Gustav Arnold (composer)

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Gustav Arnold (born September 1, 1831 in Altdorf , † September 28, 1900 in Lucerne ) was a Swiss composer , church musician , choir director and Lucerne music director . The city of Lucerne received groundbreaking impulses and a professional orchestra from Arnold.

life and work

Gustav Arnold grew up as the ninth of twelve children of the land clerk and office director Josef Anton (1795-1839) and Josefa Müller (1797-1860) in Altdorf at 11 Schmiedgasse. As a five-year-old, the musically gifted Arnold received piano lessons. From 1841 he received a broader musical education in singing , organ playing and in the score .

From 1844 he attended grammar school in Lucerne. In the Jesuit Church , under the choir director Johann Molitor, he sang in the church choir and played the organ at the student services. Arnold took piano, violin and cello lessons from Bernhard Ernst-Nager . During this time Arnold made his first attempts at composition, which even Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee praised.

After finishing high school, Arnold wanted to continue studying at the Jesuit college in Freiburg im Üchtland . The outbreak of the Sonderbund War in November 1847 made his plan impossible, and so he decided to study at the Leopold Franzens University in Innsbruck . Arnold took the subjects Philology, Religious Studies, Philosophy, History and Algebra. He took composition lessons from the Kapellmeister of the newly built city theater. Due to political unrest, the university was temporarily suspended in April 1848 and Arnold returned to Altdorf.

After the strenuous return trip, Arnold had to go to the Bad Stachelberg spa in Glarus , where he met Karl von Schmid . There they decided to continue studying in Leuven . Encouraged by the Jesuit priest Roh and the Belgian choir conductor, composer and bandmaster Xavier Victor Fidele van Elewijck (1825–1888), Arnold decided to pursue an artistic career instead of an academic one. In 1849, eighteen-year-old Arnold successfully applied for a position as organist and choir director in what is now Lancaster Cathedral , which he took up in the spring of 1850.

In November 1851 he married the financially independent Sara Agnes Walmsley (1818-1884). Together they had five daughters.

Arnold traveled often to Wales and Ireland and studied English and French, but mainly music theory literature. When his role model as a pianist, Charles Hallé, settled in Manchester , Arnold did not hesitate to take piano lessons from 1854 and singing lessons from Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García . There were many great musicians in Manchester at that time. Arnold moved with his family to Salford , where he held the post of piano musician and choir director at the recently built [Salford Cathedral | St John's Cathedral]. From 1856 to 1859 Arnold was organist at St. Augustine Church on Granby Road and from autumn 1859 choir director at St. Wilfrieds (Hulme). In the following years he often traveled to Scotland alone .

Since a successor to Eduard Mertke (1833–1895), the city's music director, was being sought in Lucerne and Arnold had information that confirmed him as Mertke's possible successor, he and his family moved to Lucerne on June 30, 1865, where they went At the beginning they lived on Bruchmattstrasse and later lived at Obergrundstrasse 5 for their entire life.

On October 5, 1865, the Lucerne City Council issued Arnold the certificate of appointment as music director and music teacher for the city of Lucerne. In addition to Arnold's artistic and educational obligations, there were also social obligations. The city of Lucerne received the most noticeable boost in professional music maintenance in connection with Arnold's arrival with the establishment of a chamber music series and a professional orchestra founded in 1875. With the 15th Federal Singers' Festival in Lucerne in July 1873, Arnold gained wide recognition as a composer.

After 18 years of service, Arnold wrote a first letter of resignation to the Lucerne city council in 1882, releasing him as music director from orchestral work and from all municipal obligations at the end of the school year. In December 1883, the choristers of the Catholic church choir (Cäcilienverein), today the Catholic Church Music Association of the Canton of Lucerne (KKVL), said goodbye to Arnold as long-time director, whose president he later became. At Christmas, Arnold passed on his position as music director to Josef Anton Brecht . Arnold's wife Sara Agnes died on March 3, 1884.

Arnold wrote only for certain events or by order: piano pieces and songs for the Manchester salons, choral music for the liturgy , songs for choir books and singing festivals , cantatas for festivals . As a composer , he made the most lasting impression with his festival music , namely for Sempach 1886, Schwyz 1891 and Altdorf 1895, which, in connection with his institutional work, has secured him an entry in the relevant German - and English - music lexicons to this day .

Two days after Arnold passed away, he was buried in the collegiate halls of St. Leodegar in the courtyard of the church, where his grave tablet can still be seen today. The special collection of the Central and University Library in Lucerne keeps the estate of Gustav Arnold, which came to them in the 1980s through the heirs of the Arnold and Schmid family. The Uri Museum also has an extensive collection on Gustav Arnold through donations.

literature

  • Edouard Combe: Festival. In: Paul Burdy (Ed.): Switzerland that sings. Illustrated history of folk song, choral singing and the festival in Switzerland. 1932, pp. 197-235.
  • Balz Engler, Georg Kreis (Hrsg.): The festival - forms, functions, perspectives. Theaterkultur-Verlag, Willisau 1988.
  • David Koch: Gustav Arnold. A musician's life between artistic standards and patriotism. In: Historisches Neujahrsblatt / Historischer Verein Uri, Vol. 103, 2012, online
  • Hans Muheim: Gustav Arnold (composer). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ childhood
  2. ^ Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee
  3. ↑ testimony Leopold Frazens University
  4. ^ Political unrest in Innsbruck
  5. ^ University of Leuwen
  6. ↑ England, Lancaster
  7. ↑ Exhibition drafts
  8. ↑ marriage
  9. ↑ photo of the Arnold family Walmsley
  10. ↑ Life data of Arnold and his children
  11. ↑ List of church masses and organ plays
  12. ↑ Lucerne
  13. ↑ Employment as music director and music teacher for the city of Lucerne
  14. ↑ Chamber music series
  15. ↑ Professional orchestra operation
  16. ^ Federal Singers' Festival in Lucerne, 1873
  17. ↑ termination
  18. ↑ 1886, Sempach Battle Celebration, music by Gustav Arnold
  19. ↑ works
  20. ↑ Catalog of works
  21. ↑ estate
  22. ^ Museum Uri, estate
personal data
SURNAME Arnold, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss composer, church musician, choir director and Lucerne music director
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Altdorf
DATE OF DEATH September 28, 1900
Place of death Lucerne