his holidays in Russia . He stayed there and, exempted from military service, studied counterpoint with Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev in Moscow in 1914/15 . In 1917/18 he studied with Alexander Konstantinowitsch Glasunow and Joseph Wihtol in Saint Petersburg. The meeting with Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin and the friendship with Vladimir Ivanovich Rebikov became important for his artistic development . In Saint Petersburg he passed exams as a composer and pianist and obtained a diploma, which he assumed would help him to work as a musician in the Russian Empire.

In 1923 he went on a study trip with his mother back to Stuttgart, where he stayed and studied instrumentation with Ewald Sträßer after he had already worked through the basics of orchestration by Nikolai Andrejewitsch Rimski-Korsakow independently. There he finally completed his music studies with the final examination in composition and piano with Max von Pauer towards the end of the winter semester 1924.

Career as a composer

Georg von Albrecht's memoirs and writings bear the title Vom Volkslied zur Zwölftontechnik . This outlines the increase in musical resources that determined Albrecht's works, starting with piano versions of Eastern folk songs and dances up to the award-winning twelve-tone violin concerto. In addition to the traditional diatonic and chromatic scales in the major-minor system and the tonal twelve-tone technique that he modified, Albrecht used pentatonic and modal scales, overtone and undertone scales, as well as polytonal layers, polyrhythmic structures and a mirroring technique that was characteristic of him. Very often several of these means, used one after the other in a single work and rarely used against each other, were mostly viewed by Albrecht as an organic development from the simple to the complex and from the old to the new. The wealth of forms in his works includes simple song forms , polyphonic movements such as canon , fugue and passacaglia as well as sonata main movement form , variation and rondo-like , often in cyclical combinations .

Piano works

During his studies in Stuttgart from 1911 to 1914, Albrecht, with decisive support from Heinrich Lang, turned more and more to composing and - starting with the piano - conquered many genres of music . He wrote his first mature works for the piano, such as the Scherzo, op. 7, composed in 1914 on a trip through the Urals, and the Spring Hymn of the Satyrs to Dionysus, op. 8 from 1915. At the suggestion of Joseph Withol, he dealt with the form of variation and in 1918 completed the Andante con variazioni, Op. 10 for piano. These variations reveal a typical feature of Albrecht's self-image as a composer. Like many of his works, they have specific, mostly retrospective, extra-musical references to his life. Using the example of the Nocturnes for piano Nacht auf dem Hochgebirge (also Im Reich der Oertöne, op. 9 ) from 1917, Albrecht known: "As is so often the case here, the writing of a personal experience is combined with the solution of a constructive task."

Solo songs

A second early focus was songs for a voice with piano accompaniment . He recorded songs composed in Saint Petersburg in 1917 and in Yalta in 1919 in Russian songs for voice and piano, op.12 . They were followed in Stuttgart and Sandhausen near Heidelberg between 1924 and 1975, 16 song cycles and a few individual songs, including songs with the variable accompaniment of various instruments such as violin , flute , clarinet and violoncello .

Choral works

In 1925 he held his first composition evening with piano and choral works . Albrecht 's choral works, mostly written for mixed choir a cappella or with instrumental accompaniment and sometimes with solo voices, include sacred and secular movements as well as folk song arrangements. After he took over the management of the Russian-Greek Orthodox Church Choir in Stuttgart in 1924, many choral works were created. He followed suggestions from his youth by becoming more familiar with the vocal music of the Orthodox Church and in general Greek antiquity and utilizing both its tonal bases, especially the characteristic tetrachords, as well as the characteristics of the old melodies and melodic phrases in his compositions. An example of this is the liturgy of John Chrysostom, composed between 1924 and 1926 , op. 29 for mixed choir a cappella.

Instrumental solo works and chamber music

In just a few years, instrumental works in different casts followed closely together. In addition to important piano works such as the Sonata in G sharp minor, op.34 , the Twelve Preludes in Upper and Lower Tone Series, op.42 and compositions for two pianos, Albrecht also created solo works for violin and cello as well as chamber music for strings and piano, including the piano trio , op.32 , as well as the string quartet , op.31 .

Opera

From 1938 to 1941 Albrecht worked primarily on the opera Das Vaterunser, which had already begun in Yalta, based on a monodrama by François Coppée , which he regarded as his life's work. He moved the plot to Russia in the time of the civil war between "Reds" and "Whites". So he was able to process the experiences of his own family and use Russian folk songs and the Greek liturgy as a musical background. In this opera, which for the most part has not yet been orchestrated and is only available in the composer's piano reduction , Albrecht added several songs that had already been composed with a view to being used in the opera. He also used the accompaniment of two songs in his Piano Sonata in G sharp minor, op. 34. The style of this opera is very heterogeneous; for Albrecht made use of all his own stylistic devices, adapted to the respective dramaturgical situation, with the exception of the twelve-tone technique.

Works for and with orchestra, works for organ

Works for or with orchestra were mainly composed after 1945, with the twelve-tone violin concerto, op. 60 from 1958 , taking on a special rank. An important work for string orchestra is Passacaglia and Triple Fugue, op. 71a , an arrangement of the virtuoso organ work of the same name, op. 71. Other organ compositions with a more meditative-contemplative character serve mainly the liturgical events in the church.

Composer between East and West

The works that Albrecht created in large numbers in the last two decades of his life are also characterized by the connection and amalgamation of different stylistic elements, especially the music of the Eastern European cultural area with the more Western European composition techniques. Albrecht saw himself as a "composer between East and West". He also had this bridging function as a mediator between tradition and modernity.

Teaching

Georg von Albrecht initially taught in Yalta (co-founder of the conservatory , 1919), Moscow (music technology center in Baumann's district, 1921) and Stuttgart (Karl Adler's conservatory, from 1925). From 1936 to 1956 he taught at the State University of Music in Stuttgart , from 1946 as professor and deputy director. From 1956 to 1976 he taught composition in the school music department of the University of Music and Theater in Heidelberg.

Albrecht allowed all modern directions to apply in his composition lessons. Even against resistance, he took the view that a student must get to know everything in order to be able to go his own way. As a result, Albrecht was threatened with a ban on teaching during the National Socialist era .

meaning

Georg von Albrecht was able to combine old and new forms and methods of composing into a uniform, unique style. For example, he took over characteristics of folk music from Eastern Europe, ancient Greek music and the music of the Orthodox Church, forms and typesetting of the Baroque and the Classical-Romantic epoch, Scriabin's overtone series, which he juxtaposed with "undertone series", Rebikov's experiments with whole-tone scale and polytonality as well as the Twelve-tone technique. For Albrecht, all these achievements became the basis of a very personal, uniform composition by integrating them into a linear, often contrapuntal event that strives for vocal-melodic progressions in all voices and creates a floating harmony, sometimes supported by polyrhythms, which at the climaxes the pieces of music are often characterized by polytonality. Albrecht himself assessed this polytonality, which was characteristic of him and was determined by strict dissonance, as a symbol of "the peaceful coexistence of different peoples with different characters".

family

Georg von Albrecht was married three times. His first marriage to the Lithuanian Wanda Dydziul was separated by mutual agreement in 1922. Wanda Dydziul was the poet of the piano song Fast as the Bird in the Sky , op.12, no.3 . Together with her Albrecht recorded Lithuanian folk songs and translated their texts into Russian ( 135 Lithuanian folk songs from the Kovno and Suwalki Governments , op. 13) The second marriage to the eurythmy teacher Elisabeth (Lisl) Kratz in 1929 comes from the son Michael von Albrecht , who has published Georg von Albrecht's entire works in the series Sources and Studies on Music History from Antiquity to the Present . Michael von Albrecht is the father of the cellist Dorothea von Albrecht and the pianist Christiane von Albrecht, who Georg von Albrecht edited chamber music based on the manuscripts. Elisabeth von Albrecht died in 1968. The third wife Elisabeth-Charlotte, née Hose, was the mainstay of his age for Georg von Albrecht.

Awards

• 1962 Glinka Prize from the Belaieff Foundation
• 1966 Johann Wenzel Stamitz Prize from the Esslingen Artists' Guild
• 1991 Russian German Culture Prize (posthumous)

Works (selection)

Piano works

• Op. 1 Bashkir melodies. Nine short piano pieces
• Op. 2 Ten Eastern Folk Songs for Piano
• Op. 4 Four piano pieces in a romantic style
• Op. 7 game of reflections. Piano Scherzo
• Op. 8 The Satyrs' Spring Hymn to Dionysus
• Op. 10 Andante con variazioni in E major
• Op. 21 In the realm of undertones (hymn to the night)
• Op. 34 Piano Sonata in G sharp minor
• Op. 35a hymn to the sun (seventh scherzo)
• Op. 36 Pentatonic and Polytonal Polyphonic Studies
• Op. 37 Preludio, Tempestoso e fuga for two pianos
• Op. 42 Twelve Preludes in Upper and Lower Tone Series Book 1
• Op. 53 Piano Sonata in C minor
• Op. 61 Twelve Preludes in Upper and Lower Tone Series, Book 2
• Op. 72 Sonata of Reflections on a Twelve-Tone Theme (Third Piano Sonata)
• Op. 80 Fourth piano sonata in one movement
• Op. 81 piano variations on a twelve-tone theme

Solo works for strings

• Op. 44 Improvisation, Passacaglia and Quodlibet in two Russian folk tunes for violin alone
• Op. 56a Sonata for violin alone
• Op. 78 variations for solo cello
• Op. 83c improvisations for solo cello

Chamber music

• Op. 32 Trio for Violin, Violoncello and Piano in C minor
• Op. 33 Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor
• Op. 45 Three fairy tales for violin and piano
• Op. 50c Andante passionato and Allegro for violoncello and piano
• Op. 52 String Quartet in C minor in one movement
• Op. 74 Quintet for flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, F horn and bassoon
• Op. 75 Three reflections for two violins
• Op. 79 Trio for violin, viola and violoncello
• Op. 82 Sonata for Viola and Piano

Works for and with orchestra

• Op. 58 Passacaglia and Fugue for string orchestra , also arranged for string quartet (op.58a) and for cello and piano (op.58b)
• Op. 60 Concerto for solo violin, four woodwinds, two French horns, trombone and string orchestra
• Op. 66 Three pieces for string orchestra and wind instruments
• Op. 71a Passacaglia and triple fugue for string orchestra

Organ works

• Op. 28b Five Gregorian chant melodies
• Op. 61a Five pieces for organ in lower and overtone rows
• Op. 71 Passacaglia and Triple Fugue
• Op. 79 meditation

Solo songs with different accompaniments

• A little over 120 piano songs, mostly summarized in cycles, based on a wide variety of mostly contemporary poets, such as Hans Heinrich Ehrler (op.46 and op.47), Julius Fuchs (op.51), Gotthold Sieber (op.52a, op.68d ) and Karl Heinrich Waggerl (op. 73a, including songs with two solo voices).
• Songs with variable accompaniment of various instruments such as violin, flute, clarinet and violoncello, sometimes with piano or organ, including the Georg von der Vring songs ( op.49 with violin and piano)

Choral works

• Spiritual works. Albrecht composed or set choral works for the Roman Catholic and for the Russian-Greek Orthodox rite. To be emphasized are exemplary
  • Op. 28b Two Gregorian melodies for mixed a cappella choir
  • Op. 29 Liturgy of John Chrysostom . The Byzantine sages for mixed a cappella choir used in liturgical worship in the Greek Orthodox Church
  • Op. 50 Our Father in two versions: a cappella and with organ, trumpets, trombones and string trio
  • Op. 84 Requiem for soprano, baritone, female choir, string trio and organ
  • Op. 86 The Canticle of the Sun of St. Francis for four-part mixed choir, trumpets, trombones, string trio and organ. Albrecht was unable to complete this work from 1976. It was supplemented, orchestrated and set up by Gerhard Frommel.

• Choral movements based on German poems, for example by Albrecht Goes , Friedrich Hebbel and Georg von der Vring
  • 15 choral movements a cappella for mixed choir or male choir

• Folksong arrangements based on Armenian, German, Finnish, Lithuanian, Russian, Tatar and Ukrainian melodies
  • 26 sets of songs for mixed choir and male choir a cappella

Stage works

• Op. 14 knight Olaf . Miniature opera in four pictures
• Op. 48b The devil with the three golden hairs . Dance fairy tale
• Op. 50 The Lord's Prayer . Opera

Fonts

• From folk song to twelve-tone technique. Writings and memories of a musician between East and West . Published by Michael von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main 1984

Sheet music editions

• Complete edition based on the manuscripts, published in full for the first time by Michael von Albrecht . Publishing house Peter Lang GmbH, Frankfurt am Main et altera 1984–1991
• Op. 10 Andante con variazioni in E major . Heinrichshofen's publishing house, Magdeburg
• Op. 11 From a distance . Piano pieces, Berthold and Schwendtner publishing house, Stuttgart
• Op. 12 Five songs . For soprano and piano, Verlag Schultheiß, Stuttgart
• Op. 20 songs and dances of the marginal peoples of Russia for violin and piano . Edition MP Belaieff, No. 3506, Bonn 1959
• Op. 30 Eight Russian Folk Songs . For mixed a cappella choir, Verlag Schultheiß, Stuttgart
• Op. 34 Sonata in G sharp minor for pianoforte . University printing house H. Stütz AG, Würzburg 1930
• Op. 35c and 36d Three inventions. Five Eastern Folk Tunes for Two Clarinets . Aulos, series of works for brass music No. 34 (M 42.034), Möseler Verlag Wolfenbüttel 1981
• Op. 51 (selection) Seven poems by Julius Fuchs. For medium voice and piano . Facsimile print. (= Music of the 20th century in separate editions, issue 1). Wilhelm Frank, Stuttgart undated
• Op. 59 Preludio e fuga per flaito traverso e pianoforte . Edition MP Belaieff, No. 3507, Bonn 1959
• Op. 74 wind quintet . Aulos, series of works for brass music No. 186 (M 42.186), Möseler Verlag Wolfenbüttel 1981

Discography

• Piano works . Played by Karl Heinz Lautner, Da Camera Magna, SM 113141, 1975 (record)
• Chamber music works (op.32, op.33, op.45, 1, op.79, op.83c). Played by Christiane von Albrecht (piano), Helke Bier (violin), Mirek Jahoda (viola), Dorothea von Albrecht (violoncello), series orbis musicae , Udine 2004 Real Sound 051-0125 (CD)
• Sonata in G sharp minor, op.34 / Sonata in C minor, op.53 / Sonata of the reflections (on a 12-tone theme), op.72 . Played by Birgitta Wollenweber (piano), series orbis musicae , Udine 2000, Real Sound 051-0030 (CD)

literature

Overall representations

• Michael von Albrecht: Georg von Albrecht . In: Music in the past and present . New edition, Person Part 1, Kassel et altera 1999, columns 384–386
• Alexander Schwab: The composer Georg von Albrecht. Studies on life and work . Frankfurt am Main 1991.
• Johannes Schwermer (Ed.): Festschrift Georg von Albrecht for his 70th birthday presented by colleagues and friends . Stuttgart 1962

Literature on individual aspects

• Michael v. Albrecht: A voice travels across the country . In: Music and Poetry, Festschrift Viktor Pöschl . Frankfurt 1990, pp. 515-523.
• Peter Andraschke: Tagore settings . In: Music and Poetry, Festschrift Viktor Pöschl . Frankfurt 1990, p. 485.
• Gerhard Frommel: Georg von Albrechts piano and orchestral works . In: tradition and originality . Frankfurt am Main 1988, pp. 215-232
• Werner Schubert: Elements of ancient music in the work of Georg von Albrechts . In: Michael von Albrecht and Werner Schubert (eds.): Music in antiquity and modern times . Frankfurt 1987, 31-50

Web links

• Literature by and about Georg von Albrecht in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, pp. 17-23
2. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 23
3. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 23 f.
4. ↑ Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main 1984, pp. 27–33
5. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, pp. 26–28
6. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 25
7. ^ Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main, p. 120
8. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 30
9. ^ Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main 1984
10. ^ Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main 1984, p. 206
11. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, pp. 147–175
12. ^ Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main 1984, pp. 93 | 96
13. ^ Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main 1984, p. 90
14. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, pp. 201-208
15. ↑ Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main 1984, pp. 10-12 and 129-131
16. ↑ Werner Schubert, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 37-50
17. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, pp. 218–220
18. ↑ Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main 1984, pp. 164–167
19. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 33 f.
20. ^ Gerhard Frommel, Frankfurt am Main, p. 230
21. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 46 f. and 54-57
22. ↑ op. 59 to op. 86, see: Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, pp. 194–198
23. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 181
24. ↑ Michael von Albrecht, Kassel et altera 1999, column 385
25. ^ Georg von Albrecht: Making music with overtones and undertones . In: Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 156–159.
26. ↑ Georg von Albrecht: twelve-tone technique . In: Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 188 f.
27. ↑ ^{a b} Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, pp. 170-181
28. ↑ Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 188 f.
29. ^ Gerhard Frommel, Frankfurt am Main, p. 218 f.
30. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 28 f.
31. ↑ Georg von Albrecht, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 112
32. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 32
33. ↑ Christiane von Albrecht (Ed.): Georg von Albrecht Complete Edition, Volume 4: Chamber Music for Strings and Piano, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 978-3-8204-9562-1 )
34. ↑ Alexander Schwab, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 37 ff.