Oskar Gottlieb Blarr

Oskar Gottlieb Blarr (born May 6, 1934 in Sandlack near Bartenstein , East Prussia ) is a German composer , organist and church musician .

Oskar Gottlieb Blarr (2001)

Blarr playing the piano in the Church of the Assumption in Jerusalem (2009)

life and work

He studied composition with Bernd Alois Zimmermann , Milko Kelemen and others. From 1961 to 1999 he was a church musician at the Neander Church in Düsseldorf . He also worked as a music lecturer at the catechetical seminar in Düsseldorf and as honorary professor for instrumentation at the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf .

As a composer, Oskar Gottlieb Blarr created oratorios , orchestral works, chamber and organ music. He also composed numerous New Spiritual Songs and created a beat mass . He published many of his songs under the pseudonym Choral Brother Ogo . CD recordings of his organ works were made with Wolfgang Abendroth and Martin Schmeding. He was a member of the ecumenical lyricists and composers group of the Werkgemeinschaft Musik eV and the AG Musik in der Ev. Jugend eV, today the lyricists and composers group TAKT .

In 1983 the Israeli composer Josef Tal dedicated his organ work Salva Venia Blarr, to which it premiered the following year in Düsseldorf.

Works (selection)

Oratorios

• Jesus Passion (1985)
• Jesus birth. Christmas Oratorio (1988/91)
• Easter Oratorio (1996)
• The Ascension (2010)

Chamber music works

• Psalm 47 [for soprano, tenor, choir (ad lib.), Trumpet, trombone, percussion (steel drums), violin, harp and bass] (1998)
• Tangos and chorales for Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2006)

Orchestral works

• 1st Symphony Janusz Korczak en karem concerto (1985).
• 2nd Symphony Jerusalem (1994)
• 3rd Symphony For Eternal Peace (2004)
• 4th Copernicus Symphony (World premiere: Tonhalle Düsseldorf, October 7, 2011)

Organ works

• Sonata Shaallu schlom Yeruschalayim (1st psalmody; 2nd tour; 3rd tropical chorale)
• Lischuatcha kiwiti Adonai
• Do you know the story ...?
• Lullaby for Mirjam
• Dream talk (1. Toccata 1; 2. Canon rythmique; 3. Toccata II per l'elevatione; 4. Canon à 6; 5. Toccata III, final)
• Missa brevis (1st Kyrie "O mild God"; 2nd Strasbourg Gloria)
• Homage (1. Initium and Organum triplum; 2. Organum aliquotum; 3. Organum accordum and Finalis)
• Hand kiss for St. Margaretha
• Al har habajit - on the Temple Mount (for large and small organ) (1. Zipporim we Shofar; 2. Epitaph for SBC; 3. Near eastern counterpoint; 4. Magrepha)
• "... qui tollis" - sigh for BAZI
• Roncalli rhinoceros Else
• Voices of spring
• To eternal peace

New spiritual songs

• Be a guest on earth , text: Arnim Juhre ; Music: Oskar Gottlieb Blarr
• Because you say yes to me, text: Christine Heuser , 1st prize at the 2nd competition of the Evangelical Academy Tutzing 1963
• Shalom, where love lives, text: Diethard Zils
• Who brings light to people who are blind, text: Hans-Jürgen Netz

Adaptations of other works

• Pictures at an Exhibition (after Mussorgsky ) adapted for organ (1976)
• Stravinsky on the organ (1978)

Awards

• 1985: Culture Prize of the East Prussian Landsmannschaft for music
• 2006: Composition prize of the city of Neuss for the work Tangos and Chorale for Dietrich Bonhoeffer, premiered on June 15, 2006 in the Christ Church in Neuss

literature

• Jutta Scholl (Ed.): The composer Oskar Gottlieb Blarr. A documentation. (= Series of publications by the Friends of Düsseldorf City Libraries, Vol. 3), Music Library, Düsseldorf 1994.
• Thomas Schmidt: The Jesus Passion (1985) by Oskar Gottlieb Blarr. A synthesis of Western European and Israelite traditions. Scientific term paper as part of the first state examination for the teaching post at secondary and secondary schools in the subject of music. Giessen 1988.

Web links

• Works by and about Oskar Gottlieb Blarr in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website by Oskar Gottlieb Blarr