Paul Smets

Paul Smets (born November 10, 1901 in Mainz ; † August 20, 1960 there ) was a German musicologist , bell and organ expert .

life and work

Smets studied music in Berlin , Frankfurt am Main and Munich . Since 1928 he worked as a state expert and appraiser for organ building , bells and room acoustics , since 1950 professor.

In 1954, the Building Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main commissioned him, together with the bell founder Fritz Rincker, to provide an expert opinion on the restoration of the Frankfurt city bells that had been lost in World War II . The ten Frankfurt donation churches were largely destroyed in the air raids on Frankfurt am Main , most of their bells were melted down as part of the metal donation of the German people . Only the nine-part bells of the imperial cathedral St. Bartholomäus , one of the most beautiful bells of the 19th century, and some valuable bells of the Frankfurt Paulskirche had survived the war.

Smets suggested that all the bells should be coordinated harmoniously and arranged for a city chime of 50 bells. The two octaves, nine-part cathedral bells with the gloriosa form the basis. Smets contrasted this loud chime in a major tuning with a second sound group in a minor tuning, which was to be formed from the bells of the Paulskirche, Katharinenkirche and the Liebfrauenkirche . Another group formed the Dreikönigskirche , Leonhardskirche and Alte Nikolaikirche , whose smaller bells enriched the overtone spectrum of the city bells. The slightly distant Peterskirche received a four-part chime with the same prefatory motif as the Katharinenkirche, but a whole tone higher. The three-part peal of the Heiliggeistkirche  reflected the three tallest bells of the neighboring cathedral. The treble of the city bells was formed by a small four-part bell that was intended for the roof turret of the Carmelite monastery .

Smets died in 1960 and could not see the completion of the town bells. It was not until 1987 that the bells of St. Paul's Church from 1948 that did not match the sound of the city bells were handed over to the city's historical museum and replaced by the three preserved historical bells from 1685 and 1830 and three newly cast bells according to the Smets report. The town bells were completed in 1995 with the four small bells of the Carmelite monastery, which, however, are tuned an octave higher than intended in Smet's original design.

literature

• Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . Second volume. M – Z (=  publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 2 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-7829-0459-1 , p. 392 .
• Konrad Bund (ed.): Frankfurter Glockenbuch . Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-7829-0211-0 , p. 436.