Meingosus Gaelle

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Meingosus Gaelle OSB , origin. Johannes Gaelle (born June 16, 1752 in Buch (now part of Meckenbeuren ); † February 4, 1816 in Maria Plain near Salzburg ) was a German Catholic theologian, physicist and church musician .

Live and act

Johannes Gaelle was the son of simple Upper Swabian farmers. He received his first training in the Latin school of Tettnang , where he received his first music lessons, and also in the Hofen priory , which belonged to the Weingarten Benedictine monastery . His talent for playing the harp showed very early on .

On April 7, 1771 he made his profession and received the religious name Meingosus. In the same year he went to study philosophy and theology at the Benedictine University in Salzburg . The young monk probably received his first significant musical suggestions in the music city, which was already known at the time. There he met Johann Michael Haydn , with whom he had a lifelong friendship.

In 1773 the Benedictine monk received his doctorate in philosophy and four years later in theology. Then he returned to Weingarten. Six years later he was ordained a priest in Constance . He then taught philosophy and mathematics at the lyceum of his monastery. Around 1790 Meingosus Gaelle became novice master , then sub-librarian and choir regent until he was given the office of master chef in the summer of 1800 .

When the Weingarten monastery was abolished in the course of secularization in 1802 , the religious took over a professorship for dogmatics and church history in Salzburg two years later . There he conveyed the music of his time to his fellow brothers, including works by Haydn , Mozart and Beethoven . He also worked intensively on scientific experiments on electricity theory ( static electricity ), which Meingosus Gaelle published in two volumes. In 1806/07 and 1809/10 he was dean of the university. In 1811, after the university was closed, he was appointed superior of the Maria Plain pilgrimage monastery, where he died four years later.

Meingosus Gaelle composed (and collected) numerous sonatas, instrumental, chamber music and church music works. He achieved a certain fame by setting the songs in Sebastian Sailer's comic opera Die Schwäbische Schöpf or Adam and Eve's Creation and its Fall (1796 Weingarten Monastery).

Meingosus Gaelle's musical works have only survived in handwriting. In Salzburg-Gnigl, the Gällegasse is a reminder of the (almost) forgotten cleric. It is thanks to the Weissenhorn Chamber Opera that the work of the Benedictine monk is repeatedly performed on stage.

Works (selection)

Weingarten time

  • 1784: Positiones ex logica, metaphysica et arithmetica
  • 1785: Positions ex philosophia et mathesi
  • 1788: Positiones ex metaphysica geo- et trigonometria ac philosophia universali practica
  • 1789: Meditationes philosophico-mathematicae

Salzburg time

  • 1813/16: Contributions to the expansion and perfecting of the theory of electricity in theoretical and practical terms , two volumes
  • 1815: A word about the electric pigmäenspiele, dilettantey and lightning rods

literature

  • Ulrich Siegele:  Gaelle, Meingosus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 18 ( digitized version ).
  • Karl Heinz Burmeister: History of the city of Tettnang . 1st edition. Universitätsverlag Konstanz (UVK), Konstanz 1997, ISBN 3-87940-595-6 , p. 196 .
  • Josef H. Friedel and Richard Müller: Pater Meingosus Gaelle OSB (1752-1816). Werkheft , Meckenbeuren: Kulturkreis Meckenbeuren eV, Home History Working Group 2018 (materials on the local history of Meckenbeuren; 12).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gaelle, Meingosus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gaelle, Johannes (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic theologian, physicist and church musician
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1752
PLACE OF BIRTH Book at Tettnang
DATE OF DEATH February 4, 1816
Place of death Maria Plain near Salzburg