Kurt Fiebig

Portrait photo by Kurt Fiebig

Kurt Fiebig (born February 29, 1908 in Berlin ; † October 12, 1988 in Hamburg-Jenfeld ) was a German composer , church musician and professor at the Hamburg University of Music .

Live and act

Kurt Fiebig grew up in Berlin as the son of a military musician . Through his parents' house, his father was an oboist in the 2nd Guards Regiment, he came into contact with music at an early age. He received piano lessons from the age of six and accompanied his father to the violin . He attended the traditional Gymnasium Zum Grauen Kloster until he graduated from high school.

Fiebig gained significant musical impressions as a choirboy in the Berlin Cathedral Choir under Hugo Rüdel . He returned from a concert tour of this choir in Switzerland with the decision to learn to play the organ and become a church musician. In the Church of St. Bartholomew in Berlin he received lessons in theory , harmony and counterpoint from the church musician Rudolf Fischer , for whom he was known. Fiebig learned to play the organ himself and was soon responsible for large parts of the organist's duties. Fiebig received instruction in artistic organ playing from Fischer's friend, church music director Arnold Dreyer, from 1925, accompanied so-called cantata services, each centered on a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach , and became Dreyer's assistant at the St. Georgen church near Alexanderplatz . From 1923 to 1929, i.e. from the age of fifteen, Fiebig also worked as an organist in the Berlin-Moabit cell prison.

After consulting Georg Schünemann in 1925, Fiebig took private lessons in counterpoint and harmony with Karol Rathaus , a Schreker student, in order to prepare for composition studies at the university. City hall certified him in a certificate from November 1927 "musical and theoretical abilities that go far beyond the ordinary and give rise to high hopes". He had "made progress especially [...] in counterpoint." Fiebig's church music influence was evident; Rathaus writes:

"He grew up in the church, and it speaks for the authenticity of his personality that his style changes, which characterize his young path, are all carried by this children's experience and - in a higher sense - should give direction for Fiebig's further development." City Hall suggested Fiebig to study with Karl Straube at the Leipzig Conservatory (today: University of Music and Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig ), a center of church music.

But Fiebig decided to go to the Berlin Academic University of Music and to study with Franz Schreker , who in Fiebig's eyes was particularly respected as a composer and teacher. Fiebig initially belonged to the Schreker class at the university, but still studied in 1932/33 in the master class for composition led by Schreker at the Prussian Academy of the Arts .

Fiebig attended the college from October 1926 to July 1927 and from October 1928 to July 1931; Curt Sachs (instrument studies), Max Seiffert (early music) and George Szell ( score playing ) also belonged to his teachers . The interruption arose because Fiebig was aiming for a church music degree alongside his university studies. He passed the exam for organists and choir conductors in January 1928 before an examination board chaired by Hans-Joachim Moser and Wolfgang Reimann, whereby a weak point was seen in subjects in which he excelled at the university: In theory and composition .

Fiebig was one of the best students at the university. In 1931 he won the Mendelssohn State Prize for Composition. He had submitted two chamber music works: a trio for flute, violin and harpsichord and a sonata for viola and piano (the duo for piano and viola ). In December 1932, Schreker issued his pupil a handwritten certificate, probably at the end of his studies:

“Warmly recommend my student Kurt Fiebig. He is a very excellent musician, highly gifted as a composer, a very good organist and piano player, conscientious and hardworking. He will fully fill his place in any position within the range of his ability. Schreker. "

In fact, Schreker trusted Fiebig's abilities, also on his own behalf. He entrusted him with the creation of the piano reduction for his opera Der Schmied von Gent , which was published by Universal Edition in Vienna.

Around 1930 Fiebig achieved his first public success as a composer. His music for orchestra was performed in 1931 at an event organized by the International Society for New Music (IGNM) in Bad Pyrmont. He received orders for stage music from the Staatliches Schauspielhaus Berlin and established contacts with the radio stations. Radio play music, cantatas and organ pieces were made as commissioned compositions. Chamber music was featured in the program Musik von heute . The work for the radio continued until 1938, but was affected by the latent suspicion of "music Bolshevism" after the National Socialist seizure of power.

There is a retrospective statement about Fiebig's relationship with his teacher Schreker, which was published in a Hamburg district newspaper in 1954:

“The four to six students who made up his [Schreker's] class were as different from each other as possible. Schreker never made the slightest attempt to impose a certain style of composition on us. With admirable objectivity, he guided everyone in a way that suited his individuality. "

This is how respectful a student expresses himself, whose influences in no way approach Schreker before his studies and who during his studies was seized by the spirit of optimism in church music, which can hardly be associated with Schreker's personality and work. Fiebig's roots in Protestant Christianity, influenced by the trends of the twenties, led to a decided move away from l'art pour l'art. “I never wanted to compose without a commission. [...] We no longer believe that art should be done 'for its own sake' ”, he later explained.

With the abandonment of late romanticism , the turn to the liturgy and modal tonality, a renewal of church music began around 1930, for which Kurt Fiebig was enthusiastic. Like other representatives of this movement, Paul Hindemith was a role model for him. Since May 1927 he had held a composition class at the Berlin University alongside Schreker. Fiebig would have liked to move to Hindemith in 1928 - or later. But feelings of loyalty to Schreker held him back. He considered it such a great honor to be able to study with Schreker that he would not have liked to express his wish at the time. With a classmate at Schreker, Fiebig formed a singing group that rehearsed the compositions - motets, chorals, songs and canons - and certainly judged them from a different point of view than Schreker.

From 1933 to 1936 Fiebig, who married in 1934 and had three sons, was cantor and organist at St. Elisabeth in Berlin. In 1936 he followed a call to Quedlinburg as cathedral organist and at the same time became a lecturer at the church music school in Aschersleben, which was moved to Halle / Saale in 1938. In 1937 compositions by Fiebig, who belonged to the German Christians , were performed at the Festival of German Church Music in Berlin. In 1941 Fiebig took over the management of the Halle / Saale church music school , which he kept after the war. During this time, numerous choir and organ works were created for use in church services, but also larger cantatas such as the Hall cantata from the Word of God , which was premiered with the choir of the church music school in Halle in 1939.

Gnadenkirche in Hamburg-St.Pauli

Tired of organizational tasks, Fiebig left the GDR in 1951 and went to Hamburg. There he worked as a church musician at the Gnadenkirche in St. Pauli (1951–1968) and at the Church of St. Ansgar in Langenhorn (1969–1974). From 1960 to 1980 he was a lecturer and professor for composition and ear training at the Hamburg University of Music . When he moved from Halle to Hamburg, he wrote one of his main works, the Markus Passion for two choirs a cappella and soloists. In Hamburg, Fiebig composed other church music: the Easter Oratorio , the Advent Oratorio (Annunciation), the choral cantata Wie nach einer Wasserquelle , the Mass Media Vita , the song cycle Jahrkreis der Liebe and the cantata Et unam sanctam , to name just the most important. During his last ten years in retirement, Kurt Fiebig did what he had done almost every Sunday since his youth: he took over the organ and accompanied oratorio performances on the harpsichord.

“Kurt Fiebig, Schreker's pupil, is not afraid to see himself in the footsteps of Paul Hindemith,” it says in a tribute to his 75th birthday; Fiebig himself described Hindemith as the "greatest living composer" of the twenties and even placed him above Béla Bartók , Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schönberg .

Kurt Fiebig's older sister Eva Fiebig was a well-known actress, his sister Irma , who was married to the National Socialist Mayor of Cologne, Robert Brandes , a journalist and writer whose poems Kurt Fiebig set to music.

Works

• 1930: Duo for piano and viola . Dedicated to Rudolph Schmidt
• 1939: Halle cantata on the Word of God. For solos, mixed choir, orchestra and organ
• 1950: St. Mark's Passion. For solos and mixed choir a cappella
• 1954: Easter Oratorio. After the last chapter of the Gospel of Luke, for 3 soloists (evangelist [baritone], tenor and bass) and 3 choirs a cappella
• 1954/55: Jahrkreis der Liebe song cycle based on poems by Ricarda Huch
• 1955: Like after a water source. Choral cantata for soprano, alto and baritone solo, mixed choir, flute, oboe, bassoon, string orchestra and organ
• 1957: Advent Oratorio (The Annunciation). Based on the 1st chapter of the Gospel of Luke (verses 5–80), for solos, mixed choir and organ
• 1957: Et unam sanctam. Cantata for soprano, tenor and baritone solo, 4- to 6-part mixed choir, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, 2 trumpets, trombone, timpani, string orchestra and organ
• 1965: You my soul, sing. Paul Gerhardt cantata for solos, choir, orchestra and organ
• 1966: Be content and be quiet. Paul Gerhardt cantata for soprano, alto and baritone solo, mixed choir, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, 2 trumpets, timpani, string orchestra and organ

literature

• Church musicians creating self-portraits IV , in: Musik und Kirche, 1948, p. 11 Oft.
• Herbert Glossner: Memorial sheet for Kurt Fiebig , in: Music and Church, 1/1998 (January / February)
• Hans-Joachim Moser: The Protestant church music in Germany , Berlin, Darmstadt 1954, p. 292ff.
• Johannes Piersig: On the work of Kurt Fiebig , in: Musica XI, 1957, p. 701ff.

swell

This article by Angelika Fiebig-Dreyer is taken from: Franz Schreker's Students in Berlin , Biographical Contributions and Documents, with the kind permission of the University of the Arts , Berlin ; Writings from the UdK archive, vol. 8, 2005, pp. 21-25.

Kurt Fiebig's entire estate is in the archive of the UdK Berlin.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Certificate of November 10, 1927, issued for examination purposes (estate of Kurt Fiebig)
2. ^ So Kurt Fiebig in a conversation with the Deutsches Allgemeine Sonntagsblatt , February 27, 1983
3. ↑ UdK archive, inventory 1 (Academic University of Music), No. 534 (The personal affairs of the students), after July 22, 1927
4. ↑ UdK archive, inventory 2 (Academy for Church and School Music), No. 278 (reports on the state organist examination on January 9, 1928) and no. 453 (main examination lists of the state examination for organists and choir conductors). Fiebig decided not to take the not yet passed partial examination the following year, 1929, but did so in 1933.
5. ↑ cf. the catalog raisonné in MGG1, vol. 4, col. 166 as well as the new edition of the duo in the Ponticello edition (PON 1009)
6. ↑ Certificate of December 12, 1932 (estate of Kurt Fiebig)
7. ↑ According to Fiebig's own statement, a premiere accepted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt for the Landestheater in Darmstadt did not take place in 1933 as a result of the National Socialist seizure of power. Compare the mentioned conversation with the Sunday paper.
8. ↑ composer and cantor. On the life and work of the church music director Kurt Fiebig, cantor at the Gnadenkirche , in: Sankt Pauli Kurier, June 1954 (estate of Kurt Fiebig)
9. ↑ Oral. Fiebig's statement. Quoted in: Der Kirchenmusiker 2/83, p. 54
10. ^ Rainer Noll: Kurt Fiebig 75 , in: Der Kirchenmusiker 2/83, pp. 52–54
11. ^ Historical archive of the city of Cologne: Irma Brandes, b. Feverish. Retrieved March 3, 2020 . 
12. ↑ Lutz Hagestedt (Ed.): German Literature Lexicon. The 20th century . tape 3 . KG Saur, Berlin; New York; Boston 2001, ISBN 978-3-11-096113-3 , pp. 558 .

Web links

• Works by and about Kurt Fiebig in the catalog of the German National Library
• Kurt Fiebig Works Directory (to be continued)
• Rainer Noll: On the 75th birthday of Kurt Fiebig