Johann Baptist Benz
Johann Baptist Anton Benz (born June 17, 1807 in Lauchheim , Württemberg; † July 25, 1880 in Speyer ) was a German composer and cathedral music director in Speyer.
Life
Origin and career
Born as the son of a bricklayer in 1807 in the spa town of Lauchheim in Württemberg, his abundant talent developed at an early age. After graduating from high school, Benz studied philosophy and theology at the Swabian State University of Tübingen . Despite receiving minor orders, he could not ultimately make up his mind to become a priest. However, his artistic nature pushed him to church music. For her sake, Benz traveled to Rome for two years in 1836 to complete his training there. Giuseppe Baini , the director of the papal chapel, took care of the able young man and encouraged him. It was to him that he owed his familiarity with the liturgy and Gregorian church hymn, which benefited his tone poems. The later Cardinal Wiseman , whom Johann Baptist Benz met in Rome, placed him in his home country of England in 1838 . Here he achieved first fame as a choir conductor and cathedral organist in Birmingham from 1841 to 1843 . He then worked in Munich and Vienna .
Cathedral organist in Speyer
Benz was highly recommended when he applied for a position as cathedral organist in Speyer in 1846. For more than 30 years he played the cathedral organ here, led the cathedral choir and gave music lessons in the Catholic teacher training institute. On every Sunday and public holiday, the students of the teachers' seminar, together with the cathedral choir, organized a multi-part mass in the morning and a solemn Vespers in the afternoon. Benz was always the organist, seminar inspector Konrad Reither , (later Bishop von Speyer) the conductor. In 1869 Johann Baptist Benz was promoted to a doctorate in philosophy and a master's degree in liberal arts at the University of Tübingen.
He had a decisive influence on church music in the south-west of Germany. The Marian poem O Queen full of glory by the spiritual poet Wilhelm Molitor , which he set to music in 1861, has become a folk song in the diocese of Speyer . It was included in all diocesan hymns and is also included in the Speyer edition of the new German standard hymn book "Gotteslob" (No. 891). In Speyer there is hardly a Marienfest in the cathedral where this solemn song is not sung. The cathedral choir often performs the artist's mass in C minor; his Christmas motet Hodie nobis natus est is also part of the repertoire. Benz wrote a large number of masses as well as graduals and offerings under the collective title Harmonia Sacra . In his biography of Nikolaus von Weis, Franz Xaver Remling reports that on November 17, 1853, the 3rd day of the high altar consecration of the Speyer Cathedral, the Würzburg bishop Georg Anton von Stahl celebrated a high mass there, during which “from the well-trained choir one of the local cathedral organist Benz, who is highly deserving of serious, pure church music, specially composed on the subject: 'O clemens, O pia, o dulcis virgo Maria' , four-part mass, performed with well-made mildness and delicacy ” .
Jakob Bisson states from the era of the Franco-German war, in "7 Speyer bishops and their time" , page 35:
“ On March 12th, 1871, on the occasion of the peace celebration, a new, 3-part mass by cathedral conductor Dr. Johann Baptist Benz performed. 'Da pacem' ('Give peace') it was titled by the composer when it was completed, without the composer thinking of how this title would soon be realized. "
For health reasons, Johann Baptist Benz had to give up his position as a seminar music teacher in 1874 and his position as cathedral music director in 1878. He died in Speyer in 1880 and was buried in the old cemetery . His splendid tombstone with St. Cecilia is now in the demarcated cathedral chapter cemetery near St. Bernhard. In his place of birth, Lauchheim , a street is named after the composer.
The contemporary chronicler of the Speyer diocese, Cathedral Chapter Franz Xaver Remling , notes the following about Benz:
“ Much more serious and thorough - (than his predecessor Georg Hammer) - is the current cathedral organist Johann Baptist Benz, who, supported by the inspector of the school teachers' seminar and now choir director Konrad Reither , justifies and enhances the choral singing in the cathedral. One can rightly say: Just as the Speyer Cathedral is one of the most noble and splendid Romanesque monuments in Europe, so the serious, pure, Romanesque celebratory chant, which has already become at home in it, is inferior to any other in Germany in terms of style and education. "
The Missa in Es was premiered by the Concordia Choir on October 11, 2014 in the St. Peter and Paul Church. Another performance took place on June 19, 2016 in the Schönenberg Church in Ellwangen.
Gravestone Johann Baptist Benz, cathedral chapter cemetery Speyer
Capital from the tombstone Benz, with the line of notes and text from the "Salve Regina" - "o clemens, o pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria". It is said to have been added to the song in the Speyer Cathedral and others. Benz took it as the basic motif of one of his well-known mass compositions.
Funerary inscription by Johann Baptist Benz
literature
- Franz Xaver Remling : Nikolaus von Weis , Bishop of Speyer, in life and work . Verlag Ferdinand Kleeberger, Speyer, 1871, Volume I, page 121, Volume II, page 256.
- Ludwig Eid : Dr. Johann Baptist Anton Benz . Reprint from “ Palatina ”, Speyer 1926, 10 pages.
- Fritz Steegmüller: History of the teacher training institute Speyer, 1839-1937 . Pilger-Verlag, Speyer 1978, pp 32–33 (detailed biography of Johann Baptist Benz).
- Karl Lutz: Cathedral Kapellmeister Dr. Benz - for the 150th birthday . In: Der Pilger , No. 48, from December 1, 1957, p. 1062.
- Viktor Carl: Lexicon of Palatinate personalities . Hennig Verlag Edenkoben, 1998, p. 47.
- Florian Schäfer: A life for church music: for the 200th birthday of Johann Baptist Benz from Lauchheim . In: Ostalb - Einhorn quarterly books for home and culture in the Ostalb district , 2007, ed. 135, pp. 183–186.
-Judith Rauser: "Johann Baptist Benz" Written term paper to obtain the academic degree of Magister Artium, Musicological Institute of the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen.
Web links
- Works by and about Johann Baptist Benz in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by Johann Baptist Benz in the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Benz, Johann Baptist |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Benz, Johann Baptist Anton |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German church music composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 17, 1807 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lauchheim |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 25, 1880 |
| Place of death | Speyer |