Gerhart Münch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gerhart Münch (born March 23, 1907 in Dresden , † December 9, 1988 in Tacámbaro , Michoacán , Mexico ) was a German pianist and composer.

Life

Münch, who was considered a child prodigy , received his first piano lessons from his father, the music teacher and composer Ernst Robert Münch , and was later trained at the Dresden Conservatory . In 1925 he graduated from high school in Dresden. From 1927 he went on study trips to Italy and France. In the 1930s he lived mainly in Rapallo , where he gave concerts with Olga Rudge . In 1937 he married the American poet Vera Lawson in Naples . From 1940 to 1944 he did military service as a soldier in the German Wehrmacht . In 1947 he emigrated to California , from there to Mexico in 1953 , where he lived until his death.

Henry Miller writes about him: "The only one who was undoubtedly a genius and the most remarkable of all except Varda, but who belonged to an earlier period, was Gerhart Münch from Dresden. Gerhart belongs in a separate category. As a pianist, he is unsurpassable, if Not incomparable. He is also a composer and he has been taught down to his fingertips. If he had done nothing other than interpret us Scriabin - and he did a lot more, unfortunately without result! - we should always be grateful to him in Big Sur. "

plant

In 1926 Paul Hindemith , Ernst Toch and Gerhart Münch, who was just 19 years old , composed pieces for the mechanical piano “ Welte-Mignon ” for the Donaueschingen Chamber Music Festival on July 25, 1926 . These pieces were not playable by hand. The possibility of programming the piano rolls to create almost any sequence of notes on such a piano gave the composer new freedom in sound design.

Münch's contribution were the following compositions:

Six Studies: Polyphonic Etudes for Mechanical Piano. Introduzione Maestoso - Prestissimo - Largo - Jazz - Andantino - Fugato (original composition for Welte-Mignon).

At least one recording with Gerhart Münch has been preserved on record, the burlesque by Richard Strauss with Alfons Dressel as conductor of the orchestra of the Reichsender München, published in 1950 in the USA on Vox / Polydor PL 6110. The recording comes from the archive of the former Reichsender Munich and can be dated approximately to 1944/1945.

Compositions

Concerts

  • Chamber Concerto for violin, cello, piano and strings (1924, premier: 1924 under Paul Aron )
  • Concerto for piano and chamber orchestra (1926, premier: 1926 under Hermann Scherchen at the Donaueschinger Musiktage )
  • Concert pour piano et orchestra (1929)
  • Capriccio variato for piano and orchestra (1940)
  • Concert d'ete , for piano and chamber orchestra (1942)
  • Homenaje a Jalisco , for piano and orchestra (1953, premiere: December 11, 1953, Gerhart Münch (piano), Orquesta Sinfonica de Guadalajara, Abel Eisemberg (conductor))
  • Concerto for bassoon and orchestra (1955)
  • Concerto for piano and string orchestra (1957)
  • Concerto for violin and orchestra (1960, WP: October 12, 1997, Carlos Egry (violin), Sinfonica de la Universidad de Guanajuato, Juan Trigos (conductor))
  • Itinera duo , for piano and orchestra (1965)
  • Vestigia , for violin and orchestra (1969)
  • Vida sin fin , for piano and orchestra (1976)
  • Oposiciones , for piano and orchestra (1978)

Orchestral works

  • Muerte sin fin , for orchestra (1959)
  • Labyrinthus Orphei , for orchestra (1965)
  • Oxymora , for orchestra (1967)
  • Audition? , for orchestra (1968)
  • Epitomae Tacambarensie , for orchestra (1974)
  • Telesma , for orchestra (1975)
  • Sortilegios , for orchestra (1979)
  • Noctis Texturae , for orchestra (1983)
  • Paysages de Reve , for orchestra (1984)

Chamber music

  • Six polyphonic studies , for Welte-Mignon reproduction piano (1926) (premier: 1926 at the Donaueschinger Musiktage )
  • Cello Sonata (1938)
  • Piano Trio (1938)
  • Kreisleriana Nova , for piano (1939)
  • Concert d'hiver , for piano (1943)
  • Marsyas and Apollo , for flute and piano (1946)
  • String Quartet (1949)
  • Fuga chromatica , for piano (1950)
  • Prismas , for piano (1959)
  • Tessellata Tacambarensia No.4 , for 2 harps (1968)
  • Monologo , for violin (1978)

Vocal music

  • Five songs , for baritone and piano (1940)
  • El Azotador , for boys' choir and orchestra (1955)
  • Maria en la Metafora del Agua , for boys' choir and piano (1958)
  • Missa defunctorum , for mixed choir a cappella (1959)
  • Exaltacion de la Luz , for soprano, male choir and orchestra (1981)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carroll F. Terrell: A Companion to the Cantos of Ezra Pound: Cantos 1-71 , p. 398. University of California press, 1993. ISBN 0-520-08287-7 Online version from Google Books.Retrieved June 28 2008
  2. ↑ Henry Miller: Big Sur and the oranges of Hieronymus Bosch. Hamburg 1966 p.18, ISBN 978-3-499-10849-5
  3. ↑ Gerhard Dangel and Hans-W. Schmitz: Welte-Mignon -Reproduktionen / Welte-Mignon Reproductions. Complete catalog of the recordings for the Welte-Mignon reproduction piano 1905–1932 / Complete Library Of Recordings For The Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano 1905–1932 , p. 472. Stuttgart 2006. ISBN 3-00-017110-X
  4. ^ Medina Resendiz, Tarsicio (1998). Gerhart Muench: Catalogo de obras. Morelia: Fimax Publicistas
  5. ↑ https://www.tobias-broeker.de/rare-manuscripts/mr/muench-gerhart/

Movie

  • Tacambaro. Documentary: The German composer / pianist Gerhart Muench in Mexico. Director: Percy Adlon , 1975.

Audio sample


personal data
SURNAME Münch, Gerhart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1988
Place of death Tacámbaro , Michoacan , Mexico