Karl Attenhofer (musician)

Karl Attenhofer (also Carl Attenhofer ; born May 5, 1837 in Wettingen ; † May 22, 1914 in Zurich ) was a Swiss composer, conductor, singer, organist and university music director.

Karl Attenhofer

Memorial plaque on the house where he was born in Wettingen

Life

Attenhofer's father was the Wettinger Klosterschankwirt, who immigrated from Zurzach , and the mother of the firstborn was the local Rosa Kauffler. First he played the flute, later he was the first trumpeter in the Baden Cadet Music. He was encouraged to play the piano and violin by the seminar music teacher Johann Daniel Elster . In order to learn French, he stayed in Neuchâtel in 1854 and received piano and violin lessons from L. Kurz. At the age of 17 he led his first male choir in Neuchâtel, the singing section of the Grütliverein.

In 1857/1858 he studied music theory and composition at the Musikhochschule Leipzig with Ernst Friedrich Richter and Benjamin Robert Papperitz (1826-1903), Engelbert Röntgen taught him violin and Konrad Schleinitz (1802-1881) singing.

In the 1860s he committed himself as a singer, harpsichordist, music teacher, lecturer, organist and conductor in Muri , Wohlen and Rapperswil , from 1866 in Zurich, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Zurich in 1889 for his work as university music director .

A grave of honor in the Enzenbühl cemetery , a plaque on the house where he was born and an Attenhoferstrasse in his hometown Wettingen, in Rapperswil-Jona as well as in Zurich's urban district 7 remind of him.

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Attenhofer created 800 compositions, including mainly instrumental works, German masses, cantatas and song cycles and male chants inspired by the patriotic spirit .

Karl Attenhofer's mass compositions in Latin and German are indebted to Cäcilianism , in which typical romantic harmony and chromatics are combined with forms from earlier stylistic epochs. Unlike other composers of his time, he does not limit himself to Gregorian chant and Baroque , Attenhofer also implements passages in the style of Viennese classical music . His repertoire also includes fugues and double fugues , which, however, he does not fully compose.

Attenhofer's work is now regarded as rock-solid, he as a master of his time. At some points in his trade fairs he works congenially, leaving the level of solid craftsmanship, which then reminds him of Josef Gabriel Rheinberger or Johannes Brahms . Occasionally, in the onomatopoeic style of the choir lines, there are reminiscences of Johann Sebastian Bach, such as the Crucifixus in the Credo of the Mass, op.87 , bars 40 ff.

literature

• Rudolf Elvers:  Attenhofer, Karl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 426 ( digitized version ).
• Fritz Senft: Wettinger musician and music educator . In: The Wettinger monastery peninsula. Ed. Musikgesellschaft Harmonie Wettingen-Kloster, Kurt Egloff, Wettingen 1981, p.
• Walter Fischer: Karl Attenhofer In: Argovia, annual journal of the Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau. Vol. 65, 1953, pp. 29-30

Web links

• Andres Briner : Attenhofer, Carl. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Andres Briner: Attenhofer, Carl. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
2. ↑ Dürst brothers
3. ↑ ^{a b} Christkatholischer Medienverlag, Allschwil ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.