Josef Mertin (musician)

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Josef Mertin (born March 21, 1904 in Braunau , Bohemia, † February 16, 1998 in Vienna ) was an Austrian ensemble leader, singer, organist and organ builder . As a teacher, he was one of the pioneers of historical performance practice in Vienna.

Life

After completing basic musical training in the Braunau Benedictine Abbey (boy choir, violin, piano, organ, instrument making), Mertin became a music teacher in Braunau grammar school in 1922. In 1925 he came to Vienna on a scholarship from Benedict Schroll's Sohn. There he passed the final examination for church music in 1927, the teaching qualification examination for singing in 1928 and the final examination for conducting in the same year. At the same time he studied with Josef Lechthaler , Joseph Marx , Franz Schmidt , Egon Wellesz , Hugo Kauder and Rudolf von Ficker . In 1927 he founded his first chamber orchestra, which was followed by other ensembles, and since 1928 he has taught at the New Vienna Conservatory . From 1931 he worked at the Federal Monuments Office on the preservation and restoration of organs in Austria. In 1934 he began giving concerts of early music in the Albertina and from 1937–1938 he worked at the Vienna Music Academy . In 1938, despite the “fact” that Mertin was “married to a half-Jewish woman”, there were “no concerns” about “belonging to the Reichsmusikkammer”. This enabled Mertin and his family to survive in Vienna until the end of the war (public concerts until at least 1941, organ in St. Florian). From 1946 to 1978 he was a professor at the Vienna University of Music .

Services

Mertin was a pioneer of early music in Vienna and thus (from around 1950) a pioneer in founding internationally renowned ensembles for early music in Vienna ( Concentus Musicus Vienna , Musica antiqua Vienna , Capella academica Vienna etc.). Not only experts in early music like Eduard Melkus , René Clemencic or Nikolaus Harnoncourt remember the musician and teacher , but also Mariss Jansons .

As an organ builder, he gave decisive impulses for the restoration of organs ( e.g. St. Florian Monastery ) and also built a number of organs himself.

Publications

Organs

Parish church Alt-Ottakring
Catholic parish church Gloggnitz

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Concert review Collegium Musicum Mertin, Völkischer Beobachter, Vienna November 20, 1940 (concert November 18)
  2. ^ Concert review Collegium Musicum Mertin, Tagblatt, Vienna March 18, 1941 with mention of Mertin's wife
  3. ^ JUBEL for the 100th season of the Wiener Konzerthaus, Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft, 2013
  4. ↑ Mariss Jansons: “The motto is: honesty!” Die Presse, Vienna, December 27, 2011
  5. ^ Roman Summereder: New building. A panorama of organ building in Austria after 1945; in: Studia Wilthinensia Artis Organi Vol. 2, Conference Report 2005, Ed .: Kurt Estermann, Helbling Verlag, Innsbruck-Rum 2008
  6. ↑ on gloggnitz.at ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gloggnitz.at
personal data
SURNAME Mertin, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian musician and organ builder
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunau, Bohemia (today Broumov )
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1998
Place of death Vienna