Karl Leimer

Karl Leimer (born June 22, 1858 in Biebrich , † July 19, 1944 in Wiesbaden ) was a German music teacher and pianist.

Live and act

As the son of the sculptor Peter Anton Leimer and his wife Pauline, he grew up in Biebrich and Wiesbaden, where he attended the humanistic grammar school and then the secondary school until secondary school. Since the winter semester of 1875 he studied at the Polytechnic School in Karlsruhe and strove to become a civil engineer. At the instigation of the Württemberg court pianist Wilhelm Krüger (1820–1883) he switched to music and Leimer studied piano with him at the Stuttgart Conservatory from 1878 to 1882 . He also studied theory with Immanuel Faißt and music history and instrumentation with Ludwig Stark . After completing his studies in 1882, Leimer became a piano teacher at the Königsberg Conservatory and its director the following year. In 1891 his first piano pedagogical work was published for use at the local conservatory. He was a member of the Königsberg Freemason Lodge Zum Todtenkopf und Phönix .

In 1896 Leimer moved to Hanover and founded a private music and theater school there in October 1897, a direct forerunner of today's Hanover University of Music and Theater . Other co-founders and directors were the Hanoverian court pianist Emil Evers and the chamber singer Hermann Brune. This school was a great success in Hanover, from 1912 onwards it was given the name “Municipal Conservatory for Music”, but it remained a private company. In 1918 his manual for piano lessons in the lower and middle grades was published . In 1926 his school was recognized by the state.

The method of piano lessons he developed was first noticed by his most famous student, Walter Gieseking . Gieseking also prompted him to put the lessons together in writing and to publish them. In 1931 the work Modernes Klavierspiel nach Leimer-Gieseking was published , which was aimed at piano teachers and was translated into English as early as 1932. The booklet was such a great success that Leimer wrote another textbook, Rhythmics, Dynamics, Pedal and Other Problems of Piano Playing according to Leimer-Gieseking , published in 1938 . Leimer was withdrawn from management in 1934 due to a long-standing dispute with the heirs of his deceased partners over the management of the conservatory. Walter Höhn was his successor, but he remained the managing director of the sponsoring company.

Karl Leimer was the great-uncle of the pianist, composer and piano teacher Kurt Leimer .

Appreciation

The Leimer-Gieseking piano teaching method developed by him and further expanded by Gieseking had a lasting effect . The textbooks were published in numerous editions and were translated into many languages.

literature

• Ricarda Braumandl: Karl Leimer and Walter Gieseking as piano teachers . Frankfurt am Main; Berlin; Bern, Lang, 2006. ISBN 3-631-53982-7

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Leimer in the catalog of the German National Library