Ludwig Erk

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ludwig Erk, composer (1807-1883)

Ludwig Christian Erk (born January 6, 1807 in Wetzlar ; † November 25, 1883 in Berlin ) was a German music teacher and composer .

Life

Monument on Ludwig-Erk-Platz in Wetzlar
Ludwig Erk's grave in the St. Elisabeth Cemetery, Berlin

Erk was the son of the cantor and organist Adam Wilhelm Erk, who also trained him musically. In 1813, Ludwig - then six years old - came to Dreieichenhain via Isenburg (1812) with his parents and two brothers Friedrich Albrecht and Karl Friedrich von Worms (1811) . Here the father had finally found a permanent job as a teacher, organist and town clerk. Here he spent seven years of his childhood until his father's death on January 31, 1820.

At the age of 13 he came to see his godfather Johann Balthasar Spieß (1782–1841) in Offenbach am Main. There, Erk initially took part in the Bernardstift lessons as a pupil, but with increasing age he also received instructions from Spieß on how to teach, and was then also employed as a teacher. Ludwig Christian Erk got his first job as a music teacher in Moers in 1826 . In 1835 he was appointed music teacher at the seminar for city schools in Berlin, where he also conducted the liturgical choir in the cathedral church in Berlin from 1836 to 1838 . From 1836 to 1847, Erk was a member of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin . From 1857 he held the title of royal music director. Ludwig Erk was buried on November 28, 1883 in the St. Elisabeth cemetery in Ackerstraße / Berlin-Mitte. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death, a memorial service was held in front of his grave, at which Ludwig Christian Erk was led by the pastor of St. Elisabeth's Church Eugen Bethke and singing friends of the Erk'schen Männergesangverein Berlin 1845 e. V. with a top hat was honored as the "revival of German men's and folk song". The grave still exists today and is located in the St. Elisabeth Cemetery in Berlin.

Act

The Ludwig Erk house in Dreieichenhain. Erk spent part of his childhood in the house.

During his time on the Rhine, Erk founded the so-called Bergisch-Niederrheinischen teacher song festivals. In 1845 he founded the Erk men's choir . In 1852 he added a mixed choir to the association. Erk composed himself and was an intensive collector of folk songs. He was the first scientific melody collector in Germany. By comparing different song variants, he tried to expose uncorrupted original versions of folk songs. He had put together a collection of around 20,000 folk songs, which he published in song books. In addition, he was involved in the publication of the music magazine Euterpe around 1850 together with Ernst Julius Hentschel .

Works (selection)

  • Methodological guide for singing lessons in elementary schools (1834)
  • with Wilhelm Irmer : The German folk songs with their ways of singing (3 volumes / 13 booklets, 1838–45)
  • Wreath of songs. Selection of cheerful and serious chants; for school, home and life (1841)
  • Songbirds. Collection of one-, two-, three- and four-part songs for school, home and life (1848)
  • Musical childhood friend: Collection of chants with piano accompaniment for German youth of all classes (1848)
  • German song garden. Collection of one, two, three and four-part songs for girls' schools
  • Deutscher Liederhort (1856, 1893/94 [revised by Franz Magnus Böhme and since then the standard work of the German folk song, the "Erk-Böhme"], reprinted 1963)
  • with Benedikt Widmann : New song source: periodical collection of singles and polyphonic songs. 3 booklets. Merseburger, Leipzig 1869 ( digitized version ).

literature

Web links

Commons : Ludwig Erk  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Ludwig Erk  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schade, Ernst: What the people know to sing : Ludwig Erk, life and work of a song collector. Dreieich 1992, p. 20
  2. ↑ Illustration and caption in One Hundred Years of St. Elisabeth - Berlin . Compiled by Eugen Bethke (* 1883; † 1945). Published by the Parish Council of St. Elisabeth, Berlin (1935), p. 80
  3. ↑ TO Weigel (Ed.): Leipziger Repertorium der Deutschen und foreign literature , Universität Leipzig, 1850, p. 315, ( full text in the Google book search).
personal data
SURNAME Erk, Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Erk, Ludwig Christian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German music teacher and composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1807
PLACE OF BIRTH Wetzlar
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1883
Place of death Berlin