Hermann Goetz

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Herrmann Goetz

Hermann Gustav Goetz (born December 7, 1840 in Königsberg , † December 3, 1876 in Hottingen near Zurich ) was a German composer .

Life

Goetz was born as the son of a music-loving beer brewer, learned to play the piano at an early age, conducted private amateur performances and began to compose a sonata for piano four hands at the age of 15. He also attended high school in his hometown. From 1857 on, Louis Köhler , who lived in Königsberg, took over his musical training. At the end of the 1850s he began to study mathematics, but dropped out after three semesters in order to move to the Stern Conservatory in Berlin in 1860 . Here he studied piano with Hans von Bülow , counterpoint and instrumentation with Hugo Ulrich and conducting with Julius Stern . With brilliant success he played his piano concerto in E flat major at the final exam in 1862 , thus completing his studies.

In the following year, through the mediation of Carl Reinecke , Goetz got a job as organist at the town church of Winterthur - as the successor to Theodor Kirchner . Here he was gradually able to develop a varied musical activity as a pianist, conductor, organist and piano teacher. On September 22, 1868, he married Laura Wirth, the wedding was performed by their mutual friend (and Goetz 'librettist) Joseph Victor Widmann .

Two years later, the couple moved to the community of Hottingen, which is now a district of Zurich, but Goetz stayed in Winterthur until 1872. From 1870 to 1874 he also wrote reviews for a music magazine. On October 11, 1874, the opera The Taming of the Shrew, begun in Winterthur and finished in Zurich, had a successful world premiere in Mannheim .

In the last years of his life, Goetz had to forego concert activities and lessons, as his tuberculosis , which he had been suffering from since the 1850s, worsened and finally - four days before his 36th birthday - led to his death. His grave is in the Rehalp cemetery in Zurich (FG 85133).

style

Although Goetz showed a keen interest in the important trends of his time - embodied by Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner on the one hand and Johannes Brahms on the other hand - he oriented himself more towards Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy . Robert Schumann's influences can also be recognized. Goetz's music is characterized by poetry and great clarity. She can be described as tending to be calm and introverted. Goetz almost completely avoids spectacular effects. Characteristic is his high level of compositional mastery, which comes into its own particularly in the motivic connection and composition density. For a long time Goetz was almost forgotten, although Gustav Mahler repeatedly performed some of his works; only since the 1990s has his work been given more attention. All in all, Goetz is not a pioneering innovator, but a composer who mastered the compositional technique with ease and whose works, because of their high level, belied the label “little master”.

The Symphony in F major and the Violin Concerto in G major have their strongest moments in their pronounced cantabile passages. The sweeping middle section of the cyclical violin concerto is reminiscent of Max Bruch from afar . In his F major symphony, however, melodies that are reminiscent of Schumann or Brahms can be found in the middle movements, the cheerful intermezzo and an elegiac minor adagio. The piano pieces loose leaves op. 7 and Genrebilder op. 13 are delicate, and occasionally zufahrende character pieces in schumannschem or mendelssohnschem reflection. In most of his works Goetz struck cheerful, relaxed tones. But - as in the introduction to the final movement of his piano quartet in E major - he also managed to create moments of tragic affect. Nänie for choir and orchestra op. 10 preceded Brahms's composition of the same Schiller text, but was supplanted by it.

Although his opera The Taming of the Shrew was reenacted on many stages after its premiere, it was not a lasting success. Successful performances in recent years have, however, confirmed their stage effectiveness. Shortly before his death, Goetz also composed great music in the unfinished opera Francesca da Rimini based on Dante . Despite the completion by Ernst Frank , the work lacks the dramatic stringency that ensures stage effectiveness.

Works

Orchestral works

  • Symphony in E minor (1866, destroyed by Laura Goetz after his death and only survived in fragments)
  • Symphony in F major op.9 (1873)
  • Spring Overture op.15 (1864)
  • Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major (1861)
  • Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major op.18 (1867)
  • Sketches for a third piano concerto in D major
  • Violin Concerto in G major op.22 (1868)

Vocal music

  • Der Widerspänstigen Tähmung , comic opera in four acts (1868–1873), libretto by Joseph Victor Widmann based on Shakespeare, world premiere on October 11, 1874 in Mannheim
  • Francesca da Rimini , opera in three acts (1875/76, unfinished; completed by Ernst Frank), libretto by Goetz and JV Widmann, world premiere on September 30, 1877 in Mannheim
  • The 137th Psalm for soprano, choir and orchestra op.14 (1864)
  • The lake is so quiet in the evening ( Wolfgang Müller von Königswinter ) for tenor (or soprano), male choir and orchestra op.11 (1868)
  • Nänie ( Friedrich Schiller ) for choir and orchestra op.10 (1874)

Chamber music

  • Piano trio in G minor, Op. 1 (1863), dedicated to Hans von Bülow - first performance December 13, 1865 in Winterthur
  • Three easy pieces for violin and piano op.2 (1863)
  • String quartet in B flat major (1865/66), dedicated to Carl Reinecke - first performance January 5, 1886 in Zurich
  • Piano quartet in E major op. 6 (1867), dedicated to Johannes Brahms - first performed in Zurich in 1869
  • Piano quintet in C minor, Op. 16 (1874) - premiered January 23, 1876 in Zurich

Piano music

  • 2 Sonatinas (F major, E flat major) op.8 (1871)
  • Loose leaves op.7 (1864–1869)
  • Genre Pictures op.13 (1870–1876)
  • Sonata for piano for 4 bangs. D major (around 1855)
  • Sonata for piano for 4 bangs. G minor op.17 (1865)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Goetz's estate and works index (PDF, 112 kB) of the Zurich Central Library , p. 5.
  2. ↑ Ernst Frank. In: New German Biography. Edited by the Bavarian State Library. Vol. 6. Berlin 1964, p. 586 f. ISBN 3-428-00187-7
  3. ↑ Margaret Ross Griffel: Operas in German: A Dictionary (Revisited edition). Rowman & Littlefield, 2018, p. 162.
personal data
SURNAME Goetz, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goetz, Hermann Gustav (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Koenigsberg
DATE OF DEATH December 3, 1876
Place of death Hottingen near Zurich