Joachim Schweppe

Joachim Schweppe (born March 3, 1926 in Kiel , † December 22, 1999 in Hamburg ) was a German composer and church musician .

Life

Joachim Schweppe grew up in Hamburg. He visited the Christianeum in Hamburg-Othmarschen and was drafted into the military the day before his Abitur examination. At that time he was already composing. Shortly before the end of the war, he came to Glashütte as an air force helper. In the mornings the teachers teach in the positions, in the afternoon he is given special leave to take piano lessons.

After military service in the Baltic States and being wounded, Schweppe resumed his music studies in Hamburg and Lübeck in 1946, studying piano (Carlo Stephan, Eliza Hansen and Hans Erich Riebensahm), composition (Ernst Gernot Klußmann) and conducting (Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg). At the beginning of the 1950s Schweppe lived for some time in the so-called Steinhagenhaus in Hamburg-Rahlstedt together with other artists, musicians, painters, graphic artists and writers. Here he met the painter Karlo Kriete, who impressed him very much and introduced him to modern painting. In addition, he first came into contact with the poetry of Georg Trakl , which fascinated him and was to inspire him to work over and over again throughout his life. In the 1950s, around 50 songs were written based on Trakl's poems.

The pieces that were created during that time remain in the drawer for the time being, nobody gets to see them. Only years later did he bring his compositions to the public and submit pieces to the radio. In the following years concerts with his works are given. He also receives various prizes.

In 1957 Schweppe met Manfred Kluge , whose assistant he was temporarily. Most of all, a warm friendship develops. Kluge, a composer like him, organist at St. Aegidien in Lübeck and professor at the music academy there, had a great influence on Schweppe and was an important dialogue partner on compositional issues. They sent each other their fresh scores and exchanged views on them.

At the age of 33 Schweppe became a church musician. First, it is his St.Stephanuskirche in Eimsbüttel , then at the Cross Church in Hamburg-Wandsbek operates. Like many before him, such as Heinrich Schütz or Johann Sebastian Bach, he is a composing cantor, church servant and artist. From 1983 until his retirement in 1989 he taught music theory, composition and aural training at the Lübeck University of Music. But even after the official end of the service, the church music does not let go of him. 1992–1993 he took a position as organist on the Norwegian island of Dönna. The bitter beauties of Norway, the country of his favorite author Knut Hamsun, have done it to him. In the summer months of the following years, too, he headed for the Dönna with his sailing ship, where he performed his “Wind Music for Norway” in front of the royal couple for the 800th consecration of the island church in 1999.

style

By profession a cantor and organist at a church, a large part of Schweppe's compositions belonged to church music: organ chorals and organ preludes, cantatas, psalms , slogans and motets . One of his most important works is “Mass 81” for large orchestra and choir, which he played for the first time at the Evangelical Church Congress in Hamburg in 1981, completed in 1988 and performed at the Michel in Hamburg. He dedicates it to former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt .

His profession gave him the opportunity to practice his own works with his choir at the Kreuzkirche, in addition to the great works of music history, which, especially at the beginning, certainly did not meet everyone's taste or meet the expectations of sacred music. They deal with the word of God in their own way, interpret it in a new language of their own. For the choir of the Kreuzkirche, his pieces always present special and exciting challenges. Schweppe's relationship to faith was not immediate or direct, rather broken. For him, doubts are part of his belief, and Schweppe emphasized in a radio interview that it even encourages him. The theologians who vacillate in the faith are not the worst. In the church music that he writes, he cannot fill every word with faith, but the piece as a whole must be a credit to God. And in addition to praising God, church music, like any art, also fulfills a function related to this world.

Secular works were created less often. In 1970 the Trakl Symphony was written, in the 2nd movement of which he incorporated an early song by himself about the poem "Decay" by Georg Trakl. Another setting by this poet, to whom he felt a kinship, is the now frequently performed “Gesang des Abgeschiedenen” from 1968, a work commissioned by the choir director Martin Behrmann. The motet “To the born later” also fell into the same creative phase. In this piece Schweppe does not leave Bertolt Brecht's text unchanged, but instead inserts “Kyrie” and “Christe eleison” exclamations as well as the word “Hiroshima” to make it clearer.

Joachim Schweppe's music is difficult to classify stylistically, he doesn't belong to any school and describes himself as an outsider. His music is subjectively shaped, it pursues feelings, spreads moods. In this respect, it sets itself apart from much that was created at the same time. The characteristic that gives Schweppes music the decisive color is its iridescent, floating harmony. He makes use of the tonal language and at the same time sets himself apart from it, alienates and veils it. Profiled rhythms sound in a set of notes largely freed from the clock metrics. He likes to use old forms, such as fugato or imitation, and uses figurative interpretations of important words in vocal works. A look at the catalog of works reveals a preference for vocal genres such as cantatas , choirs and songs or instrumental but word-related forms, for example organ chorals. His music is often inaccessible at first; people are distant from it. But especially young listeners, he notes, like this music, which is on the one hand intellectual, thought-out and yet chromatically romantic.

The meaning that music had for Joachim Schweppe is difficult to express in one sentence. For him, music and art in general were related to illness; they arise from grief and depression. But art also fulfills a function related to this world, and in his opinion this is what drives us to be creative.

Joachim Schweppe was buried in the Rahlstedt cemetery in the immediate vicinity of his friend Carlo Kriete .

Works

Chamber music

• 1st violin sonata (1947)
• 2nd violin sonata (1954)
• Oboe Sonata (1949)
• String Quartet (1951)
• 1. Meditation for English horn alone (1988)
• 2. Meditation for English horn alone (1990) 3. Meditation for English horn alone (1993)
• Elegy for cor anglais and strings or organ (1988)
• Music for three wind instruments (1986)
• Music for trumpet and organ (1987)

Piano music

• Faust Etude Pan Pan (1951)
• Repetitions alla York
• Detachments
• Seconds
• Thirds
• Fourths
• Fifths
• Sexten
• Sevenths
• Triads
• Spreads
• induction
• Forte piano music for four hands

Songs

• based on texts by Theodor Storm
  • Beggar's Love (1944)
  • Lost (1945)
  • The City (1945)
  • Moonlight (1945)
  • Across the Heath (1946)
  • Im Volkston (1947)
  • Song of the Harp Girl (1945)
  • Elisabeth (1947)
  • Deep Shadows (1947)
  • The streets are so dark (1947)
  • White Roses I (1947)
  • based on texts by Heiner Burdorf
  • Blackbird Call (1947)
  • The white rose (1947)
  • Spring where (1947)
  • That tightens the string for me (1947)
  • Whether it be the cloud (1947)
  • Serious Hour (1947)
• based on texts by Georg Trakl
  • The Ravens (1952)
  • In an old studbook (1952)
  • At night (1952)
  • Near Death (1952)
  • Rondel (1952)
  • In Winter (1952)
  • Autumn Soul (1952)
  • Am Mönchsberg (1952)
  • Sleep (1952)
  • Decay (1967)
  • Song of a caught blackbird (1968), (+ flute) Winterdämmerung (1968), (accompaniment: cl., Fl., Cello)
• based on texts by various poets
  • I know a linden tree stand (H. Lins) (I / 1945)
  • How are the days difficult ( Hermann Hesse ), (1947)
  • Evening Cloud (CF Meyer), (1947)
  • The distant land (H. Lins), (1950)
  • The transformed Mahle (W. Heinitz), (1948)
  • At a lake (W. Heinitz), (1948)
  • Lied (W. Heinitz), (1948)
  • Think it, o soul ( Eduard Mörike ), (1949)
  • All my memory (poet unknown, 15th century), (1953) Lied (W. Flex), (1947)
• based on texts by Detlev von Liliencron
  • Longing (1952)
  • Deep Longing (1952)
  • On a Green Meadow (1951)
  • In a Big City (1949) Too Late (1951)
  • based on texts by Friedrich Hebbel
  • Summer picture (1962)
  • Autumn picture (1963)
  • Me and You (1962)

Organ music

• Organ choirs
  • You are three in unity (1964)
  • A Ship Comes (1960)
  • O sweet Lord Jesus Christ (1961)
  • When my sin offends me (1959)
  • Christ is risen, three stanzas (1961)
  • O world, I have to let you (1958)
  • The moon has risen (1959)
  • The Lord Is My Faithful Shepherd (1959)
  • May God have mercy on us (1960)
  • O sadness (1975)
  • Christ was in death bonds (1975)
  • small chorale preludes
  • Keep us by your word (1970)
  • O Holy Spirit (1975)
  • The day is breaking (1968)
  • Now everybody thank God (1972)
  • Dearest of Jesus (1966)
  • My soul, o Lord, must praise you (1964)
  • May God have mercy on us (1963)
  • Partitas
  • Jesus Christ, Our Savior Who Overcame Death (1970)
  • Christ we should already praise (1974/76)
  • What my god wants (1985)
  • Well praise my soul, gentlemen (1970)
• free organ music
  • Toccata and Fugue (1962)

Motets

• Early Motet (Ps. 38), (1957)
• Song of the departed (Georg Trakl), (1965)
• To those born later (Bertolt Brecht), (1966)
• A Quarrel Arose (1971)
• Annual motto 1980, a canon (1980)
• Annual slogan and Kirchentag slogan 1981 (1981) Appointment words (1981)
• Haidebild (Liliencron), for four-part. Male choir (1988)
• Psalm 13 (after Martin Buber)
• "Marintim", little song motet (1992)
• Norwegian: Volga, Volga (Norsk tekst: H. Sote Schirmer) (1993)
• Choral motet: I'm lying, Lord, in your hat (1994)

Cantatas

• The Night Has Advance (1960) for solo tenor, choir and orchestra
• Reuet dich in dem Herr (1963) for high voice and orchestra 1985
• Psalm (1971) for choir and string orchestra
• "Bläser-Psalm" (1971), 2 versions
  • 1st version: for choir, timpani and 5 wind instruments
  • 2nd version: for choir and orchestra
• Because who has recognized the meaning of the Lord (1970) for high voice and orchestra
• Mass '81 (1980/81, 86, 88) for large orchestra and choir
• Christmas cantilena (Matthias Claudius) (1990/91) for alto solo, tenor, choir, woodwinds and strings

Music in worship

• Introit for: 3rd Advent (4stg. Mixed with choir + music + kb.)
• Introit for: last S. after Ep. (3rd male choir + instr Introit for: Sunday Estomihi ( alto choir + organ).)
• Introit for: Sonntag Oculi (choir soprano + organ) Introit for: Sonntag Laetare (4stg. Mixed choir + organ)

various

• Inductions (1970) based on the poem Nebelland by Ingeborg Bachmann for flute, violin, cello, piano and voice O Jesu Christ, mein Leben Licht (1985)
• Partita for Wind Instrument Decay (Georg Trakl), (1978)
• Symphony in 3 Movements ("Trakl Symphony") Herzliebster Jesu (1968)
• Small cantata for children's choir and recorders Don't be afraid (1975) for high voice and organ See, I'm Telling You a Secret (1966)
• Spiritual concert for solo and organ Unity of the Church
• Sacred concert for solo and organ Cantional movements for choir to hymns Organ and wind instruments accompanying movements to hymns Julesanger
• Sentences to Norwegian Christmas carols Im Volkston
• Choral movements to folk songs

Awards

• 1954 Friedrich Hebbel Prize
• 1958 Composition Prize from the Hamburg Tonkünstlerverband
• 1961 Composition Prize from the City of Stuttgart
• 1966 Bach Prize scholarship in Hamburg

Web links

• Joachim Schweppe Society eV
• Works by and about Joachim Schweppe in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Grave Rahlstedter Friedhof, page 33 at rahlstedter-kulturverein.de