Karl Walter (organist)

Karl Walter (born October 27, 1862 in Kransberg im Taunus; † December 4, 1929 in Montabaur ) was a German organist , pedagogue, scientist and organ and bell expert and father of Karl Josef Walter , cathedral organist at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.

Life

Karl Walter was the son of Maria Anna Walter, geb. Reuss, and by Josef Walter. After attending high school, he attended the teachers' seminar in Montabaur. He then worked from 1882 to 1887 as a teacher in Pfaffenwiesbach and Friedrichthal - near his birthplace Kransberg - before taking the church music exam at the Regensburg church music school in 1888 .

From 1889 to 1893 he worked as a teacher, choir director and organist in Wiesbaden -Biebrich. On September 1, 1893, Karl Walter was appointed as a seminar teacher at the Royal Teachers' Seminar in Montabaur. At the same time he took on the position of organist at the mother house of the Barmherzigen Brüder in Montabaur. In 1898 he was elected federal conductor of the Lahnsängerbund and one year later appointed diocesan, organ and bell construction inspector in the diocese of Limburg .

In 1920 Karl Walter was transferred to the teachers' seminar in Prüm , where he also became a senior seminar teacher at the advanced school from 1924. In 1927 he retired. Towards the end of 1928 he first moved to his daughter's family in Nassau , before moving back to Montabaur in October 1929 to take up the post of organist at the mother house of the Merciful Brothers.

Karl Walter died on December 4, 1929 in Montabaur and was buried in the municipal cemetery.

His son Karl Josef Walter (born November 14, 1892 in Bieberich am Rhein, † August 18, 1983 in Vienna) was also an organist, composer and teacher.

Create

In 1890 Karl Walter became a member of the " Society for Music Research " in Berlin. After Hugo Riemann became aware of him, Walter wrote various articles for Riemann's music dictionary in the following years . In 1898 Karl Walter became a member of the "Society for the Publication of Monuments of Music in Austria ".

In addition to Peter Griesbacher, Karl Walter was one of the leading German bell experts of his time and in demand as an appraiser at home and abroad. His main work - the Glockenkunde - appeared in 1913. It is still valid today, even if many individual pieces of data need to be revised, as the most authoritative reference work on the clock in the German language.

As an organ expert, Karl Walter was open to the technical innovations in organ building at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: the introduction of the pneumatic action , the cone chest and various playing aids . At his suggestion, a number of organs in the Limburg diocese were built or rebuilt according to the principles of the "romantic" organ. But this also led to a considerable loss of historical substance. Often only the historical cases were preserved, in which contemporary organ works were built.

Works

Fonts

• Bernhard Kothe : Small organ building lesson for use in teacher seminars and organist schools. 7th increased and supplemented edition by Karl Walter. Kothes Erben, Leobschütz 1911.
• Organ building dictionary. (MS - missing)
• Biographical lexicon of the Catholic church musicians of the 19th and 20th centuries. (MS - missing)
• History of the German folk song. (MS - missing)
• History of the German hymn. (MS - missing)
• History of German organ building. (MS - missing)
• Bells. Friedrich Pustet , Regensburg / Rome 1913.
• Little bell tale. In: church music. Edited by Hermann Müller. Pustet, Regensburg 1916.

Musical works

• Song sets for gem. Choir, male choir - ac. Or with instr. Accompaniment. Psalms in Falsibordoni - sentences of the old masters (AT Bar B). Arranged by Carolus Walter, Montabaur 1902.
• Organ accompaniment to the melodies of the new Limburg hymn book. Limburg 1907.
• Laudate Dominum in Organo! Organ album with preludes and aftermaths for use in church services. Collected and edited by an organist from the Diocese of Limburg, Issues 1–3 as individual volumes.
  The booklets appeared in 1907 as an anthology.

literature

• Wilhelm Hohn: seminar teacher Karl Walter . In: Musica Divina. Monthly for church music and liturgy. Volume 18, Issue 5. Universal Edition , Vienna 1930.
• Bernhard Hemmerle : Karl Walter (1862–1929) memory of the pedagogue, scientist, organ and bell expert . Hadamar 2001, new edition added in 2002
• Bernhard Hemmerle: IN MEMORIAM Karl Walter . In: Yearbook for bell technology. Volume 11/12. German Bell Museum, Greifenstein Castle, Greifenstein 1999/2000.
• Bernhard Hemmerle:  Karl Walter. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 22, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-133-2 , Sp. 1502-1504.