Hanspeter Scherr

Johann Peter "Hanspeter" Scherr (born April 29, 1928 in Fahrnau near Schopfheim , † April 29, 1983 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German composer and choirmaster. He shaped musical life in the lower Wiesental in the middle of the 20th century .

Life

childhood and education

Scherr grew up as the only son of bank employee Emil Scherr and his wife Anna Scherr in Fahrnau and received violin , double bass and piano lessons as a child in Schopfheim and Lörrach . In 1939 he entered the Oberrealschule Schopfheim and soon got his first job as an auxiliary organist at the Evangelical Church in Zell im Wiesental . Scherr also worked as a piano accompanist, u. a. for Paul Rittner , principal cellist of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra , who lived in Wiesental during the war years.

From November 1945 to spring 1949 Scherr attended the Theodor-Heuss-Gymnasium Schopfheim and from 1951 and 1954 took various courses at the Basel Conservatory, now the Hochschule für Musik (Basel) , in conducting , organ , music theory , harmony and composition . The most important teachers of his student days were Bruno Penzien (Schopfheim), Felix Brodtbeck (Basel) and Walter Schlageter (Karlsruhe). In autumn 1952 he took over the interim direction of the men's choir Lörrach- Stetten for a few months .

Hitler Youth and Volkssturm

Scherr was drafted into the Hitler Youth as a youth , where he was involved in the construction of anti-tank trenches in the Belfort region for several weeks in the autumn of 1944, and later on at home with entrenchments . His father has meanwhile been imprisoned by the Gestapo for ten days in Loerrach.

At the end of 1944, Scherr was drafted into the Volkssturm with his father . The first few weeks he worked as a reporter on his father's train. His father was assigned to contingent I and served as platoon leader of the 2nd company of the 2nd Volkssturm battalion in Lörrach. Scherr age of 16 of the levy III was thereafter subjected to military training in Reichsarbeitsdienst recruited (RAD); At the end of January 1945 he traveled via Immendingen to Wutzlhofen near Regensburg and began his military service as worker 13a on the 1st platoon of the 3rd group of the RAD department 5/290. After the heavy air raid on February 5, 1945, Scherr was involved in clearing up the main train station and restoring the destroyed railway line; Scherr experienced another air raid on March 13, 1945 at close range. Contrary to his expectation to be released after six weeks of RAD, Scherr was drafted into the Wehrmacht infantry in Jaroměř ( Czechoslovakia ) at the end of March 1945 , but returned to Schopfheim via Nuremberg and Regensburg before the end of the war .

Professional career

Scherr wrote his first compositions in his youth, e. B. 1944 a violin concerto and a symphony . Many works were created before the end of his studies; in later years composing moved into the background in favor of conducting. After completing his studies, Scherr became the conductor of several choral societies in his home region: 1953 in Tegernau , 1954 in Haagen and Kürnberg , and 1955 in Bürchau and Neuenweg , where he also became organist at the Protestant Church in 1956 . In June 1971 he took over the management of the Schopfheim Choral Society. Contrary to the emerging trend from pop music, he performed mainly classical works with his choirs. a. Bach , Beethoven , Mendelssohn , Schubert and in addition to his own compositions in the vocal area, especially Carl Friedrich Zelter . This is also reflected in his tonal language, which is based on classic-romantic traditions.

In 1962, Scherr agreed to work as post office owner and managing director of the local tourist association for his place of residence in Bürchau. In 1968 he was elected to the committee of the Alemannic Singers Association and was awarded honorary membership in April 1982.

In 1983 Scherr became seriously ill and died shortly after on his 55th birthday in a Freiburg hospital. He left behind his wife Waltraud and four children.

Works (selection)

• Symphony No. 1 in C major, op.5 (before 1944)
• Violin Concerto No. 1 in D minor, op.6 (1944)
• 2 Fantasies for Organ, op.16 (1946)
• Symphony No. 2 in D major, op.15 (1947)
• Violin Sonata No. 1, op.29 (1948)
• "Divertimento" for orchestra, op. 41 (1960)
• Folk song suite for choir and orchestra (1967)
• Duo for violin and double bass (1978)
• "Epitaph" for string quartet
• Piano and orchestral songs to texts by Brecht, Hesse, Morgenstern, Seidel etc.
• Choir songs and folk song arrangements for women, men and mixed choirs

swell

• Compositional estate of Hanspeter Scherr (privately stored in Basel since 2015)
• Portrait in the Markgräfler Tagblatt , April 20, 1979.
• Concert review in the Badische Zeitung , April 30, 1979.

literature

• Hansjörg Noe: "Now I can talk about it ...". Contemporary witnesses, diaries and autobiographical documents on National Socialism in Lörrach. Waldemar Lutz Verlag, Lörrach, 2015, pp. 135–137. ( online )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter Schmoll: Air raids on Regensburg. The Messerschmitt works and Regensburg in the crosshairs of allied bombers 1939-1945. Regenstauf 2015, pp. 177ff and 191ff.