Julius Victor Gerold

Julius Victor Gerold (* 1808 in Waldenburg (Saxony) ; † August 9, 1876 in Rethen (Leine) near Hanover ) was a German composer , arranger , conductor and army music director.

Vita

Julius Gerold was born in 1808 as the son of a town musician in Waldenburg in Saxony and probably received his musical training from his father. In 1830 he entered the Hanoverian service as a horn player with the Guard Jäger Regiment, where he was soon considered a virtuoso on his flap horn . In 1833 he became director of this horn player corps. Gerold was very popular as an imaginative composer and excellent arranger and was considered a reliable military musician who was appreciated by high-ranking personalities.

In 1846 Gerold became Army Music Director of the Royal Guard du Corps . He was therefore particularly responsible for the quality of the music corps stationed in the royal seat of Hanover. Although these remained independent under their respective directors, Gerold was the overall director of major concerts (Monstre concerts) and special occasions. These concerts were of particular importance and much noticed. They took place in the summer in the courtyard of the Herrenhausen Palace , otherwise in the Wangenheim-Palais, the city residence of King George V , with the participation of up to 120 musicians. For these performances, among other things, Gerold arranged countless works, of which 1,253 autograph scores are still available in the Lower Saxony State Library in Hanover.

Probably the largest monstrous concert conducted by Julius Gerold took place on September 19, 1858 on the occasion of the "troop concentration" of the 10th Federal Army Corps near the Marienburg . A total of 847 musicians from 40 music corps took part in this concert, divided into 184 trumpeters, 134 clarinet players, 121 tubists, 59 trombonists and 300 drummers and pipers. In addition to the present military, well over 20,000 listeners attended this spectacle. But the expectation of a bombastic musical enjoyment was not fulfilled, as the sound faded too much in the open air, although Gerold tried to hold the mass of musicians together through careful and precise conducting.

Gerold was not only responsible for conducting at this concert. He had to choose the pieces as well as arrange them for the concert. In addition, he had to send the sheet music to everyone involved and ensure that the works were carefully rehearsed.

Gerold's great strength, however, lay in the arrangement of various pieces for brass ensembles. Many arrangements of operas, symphonies and oratorios have been preserved. Of particular note, however, is his large number of arrangements of works by Richard Wagner , which, remarkably, he always played with his music corps several years before the opera premiered in Hanover. But works by Handel, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Liszt were also arranged in large numbers by Gerold.

After the annexation of Hanover by Prussia in 1866, the Royal Hanoverian Army was disbanded, and with it the music corps, with which the Hanoverian military music with its instrumental peculiarity collapsed. The instruments and notes had to be handed in. Gerold saved his neatly written pieces of music by relocating them to Dresden. Shortly before his death, he and his daughter visited once again the ex-king Georg, whom he greatly admired, in exile in Gmunden in Austria. There he bequeathed all of his music inventory to his former master, for which Georg arranged for appropriate storage "for later happier days" after his death. Special containers were made for this, in which they are still stored today.

Works

Works for wind orchestra (excerpt)

• Vestalin-March (based on motifs from the opera "Vestalin" by Gaspare Spontini) (HM III A, 57) [1835]
• Sailor song from "The Flying Dutchman" by Richard Wagner. (1843)
• Overture to Tannhäuser by Richard Wagner. (1855)
• Finale from Lohengrin by Richard Wagner. (1859)
• Introduction and scene of the 2nd act from "Tristan und Isolde" by Richard Wagner. (1860)
• George's March , later included in the collection of the Prussian Army Marches as the March of the 4th Hanoverian Infantry Regiment under No. II, 230. (1862)
• Introduction and bridal song from Lohengrin by Richard Wagner. (1864)
• Opera arrangements by Nabucco , Rigoletto , La Traviata a . a. by Giuseppe Verdi.
• Oratorios by Messias , Salomon a . a. by Georg Friedrich Handel.
• Prelude and Fugue BACH by Johann Sebastian Bach. (1864)
• Overtures to Don Juan and The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
• four symphonies, a. a. Symphony in C major ("Jupiter") , by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
• Overtures to Egmont , Fidelio and Leonore by Ludwig van Beethoven.
• The Erlkönig by Franz Schubert.
• Wedding march from A Midsummer Night's Dream by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
• A total of 1,253 autograph scores received.

literature

• Heinrich Sievers: From the end of the 18th century to the dissolution of the Kingdom of Hanover . In: Hannoversche Musikgeschichte . 1st edition. tape 2 . Hans Schneider, Tutzing 1984, ISBN 3-7952-0396-1 , p. 471-500 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Günter Katzenberger (author)., Katharina Hottmann (arrangement): "Our court is a very strong god ..." Hanover's opera around 1850 in the field of tension between artists, king and court officials. With numerous unpublished documents and letters from Heinrich Marschner and others / Heinrich Marschner's personal file from the Theatermuseum Hannover (= Prinzenstrasse double issue 13), 1st edition, publisher: Niedersächsische Staatstheater Hannover GmbH, Brigitta Weber, Hannover: Niedersächsische Staatstheater Hannover, Theatermuseum and -Archive, ISBN 978-3-931266-12-7 and ISBN 3-931266-12-5 (wrong), passim