Paul Ernst Ruppel

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Paul Ernst Ruppel 1974

Paul Ernst Ruppel (born July 18, 1913 in Esslingen am Neckar , † November 27, 2006 in Neukirchen-Vluyn ) was a German composer , cantor and choirmaster . He created numerous works for choirs and trombone choirs .

Life

Paul Ernst Ruppel came from a Baptist family. His father, Paul Ruppel, was an office clerk and for many years led the mixed choir of the Evangelical-Free Church in Esslingen. Ruppel's mother, Luise Weh, also came from Baptist circles.

Beginnings

When Paul Ernst Ruppel was eleven years old, his family moved to Kassel for professional reasons . The father had found a job with the local Oncken publishing house . Ruppel made the decision very early to study church and school music. His contact with the Kasseler Singkreis under the direction of Walter Blankenburg had given the decisive impetus.

After graduating from high school , he enrolled at the Stuttgart Music Academy in 1933 , where he was strongly influenced by Richard Gölz , author of a well-known choir book. Ruppel gained orchestral experience with Helmut Bornefeld , under whose direction he mostly played the viola , but also oboe and lute . The meeting with the composer Hugo Distler was also important for his training .

After completing his studies in 1936, Paul Ernst Ruppel began as a singing supervisor for the Christian Singers' Association, which is oriented towards the free church . He carried out this task until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

war

Ruppel was drafted right at the beginning of the war. The war took him to the Netherlands and Belgium. He was seriously wounded in Dunkirk , so that he was initially discharged from the Wehrmacht . After a long hospital stay, he worked in a cheese dairy in Bodenfelde for two years . In the spring of 1943 he was drafted again. This time the war took him to Sicily , where he was taken prisoner by the Americans in August of the same year . With a prisoner transport he came via North Africa to the USA, to Oklahoma and from there to Arkansas and finally to Louisiana . Shortly after the end of the war, he was taken to Scotland in May 1945 and from there to Sussex / southern England. Here Ruppel played an organ again for the first time in many years. The opportunity arose because an Anglican parish asked him for help. After five years in prison, Ruppel was released in 1948.

Christian Singers Association

In the same year Ruppel resumed his work as a singing warden of the Christian Singers Association . In 1949 he came to Neukirchen-Vluyn to help set up a training center for the Singing Association in Leyenburg Castle . After the refugees and displaced persons from the east, who had initially used the castle as emergency accommodation, had moved out, so-called singing weeks and choir leader camps could be held in Vluyn. A fire severely damaged the Leyenburg in 1963, which is one of the reasons why the choir training center was relocated to Wuppertal -Elberfeld. Ruppel stayed in Neukirchen-Vluyn, where he was - in addition to his work in the singers' association - from 1970 to 1980 organist for the local Protestant church community.

Family and death

Paul Ernst Ruppel married Paula Ritter in 1938. The marriage lasted until the wife's death in 1996. She supported in all his activities and tasks and looked after the family with five sons.

Until the end, Ruppel's interest was in church music and composition.

meaning

Ruppel worked as a lecturer and Bundessingwart as well as editor and cantor of the Christian Singers Association . He was a member of the ecumenical lyricists and composers group of the Werkgemeinschaft Musik e. V. and the AG Music in the Ev. Youth e. V., today the lyricists and composers group TAKT .

Ruppel's melodies can be found in many church songbooks, including free church hymn books, for example in Celebrations and Praises (20 church hymns ), in the Mennonite hymn book (10 songs) and in the Evangelical Methodist hymn book from 2002 (44 songs) as well as in the Evangelical hymnal and in the Catholic praise of God .

He combined impulses from the singing movement with the freer rhythms from jazz , gospel and spiritual. In the field of free forms of singing ( canons and similar forms) he was virtuoso, so that, for example, the Evangelical hymn book, but also the hymn book of the Evangelical Methodist Church, "takes up crucial contributions from Ruppel".

His canon based on Psalm 113 became known worldwide. From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord be praised. Sacred oratorios and rhythmic gospel arrangements from his hand are also part of the core repertoire of many choirs .

Ruppel has led numerous singing weeks and conductor training courses and thus had a decisive influence on Christian choir work, and in particular on free church choir work. He was also a member of the Working Group for Ecumenical Songs (AÖL).

Works (selection)

A large number of melodies, sentences and texts come from Ruppel's pen. The following list contains only a selection of the most famous works:

  • All good gifts (Liedruf; EG 463)
  • Old with the young (Canon; EG 338)
  • Christ, the light of the world, what a reason to rejoice (chorale)
  • CRUCIFIXION Passion contemplation according to Spirituals (1960) for cantor, acc. Choir, trombone and double bass
  • He is the right sun of joy (canon; EG 2)
  • Just as my father sent me (canon with stanzas; EG 260, GL 641)
  • God's love is like the sun, it's always and everywhere (Spiritual song)
  • I throw my questions over (chorus song)
  • I want to thank you, Lord (Kehrverslied; EG 291, GL 278)
  • You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit (Canon; EG 132)
  • Yes i wanna sing (canon)
  • My soul lifts up the Lord (Canon; EG 310)
  • My heart is ready (Canon; EG 339)
  • You gave me ears (text; EG 236)
  • Bless, Lord, what your hand (Canon; EG 466)
  • From the rising of the sun (Canon; EG 456)

literature

  • Dietrich Meyer (Hrsg.): The new song in the Protestant hymn book. Song poets and composers report. 2nd edition. Archive of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, Düsseldorf 1997, ISBN 3-930250-17-9 , pp. 233-235.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ so Konrad Klek , Werner Schrade: Zur Geschichte des Kirchenliedes. In: Siegfried Bauer : Trying and Studying. Textbook for basic training in Protestant church music. Strube-Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-921946-29-8 , p. 264.
personal data
SURNAME Ruppel, Paul Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, cantor and choir director
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Esslingen am Neckar
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 2006
Place of death Neukirchen-Vluyn