Josef Schmid (organist)

Josef Schmid (born August 30, 1868 in Munich , † July 10, 1945 in Munich) was a German organist , choir director and composer .

Life

Josef Schmid was born as the second of three siblings on August 30, 1868 in Munich. After completing high school at Ludwigsgymnasium , where he met his older classmate Richard Strauss , he studied composition with Josef Gabriel Rheinberger , theory with Ludwig Thuille and organ with Otto Hieber. Even at a young age, Schmid worked as a concert organist in the Kaim Hall , which later became the Tonhalle. In his childless marriage, he was married to the harpist Pauline Beecke from 1910. Schmid worked as a piano accompanist and gathered all the great singers of the time around him. Schmid also had a name as a choir director in Munich: he headed the Academic Choral Society and the men's choir "Liederhort". First Josef Schmid was active as an organist in Heilig Geist for eleven years , from 1901 he worked for 43 years (from 1918 "Royal Music Director") as cathedral organist in Munich, which he hardly left in his life despite many offers. Since he was poorly paid as a cathedral organist, in order to survive he had to take over organ services at Munich cemeteries and, from 1930, at the newly opened crematorium at the Ostfriedhof . Its activity came to an end when the cathedral and the eight-year-old Steinmeyer organ were destroyed. In the post-war turmoil, Schmid's life ended a year later on July 10, 1945. He left behind a rich oeuvre that includes all musical genres and includes around 400 works.

meaning

In the first half of the 20th century, Josef Schmid was one of the most influential musicians in the city, especially in church music. His existing estate is now in the archive of Munich Cathedral Music and the much larger part is in the music department of the Bavarian State Library . The events in his 150th anniversary year 2018 include the recovery of his concerto for organ and large orchestra, which was considered lost, as well as his two operas Die Schildbürger and Die goldene Hand . Dedications of his works to leading musical personalities such as Reger , Riemann, Straube in Leipzig, Guilmant in Paris and others. a. testify to his involvement in the global contemporary musical life.

Appreciation

On the occasion of the 150th Anniversarium, Munich Cathedral Music honored him many times in 2018. During the “Ash Wednesday service of the artists”, three movements from his eight-part Doric a cappella mass, Missa Gaudeamus , were heard . His festival mass in C for choir, large orchestra and organ, Op. 32 and his Easter offertory Terra tremuit rehearsed. In July his Missa Pax vobis Op. 78 repeated for choir and organ. From the large number of his organ works, a selection could be heard at the summer organ concerts; u. a. his legend for the organ St. Bonifacius from 1892. Schmid had a connection to St. Boniface in Munich through his childhood experiences in church music with his mother and siblings.

Works (selection)

• Fugue based on motifs from the chant "Wake up the voice calls us"
• Spiritual interlude
• Prelude in C minor for organ
• Elegia per Organo, op 48
• Concerto for organ and large orchestra in E flat major (1934)
• “O Du Heilige” for soprano, female choir and organ
• "Now we ask the Holy Spirit"

Web links

• Internet presence of the Münchner Dommusik , accessed on September 3, 2018
• Sheet music and audio files by Josef Schmid (organist) in the International Music Score Library Project
• Josef Schmid in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Hans Leitner: The Munich cathedral organist Josef Schmid. Ars Organi , Issue 4, December 2018, ISSN 0004-2919, pp. 235-238

predecessor	Office	successor
Oskar Reichenbach	Organist at the Frauenkirche in Munich 1901–1944	Heinrich Wismeyer