Johanna Senfter

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Johanna Senfter (born November 27, 1879 in Oppenheim ; † August 11, 1961 there ) was a German composer .

Life

parents house

Johanna Senfter was born in 1879 as the youngest of the six children of Elise and Georg Senfter. Her maternal grandfather was the Oppenheimer pharmacists and Chininfabrikant Friedrich Koch , (1786-1865), who succeeded from cinchona bark a febrifugal and infection-inhibiting agent against the then rampant in Oppenheim malaria to win. For the production of this quinine, he set up his own pharmaceutical factory in Germany for the first time in the former Rodensteiner Adelshof. The social and financial upswing of the Koch family went hand in hand with the successful production of the drug. The son of the company's founder, Carl Koch , was made mayor and, through his achievements in this office, became an honorary citizen of the city.

Johanna's father, Georg Senfter, owner of a brickworks, coal and timber business, was also considered wealthy. He married Elise, Carl Koch's sister, and acquired the imposing Sparrhof, an old aristocratic residence (Katharinenstrasse 16 in Oppenheim ), including a winery that had previously belonged to the von Cronberg family. In 1864 he joined Carl Koch's quinine company as managing director, co-entrepreneur and financier.

Both families belonged to the upper class of society, led a prosperous life and a large house.

Childhood and first steps

Johanna Senfter and her four sisters were raised appropriately in boarding schools for girls and, in accordance with the educational ideal of the time, received piano and singing lessons. The art-loving and music-loving parents themselves supported the talent of their daughter Johanna, which was evident from early childhood. A severe diphtheria illness between the ages of 9 and 13 brought a sudden change to her carefree childhood. Although she recovered, her unstable health has determined her life to a large extent ever since.

She visited after her recovery, the Frankfurt Institute Frielinghaus , a renowned girls' boarding school and began 16 years ago in March 1895 at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt to study music theory and composition ( Iwan Knorr ), violin ( Adolf Rebner ), piano (Karl Friedberg) and organ (Prof. Gelhaar). After 8 years of study, she received her diploma in June 1903, but wanted to expand and deepen her musical knowledge and composition technique.

Student of Max Reger

Max Reger

From March 1908 to 1910 she was a student of Max Reger (from October 1908 in Reger's composition class at the Royal Leipzig Conservatory ), who reinforced her stylistic independence, emphasized her excellent musical talent and called her his best student. She graduated from the Conservatory in July 1909 with honors.

In 1910 she received the Arthur Nikisch Prize for the best student composition of the previous year.

Until Reger's death in 1916, the Reger and Senfter families remained cordially connected.

Intense creative period

After Reger's death in 1916, Johanna Senfter entered a phase of extreme creativity with numerous compositions and concert appearances. In 1921 she founded the Musikverein Oppenheim and organized her own series of concerts, within which she also performed her own works. In 1923 she founded the Oppenheimer Bachverein and regularly performed Bach cantatas .

She composed more than 134 works of all genres with the exception of opera (some name 180, including 9 symphonies , 26 orchestral works with vocal and instrumental solos, chamber music in various scoring, organ works, choirs and songs) and gave numerous concerts for piano , cello and violin and viola .

She composed well into old age and shaped the musical life of her hometown Oppenheim, where she lived until her death in 1961.

Self-chosen isolation

The very withdrawn, shy and modest artist closed herself to a larger audience (“Hear and play my music, then you will understand me.”). She dedicated her life solely to music and was forgotten after her death in 1961. Prejudices about women composers who were denied the ability to be creative in this field well into the second half of the 20th century may also have contributed to this (“If I were not a woman, it would be easier for me”).

Legacy and rediscovery

Johanna Senfter's manuscripts came into the holdings of the Cologne University of Music after her death. Her musical legacy has not yet been fully explored. For some years now, there have been increasing attempts to rediscover the work of the forgotten, passionate composer and to make it known through the publication of scores and concerts. The pianist Monica Gutman in particular tries to make Johanna Senfter's music better known in the Rhine-Main area.

Works

  • 27 works without an opus number (autographs in the Cologne University of Music), including eight Passacaglia, seven fugues for piano (1909), an arrangement of a Bach fugue in G minor and a suite for violin and piano
  • From 1907 handwritten list of compositions with 134 numbered operas
  • The first are already compositions for orchestra or chamber music ensembles (suggests extensive preparatory studies)
  • Around 1908 in baroque form: two orchestral suites (opus 2 and 5), passacaglia for two pianos (opus 14), a fantasy and fugue for organ (opus 30) and several chorale preludes
  • After composing own studies in the field of new music genres and influence by Reger many other compositions, the Sonata in G Major for violin and piano, for them as best composition of the year 1908 the Arthur Nikisch prize awarded
  • From 1911 onwards, successful performances of her compositions, such as the cello sonata (opus 10),
  • 1914 the first of her nine symphonies
  • Continuous bass (suspension) of 15 cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach for the Bach Society founded in 1923

Remarks

  1. ↑ Well-known teachers at this institute: Julius Stockhausen , Clara Schumann , Engelbert Humperdinck ; well-known graduates: Otto Klemperer , Paul Hindemith
  2. ↑ from: Short biography Johanna Senfter at Troubadisc
  3. ↑ See album review at Arktivmusic
  4. ↑ from: biography Johanna Senfter at Aktivraum
  5. ↑ see: Short biography for a film about Johanna Senfter in the ZDFtheaterkanal
  6. ↑ see short biography about Johanna Senfter in SWR2 RP
  7. ↑ Article about concert and difficult female role in the music magazine DasOrchester.de
  8. ↑ see article from the Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz on a concert event

literature

  • Christiane Maier: Johanna Senfter - A composer from Oppenheim - Biographical notes on Max Reger's master class student. Oppenheimer Hefte, No. 7. Ed .: Oppenheimer Geschichtsverein, 1993, ISBN 3-87854-092-2 , pp. 2-39. (Building on your master's thesis from the same year)
  • Wolfgang Birtel: Johanna Senfter: Sonata (Concerto) for two violins and string orchestra in C minor, op. 40 - original and arrangement. In: Communications of the Working Group for Middle Rhine Music History. 80, 2006, pp. 3-11.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Senfter, Johanna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Oppenheim
DATE OF DEATH August 11, 1961
Place of death Oppenheim