Gustav Lewin

Gustav Lewin (born April 19, 1869 in Berlin ; † October 17, 1938 in Weimar ) was a German bandmaster, music teacher and composer.

Life

The former monastery building "Am Palais", the main building of the Weimar music (high) school during the time of Gustav Lewin

Gustav Lewin was born in Berlin to a Jewish family. He studied from 1885 to 1889 in his hometown at the Schwantzer Conservatory , where Wilhelm Blanck (piano), Ludwig Bussler (theory, composition) and Willy Nicking (violin) were his teachers, and then worked as Kapellmeister at the city theaters of Lüneburg , Brandenburg , Hanover , Göttingen , Regensburg and Nuremberg . In May 1898 he married the singer Hedwig Haupt, daughter of the Weimar chamber musician Friedrich Wilhelm Haupt, and settled in Weimar. In 1901 Carl Müllerhartung appointed him to the Grand Ducal Music School (today: the Liszt School of Music Weimar ), where Lewin initially taught piano. In 1906 he became a full-time teacher for piano, score and reading; he also led the orchestra in student operas. In 1920 he was granted civil servant status and in 1922 he was given the title of music director. Efforts to be appointed professor failed for financial reasons despite his reputation and the advocacy of the university director Bruno Hinze-Reinhold . In 1922 Lewin converted to Protestantism .

After the National Socialists came to power , Lewin was dismissed from his offices at the music college in July 1933 due to his Jewish descent. He responded with a protest letter to the Thuringian Ministry of Education, in which he wrote:

“My attitude was always German and national, I only felt German, and it is not only known in Weimar's art circles that my life was only dedicated to German art, especially German music - being German in the sense of Richard Wagner was a matter of course for me. "

In the following years Lewin was exposed to numerous anti-Semitic attacks. An insult on the street in the autumn of 1938 took away his last courage to face life. He then ended his life by refusing to eat.

In front of Lewin's former apartment at Steubenstrasse 19, a stumbling block has been reminding of the musician and his fate since 2015 .

Lewin composed piano pieces, chamber music works, choirs and songs.

Works (selection)

Operas

The Hainkönig (manuscript)
König Vogelsang (manuscript; UA Coburg 1928)

Orchestral music

Comedy overture (manuscript; WP Sondershausen)

Chamber music

Song for trombone and piano op.26
Romance for trombone and piano op.27
Andante cantabile for trumpet and piano
String Quartet (manuscript; premier Berlin 1918)
Fantasy for violoncello and piano in F sharp minor (premiered in Berlin 1924)
Sonata for violin and piano (manuscript; premier Berlin 1925)

Piano music

Sonatine (Helvetia-Verlag, Berlin)
Allegro con fuoco op.39
5 piano pieces

Choral music

3 poems for four-part male choir op.39
Consecration of the night for mixed choir

Songs

4 chants op.30
5 chants op.31
5 chants op.32
3 songs op.33
9 modern children's songs
Chamber chants (WP Weimar)

Melodramas

Das klagende Lied , poem by Martin Greif for speaking voice with orchestral accompaniment (premiere in Munich 1907; Rob.Forberg Musikverlag, Leipzig)
2 melodramas based on poems by Hans Eschelbach for speaking voice with piano accompaniment: In Highest Need ; The old woman from Husum (Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg)

literature

German Musicians Lexicon , ed. by Erich H. Müller [v. Azov]. Dresden 1929.
Persecuted musicians in National Socialist Thuringia. A search for clues , ed. by Helen Geyer and Maria Stolarzewicz, Cologne 2020.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Lewin, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German Kapellmeister, music teacher and composer
DATE OF BIRTH	April 19, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	October 17, 1938
Place of death	Weimar