Ruth Zechlin

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Ruth Zechlin at the 1987 Composers' Congress, with Reinhard Lakomy and Reiner Bredemeyer (from right to left)

Ruth Zechlin , née Oschatz (born June 22, 1926 in Großhartmannsdorf , † August 4, 2007 in Munich ) was a German composer , harpsichordist and organist . In 1990 she was rector of the "Hanns Eisler" University of Music in Berlin and from 1990 to 1993 she was vice-president of the Berlin Academy of the Arts .

Life

Ruth Oschatz was born in 1926 as the daughter of the educators Hermann and Friedel Oschatz, née Tillich, in Großhartmannsdorf near Freiberg in Saxony. Her maternal grandparents owned a piano factory in Borna. Ruth's father took over a lectureship at the University of Leipzig in 1928 and the Oschatz family settled there. In 1937 her sister, who later became the mezzo-soprano Gisela Pohl, was born. As a child, Ruth sang in a youth choir, where she made friends with Gisela May . She received piano lessons at the age of five and wrote her first composition at the age of seven. In March 1943 she successfully applied for admission to the Leipzig Music Academy .

From 1943 she studied composition and choral conducting with Johann Nepomuk David and piano with Anton Rohden . Shortly before the end of the war, she had to work in the Junkers aircraft factory in Crimmitschau . In 1945 she became deputy organist in the Nikolaikirche under the cantor Johannes Piersig . She resumed her studies in Leipzig with Karl Straube ( organ ) and Günther Ramin ( liturgical organ playing and improvisation). Further teachers were Hermann Heyer in music history , Wilhelm Weismann in composition and Rudolf Fischer in piano. In 1949 she passed the state examination. Then she taught ear training and piano methodology for a year .

Georg Knepler brought her to Berlin in 1950. She received a lectureship for harmony , counterpoint , form theory and music studies at the German University of Music . Pedagogically, she worked with Rudolf Wagner-Régeny and Hanns Eisler , who introduced her to the works of the Second Viennese School . As a harpsichordist , she also undertook extensive concert tours in many European countries. She became a member of the NDPD in 1950 (she moved to the CDU in the 1980s ). Married to the pianist Dieter Zechlin since 1952 , she divorced him in 1971. In 1969 she was appointed professor of composition . In the same year she was elected as an extraordinary and in 1970 a full member of the Academy of Arts of the GDR. There she then led a master class for composition. She was in close contact with the composers Hans Werner Henze and Witold Lutosławski . After her retirement in 1986, she taught as a visiting professor. Since 1990 she was a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, of which she was vice-president until 1993. On October 28, 1989 she took part in the concert Against the Sleep of Reason in Berlin. In 1990 she briefly succeeded Erhard Ragwitz as rector of the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.

After the political change, she moved to Bavaria and lived for a few years in Passau , where her daughter Claudia also lives. She became friends with the Bishop of Passau Franz Xaver Eder and the Intendant Pankraz Freiherr von Freyberg . She died in Munich in 2007 . She was buried in the cemetery in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm . Her estate is now in the possession of the Berlin State Library .

Honors, prizes and awards

Works

Zechlin created instrumental and vocal music as well as stage works, as well as music for radio plays, documentary and television films. Her oeuvre amounts to around 260 compositions.

Film music

Radio play music

student

Her composition students include Stefan Carow , Gerd Domhardt , Hans Ostarek , Stephan Winkler , Henry Berthold , Reiner Böhm , Thomas Böttger , Thomas Buchholz , Peter Dege , Zwetan Denev , Jörg Herchet , Ralf Hoyer , Peter Jarchow , Georg Katzer , Stefan Malzew , Bert Poulheim , Johannes Reiche , Dieter Reuscher , Hans Thiemann , Jan Trieder , Bernd Wefelmeyer , Manfred Weiss and Hans Jürgen Wenzel .

Fonts

  • Situations, reflections, conversations, experiences, thoughts. Edited by Annelore and Jürgen Mainka. In cooperation with the Music Section of the Academy of Arts of the GDR, Verlag Neue Musik, Berlin 1986.

literature

Web links

Commons : Ruth Zechlin  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Seidle: Dieter Zechlin . In: Ingo Harden , Gregor Willmes: Pianist profiles: 600 performers: their biography, their style, their recordings . Bärenreiter, Kassel 2008, ISBN 978-3-7618-1616-5 , p. 88.
  2. ↑ Christiane Niklew, Ingrid Kirschey-Feix:  Zechlin, Ruth . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  3. ^ Against the sleep of reason Deutschlandradio, press release October 26, 1999.
  4. ^ Berliner Zeitung of October 10, 1968.
  5. ^ Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED , Institute for Marxist-Leninist Culture and Art Studies (ed.), Collective of authors led by Erika Tschernig: Our culture: DDR-Zeittafel , 1945–1987. Dietz, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-320-01132-4 , p. 180.
  6. ↑ Neue Deutsche Literatur 33 (1985) 1-6, p. 172.
personal data
SURNAME Zechlin, Ruth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oschatz, Ruth (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, harpsichordist and organist
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Großhartmannsdorf
DATE OF DEATH August 4, 2007
Place of death Munich