Otto circle

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Otto Kreis (born June 8, 1890 in Frauenfeld ; † 1966 ) was a Swiss conductor , composer , choir director and music director .

life and work

Otto Kreis was the second oldest son of the Thurgau government councilor Dr. A. Kreis-Labhard and grew up with five brothers in Frauenfeld.

His musically gifted father initially taught him to play the piano , later he received piano and violin lessons at the Thurgau canton school in Frauenfeld under the music director Alfred Widmer. Kreis then became an organ student of Heinrich Wydler and Eugen Züst in the Reformed Church in Frauenfeld .

Although his mother would have liked to see him professionally as a doctor or pastor, he studied at the Zurich Conservatory with music director Volkmar Andreae , from whom he was instructed in harmony , counterpoint and composition . He also received piano lessons from Fritz Niggli, violin lessons from Willem de Boer and organ lessons from Johannes Lutz. He also completed studies in choral conducting with Karl Attenhofer and in ensemble playing with Friedrich Hegar . During the first two years of his studies, Kreis continued to attend grammar school in Frauenfeld and successfully graduated in 1910 with a high school diploma . He then went on to volunteer at the Dresden Court Opera ( Semperoper ), whose general music director Ernst von Schuch he knew personally.

In 1913 , through the mediation of Volkmar Andreae, Kreis was given the position of music director in Olten , where he began his professional career as a conductor of the Olten Choral Society (women's and men's choir, until 1919) and later also conducted the Olten City Orchestra.

He later directed the Bern men's choir as a conductor for 40 years. As a composer with text setting, he created a. a. over 50 mostly four-, partly also two-part works. For this purpose, Kreis chose texts by Walter Dietiker and Alfred Huggenberger , and occasionally by Hugo Marti , Gottfried Keller , Lily Oesch, Pius Rickenbach, Christian Günther and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe .

The original “Thurgauerlied” by the composer Johannes Wepf was newly composed by Kreis. His version is known today as the Thurgau song .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Kreis: My musical career. Thurgauer Jahrbuch, 1960, accessed on March 14, 2020 .
  2. ^ Thurgauer Tagblatt: Brief history of the Thurgau song. Retrieved March 14, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Circle, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss conductor and composer
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Frauenfeld
DATE OF DEATH 1966