Otto Barblan

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Otto Barblan
Otto Barblan's grave, Cemetery of the Kings, Geneva

Otto Barblan (born March 22, 1860 in S-chanf in the Upper Engadin , † December 19, 1943 in Geneva ) was a Swiss composer , organist and music teacher at the turn of the century. Among other things, he was a student of Immanuel Faißt and is in the compositional tradition of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , although he has nevertheless found an independent and unmistakable style.

Life

Otto Barblan was born as the son of the teacher, organist and choir director Florian Barblan in 1860 in the community of S-chanf in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland . His father published a collection of Ladin songs , among other things , while grandfather Otto and uncle Domenic Barblan were pastors in various Engadine towns.

Otto Barblan remained closely connected to his home country and above all to his mother tongue, Romansh , for almost his entire life . In 1874, initially following his father's profession, he came to the teachers' college in Chur . Here he received piano lessons from Robert Grisch (1824-1893), a student of Mendelssohn. After passing the teacher exam, he decided to devote his life to music. He studied in the years 1878-1884 at the Conservatory of Stuttgart , the subjects organ and composition and became a student of Immanuel Faisst and Sigmund Lebert . It was also Faisst to whom Barblan dedicated his first composition for organ. It was during this time that the intensive occupation with the then latest music by Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms fell .

As a student, Barblan already went on concert tours through Switzerland and neighboring countries. After his exams he became a substitute teacher for piano and organ at the Stuttgart Conservatory. Although he was reluctant to give up this post, the native Barblan left Stuttgart again in 1885 to accept the post of music teacher at the Bündner Kantonsschule in Chur. He himself reported later in his autobiography ( Recollections. Chur 1929) that he simply could not resist the call of his homeland back then. There he began to work increasingly in the field of amateur music , as he was appointed director of the Chur mixed choir and later also of the Chur men's choir. During this time he wrote his first important compositions.

In 1887 Barblan was offered the position of organist at the St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva. After initial hesitation - Barblan did not want to leave his home after this short time - he finally consented at the insistence of a delegation who had come specially. Just one year after taking up his post in 1888, he was offered a position as a teacher of composition and organ at the Geneva Conservatory , which led him back to teaching. In 1892 he was also conductor of the Société de Chant Sacré , in the years 1889-1900 of the Geneva song wreath and since 1901 of the Petit Choeur and the cathedral choir of St. Pierre . Barblan also insisted on giving several organ concerts per week during the summer months, apart from his work in amateur music with various smaller secular and spiritual choirs.

The decision he made in 1887 to go to Geneva turned out to be more decisive for his life, as he filled his offices with conscientiousness and skill until 1938, i.e. over 50 years. The active promotion of Johann Sebastian Bach's work during this time was fundamental to maintaining Bach in the city. Due to his dedicated commitment to his organ class, he soon became a sought-after teacher for numerous budding organists from all over Europe and overseas. For more than half a century Barblan had a formative influence on the musical life of Geneva.

If one looks at the people who dedicated his compositions, it quickly becomes clear that Barblan maintained contact with many important artistic personalities of his time (Brahms, Guilmant , Saint-Saëns , Widor ). There was also contact with Max Reger and Albert Schweitzer , as well as with Karl Straube , who performed his Passacaglia op. 6 .

Barblan was an honorary citizen of Geneva and held an honorary doctorate from Geneva University . In 1937 he was made an honorary member of the Swiss Tonkünstlerverein . One street in Geneva and one in Chur bear his name. He died in Geneva in 1943.

Works

Despite various tasks, Barblan managed to create an extensive and substantial oeuvre of composition . According to his activity, the focus is on choir and organ works. The music for the Calven celebration (1899), a festival with patriotic content in four acts for solos, choir and orchestra, which commemorates the Battle of Calven in 1499 and Graubünden's accession to the Helvetic Republic in 1798, as well as its composition for , became particularly well known Calvin anniversary from 1909. His St. Luke Passion, composed in 1916 and still occasionally heard in Switzerland today, is also important .

Barblan's only chamber music work is his elegiac and homesick-inspired string quartet in D major . Of the numerous compositions for organ, the Passacaglia opus 6, the Chaconne on BACH opus 10 and his concert variations on BACH opus 24 dedicated to Karl Straube should be mentioned. Numerous smaller organ compositions, which Barblan mostly grouped together ( Five Pieces, Op. 5 , Four Pieces, Op. 21 , Three Pieces, Op. 22 , Four Pieces, Op. 26 , Four Pieces, Op. 28 ) and his original contributions to collections also deserve mention . Major works include the Fantasia in G minor, Op. 16, his Toccata, Op. 23, and his Andante with Variations, Op. 1.

Barblan published the organ works by César Franck for the music publisher Edition Peters .

Barblan's works are characterized by their compositional density and colored harmony, but they are often not easily audible as a result.

Today it has become rather quiet around Otto Barblan. His fatherland anthem from the Calven Festival , which has not become the national anthem only because of a few striking but perceived as too abrupt tone jumps, is still played now and then in Switzerland. One of his works can rarely be heard in organ concerts. In the context of the renewed interest in romantic organ music, however, there are signs of a new discovery of his works.

Fonts

  • Otto Barblan: memories. In: Bündnerisches Monatsblatt, No. 1, January 1929, pp. 1–24. Digitized ; No. 2, February 1929, pp. 44-60. Digitized

literature

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Barblan, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss composer and organist
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH S-chanf , Engadin
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 1943
Place of death Geneva