Hans Boll

Hans Boll (born November 25, 1923 in Apolda / Thuringia ; † June 12, 2016 in Berlin ) was a German composer , arranger, instrumentalist and conductor .

Life

Childhood (1923 to 1939)

Hans Boll was born on November 25, 1923 in Apolda, the only child of his parents. His parents had their own hairdressing business and intended to raise young Hans as their successor for the business. However, he showed a strong devotion to music from early childhood , which was initially not taken seriously by his parents. Although he was allowed to take lessons on a few instruments - concert guitar , violin and piano - it was a long time before his parents sensed that their son would not let himself be dissuaded from his passion for music.

Youth (1939 to 1948)

At the age of 16, he broke off his hairdressing apprenticeship, took the entrance exam at the University of Music in Weimar and began to study music director. As a result of the Second World War , he had to break off this course and do his military service. His apprenticeship took place in France , where, after completing his basic training in a musical corps, he was accepted as an oboist (note: he had taken the oboe as an orchestral instrument in Weimar , a requirement that was compulsory in the conductor's studies). Until 1944 he worked as an oboist in this music corps, which was stationed in various areas of the Russian war zone. After that, all instruments were relocated to Tarnowitz ( Poland ), where they were lost due to the effects of the war.

Due to an injury, he escaped captivity shortly before the end of the war. Since all of his musical instruments ( oboe , concert guitar , as well as a precious Morino accordion ) were lost during the war, he decided to comply with his father's request and take over the hairdressing business.

Professional development (1948 to 1969)

After his comrades returned from captivity in 1948, they convinced him to take up the music again. They founded an ensemble and since then have been heard regularly on the Weimar regional broadcaster. Some time later he took part in the Klingenthaler Musiktage and won first place. From 1951 to 1952 he worked as an editor at the then Berliner Rundfunk , from 1952 to 1953 he directed a mixed orchestra with folk instruments at the State Folk Art Ensemble of the GDR and then received one at the Hochschule für Musik Berlin (later Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler ) in 1953 Chair for artistic accordion playing, ensemble playing, instrumentation and other subjects and built up a specialty with the aim of primarily training accordion and guitar teachers for music schools .

In 1955 he was awarded the State Prize for Artistic Creativity, 1st Class , by the then Minister of Culture .

In 1956 he defied the instructions of the Minister of Culture, took part in the German Accordion Championship in Ludwigsburg - there was still no wall - and there, as a GDR citizen, achieved the title of "German Accordion Master". Hans Boll then stopped participating in competitions in order to focus more closely on his teaching activities at the university, his freelance work at the State Broadcasting Committee and extensive concert activities at home and abroad. Concert tours have taken him to Finland , Poland, India , Iraq , Austria , Mongolia , Romania , Italy , Switzerland and Russia .

Professional development (1970 to 1984)

From 1970 to 1974 Hans Boll completed a composition course as part of evening and distance learning with Gerhard Tittel . Before that, he had taken private composition lessons from Günter Kochan and conducting lessons from Willy Niepolt in order to perfect his conducting skills. Until 1984 he worked in the GDR as a composer , arranger, instrumentalist and conductor.

Since the work of a new rector at the Hochschule für Musik, the relationship between Hans Boll and some members of the university management has become increasingly complicated, so that after a scandal that the aforementioned rector publicly fought at the Dies academicus , Hans Boll considered leaving the GDR forever . In 1984 the opportunity arose during a concert tour with the famous actress and singer Vera Oelschlegel in Italy.

Professional new beginning (1984 to today)

The new beginning in the Federal Republic of Germany was very difficult for him at the beginning. After a time without employment and during the further course of his professional reorientation, he was able to establish contacts with publishers again, have unpublished works printed and also compose new ones. Among other things, he was also successful as the musical director of the Bochum planetarium.

The contact with the Lethmater Accordion Orchestra was a real stroke of luck for him. He took over the direction of the orchestra from 1987 to 1989 and composed symphonic variations on " Innsbruck, I must let you " especially for this orchestra , took part in a competition that takes place every 3 years and immediately won 2nd place in the "OBERSTUFE" of 82 participating orchestras in this category . He also led the State Youth Accordion Orchestra of North Rhine-Westphalia with Guido Wagner for a few years and had several appearances abroad. The attempt to publish a new record after the fall of the Wall in 1989 was unsuccessful due to a lack of demand. From 1990 to 1992 Hans Boll was the conductor of the Bochum Zither Orchestra.

outlook

For the next few years he plans to bring out a series of works that could not be published in the GDR due to a lack of paper and to turn to literature that is urgently needed by musicians and teachers.

Personal

Hans Boll was married three times. His first two marriages each produced a son who shared his interest in music but did not want to make music their profession. His second wife, Christine Boll , who was also employed as a teacher at the university, worked successfully as a musician and went on several concert tours with him, died on May 28, 1973. His third wife, who did not have a musical profession and had two sons with him brought the marriage, he was divorced after he left the GDR in 1984 during a concert tour in Italy and used it to move to the Federal Republic. After going through various musical stations in the last phase of his life, he returned to his family in 2011 after a stroke. Here he died at the age of 92 during a short stay at the Bw Hospital on June 12, 2016.

Services

During his university career, he trained around 40 award winners, some of whom are still active as soloists and recognized teachers (e.g. Gudrun Wall and Jürgen Ganzer ). In the years up to 1984, about 450 studio recordings were made by Hans Boll , as a student of Georg Reidys researched in a thesis about Hans Boll's life's work at the University of Music, Dortmund . I.a. he was director of the Lethmater Accordion Orchestra in Iserlohn and the State Youth Accordion Orchestra of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Compositions (selection)

• Adagio ostinato e Allegro finale
• Aria - Toccata - Fugato Interrotto E Corale
• Aria
• Encounters for plucked orchestra
• Bol (l) ero Martellato
• The apple
• The little Prince
• fantasy
• Impressions for accordion duo
• Inmortal - In memoriam Astor Piazzolla
• Contrasts
• Musical delicacies
• Planetarium Suite
• Prelude for mandolin and guitar
• Travel pictures from the Balkans
• Suite miniature
• Tango medley
• The Kepler Theme
• Toccata - Passacaglia - Fugue
• Universe - Transparent Dreams
• Variations on "Innsbruck I have to let you"

Web links

• Works by and about Hans Boll in the catalog of the German National Library