Robert Theodor Odenwald

Memory of Robert Theodor Odenwald on a collective grave plaque in the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg

Robert Theodor Odenwald (born May 3, 1838 in Frankenthal (Gera) , † April 22, 1899 in Hamburg ) was a German music teacher and choir director.

Life

Robert Theodor Odenwald became prefect of the Gera church choir at the age of 18. He was a student of Wilhelm Tschirch and A. Helfer. From 1859 he was a singing teacher at Gera schools and founded a choir here in 1868. In 1870 he was appointed cantor at the Marienkirche and singing teacher at the grammar school in Elbing . Here he founded the Elbinger church choir in 1871.

Presumably at the suggestion of Hermann Julius Robert Calinich , he was appointed to Hamburg in 1882 as a singing teacher at the Johanneum Realgymnasium and Wilhelmgymnasium . Here, too, he founded a church choir, which developed quickly. The Hamburg church choir was subsidized by the state from 1884 and taken over entirely in 1891. The choir put on free motet performances on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Odenwald was a singer himself and has edited some vocal compositions.

His son Felix Odenwald (* 1865 in Gera) became a pianist.

Works

• Choirs from oratorios by Handel and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, arranged by Theodor Odenwald. Leipzig: C. Merseburger 1890

literature

• Odenwald, Robert Theodor , in: Hugo Riemanns Musik-Lexikon. 5th edition, Leipzig: Hesse 1900, p. 801
• Joachim Kremer: Church music under the sign of restoration? On the establishment of a church music choir in Hamburg between 1822 and 1890. in: H.-J. Marx (Hrsg.): Contributions to the music history of Hamburg from the Middle Ages to the modern age. (Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft 18), Frankfurt am Main [u. a.]: Lang 2001, pp. 437-462

Individual evidence

1. ^ Kremer (Lit), p. 453