Paul Blaschke

Paul Wilhelm Blaschke (born May 24, 1885 in Hultschin ; † March 11, 1969 in Anholt ) was a German theologian and musician. He was cathedral music director and clergyman in Breslau and papal secret chamberlain .

Life

He was born in Hultschin as the son of the shoemaker Richard Blaschek and his wife Antonia Kalischek into an arable and craftsman family. He received his first musical stimuli in his musical family and in the school and church in his hometown. After his older brother Richard Blaschek, he was accepted as a piper in the Holy Week of 1898 by the cathedral music director Max Filke in Breslau and attended the local secondary school. After graduating from high school, Blaschke studied theology like two of his brothers and was ordained a priest on June 17, 1909 in the Breslau Cathedral .

After his initial years as a chaplain at St. Mauritius, Breslau, he took part in the First World War as a chaplain of a Silesian Landwehr. After the end of the war he was appointed cathedral vicar in Breslau. Even before and especially after the war he continued his music studies: he learned to play the organ with the organist of the Kreuzkirche Emil Bohn , the violin with the concertmaster of the theater in Wroclaw, composition with the cathedral conductor Siegfried Cichy , the Gregorian chant in the Beuron Archabbey and with the professor for He studied musicology at the University of Breslau Max Schneider and received his doctorate in musicology. In October 1925, when Blaschke had just completed his musicological doctorate, the cathedral music director Cichy died. The cathedral chapter then elected Blaschke as his successor. On the festival of the church consecration of the cathedral in 1925, the then 40-year-old Paul Blaschke took up the position of cathedral music director of the extensive diocese of Breslau .

He was allowed to exercise the office for two decades, and it was not until the National Socialist government and the Second World War that his work was severely restricted. After the seizure of power, the previous successful cooperation with the Breslauer Rundfunk was not continued, after the start of the war the cathedral orchestra had to be severely restricted due to the high war taxes of the archdiocese and at the beginning of May 1944 the boys of the cathedral choir had to leave Breslau with the other students. A special permit for his choir was refused and so he continued the cathedral music with the remaining male voices and female voices from the neighboring parishes of St. Maria and St. Michael.

The direction of the music for the funeral of Cardinal Adolf Bertram in June 1945 in the Sudeten-Silesian Jauernig was Blaschke's last official act as cathedral music director. The antiphon In pace in idipsum dormiam set by Blaschke was sung by the Jauernig church choir under his direction.

After his expulsion from the Polish city of Breslau, the diocese of Münster accepted him . On September 6, 1946 he was employed as a temporary worker in Vechta as pastor to St. Peter in Oldenburg , Darfeld and as a chaplain in St. Augusta Hospital in Isselburg- Anholt , where he also died. He was buried in the central cemetery in Münster .

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His duties as cathedral music director included teaching Gregorian chant in the theologian convict and the seminary. He was able to save the performance lists of his 20-year term in office and were published in the Archives for Silesian Church History in 1969 and 1971 . Public radio broadcasts and performances in the Breslau concert hall made the performance of the cathedral choir known. The performances at the 26th General Assembly of the General Cecilia Association for Germany in October 1935 was his personal greatest success. The Breslau Cathedral Choir has since been one of the best German cathedral choirs.

He composed 6 masses, 1 requiem, several graduals and offerings as well as simple Corpus Christi chants for the war year 1943.

• October 1943, Trebnitz: Missa in honorem Sctae Hedwigis ex G.
• 1955 Groß-Königsdorf, Cologne: In pace , choir part.
• 1953 Groß-Königsdorf, Cologne: Hirtenlied , choir part.
• 1955 Groß-Königsdorf, Cologne: Crux fidelis! , Choir part.
• 1955 Lucerne: Maria, you Reine
• 1955 Lucerne: Maria, you most beautiful

When he left the country, he succeeded in bringing important music-historical works to the West and making them known there. B.

• Transeamus usque Bethlehem

His own publications were u. a .:

• Blaschke, Paul: The chorale in Heinrich Isaak's Choralis Constantinus: A contribution to the history of the Cantus Firmus technique ; Breslau, Schlesische Volkszeitung, 1926.
• Blaschke, Paul: Transeamus. Silesian Christmas shepherd song ; in: Schlesien 6th year, Nuremberg 1961, p. 200 f.
• Blaschke, Paul: Music by the Breslau Cathedral Choir 1925 to 1934 . 1969

literature

• Paul Blaschke: Music by the Breslau Cathedral Choir 1925–1934. In: Archives for Silesian Church History. 27, 1969, ISSN  0066-6491 , pp. 147-176.
• Paul Blaschke: Music by the Breslau Cathedral Choir 1935–1945. In: Archives for Silesian Church History. 29, 1971, pp. 157-172.
• A. Schmitz:  Blaschke, Paul. In: Friedrich Blume (Hrsg.): The music in past and present (MGG). First edition, Volume 15 (Supplement 1: Aachen - Dyson). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1973, DNB 550439609 , Sp. 839
• Rudolf Walter: The Breslau Cathedral Music from 1805–1945: Organization, cathedral organs, compositions by cathedral organists and cathedral musicians, significance in terms of music and cultural history. In: Gerhard Pankalla, Gotthard Speer (Hrsg.): Music in Silesia under the sign of romanticism (= contributions and information on Silesian music history. No. 9). Laumann, Dülmen 1981, ISBN 3-87466-032-X , pp. 87-218, here 152 ff.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry in the church book of the cath. Hultschin municipality [1]
2. ↑ Cf. Eckhard Grunewald, Nikolaus Gussone: The image of St. Hedwig in the Middle Ages and Modern Times, Oldenbourg 1996, p. 207 f. ISBN 9783486561784