Hermann Suter

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Photo from the 1920s
Hermann Suter-Buechi (1870–1926), organist, music teacher, conductor, composer, director of the Basel Conservatory, grave in the Hörnli cemetery, Riehen, Basel-Stadt
Grave in the Hörnli cemetery , Riehen, Basel-Stadt

Hermann Suter (born April 28, 1870 in Kaiserstuhl (Aargau) , † June 22, 1926 in Basel ) was a Swiss composer and choir conductor .

Life

Memorial plaque for Hermann Suter on St. Margarethen in Binningen
Hermann Suter-Buechi (1870–1926), organist, music teacher, conductor, composer, director of the Basel Conservatory, grave in the Hörnli cemetery, Riehen, Basel-Stadt
Funerary inscription in the Hörnli cemetery , Riehen, Basel-Stadt

Alongside Friedrich Hegar and Hans Huber  , Suter was an important representative of instrumental and choral music in German-speaking Switzerland at the turn of the 20th century. He was a student of Huber and later of Carl Reinecke in Leipzig . After a position as organist in Zurich (from 1894), he headed the Basler Gesangverein and the Liedertafel from 1902 until almost his death, and conducted the symphony concerts of the Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft . For three years he was director of the conservatory in Basel. In 1913 the University of Basel honored him with an honorary doctorate. From 1916 until his death, Suter lived in Binningen on St. Margarethen .

Stylistically, Suter is less close to his teacher Hans Huber and more closely to Johannes Brahms . His most important work is the late Romantic oratorio Le Laudi di San Francesco d'Assisi from 1923, based on the Canticle of the Sun by Francis of Assisi , which first made him internationally known. In 1924 the oratorio was premiered by Suter for the centenary of the Basler Gesangverein. Earlier works - in addition to chamber and choral music - are a symphony in D minor (1914), a violin concerto written for Adolf Busch and a symphonic poem . In 1923 he wrote the music for the Wettstein and Riehen Festival by Albert Oeri ; this is the origin of the Wettstein March , which is still popular today . Suter also wrote a new Swiss national anthem (the text for it came from Carl Albrecht Bernoulli ), but it did not catch on.

literature

  • Christoph Ballmer: Suter, Hermann. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Timothey Francis Carney: Hermann Suter's Oratorio Le Laudi di San Francesco d'Assisi: A Reflection of Swiss Musical Life in the Early Twentieth Century . Dissertation. University of Illinois, 1994
  • Wilhelm Merian: Hermann Suter: A picture of life as a contribution to Swiss music history . 2 volumes. Basel 1936/37
  • Soundtracks: Hermann Suter and musical life around 1900. Exhibition on the 75th anniversary of Hermann Suter's death, 1870–1926 . Museum Schiff, Laufenburg, exhibition catalog, 2001.
  • AH ( Alfred Heuss ): Hermann Suter died on June 22 .. In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , 93. Born, July / August 1926 Issue 7.8, p 423; Obituary.

Web links

Commons : Hermann Suter  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Hess : From crisis mood to festive frenzy: the "Four Hundred Years Unification Celebration of Riehen and Basel" in 1923 . Master's thesis in the History Seminar of the University of Basel, 1995.
personal data
SURNAME Suter, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaiserstuhl AG
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1926
Place of death Basel