Hermann Ley (organist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hermann Peter Ley (born July 12, 1845 in Aabenraa ; † November 28, 1930 in Lübeck ) was a German organist , choir director and composer .

Life

Hermann Ley was the son of a teacher and organist. From 1864 to 1867 he studied at the Leipzig Conservatory , with Moritz Hauptmann , Ernst Friedrich Richter , Louis Plaidy , Robert Papperitz , Carl Reinecke and Franz Brendel , among others . In 1869 he found his first job as organist for garrison services in the chapel of Gottorf Castle . In the same year he went to Kiel as organist at the Heiligengeistkirche . In 1875 he was appointed organist at Lübeck Cathedral as the successor to Karl Friedrich Johannes Brinkmann . He held this position for almost 50 years until he retired on April 1, 1922. His successor, but only part-time due to the circumstances of the time, was Wilhelm Stahl . In 1880 Ley founded a choral society for a cappella singing, which only existed for a short time.

During his tenure, the cathedral got a completely new organ with 64 registers from the Walcker company behind the baroque facade by Arp Schnitger from 1696/99. Only the console of the Arp Schnitger organ remained, which was later moved to the St. Annen Museum . Ley used the new organ for numerous concerts and organ lectures ; He preferred contemporary Belgian and French organ music as well as transcriptions of orchestral works. The then highly praised modern Walcker organ with its late romantic sound ideal burned during the air raid on Lübeck in 1942. Based on his own experience, Ley was critical of the organ movement and, at the age of 80, defended the late romantic modern organ against Hans Henny Jahnn in the Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau .

Works

  • Ave Maria for soprano and organ.
  • A. Hippolyte Chelard : Overture to the opera " Macbeth " for piano four hands. Munich: Laibl 1893
  • Elegies for trumpet and organ, op. 12, 1911
  • Oh God from Heaven, see it: Motet for the four hundred year Reformation celebration in 1917 (for three-part female choir)
Digitized version of the autograph , Lübeck City Library
  • Two motets for four-part female choir: 1. Are you the one who is supposed to come? For the third Advent. 2. Rejoice in the Lord . For the fourth Advent.
Digitized version of the autograph , Lübeck City Library
  • Two organ pieces: Op. 14 Fantasy on "God save the king". Lübeck: Adolph Berens [1920?]

Fonts

  • The large organ in Lübeck Cathedral: built in 1893 by EF Walcker and Cie in Ludwigsburg. Lübeck: Borchers 1893
  • About organs, organ playing and organ building: mixed travel sketches. In: Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau 21 (1900/1901), p. 196
  • The dance of death organ in St. Mary's Church in Lübeck. In: Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau 27 (1906/07), pp. 280–282
  • For the modern organ. In: Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau 45 (1924)
  • On the chapter "Against the modern organ" , In: Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau 45 (1925), pp. 332–333.

literature

  • Ley, Hermann Peter , in: Carl Stiehl : Lübeckisches Tonkünstlerlexikon. Leipzig: Hesse 1887 ( digitized version ), p. 12
  • Wilhelm steel: music history of Lübeck. Volume II: Sacred Music. Kassel and Basel: Bärenreiter 1952, esp.p. 142

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical data mainly based on Stahl (Lit.)
  2. ^ Johann Hennings: Lübeck's music history I: The worldly music. Kassel and Basel: Bärenreiter 1951, p. 224
  3. ↑ Dietrich Wölfel: The wonderful world of the organ. Lübeck as an organ city. 2nd Edition. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2004, ISBN 3-7950-1261-9 , p. 21
  4. ^ Wilhelm Stahl: Lübeck's music history. Volume II: Sacred Music. Kassel and Basel: Bärenreiter 1952, p. 161
  5. ↑ Hans Fidom: diversity in unity: discussions on organ building in Germany between 1880 and 1918. Royal Dutch Organists Association, 2002, 184
personal data
SURNAME Ley, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ley, Hermann Peter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German organist, choir director and composer
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Aabenraa
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1930
Place of death Lübeck