Rudolf Barthel

Rudolf Barthel (born November 10, 1908 in Berlin ; † June 10, 1978 there ) was a German music educator, conductor, arranger and composer. From 1945 to 1971 he was director of the Volksmusikschule Neukölln (today: Paul Hindemith Music School Neukölln). He became particularly well known as the founder and conductor of the recorder orchestra at the music school.

Life

education

Rudolf Barthel was born as the son of a wood sculptor in Neukölln . From 1918 to 1922 he attended the Kaiser-Friedrich-Realgymnasium (later renamed the Karl-Marx-Schule ) in the Sonnenallee, which was directed by the school reformer Fritz Karsen from 1921 .

After finishing school, Barthel decided in 1924 to train as a private music teacher.

He studied violin at the Stern Conservatory . As a minor, he dealt with composition, harmony and counterpoint. In 1929, at the age of 21, he received permission to teach violin.

In 1929 he also came into contact with the recorder , which was the preferred instrument in the youth music movement because it was considered popular and easy to obtain.

Barthel learned this instrument and experienced choral music making with recorders in Ferdinand Enke's group at the Volksmusikschule Charlottenburg. The interplay was taught there in order to further educate the teaching teachers.

Barthel passed his examination as a music teacher for recorder in 1937.

From 1929 he worked as a private music teacher. His income in the working class district of Neukölln was low during the period of unemployment and the global economic crisis.

In 1930/31 Barthel also directed a children's choir at the Neukölln Volksmusikschule. He also played the violin in the music school orchestra.

Social Democratic Education Movement

In addition to his teaching activities, Barthel was involved in the social democratic education movement for which the Neukölln city council and Reichstag member Kurt Löwenstein was responsible. The Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft der Kinderfreunde (RAG) was a division within the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic .

The offers for working class children included hikes, group evenings and holiday camps as “ children's republics ”.

Barthel was one of the helpers who made music with the children. From 1929 he assisted the head of the music school in the music education work in tent camps and in 1932 took over the musical direction in the Dravail camp near Paris.

For making music with children, Barthel arranged songs and set texts to music.

From 1931 onwards he also published compositions whose texts called for the struggle for a socialist community.

Within the youth organization Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ), Barthel directed the orchestra of Greater Berlin from 1930 to 1933.

When the SPD and all subsidiary organizations were banned after the National Socialists came to power on June 22, 1933, this musical work was also prohibited. Barthel continued his work by renaming the orchestra of the Socialist Workers' Youth. Under the name "Die Musikgemeinschaft" he illegally passed the group on. In addition, he hived off a chamber orchestra and directed a choir that also consisted of former members of the SAJ.

He also worked as musical director at two tent camps of the German Social Democratic Workers' Party (DSAP), which were held in the Czechoslovak Republic.

These activities did not go unnoticed by the Gestapo . Barthel was arrested in August 1934 and charged with high treason: he was said to have continued a banned party. However, it did not come to trial, instead Barthel was taken to the Lichtenburg concentration camp near Prettin on the Elbe in October . He stayed there until May 1935.

He then continued to work as a music teacher for the families of SPD comrades until he was called up for military service.

Folk music school Neukölln

When Rudolf Barthel returned from captivity in 1945, he was commissioned to rebuild the Neukölln Volksmusikschule, which was one of the first state music schools in Germany to be founded in 1927.

In autumn 1945 he started working as the head of the folk music school.

Barthel wanted to enable amateur musicians to play an instrument in their free time. The community experience was an important concern for him: making choral music in small and large amateur orchestras. So in 1946/47 different syndicates came into being: B. the Neukölln string orchestra, the chamber orchestra and the Neukölln recorder choir.

In addition to instrumental lessons, the music school organized musicological lectures, concerts, music-making lessons and summer courses. It was important to Barthel to give space to contemporary music by playing new compositions and having discussions with composers.

In 1953, Rudolf Barthel received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon, which was presented to him by Federal President Theodor Heuss, for the extraordinary achievements of the Neukölln Volksmusikschule.

In 1972 Barthel handed over the management of the music school to Klaus Jürgen Weber. He continued to lead the recorder orchestra until 1977.

Rudolf Barthel died in Berlin in 1978 after a serious illness.

Act

Rudolf Barthel became famous for making choral music with recorders, and this area of his work is considered his life's work.

Recorder Choir Neukölln (1947–1963)

In 1946 Barthel set up a recorder playing group to experiment with choral play. He wanted to give the many recorder players in the music school an opportunity to play in a larger group.

The recorder was considered a starting instrument for children and a solo instrument. Experts did not consider it possible that a larger group of players could produce pure tones.

Barthel, supported by some of the school's music teachers, tried to solve the problem of impure tones through group rehearsals. The beginnings were so difficult that Barthel wanted to give up. But when the desired sound emerged during the rehearsal, the recorder choir was officially founded in 1947.

Barthel began to edit works for the choir and to compose his own pieces. The Neuköllner Suite was created in 1947, the year it was founded. It is the first original composition in which all flute sizes from sopranino to large bass were used.

Spread of choral music making

Rudolf Barthel's work set the trend for choral music-making with recorders in Germany and abroad.

There were invitations from many places because they wanted to hear the recorder playing from Neukölln and set up recorder groups themselves.

From 1950 concert tours took place within Germany and abroad. B. there were concerts in England, France, Austria, Sweden, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands and Switzerland. An invitation to Japan could not be accepted for financial reasons.

It was important to Barthel to pass on his work and to promote the establishment of new recorder groups.

He wrote pamphlets on this: “From the work of a recorder choir” gives precise instructions for scoring, instruments, intonation, blowing technique, rehearsals and seating arrangements, direction, program design and literature.

Since there was no sheet music available for the choir, Barthel wrote his scores himself. At the end of his working day as a music school director, he dealt with arrangements for the recorder choir and his own compositions. Because he wanted to spread his idea, the results of this work appeared in various publishers.

In the period from 1953 to 1961, recorder weeks were held every two years in the music school: Music teachers traveled to find out more about choral recorder playing and to carry on this work. A total of more than 400 music teachers took part in the recorder weeks, 13 percent of the participants came from abroad.

Open flute lessons were organized for the students of the Neukölln Music School: the recorder choir played and the players in the audience could play along. This was based on the model of the “Open Singing Lessons” that Fritz Jöde had launched in 1926.

Rudolf Barthel's work was supported by a team of recorder teachers from the music school. They led support groups in which recorder students should take part and work their way up until they were finally allowed to play in the recorder choir under the direction of Barthel. This ensured the quality of the work: new players were well trained.

Barthel also wrote intonation exercises for the recorder choir, which were performed at the beginning of every rehearsal. In order to improve the sound even further, uniform recorders made of grenadilla wood were purchased later.

Barthel's high standards were feared. He expected discipline: regular participation in rehearsals and domestic practice. Hours of practice led the soloists in particular to impressive performances. Numerous radio recordings in Berlin and on trips documented the quality of the orchestra.

Recorder Orchestra Neukölln (1963–2011)

When the group had around 50 players in 1963, Barthel renamed them "Recorder Orchestra Neukölln".

The distribution with 46 players was: soprano 12, alto 10, tenor 10, bass 7, large bass and subbass 7.

The repertoire ranged between baroque and modern.

Barthel's work inspired numerous composers to compose for this ensemble. Numerous original works were created for the Neukölln recorder orchestra, e. B. by Max Baumann , Herbert Baumann , Dietrich Erdmann , Harald Genzmer and Konrad Wölki .

In 1977, after 31 years of illness, Rudolf Barthel had to relinquish the leadership of the orchestra and passed it on to Michael Kubik.

Kubik continued the work in Barthel's sense: The repertoire of the previous years was retained. In addition, he has made new arrangements for recorder orchestra.

Since Kubik was also the director of the Tegler Zupforchester, the recorder orchestra often performed together with the plucked orchestra or guitar choir. For this composition, arrangements and compositions by Michael Kubik were created, as well as original works by other composers, e.g. B. from Fried Walter .

There were also concert tours within Germany and to Denmark, France, Croatia, Poland and Switzerland.

In 1997, 50 years of the recorder orchestra of the Neukölln Music School was celebrated with a gala concert in the Neukölln hall, a festschrift and an exhibition. The number of players had meanwhile been reduced to about 20 due to a lack of young talent. 33 alumni played for the anniversary, so that at the end of the concert, Handel's Organ Concerto in F major was performed in the line-up that had existed in the time of Rudolf Barthel.

In 2007 the orchestra celebrated 60 years with a concert in the Matthäuskirche at the Philharmonie and an exhibition on the history of the orchestra. The composer and conductor Colin Touchin came as a guest to “get to know the cradle of the recorder movement”.

Berlin recorder orchestra (from 2012)

After 34 years, Michael Kubik handed over the orchestra to Simon Borutzki at the turn of the year 2011/2012.

The orchestra was renamed the Berlin Recorder Orchestra after the change of conductor. The line-up and repertoire changed under the new leadership.

Awards

Federal Cross of Merit 1953

Works (selection)

Compositions

Neukölln Suite for recorder choir (1947)
Krummensee Dances ( 1947/1976)
Six classical dances (style copy)
Triptych for recorder orchestra, strings a. Percussion (experimental music, completed in September 1971)
Piano Concerto in G major in classical style with recorder orchestra (1974)

Arrangements for recorder orchestra

JSBach: Overture Suite No. 3 in D major BWV 1068

Bela Bartok: Hungarian pieces

Ludwig van Beethoven: Flute clock pieces

Ludwig van Beethoven: Six easy variations on a Swiss song for piano or harp

Melchior Franck: Suite for four voices

Georg Friedrich Handel: Organ Concerto in F major, Op. 4 No. 5

Georg Friedrich Handel: Rodrigo Suite

Georg Friedrich Handel: Suite in D minor

Joseph Haydn: Concerto per L'organo in C major

Joseph Haydn: Flute Clock Pieces

WA Mozart: Fantasy for an Organ Roller KV 608

WA Mozart: Serenade No. 1 KV 439 b

Henry Purcell: Music for the tragedy "Abdelazar"

Helmut Sadler: Concertino for 6 recorders. + Strings (choral version)

Ludwig Schytte: Sonatina

Hans Ulrich Staeps: Seven Flute Dances (special instrumentation)

Georg Philipp Telemann: Overture "La Putain "

Web links

Literature by and about Rudolf Barthel in the catalog of the German National Library
http://www.musikschuleneukoelln.de/
http://www.blockfloetenorchester.de/

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Rudolf Barthel: From the work of a recorder choir . Dr. Hermann Moeck, Celle 1955.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Werner Korthaase: A musician gathers like-minded people around him. Rudolf Barthel, director of the Volksmusikschule Neukölln from 1946 to 1971. In: Dorothea Kolland (Ed.): Rixdorfer Musen, Neinsager und Caprifischer: Music and theater in Rixdorf and Neukölln. 1st edition. Ed. Hentrich, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-926175-78-8 , pp. 214 to 217 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Thea von Sparr: Rudolf Barthel in memory . In: Tibia magazine . No. 1/1979 . Publishing house Dr. Hermann Moeck, Celle 1979, p. 253 to 254 .
^ ^A ^b Rudolf Barthel: Choral recorder playing. In: Klaus-Jürgen Weber (Ed.): Festschrift for the 50th anniversary 1927 to 1977 . Neukölln Music School, Berlin 1977, p. 24 to 26 .
^ Werner Korthaase: Music school and folk music school . In: Klaus-Jürgen Weber (Ed.): Festschrift for the 50th anniversary 1927 - 1977 . Neukölln Music School, Berlin 1977, p. 17 to 23 .
↑ ^a ^b Hans-Reiner Sandvoss: Resistance in Neukölln . Ed .: German Resistance Memorial Center. tape 4 . Berlin 1990, p. 61, 62 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Chronicle of the Paul Hindemith Music School Neukölln. Paul Hindemith Music School Neukölln, accessed on November 10, 2016 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c Hermann Moeck: 50 years of the Neukölln recorder orchestra . In: Tibia magazine . No. 4/1997 . Publishing house Dr. Hermann Moeck, Celle 1997, p. 595 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Michael Kubik: The Recorder Orchestra Neukölln. In: Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the recorder orchestra. Music School Neukölln, Berlin 1997, p. 17 to 18 .
^ Hermann Moeck: Con flauti dolci. On the history of the recorder interplay. In: Tibia magazine . No. 3/94 . Publishing house Dr. Hermann Moeck, Celle 1994, p. 183 to 184 .
↑ Michael Kubik: New line-up, new charm. In: Pizziko + Tremolo magazine. No. 2/2011 . Zupfmusik-Verband Schweiz ZVS, Tägerig 2011, p. 22 to 25 .
↑ Simon Borutzki, Michael Kubik: Fresh wind with the Berlin recorder orchestra at the music school "Paul Hindemith" Neukölln. In: Tibia magazine . No. 2/2012 . Publishing house Dr. Hermann Moeck, Celle 2012, p. 117 to 122 .

personal data
SURNAME	Barthel, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German music educator, conductor, arranger and composer
DATE OF BIRTH	November 10, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	June 10, 1978
Place of death	Berlin

[:1-1] Rudolf Barthel: From the work of a recorder choir . Dr. Hermann Moeck, Celle 1955.

[:2-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Werner Korthaase: A musician gathers like-minded people around him. Rudolf Barthel, director of the Volksmusikschule Neukölln from 1946 to 1971. In: Dorothea Kolland (Ed.): Rixdorfer Musen, Neinsager und Caprifischer: Music and theater in Rixdorf and Neukölln. 1st edition. Ed. Hentrich, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-926175-78-8 , pp. 214 to 217 .

[:3-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Thea von Sparr: Rudolf Barthel in memory . In: Tibia magazine . No. 1/1979 . Publishing house Dr. Hermann Moeck, Celle 1979, p. 253 to 254 .

[:0-4] A ^b Rudolf Barthel: Choral recorder playing. In: Klaus-Jürgen Weber (Ed.): Festschrift for the 50th anniversary 1927 to 1977 . Neukölln Music School, Berlin 1977, p. 24 to 26 .

[:5-5] Werner Korthaase: Music school and folk music school . In: Klaus-Jürgen Weber (Ed.): Festschrift for the 50th anniversary 1927 - 1977 . Neukölln Music School, Berlin 1977, p. 17 to 23 .

[:6-6] Hans-Reiner Sandvoss: Resistance in Neukölln . Ed .: German Resistance Memorial Center. tape 4 . Berlin 1990, p. 61, 62 .

[:7-7] Chronicle of the Paul Hindemith Music School Neukölln. Paul Hindemith Music School Neukölln, accessed on November 10, 2016 .

[:8-8] Hermann Moeck: 50 years of the Neukölln recorder orchestra . In: Tibia magazine . No. 4/1997 . Publishing house Dr. Hermann Moeck, Celle 1997, p. 595 .

[:9-9] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Michael Kubik: The Recorder Orchestra Neukölln. In: Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the recorder orchestra. Music School Neukölln, Berlin 1997, p. 17 to 18 .

[:4-10] Hermann Moeck: Con flauti dolci. On the history of the recorder interplay. In: Tibia magazine . No. 3/94 . Publishing house Dr. Hermann Moeck, Celle 1994, p. 183 to 184 .

[:10-11] Michael Kubik: New line-up, new charm. In: Pizziko + Tremolo magazine. No. 2/2011 . Zupfmusik-Verband Schweiz ZVS, Tägerig 2011, p. 22 to 25 .

[:11-12] Simon Borutzki, Michael Kubik: Fresh wind with the Berlin recorder orchestra at the music school "Paul Hindemith" Neukölln. In: Tibia magazine . No. 2/2012 . Publishing house Dr. Hermann Moeck, Celle 2012, p. 117 to 122 .