Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen

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Hermann Wolfgang Sartorius Freiherr von Waltershausen (born October 12, 1882 in Göttingen , † August 13, 1954 in Munich ) was a German composer , conductor , music teacher and music writer.

Life

Hermann Wolfgang Sartorius von Waltershausen, son of the economist August Sartorius von Waltershausen (1852–1938) and his wife Charlotte born. Freiin von Kapherr, came from a family that goes back to the historian Georg Friedrich Sartorius , who was raised to hereditary nobility in 1827 as Freiherr von Waltershausen . Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen rarely used the surname part Sartorius throughout his life.

Waltershausen grew up in Strasbourg after his family moved there from Göttingen. He suffered from poor health as a child. As a result of a disease of lymphogranulomatosis , his right arm and leg had to be amputated at the age of nine. However, he did not give up his goal of becoming a musician and developed a piano technique with his left hand which, with the help of the pedal, enabled him to almost compensate for the lack of his right hand. Later on, his disability did not prevent him from performing as a conductor.

Waltershausen began his musical studies in Strasbourg with Marie-Joseph Erb (1858–1944). From 1901 he lived in Munich, where he continued his education in music theory and composition with Ludwig Thuille until 1907 . Between 1905 and 1915 he also studied piano with August Schmid-Lindner . In 1917 he founded a practical seminar for music students , which was followed by the establishment of a seminar for private music teachers in 1933. These initially private events were converted into the state-approved Waltershausen Seminar in 1948 . With his seminars Waltershausen became one of the most influential music teachers in Munich. His most famous students include u. a. Eugen Jochum , Fritz Büchtger , Ernst Kutzer and Wilhelm Killmayer .

In 1920 Waltershausen was appointed professor and deputy director of the Munich Academy of Music , and in 1923 promoted to director and deputy academy president. In addition, he was a program advisor for Bayerischer Rundfunk . In 1933 Waltershausen took early retirement and, as a private music teacher, devoted himself mainly to work in his seminars.

In 1927 Waltershausen married the composer Philippine Schick (1893-1970), who had previously been his student for several years. Their daughter Lore, born in 1928, came from the marriage. In 1932, Philippine Schick divorced her husband because he did not allow her own artistic work to be free. Then Waltershausen married the pianist Caroline Strößner (1900–1974), also one of his students, in 1933. This marriage remained childless.

Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen died in 1954 of complications from a stroke. His music education work was continued by his wife Caroline. The Munich City Library keeps the composer's estate .

Compositional creation

The traditional work of Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen is relatively small. Some of his compositions were destroyed in World War II, as evidenced by the gaps in the row of opus numbers. Stylistically, it can be assigned to the late Romantic period . Waltershausen particularly valued Hans Pfitzner and Richard Strauss among his contemporaries . Like them, he too saw himself in the tradition of Richard Wagner , which is also reflected in the fact that he wrote the libretti of his operas himself.

Waltershausen's early work consists mainly of operas and songs. The opera Colonel Chabert should be emphasized here , based on the work of the same name by Honoré de Balzac , which, after its premiere in 1912, became the composer's most successful work and was able to hold on to important stages at home and abroad for several years. In the 1920s Waltershausen turned to the composition of large orchestral works, of which the Apocalyptic Symphony and the Nativity Music received particular attention. After completing his last opera The Countess of Tolosa in 1936, the composer ended his artistic career and wrote only a few contrapuntal pieces for study purposes for his students.

After Waltershausen's death, his works were largely forgotten. Little research has been done on them so far. In March 2010, the Deutsche Oper Berlin presented Waltershausen's musical tragedy Colonel Chabert with great success for public and press discussions.

Music literary work

The main focus of the music writer Waltershausen was on the genre of the opera. In addition to several studies on individual works, he wrote an extensive work on opera dramaturgy, which was never published.

Similar to Hans Pfitzner, Waltershausen also appeared as an opponent of atonal music , which he described in his book on Strauss as the "honest and perfect expression of the character destruction of our time". In addition, he believed that every people developed its own musical character, which was incompatible with that of other peoples. Accordingly, although he showed respect for the music of foreign ( Claude Debussy , Giacomo Puccini ) and Jewish composers ( Gustav Mahler , Franz Schreker ), he did not recommend their works for “Germanic” composers for imitation. Although there were parallels in his view of music to the later ideas of the National Socialists , Waltershausen got along poorly with them. The increasing Nazi influence also encouraged him to take early retirement in 1933.

In addition to writings on music, Waltershausen also wrote works of fiction, of which only one volume of poems was printed.

Honors

Works

Compositions

Stage works

(all libretti by the composer)

  • Else Klapperzehen , Musical Comedy in 2 Acts (1907, Premiere Dresden 1909)
  • Colonel Chabert , music tragedy in 3 acts based on Honoré de Balzac's Comtesse à deux maris op.10 (1910, premiere Frankfurt / Main January 18, 1912)
  • Richardis , Romantic Opera in 3 Acts, op.14 (1914, premiered Karlsruhe 1915)
  • The Rauhenstein wedding , opera in 3 acts op.17 (1918, premiere Karlsruhe 1919)
  • The Countess of Tolosa , opera in 2 parts or 7 pictures (1932–36, premiere Bayerischer Rundfunk Munich 1958, previously unperformed)

Orchestral works

  • Apocalyptic Symphony in C minor, Op. 20 (1924)
  • Hero and Leander , Symphonic Poetry op. 22 (1925; also: Symphony No. 2 in E major)
  • Nativity music for harpsichord and chamber orchestra op.23 (1926)
  • Orchestra partita over three sacred chants op.24 (1928)
  • Comedy Overture in C major op.26 (1930)
  • Passion and Resurrection Music op.27 (1932)

Vocal compositions

  • Two songs for high voice and piano (1913)
  • Eight Cantos for high voice and orchestra op.11 (1913)
  • Seven chants, a circle of songs after Ricarda Huch for high female voice and piano op.12 (1913)
  • Three secular songs for high soprano and small orchestra op.13 (1913)
  • Cophtisches Lied for baritone and piano op.15 (1914)
  • Alkestis , melodrama for speakers, choirs and orchestra op.25 (1929)
  • Die Wunder der Julnächte for two-part children's choir and a keyboard instrument (1934)

Piano and chamber music

  • String Quartet in E minor op.16 (1915)
  • Polyphonic Studies op.21 for piano (1921)
  • smaller contrapuntal studies (canons, fugues)

Fonts

  • Musical style in individual presentations :
    • Volume 1, The Magic Flute, an opera-dramaturgical study (1920)
    • Volume 2, The Siegfried Idyll or Return to Nature (1920)
    • Volume 3, Der Freischütz, an attempt on musical romanticism (1920)
    • Volume 4, Orpheus and Eurydice, an opera-dramaturgical study (1923)
  • Richard Strauss, an attempt (1921)
  • Music, dramaturgy, education. Collected Articles (1926)
  • Conducting education (1929)
  • Poems from the years 1930–1934 (1934)
  • The Art of Conducting (1942)
  • Memoirs (unpublished)
  • Dramaturgy of the opera (unpublished)
  • several articles for music magazines
  • 8 unpublished dramas

literature

  • Karl-Robert Danler / Richard Mader: Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen . (= Composers in Bavaria 4). Schneider, Tutzing 1984.

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Waltershausen, Hermann Wolfgang von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Waltershausen, Hermann Wolfgang Sartorius Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, conductor, music teacher and music writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 12, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Goettingen
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 1954
Place of death Munich