Munich guitar quartet

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The Munich Guitar Quartet was an ensemble of guitars in different pitches founded by Heinrich Albert in 1910 based on the classical string quartet - two thirds guitars as well as one prime and one fifth bass guitar.

history

The Munich guitar quartet played an important role in Munich's musical life in the first decades of the 20th century. Until 1914, the quartet performed successfully with third, prime and fifth bass guitar. After the First World War , the ensemble was reorganized under the well-known guitarist and guitar maker Hermann Hauser (1st third guitar) and with Fritz Buek (2nd third guitar), Mela Feuerlein (primary guitar) and Hans Tempel (quint bass guitar). "The quartet's concert activities were only slowed down and finally ended by the political changes in the early 1930s."

The origin of this colorful quartet formation lay in the lute practice of the Renaissance. In ensembles with more than two players you played with different pitched sounds. This practice was continued in the duo literature of the 19th century, for example by Anton Diabelli and Joseph Caspar Mertz . These two composers almost always used a third guitar for the first part. The Munich guitar quartet took up this practice and represented the musical aspirations of the International Guitarist Association to the outside world. After works by Heinrich Albert, this quartet inspired other composers such as Matthäus Roemer or Georg Stöber to write works for such an ensemble.

Current situation

This guitar tradition was de facto no longer carried on in Germany after the war-related end of the Munich guitar quartet . Only the New Munich Guitar Ensemble with Andreas Stevens , Ute Koch , Michael Koch and Michael Andreas Haas took up this tradition again around 2007. On the occasion of its establishment in 2007, this ensemble received four original instruments from the Hermann Hauser Guitar Foundation (Munich), which the Munich guitar quartet had already played. This New Munich Guitar Ensemble entered its tradition for the first time on November 23, 2008 in the Deutsches Museum in Munich with pieces from the original Munich guitar quartet .

Dieter Kreidler and Johannes Tappert have campaigned for the re-establishment of this guitar tradition in Germany in the following series of articles in the magazine of the Association of German Plucked Musicians :

  • Prelude 2/15: Johannes Tappert - New impulses for ensemble playing with guitars - Introduction. Departure into new sound dimensions with octave, third and fifth bass guitar.
  • Prelude 4/15: Rainer Stelle - 100 years of making music with third, prime and fifth bass guitar in Germany.
  • Start 2/16: Andreas Stevens - New sounds with old instruments. The New Munich Guitar Ensemble, an ensemble between retrospect and contemporary music school.

Works composed for the Munich guitar quartet

  • Heinrich Albert: Quartet No. 1 in F major (1911) for 2 third, prime and fifth bass guitar
  • Matthäus Roemer: Divertimento (A popular music) in 5 movements (1924) for third, two prime and fifth bass guitar
  • Ferdinand Rebay : Quartet in G minor (1925) for third, 2 prime and fifth bass guitar

swell

  • Deutsches Museum: The Munich Guitar Quartet. Guitar music of the Munich Art Nouveau. Concert of the New Munich Guitar Ensemble (Andreas Stevens, Ute Koch, Michael Koch, Michael Andreas Haas) on original instruments on November 23, 2018 in Munich. November 23, 2008, accessed on January 31, 2020 (there are some comments on the original Munich guitar quartet ).
  • Hermann Hauser Guitar Foundation: Projects HHGF. Retrieved on January 31, 2020 (There is also the project of the New Munich Guitar Ensemble to resume the tradition of the Munich Guitar Quartet .).
  • Johannes Tappert: Guitar quartet with a special line-up. Accessed February 1, 2020 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Munich Guitar Quartet. In: German Museum.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Johannes Tappert: Guitar quartet with a special line-up.
  3. ↑ Current issues in: The Guitar Friend No. 8–9 / 1922 p. 58, No. 1–2 / 1924 p. 11, No. 1–2 / 1951 p. 11
  4. ↑ a b New Munich Guitar Ensemble. In: Hermann Hauser Guitar Foundation.