Laurence Feininger

Laurence Feininger in the summer of 1929 in the Baltic Sea resort of Deep near Kolberg

Laurence Karl Johann Feininger (born April 5, 1909 in Berlin ; † June 7, 1976 in Freienfeld , South Tyrol , Italy ), also Lorenzo ( Italian ) and Laurentius ( Latin ), was a German-Italian musicologist and Roman Catholic priest .

Family, childhood and youth

Laurence Feininger was the son of the painter, graphic artist and caricaturist Léonell Charles Adrian Feininger and his wife, the artist Julia Berg (1881–1970), née Lilienfeld. His paternal grandparents were the German-American concert violinist Carl Wilhelm Friedrich Feininger (* July 31, 1844 in Durlach ; † January 31, 1922 in New York City ) and the pianist and singer Elisabeth Cäcilia Feininger (* 1845), née Lutz. Laurence had two brothers, Andreas (1906–1999) and Theodor Lukas (1910–2011) and two half-sisters, Leonore and Marianne (* 1902), from his father's first marriage to a student of Artur Schnabel , the pianist Clara Fürst (1879 –1944), daughter of the painter Gustav Gerson Fürst . Laurence grew up in Berlin-Zehlendorf for the first ten years . However, the family always spent their “ summer vacation ” on the Baltic Sea , from 1908 to 1921 on the island of Usedom in Benz , Heringsdorf and Neppermin , and from 1924 to 1935 in the Pomeranian Deep near Kolberg . The artist family had a strong connection to the Bauhaus and its affiliated environment, so that Laurence preferred to come into contact with musically and graphically oriented circles of artists from childhood. Thanks to his paternal grandparents, there was a strong connection to music from the start.

School and study

Laurence attended the musically influenced New School Hellerau (International School Hellerau) near Dresden , a higher school that is considered to be the model of the democratic English school Summerhill , and from 1926 the also musically oriented reform pedagogical rural education home Freie Schulgemeinde in Wickersdorf near Saalfeld / Saale in the Thuringian Forest , where he passed his matriculation examination in 1929 . At both schools he moved in an environment of classmates and teachers who also came from other countries. At the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg he studied musicology, composition and organ with Heinrich Besseler , and philosophy with Karl Jaspers . In 1934 he was baptized as a Christian regardless of his Jewish parentage . Against the background of the transfer of power to the National Socialists in the previous year, this may have been considered an attempt at minimal protection at the time, but in view of its further development it was definitely a decision made out of conviction. He received his doctorate in 1937 on the subject of The Early History of the Canon to Josquin des Prez (around 1500) . In the same year his family emigrated to the United States because of the Nazi persecution of Jews ; This gave Laurence a US passport. He went to fascist Italy, to South Tyrol, and fled to the USA in 1938.

Professional development

In 1938 Laurence began to study the Trent Codices from around 1400, which are an important source of European sacred music . After Mussolini's fall , he was interned as an enemy alien in the United States in 1943/44 . For 1946, 1950 and 1965 surviving photos document stays with his family in the USA. He was ordained a priest in Rome in 1947 and then settled in Trento . He conducted intensive research on Catholic liturgical music from the 13th to 17th centuries, published catalogs of works in Latin and gave a number of masses and motets by Italian composers such as Orazio Benevoli , Francesco Antonio Bonporti , Pompeo Cannicciari (1670–1744), Giovanni Giorgi and Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni out. He saw the sacred music of the 17th century as a link between the perfect art ("ars perfecta") of the papal "clock" ("modulator pontificus") Palestrina and the contrapuntal art of Bach .

"No one in his generation has left a greater corpus of editions of fifteenth- and seventeenth-century music, all based on the original handwritten sources, many of them newly discovered by him. No one worked harder at having them published - and performed, especially those of the seventeenth century. No one took their original function more seriously. [...] It was his life-long hope to restore Catholic liturgy and music to its pristine splendor. "

- Edward Elias Lowinsky

He was only sporadically involved in national or international musicological societies and rarely took part in their meetings and congresses. He is said to have known the manuscripts of the Vatican Apostolic Library better than anyone. He also worked at the Pontifical Institute for Church Music in Rome.

In Trento he acted beyond the founder, choir director and conductor of the Council choir of the city that existed two decades. The extensive bibliographical and documentary collection he created is of church and music historical importance and was given to the city of Trento, where it is kept in the Castello del Buonconsiglio . Laurence Feininger died at the age of 67 as a result of a traffic accident that occurred on the motorway at the Brenner Pass .

Institutions and events

In Trento there are the Biblioteca Musicale Laurence KJ Feininger and the Centro di Eccellenza Laurence KJ Feininger . There was also a series of events named after him, Convegno internazionale di studi in memoria di Laurence Feininger (1985) and the vocal ensemble Gruppo vocale Laurence Feininger .

Works (excerpt)

• Laurence Feininger: The early history of the Canon up to Josquin des Prez (around 1500) , Phil. Diss., Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg 1935, H. & J. Lechte, Emsdetten 1937.
• ders .: Missa Caput auctore Gulielmo Dufay cum aliis duabus missis anonymis. Veterem hominem et Christ Surrexit eidem auctori adscribendis . Monumenta Polyphoniae Liturgicae Sanctae Ecclesiae Romanae. Ser. 1/2. Societas universalis Sanctae Ceciliae, Rome 1951.
• ders .: Catalogus thematicus et bibliographicus Joannis de Georgiis. Operum sacrarum omnium , Societas universalis Sanctae Ceciliae, Trient / Trento 1962.
• ders .: Catalogus thematicus et bibliographicus Pompei Cannicciarii. Operum sacrarum omnium , Societas universalis Sanctae Ceciliae, Trient / Trento 1964.
• ders .: On some manuscripts in the Biblioteca Vaticana . In: Analecta Musicologica , No. 9 (1970), p. 298.
• ders .: Repertorium cantus plani , Societas universalis Sanctae Ceciliae, Trient / Trento 1969.
• ders .: Il codice 87 del Castello del Buonconsiglio di Trento , Bologna, Forni, 1971.
• Lyonel Feininger: Drawings for Laurence and early cartoons , exhibition in the Galerie im Taxispalais, Kunsthalle Tirol, Innsbruck, January / February 1975.
• Laurence Feininger, Cristina Cassia: L'intavolatura cembalo-organistica della Biblioteca Musicale Laurence KJ Feininger . Levante Libreria Editrice, Trient / Trento 2015. ISBN 978-88-95203-48-5 .

literature

• Wilibald Gurlitt (Hrsg.): Riemann Musik-Lexikon , 12th completely revised. Ed., Schott, Mainz 1959–1967.
• Carl Dahlhaus (Hrsg.): Riemann-Musik-Lexikon , supplementary volumes, 12th completely revised. Ed., Schott, Mainz 1972–1975.
• Edward E. Lowinsky: Laurence Feininger (1909-1976): Life, Work, Legacy . In: The Musical Quarterly (Oxford University Press), Vol. 63, No. 3 (July 1977), pp. 327-366.
• Feininger, Laurence . In: Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss , (Ed.), International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 , Vol II, 1, Munich: Saur 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 286
• David Fallows: Introit Antiphon Paraphrase in the Trent Codices. Laurence Feininger's Confronto . In: Journal of the Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society , No. 7 (1984), pp. 47-77.
• Jeffrey Dean: Feininger, Laurence [Laurentius, Lorenzo] (Karl Johann) . In: Stanley Sadie, John Tyrrell, George Grove (Eds.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Volume 8, 2nd exp. and verb. Macmillan, Grove, London, New York 2001, pp. 645-646.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Laurence Feininger . In: Lexicon of persecuted musicians from the Nazi era , University of Hamburg, Institute for Historical Musicology, on: uni-hamburg.de
2. ^ Rudolf Vierhaus : German Biographical Encyclopedia (DBE), supplements, person index. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-1109-7777-6 , pp. 108, 156, 310, 516, 534.
3. ↑ Laurence Feininger . In: The Faces of the German Art Archive , at: Brille-des-dka.gnm.de
4. ^ Feininger, Karl William Frederick . In: Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography , D. Appleton & Co., New York City 1886-1900.
5. ^ Biography Lyonel Feininger . In: Lyonel-Feininger-Galerie, Museum of Graphic Arts, Quedlinburg, on: feininger-galerie.de
6. ^ Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956) . In: Community Foundation Halle, on: buergerstiftung-halle.de
7. ^ Ulrich Luckhardt: Lyonel Feininger . Prestel, Munich et al. 2004, ISBN 3-7913-2041-6 , p. 174.
8. ↑ Feininger, Laurence . In: Deutsche Biographie , on: deutsche-biographie.de
9. ↑ Clara Feininger (née Fürst) . In: Stolpersteine ​​in Berlin, on: stolpersteine-berlin.de
10. ↑ Hans-Stefan Müller: Festspielhaus Hellerau (PDF file; 3.3 MB), diploma thesis, 1996, on: arch-m.de
11. ^ Margit Zellinger: Summerhill today , diploma thesis 1996, on: summerhill.paed.com
12. ↑ Axel D. Kühn: Alexander S. Neill in Hellerau - the origins of Summerhill . In: Dresdner Hefte , No. 51, 15th year, 3 (1997), on: summerhill.paed.com
13. ↑ Feininger, Laurence . In: Student list of the Free School Community Wickersdorf . In: Archives of the German Youth Movement , Ludwigstein Castle, Witzenhausen.
14. ↑ Laurence Feininger: The early history of the canon to Josquin des Prez (around 1500) . Phil. Diss., Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, July 1, 1937, H. & J. Lechte, Emsdetten 1937 OCLC 250579807 .
15. ^ Theodor Lukas Feininger: Catalog raisonné . In: Art Archives, on: kunst-archive.net
16. ↑ Danilo Curti-Feininger: Protagonisti. I personaggi che hanno fatto il Trentino dal Rinascimento al Duemila . Società iniziative editoriali, Trient 1997, p. 158.
17. ↑ Stephen R. Miller: Journal of Seventeenth Century Music , at: jscm.org
18. ^ ^{A b c} Edward E. Lowinsky: Laurence Feininger (1909-1976): Life, Work, Legacy . In: The Musical Quarterly (Oxford University Press), Vol. 63, No. 3 (July 1977), pp. 327-366.
19. ↑ The Lovely Legacy of a Musical Crusade . In: The New York Times , August 19, 2000.
20. ↑ Patricia Hall: The Oxford Handbook of Music Censorship . Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2017. ISBN 978-0-1908-5059-3 , p. 62.
21. ^ Paul Walker: Theories of Fugue from the Age of Josquin to the Age of Bach . University Rochester Press, Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2004, ISBN 978-1-5804-6150-4 , p. 387.