Gottfried Müller (composer)

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Joachim Gottfried Müller (born June 8, 1914 in Dresden ; † May 3, 1993 in Nuremberg ) was a German composer and organist.

Life

Gottfried Müller was the son of the Oberlandeskirchenrat and founder of the Saxon Trumpet Mission Adolf Müller . The pupil of the Kreuzgymnasium Dresden - in his early youth he used the stage name "Müntzer" to hide his compositions from his classmates - studied early with the Dresden church music director Bernhard Pfannstiehl , also for a year at the University of Edinburgh with Donald Francis Tovey . In 1932 Karl Straube taught him to play the organ in Leipzig. In the same year Fritz Busch performed Müller's 90th Psalm for soloists, choir and orchestra. A little later, Müller's Variations and Fugue on the folk song “Morgenrot” op. 2 were premiered at the Venice International Music Festival.

Effective May 1, 1933 , Müller became an NSDAP member with party number 2,458,091. In 1934 his Deutsches Heldenrequiem op. 4, which was dedicated to a text by Klaus Niedner, was premiered by Karl Elmendorff at the Tonkünstlerfest in Wiesbaden in 1934 . In a biographical note in 1961, the composer instead indicated the dedication “for the fallen of the First World War”. The work was performed several times in the following years. On the occasion of a performance in 1934, his teacher Karl Straube wrote: "[...] In humility and awe it will be evident to you that you are a gifted person, you have been given the pound of musical elemental power [...]". In the same year, the Lord Mayor of Dresden, Ernst Zörner, granted him an honorary salary and in 1937 awarded Müller the Art Prize of the City of Dresden for his op .

From 1935 Müller did military service, but after the performance of his Morgenrot Variations op. 2 at the annual conference of the Reich Chamber of Culture in 1936 in the Berlin Philharmonic under Wilhelm Furtwängler, Adolf Hitler intervened to exempt him from the second year of military service. In 1937 the variations on “Innsbruck, I must let you” were premiered at the same time under Rudolf Volkmann in Jena and Karl Elmendorff in Mannheim, and in 1939 Müller's Concerto for Large Orchestra op. 5 was premiered in Mannheim under Karl Elmendorff. In 1940 Germany stands up! March song against England , for voice and piano based on a text by his brother Christoph Müller. In 1942 Gottfried Müller was granted a state grant by the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda . From 1942 to 1945 Müller was a lecturer at the Leipzig University of Music. In 1944 Müller's 5-movement symphonic choral work Führerworte op. 7 based on texts by Adolf Hitler was premiered in Dresden under the direction of Elmendorff. In the same year Gottfried Müller was accepted as the youngest of 16 composers in the God-gifted list.

In 1945 Gottfried Müller became cantor in Glaubitz near Riesa. In 1951 his motet Tröstet, Tröstet mein Volk for 7-part mixed choir a cappella was premiered at the Protestant Church Congress in Berlin under Günther Arndt . From 1952 he worked as a church musician in Berlin-Hermsdorf . His music for strings and timpani was premiered in 1958 in Vienna by Heinrich Hollreiser . From 1961 to 1979 Müller was a lecturer in music theory at the Meistersinger Conservatory in Nuremberg. In 1962 Müller's Capriccio for large orchestra under Heinrich Hollreiser was premiered in Mannheim and in 1967 his symphony after Dürer under the same conductor in Nuremberg. In the 1980s and 90s, the Windsbach boys' choir under its then director Karl-Friedrich Beringer performed numerous motets as part of its concert tours in Germany and abroad. In 1993 Albrecht Mayer recorded Müller's oboe quintet with the Bamberg String Quartet on CD and in 1996 Peter Gülke recorded the Concerto for Large Orchestra op. 5 with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, also for a CD. In 2004, Müller's Calls to the Night , a sequence for trumpet solo, was recorded on CD by Ludwig Güttler .

Müller wrote choral and orchestral works (in addition to the above a mass , the cantata Von den Plagen und vom Licht , Fantasie - Aria - Finale for orchestra and Toccata about BACH for large orchestra), solo concerts and the like. a. for piano and orchestra, 2 pianos and orchestra, violin and orchestra, oboe and orchestra, piano and chamber music as well as sacred music (organ works, vocal compositions a cappella).

Works (selection)

  • 90th Psalm for mixed choir and large orchestra (WP 1932 Dresden)
  • Organ choirs (1932, premier 1934 Wiesbaden)
  • Variations and Fugue on a German Folk Song (Premiere 1932 Venice)
  • Deutsches Heldenrequiem for tenor solo, choir and orchestra (WP 1934 Wiesbaden)
  • Variations on Innsbruck, I must leave you for small orchestra (premiered 1937 Jena and Mannheim)
  • Concert for large orchestra (WP 1939 Mannheim)
  • Canzona in mirror counterpoint for strings (1944, premiered 1965 Nuremberg)
  • Sonata for oboe solo (1948)
  • Now come the Savior of the Gentiles. Organ Partita (1949–1950)
  • Comfort, comfort my people. Motet for 7-part choir (premiered 1951 Berlin)
  • Come God Creator Holy Spirit. Organ Partita (1952)
  • Oboe Concerto (1952)
  • Fantasy for flute and orchestra
  • Concertino for three pianos (premiered 1963 Nuremberg)
  • Symphony after Dürer (premiered 1967 Nuremberg)
  • String quartet in C (premiere 1968 Nuremberg)
  • Fuga apokalyptica (premiered 1971 Nuremberg)

literature

  • Fred K. Prieberg : Music in the Nazi State . Fischer Taschenbuch Verl., Frankfurt a. M., 1982, ISBN 3-596-26901-6 , pp. 234-241.
  • Thomas Schinköth: Between Psalm 90 and Fuehrer's words: The composer Gottfried Müller , in: Dresden and advanced music in the 20th century. Part II: 1933-1966 , ed. by Matthias Herrmann and Hanns-Werner Heister, Laaber 2002, pp. 305-310 ( Musik in Dresden 5), ISBN 3-89007-510-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook German Musicians 1933-1945 . Kiel 2004, CD-ROM Lexicon, p. 4719.
  2. ↑ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook German Musicians 1933-1945 . Kiel 2004, CD-ROM Lexicon, p. 4727.
  3. ↑ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook German Musicians 1933-1945 . Kiel 2004, CD-ROM Lexicon, p. 4721.
  4. ^ Gunnar Wiegand: Music and War: Linguistic and compositional mechanisms in Gottfried Müller's German Heldenrequiem and Fuehrer's words . In: Annemarie Firme, Ramona Hocker (Ed.): From battle hymns and protest songs . Bielefeld, transcript-Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-89942-561-8 , p. 177.
  5. ↑ Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook German Musicians 1933-1945 . Kiel 2004, CD-ROM Lexicon, p. 4724.
  6. ↑ Oliver Rathkolb : Loyal to the Führer and God-Grace. Artist elite in the Third Reich . Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-215-07490-7 .
  7. ↑ Art. Müller, Gottfried , in: Kürschner's German Musicians Calendar 1954. Walter de Gruyter & Co, Berlin 1954, Sp. 864–865
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Gottfried
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Müller, Joachim Gottfried (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and organist
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1993
Place of death Nuremberg