Gerd Münzberg

Gerhard Franziskus Münzberg, composer and judge

Gerhard Franziskus "Gerd" Münzberg (born December 3, 1902 in Kloda ; † May 4, 1994 in Kitzingen ) was a German lawyer and composer .

Life

Münzberg was the third child of Johannes Emil Münzberg and his wife Bertha Hedwig Schubert. After completing elementary school, he first attended the Royal High School in Ostrowo, up to Untersekunda , in Ostrowo, Posen Province (Ostrów Wielkopolski) . After the end of the First World War , Ostrowo fell to the Second Republic of Poland when the Peace Treaty of Versailles came into force . The parents opted for the German Reich within the framework of the so-called Small Peace Treaty of Versailles (Article 91) and the family moved to the mother's hometown in Patschkau. He attended the state high school in Patschkau from the Obersekunda and passed the Abitur in 1922.

His father rejected his wish to study musicology . He then began studying law and political science at the Silesian Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau in 1922 , continued this at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel, where he studied under Gustav Radbruch, among others . At the same time, he took courses in musicology at both universities. In 1930 he completed his studies as a fully qualified lawyer .

After joining the Prussian judicial service, he was employed as a court assessor in Schleswig-Holstein. In 1930 he switched to the penitentiary service, was then transferred to the higher regional court district of Breslau, was again employed in the higher and higher judicial service at various courts, including in Schweidnitz , Habelschwerdt , Glatz and Glogau, and finally received a post in Gleiwitz in 1934 District judge at the district court, where he worked until mid-January 1945. On January 24, 1945, one day before the city was occupied by the Red Army , he managed to escape to Kitzingen . Until the invasion of the American troops, he worked at the district court. In 1949 he was accepted into the judicial service of the Free State of Bavaria and placed at the district court in Kitzingen, where he worked until the end of 1967.

In 1948 he was elected spokesman for refugees and expellees and held various positions in the Silesian Landsmannschaft . In the area of local politics he worked for 14 years as a voluntary city councilor and initiated the culture award of the city of Kitzingen.

In addition to studying music at the Universities of Breslau and Kiel, he was a church musician in the Sankt-Josef-Kirche in Kiel- Gaarden . At the same time, from 1924 to 1931, he worked intensively in the musical youth movement (Musikantengilde Jöde) and in the Collegium musicum of the University of Kiel. From 1939 until the end of the war he began a lively concert activity with his own works in Silesia with concerts in Gliwice, Breslau, Schweidnitz, Brieg and Neisse . From 1945 to 1949 he worked full-time as a church musician, pianist and choir conductor in Lower Franconia. He continued the concert activity until the end of his life.

Honors

1977 Culture Prize of the City of Kitzingen
1980 'Schlesierkreuz' of the Landsmannschaft Silesia - Lower and Upper Silesia
1980 Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

plant

Orchestral works

Piano music

Music for expressive dances op. 1-9
Music for Rhythmic Games op.10
Night song op.10a no.2
Grave op 15 No. 1
Hymn of Praise op.23
Ballad op.31
Romance - Dialogue between two lovers - op.51
Minuet op.59

Instrumental music

Festive Day op. 361 No. 2, Suite

Vocal works

Cantatas

The Very Different Op. 118 (1950/1960)

Mary's cantata based on verses by Joseph von Eichendorff, Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) and the text of the Gospel of Luke chap. 1 verse 26-38 for the feast of the Annunciation for soprano and baritone solo, mixed choir, harpsichord (organ) and orchestra

Franks in Time and Eternity, op.172 (1963)

For the four hundredth anniversary of the construction of the town hall of Kitzingen 1563–1963. Cantata based on texts by Hanns Rupp for soprano and tenor solo, children's, women's and men's choir, mixed choir and orchestra

A Little Wandering Way, op.178 (1965)

Cantata for soprano and tenor solo, mixed choir and orchestra based on texts by Engelbert Bach, Joseph von Eichendorff, Rudolf Grieger, Alfons Hayduk, Alfred von Kessel, Käthe Kamossa, Walter Meckauer, Hans Niekrawietz, Hermann Stehr, Ernst Schenke, Angelus Silesius, Alfons Teuber and Felicitas v. Zerboni sposetti

Silesian Passion, op.200 (1969)

Cantata for speaker, soprano and tenor solo, mixed choir and orchestra based on texts by Friedrich Bischoff, Joseph von Eichendorff, Hans Frank, Gerhart Hauptmann, Alfons Hayduk, Max Herrmann-Neiße, Otto Nisch / Gerhard Münzberg, Richard von Schaukal, Ernst Schenke, Franz Johannes Weinrich , Hans Zuchold

Songs

The focus of Münzberg's artistic work is the setting of poetry in German. Important writers and poets of the 19th and 20th centuries gave suggestions for songwriting a. a. Werner Bergengruen, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hermann Claudius, Hans Carossa, Anette von Droste-Hülshoff, Joseph von Eichendorff, Gertrud von le Fort, Hermann Hesse, Käthe Kamossa, Johannes Kirschweng, Erich Kofler, Nikolaus Lenau. Rainer Maria Rilke, Ina Seidel, Ruth Schaumann, Richard von Schaukal, Rudolf Alexander Schröder, Theodor Storm, Georg Trakl, Josef Weinheber, Franz Johannes Weinrich, Franz Werfel, Carl Zuckmayer.

Poets and poets such as Angelus Silesius, Joseph von Eichendorff, Gerhart Hauptmann, Carl Hauptmann, Alfons Hayduk, Alfred Hein, Max Herrmann-Neiße, Paul Keller, Horst Lange, Dagmar Nick, Hans Niekrawietz, Philo vom Walde ( Johannes Reinelt); Elisabeth Sophie and Walter Reiprich, Barbara Suchner, Ernst Schenke, Hermann Stehr, Barbara Strehblow, Ruth Storm, Monika Taubitz, Alfons Teuber, Konrad Werner.

A special feature in the second half of the composer's life are settings in Franconian and Silesian dialects. From the Silesian-speaking area there were lyricists such as Karl von Holtei , Karl Klings , Philo vom Walde , Hanns Rössler and Ernst Schenke , from the Lower Franconian-speaking area the dialect poets Engelbert Bach, Alfred Buchner, Nikolaus Fey , Joseph Kram, Ernst Luther and Hanns Rupp .

Publications

Advertisement Himmelreich, dialect songs from Silesia and Franconia , 1971 Kitzingen, self-published

Let the weather waver, Eichendorff-Lieder , 1972, Kitzingen, self-published,

Reflections, songs , 1972, Kitzingen, self-published,

Choir songs , 1973, Kitzingen, self-published

Silesian ballads and songs , 1974, Kitzingen, self-published,

On the way through time , piano music, 1985, Kitzingen, self-published,

SILESIA CANTAT , Volume 11, Selected Piano Songs by Silesian Composers, Volume 1, Editor Norbert Linke, Laumann-Verlag Dülmen, 1975, p. 19,

Roter Mohn, song cycle based on poems by Walter Berger , Martin Verlag / Walter Berger, Buxheim, 1980

SILESIA CANTAT , Issue 27, Selected Piano Songs in Silesian Dialect by Gerd Münzberg, Laumann-Verlag Dülmen, 1982

Violence is poverty, poems by Elisabeth Münzberg , Kitzingen, self-published, 1982, pp. 54–68,

Records

Spiegelungen 1, 1975 (TSW 75 111/112; Photo: University of Music, Würzburg, Prof. Werner Berndsen)
Spiegelungen 2, 1977 (TSW 77 630: Photo: University of Music, Würzburg, Prof. Werner Berndsen)
Lach a bißla, flann a bißla, there's time for everything, songs to verses in Silesian and Franconian dialect, 1979 (TSW 79 1030; recording: University of Music, Würzburg, Prof. Werner Berndsen)
Poppy songs, 1982 (TSW 82 730; recording: University of Music, Würzburg, Prof. Werner Berndsen)
Elisabeth Münzberg - The country is in the dark, 1982 (TSW 82 730; photo on page 1: University of the Arts, Berlin, 1981/1982 - p. 2: University of Music, Würzburg)

Sound recordings

Serenade "On the way through time", Kitzingen Town Hall Hall, May 12, 1991 Digital recording: Harald Braun recording studio 91207 Lauf an der Pegnitz

literature

Lothar Hoffmann inheritance law: Schlesisches Musiklexikon , (Institute for German Music in the East eV) Wißner-Verlag Augsburg, 2001, p. 472/473
Heinrich Simbriger: Catalog of works by contemporary composers from eastern Germany , Künstlergilde eV, Esslingen / Neckar, 4. – 6. Supplementary volume

Web links

Individual evidence

personal data
SURNAME	Münzberg, Gerd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Münzberg, Gerhard Franziskus (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German lawyer and composer
DATE OF BIRTH	December 3, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kloda
DATE OF DEATH	May 4, 1994
Place of death	Kitzingen

[1] Schools and Studies

[2] Chief magistrate