Philipp Wolfrum

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Philipp Julius Wolfrum (born December 17, 1854 in Schwarzenbach am Wald ( Hofer Land ); † May 8, 1919 Samedan / Upper Engadin ) was a German composer and organist .

Life

Philipp Wolfrum was a son of the cantor and teacher Johann Heinrich Wolfrum. His brother was the organist and composer Karl Wolfrum . He learned to play the organ at a young age and was already replacing his father on the organ at the age of nine. With the aim of becoming a teacher and organist, he attended the royal teachers' seminar in Altdorf near Nuremberg. After graduating in 1872, he first worked as a private tutor and then went to the Royal Teachers' College in Bamberg as an assistant teacher . A scholarship enabled him to begin studying at the Royal Music School in Munich in 1876. There he studied organ and composition with Joseph Rheinberger , piano with the Liszt student Karl Bärmann and choral singing and conducting with Franz Wüllner .

Memorial plaque for Philipp Wolfrum in the Peterskirche in Heidelberg

After graduating from university , he returned to Bamberg in 1878 and was a conductor, soloist and composer. He was soon referred to as the “soul of our entire musical life there”. In 1884 he was appointed by the University of Heidelberg to teach music at the theological seminary. Here he set up comprehensive church music training for the theologians of Baden for the first time and initiated an active public musical life in the city. Today's University of Church Music in Heidelberg developed from his efforts . In 1885 he founded the Academic Choral Society and the Bach Society (today: Bach Choir Heidelberg ) in Heidelberg . In 1888 he was appointed associate professor . In this function he published his work The Origin and First Development of the German Evangelical Hymn in Musical Relationship in 1890 . In 1894 he was awarded the title of University Music Director and in 1907 the title of General Music Director.

Wolfrum campaigned intensively for the revival of the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and for the work of Franz Liszt. In 1910 Wolfrum's two-volume monograph Johann Sebastian Bach was published and he acted as chairman of the Liszt Complete Edition, of which he edited four volumes himself.

In 1914 Philipp Wolfrum was appointed Privy Councilor . In the same year he published the text The Evangelical Church Music . In 1917 he was appointed full honorary professor . Richard Strauss dedicated to his friend Philipp Wolfrum 1897, the a cappella - Motet Jacob! Your lost son in the words of Friedrich Rückert .

Because of a kidney disease, Wolfrum went to Samedan in Switzerland for a cure in 1919, during which he died. He was buried in Samedan in the closest circle of his relatives.

Friends and companions

Wolfrum had a lifelong friendship with his fellow Munich student Engelbert Humperdinck . Also, Felix Mottl and Richard Strauss were among Wolfrum friends. The collaboration and ultimately close friendship with Max Reger that followed his contacts in 1901 and 1904 became particularly important . Both tried to arrange performances of their works for each other. Wolfrum also invited Reger to Heidelberg again and again and went on extensive tours with him, mainly with Bach's piano concertos. After all, it was Wolfrum who gave Reger's funeral oration.

Wolfrum's most important student was Fritz Stein - he was also a close friend of Reger. Further "links" between Wolfrum and Reger were the Reger student Karl Hasse , who worked as Wolfrum's assistant in Heidelberg from 1906, as well as Wolfrum's student Hermann Meinhard Poppen , who took over as assistant after Hasse's departure, and who in 1912 gave Wolfrum a seven-month study leave from Reger.

The composer Heinrich Kaminski began his training in Heidelberg in 1907 with him and Johanna Elspermann .

Works (selection)

Compositions

  • Three sonatas for organ, op.1, op.10, op.14
  • Trio in B minor, for piano, violin and viola, op.24
  • Organ preludes to church melodies op.25 and op.27
  • Three tone poems for organ op.30
  • Organ requiem lament and consolation
  • Four chants for male choir op.12
  • Three choirs for mixed choir op.2
  • Two chants for male choir a. Organ op.11
  • The great Hallelujah (Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock) for 4-part mixed choir and large orchestra op.22
  • A Christmas Mystery op.31
  • Festival music, lift of the faculties and subsequent song of homage for orchestra, organ, a baritone voice and male choir for the 100th anniversary of the renewal of Heidelberg University, op.32
  • Ballad in B major for piano op.8
  • Sonata in E minor for cello a. Klav. op. 7
  • String Quartet ( In Spring ) in A major op.13
  • Piano quintet in b minor op.21
  • Piano trio in B minor op.24
  • Tragic Overture op.3
  • Songs and chants op.5, op.9, op.15
  • Six songs by Goethe op.16, op.18
  • Old songs in new ways op.34

Fonts

  • The origin and first development of the German Protestant hymn in a musical relationship (= musical reference library , 8). Leipzig 1890.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (= The Music , 13/14). 2 volumes. Leipzig 1910.
  • Protestant church music, its status and its further development (= church music archive , 22). Bremen 1914.

Sound carrier

literature

  • H.-J. Nieden: Bach reception around the turn of the century. Philipp Wolfrum (= contributions to music research , 1). Munich / Salzburg 1976.
  • Stefanie Steiner: Wolfrum . In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present , personal part 17th 2nd edition. Kassel u. a. 2007, col. 1130-1133.
  • Ludger Stühlmeyer : Chronology of the composers in Upper Franconia. In: Curia sonans. The music history of the city of Hof. A study on the culture of Upper Franconia. From the foundation of the Bamberg diocese to the present . Page 357ff. Phil. Diss., Bayerische Verlagsanstalt, Heinrichs-Verlag Bamberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89889-155-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Concert report of the Bamberger Tagblatt from December 27, 1881
  2. ^ Philipp Wolfrum: Johannes Sebastian Bach, 2 volumes, Leipzig 1910
  3. Franz Liszt: Musical Works, ed. from the Franz Liszt Foundation, 34 volumes, Leipzig 1907–1936