Kurt Hessenberg

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Kurt Hessenberg (born August 17, 1908 in Frankfurt am Main ; † June 17, 1994 ibid) was a German composer and professor of composition at the Frankfurt University of Music .

Life

Kurt Hessenberg's grave in the main cemetery in Frankfurt (2018)

Kurt Hessenberg was born on August 17, 1908, the fourth and youngest child of the lawyer Eduard Hessenberg and his wife Emma, ​​née Kugler. The father-in-law of his grandfather Carl Joseph Hessenberg and the father of his grandmother Antonie Caroline Hoffmann was the doctor Heinrich Hoffmann , the creator of Struwwelpeter .

Hessenberg received his first music lessons, piano lessons, in 1917 at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, and in some private lessons in 1923 he was introduced to the basics of harmony by the organist Karl Breidenstein . After graduating from high school in 1927, Hessenberg went to study in Leipzig , where he studied composition and piano from 1927 to 1931 at the State Conservatory . His teachers included Robert Teichmüller (piano) and Günter Raphael (composition). In 1933 he was appointed as a theory teacher at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main. In 1942 he joined the NSDAP (membership number 8,829,724). In the final phase of the Second World War , he was put on the list of most important composers by Hitler in August 1944 , which saved him from being deployed in the war.

In 1953 he became professor of composition at the Frankfurt University of Music, which later became the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts , where he taught until his retirement in 1973. Kurt Hessenberg died on June 17, 1994 in his native Frankfurt am Main.

Hessenberg is one of the most important representatives of Protestant church music in the 20th century. Together with contemporaries such as Hugo Distler and Ernst Pepping , he suggested a radical renewal of Protestant church music . Hessenberg's well-known students include Hans Zender and Peter Cahn .

Works

piano

  • op. 1 Inventions (1930)
  • op.2 Variations on a Christmas Carol (manuscript) (1930)
  • op.6 Capriccio (manuscript) (1933)
  • op.12 Seven Little Piano Pieces (1935/36)
  • op. 17 Sonatina (1937)
  • op.19 Fantasy for 2 pianos (1938)
  • op. 24 Little House Music / 14 Bagatelles (1943)

Chamber music

  • op.4 Sonata, for flute and piano (1932)
  • op.8 String Quartet No. 1 (1934)
  • op.13 Divertimento, for violin and piano (1936)
  • op.16 String Quartet No. 2 (1937)
  • op.23 Sonata, for cello and piano (1941) in C major (dedicated to Leo Koscielny)
  • op.35 Sonata, for violin and piano (1942)
  • op.26 Trio, for 2 violins and piano (1942)
  • op.10 Quartet, for piano, violin, viola and cello (1935)

organ

  • Op. 5 Partita over a chorale (manuscript) (1933)
  • Op. 115 Fantasia "I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ" (1982)

orchestra

  • Op. 3 Chamber Concerto, for harpsichord and string orchestra (manuscript) (1931)
  • Op. 7 `` Struwelpetersuite '', five dance burlesques for small orchestra (1933)
  • Op. 11 Symphony No. 1 (1936)
  • Op. 14 Small Suite (1936)
  • Op. 18 Concerto Grosso (1938)
  • Op. 20 Suite to Shakespeare's “The Tempest” (1939)
  • Op. 21 piano concerto (1940)
  • Op. 29 Symphony No. 2 (1943)

Vocal works

  • Op. 9 choral cantata for soprano, alto solo choir and orchestra with organ (1935)
  • Op. 15 `` Wunderhornlieder '', for soprano and piano or orchestra (1937)
  • Op. 28 5 cheerful songs for a cappella choir (1944)
  • Op. 22 “Fiedellieder”, cantata for tenor, choir and orchestra (1940)
  • Op. 27 Christmas cantata, sopr, alto solo, choir and small orchestra with organ (1942/43)
  • Op. 32 10 songs for medium voice, piano, violin and viola
  • Op. 33 The day that is so joyful, old Advent and Christmas carols, singing voice and piano with treble recorder (or other melody instruments)
  • Op. 37 2 motets, 37/1 O Lord, make me your instrument of peace, mixed choir (SSATBB) a capella
  • Op. 41 4 spiritual songs through the times of day, mixed choir
  • Op. 46 motet; "That says the name is Amen" (Revelation 3, 14-21), mixed choir
  • Op. 49 "Der Struwwelpeter, Petrulus hirrutus", children's or youth choir, 2 flutes, string orchestra and piano, drums ad libitum
  • Op. 55 Six sacred songs based on words by Albrecht Goes for four-part choir a cappella
  • Op. 59 Three choirs, male choir
  • Op. 81 4 poems mixed choir
  • Op. 87 motet (The 126th Psalm), “When the Lord will redeem the captives of Zion”, mixed choir
  • Op. 93 2 chorale motets, mixed choir
  • Op. 103 Passion music according to the Evangelist Luke, for solo voices, according to Choir and orchestra (1977)
  • Op. 113 Mass, for 4 solo voices, g em. Choir and Orchestra (1981–82)
  • Op. 118 Christ who makes us happy, passion motets, choir variations with fugue, mixed choir
    • without opus information
  • 2 evening songs, mixed choir
  • 5 old folk songs, mixed choir

Stage works

  • Op. 20b Incidental music for Shakespeare's "The Storm" (manuscript) (1938)
  • Op. 75 "The Striped Guest": cheerful opera in a prelude and 3 acts (1961/62 and later)

Awards and honors

literature

Catalog raisonné

  • Kurt Hessenberg: Catalog raisonné Kurt Hessenberg . In: Peter Cahn (Ed.): Kurt Hessenberg: Contributions to life and work . Schott, Mainz a. a. 1990, p. 119-161 .

literature

  • Albrecht, Christoph: "... because I do not consider the possibilities of tonality to be exhausted": Kurt Hessenberg (born August 17, 1908) . In: Ulrich von Brück (ed.): Credo musicale: Composer portraits from the work of the Dresden Kreuzchor. Ceremony for the 80th birthday of the national prize winner Kreuzkantor Professor D. Dr. hc Rudolf Mauersberger . Bärenreiter, Kassel / Basel 1969, p. 165-175 .
  • Peter Cahn (Ed.): Kurt Hessenberg: Contributions to life and work . Schott, Mainz a. a. 1990.
  • Walter Habel (Ed.): Who is who? The German Who's Who . 32nd edition. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 1993.
  • Kurt Hessenberg: Small autobiography . In: Peter Cahn (Ed.): Kurt Hessenberg: Contributions to life and work . Schott, Mainz a. a. 1990, p. 9-33 .
  • Karl Laux: Kurt Hessenberg . In: contemporary music and musicians . tape 1 : Germany. Spael, Essen 1949, p. 117–126 (with portrait drawing by Kurt Weinhold).
  • Rainer Mohrs: The Organ Works by Kurt Hessenberg: Thoughts on the aesthetics and the historical context of his organ music. In: Peter Cahn: Kurt Hessenberg: Contributions to life and work. Mainz 1990, pp. 105-117.
  • Rainer Mohrs: Hessenberg, Kurt . In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Person part vol. 8. Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel u. a; / Stuttgart / Weimar 2002, Sp. 1484-1486 .
  • Rainer Mohrs: Put on the desk: Kurt Hessenberg's motet “O Lord, make me an instrument of your peace”. In: Musica sacra, 136, 2016, pp. 90-95.
  • Otto Riemer: Unused tonality: thoughts on the work of Kurt Hessenberg . In: Musica . tape 7 , 1953, pp. 56-60 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 242.
  2. ^ Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, p. 2925.
  3. ↑ The curriculum vitae is largely based on the "Small autobiography" written by Hessenberg himself in the 1980s (Hessenberg 1990), the date of death comes from Mohrs 2002.
  4. ↑ after: word and deed. International monthly. Innsbruck u. a. No. 7-10, 1947, p. 159
  5. ^ Schott, Frankfurt ISMN: 979-0-001-04489-9
  6. ↑ premier: Hamburg, 1942 - Rudolf Metzmacher (violoncello), Kurt Hessenberg (piano)
  7. ↑ The list is based on Habel 1993, 556.
  8. ↑ Award of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on March 7, 1990 . In: The Hessian Prime Minister (Ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1990 No. 13 , p. 542 , point 281 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 7.3 MB ]).


personal data
SURNAME Hessenberg, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 1994
Place of death Frankfurt am Main