Max Filke

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Max Filke (1907)

Max Filke (born October 5, 1855 in Steubendorf near Leobschütz , Upper Silesia ; † October 8, 1911 in Breslau ) was a church musician and composer .

Life

Max Filke was born on October 5, 1855, the son of the teacher and organist Benjamin Filke. His mother Amalie, b. Elsner, was a teacher's daughter, his grandfather a teacher in Dürr-Kunzendorf near Ziegenhals , Upper Silesia . More of his relatives also worked as teachers.

The organists and cantors of that time were almost always competent in their field, and so Max Filke inherited a considerable part of his musical talent from his father, who taught him the violin, organ and piano. After the premature death of his parents in 1864, he attended the Matthias Gymnasium in Breslau . His music teacher there was Moritz Brosig , whose favorite he soon became.

Max Filke made his musical studies as a Breslau cathedral choir singer, then at the church music school in Regensburg . In 1878/79 he worked as a cantor in Duderstadt . After further studies at the Leipzig Conservatory, he worked from 1881 to 1890 in Straubing as a choir conductor at St. Jakob and city music director. He then went to Cologne, where he worked for a short time as choir master of the Liederkranz men's choir .

In 1891 he became cathedral music director in Breslau and singing teacher at the seminary, and in 1893 also teacher at the Breslau Institute for Church Music. In 1899 he was awarded the title of Royal Music Director . The cathedral organist Emanuel Adler , who was defeated in the application for the position of Kapellmeister to Filke, developed an enmity against Filke out of disappointment. The two, who had their official apartments in the same house, went to court in 1901, and Filke was considering moving to Vienna. The conflict was defused by the fact that Cardinal Georg von Kopp Filke granted housing money to move into a private apartment. Shortly before his death in 1911 - after years of poor health - Filke was appointed professor.

During his work in Straubing , he met his partner and later wife, the singer Maria Schlabs. The marriage remained childless.

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Title page of the score

At the beginning of the 19th century, the ideas of the Enlightenment also led to historical reform movements in the church, which then had a lasting influence on the church music of the time. Far-reaching implementations of an ideal musical style, which had to be clearly differentiated from the secular "operatic" music of the time, happened on the Catholic side through the representatives of Cecilianism , and so on September 1, 1868 the General Association of Cecilia of German-speaking Countries (ACV) was created. Its founder was Franz Xaver Witt from Walderbach.

At the urging of Witt and the ACV, Franz Xaver Haberl opened the church music school in Regensburg on November 1, 1874 . Even Franz Liszt visited the 1868 Regensburg in April, said: "May Regensburg remain the church music capital of the Catholic world." And studied at the School of Church Music in 1877, Max Filke with Franz Xaver Haberl, Director of Music and Michael Haller , Stiftskanonikus to at the Old Chapel Regensburg.

As a teacher at the church music institute in Breslau, Max Filke was able to pass on the tradition imparted at the Regensburg school and the new direction emerging in his music, the so-called Breslau school .

In his numerous compositions for church purposes (masses, requiem, litanies, etc.), among which there are also many simple ones for smaller choir proportions, the composer combines a productive talent with efficient technique, so that these works are a certain part of church music to this day Form practice. This is evidenced by the performances of his Easter Mass Missa in G major in honorem Sancti Caroli Borromaei op. 80. Filke's importance lies in his efforts to create instrumental church music that approximates the style of the time. In contrast, his secular choral songs are very much indebted to the taste of the time.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rudolf Walter : The Breslau Cathedral Music from 1805-1945. In: Gerhard Pankalla, Gotthard Speer (Hrsg.): Music in Silesia under the sign of Romanticism. Laumann, Dülmen 1981, ISBN 3-87466-032-X , pp. 87-218, here. P. 119 f.
personal data
SURNAME Filke, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer and church musician
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Steubendorf near Leobschütz , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1911
Place of death Wroclaw