Siegfried Behrend

Siegfried Behrend (1964)

Siegfried Behrend (born November 19, 1933 in Berlin , † September 20, 1990 in Hausham ) was a German guitarist and composer and editor of guitar music.

Biography and artistic work

Behrend received training in piano , harpsichord , conducting and composition at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin . He learned to play the guitar autodidactically. As a 30-year-old, he had more than 1000 compositions and arrangements, mostly folkloric or inspired by old masters. He gave concerts in Moscow, Rome and Madrid, he played before the Shah in Persia, before the Emperor in Tokyo and before Gamal Abdel Nasser in Cairo.

In 1962 the guitarist got to know the leading actress better while recording the personality show Belina  - Portrait of a Singer . From then on, the two went together artistically. Belina and Siegfried Behrend represented the then still young Federal Republic of Germany with their folk songs, chansons and Yiddish songs as ambassadors of German culture and, with the support of the Goethe Institute, carried out several extensive concert tours. The two have made guest appearances in more than 120 countries. During this successful period, the duo recorded several LPs and appeared in several television programs (e.g. songs by the fireplace on SWF). Siegfried Behrend married the actress Claudia Brodzinska in the 1970s and turned to avant-garde music with her as a singer / interpreter.

Siegfried Behrend was a much sought-after guitar teacher. Martin Maria Krüger received his first guitar lessons from him. In later years both performed worldwide as a German guitar duo . Michael Tröster, Matthias Henke , Helmut Richter and Manuel Negwer also took part in the “International Master Classes for Artistic Guitar Playing” held by Behrend in the 1970s in Riedenburg, Bavaria . Behrend was the (co-) editor of many specialist musical books (for example the multi-volume work Folk songs from all over the world or guitar lessons for children ). In 1963 Siegfried Behrend hosted the television program The History of the Guitar , in 1971 he hosted a thirteen-part television program entitled Instruments - Sounds - Structures on the Hessian Radio about the guitar and its use in chamber music.

From 1960 to 1973 Behrend headed the Saarland plucked orchestra (SZO) and from 1968 to 1990 the German plucked orchestra (DZO). During this time, he significantly shaped the repertoire of plucked instruments. In addition to numerous arrangements of renaissance lute music as well as baroque and folkloric works, he focused on contemporary avant-garde music through his own compositions and composition commissions. He has directed numerous world premieres of works by Anestis Logothetis , Klaus Hashagen , Heinrich Konietzny , Dietrich Erdmann , Friedrich Gaitis and others. With his wife Claudia Brodzinska-Behrend (speaking voice) he regularly performed experimental works, including the world premiere of Sylvano Bussotti's Ultima Rara ; there was also a recording where he interpreted Ultima Rara with Bussotti. Klaus Hinrich Stahmer wrote Canti della vita (1980; texts: Eugenio Montale ) for this duo . Together with drummer Siegfried Fink , Claudia Brodzinska and Siegfried Behrend also recorded Stahmer's radiophonic composition tre paesaggi (1976; texts: Cesare Pavese ) for Bavarian radio. In connection with live electronic sound transformation, he premiered the ballet composition espace de la solitude by Klaus Hinrich Stahmer, composed for the local dance ensemble "savremeni ples" in 1980 in Zagreb .

Among other things, Behrend is editor of the guitar library series published by Bote & Bock (Berlin) with the series Early Music for guitar solo , modern music for guitar solo , Spanish folk music for guitar solo , chamber music / singing with guitar , guitar and orchestra and guitar and choir . In the same publishing house he published 15 books of folk songs from all over the world . Further sheet music editions were made by the Frankfurter Verlag Zimmermann with The Great Masters of the Lute and the Guitar and with the series Die Konzertgitarre published by the Hamburg music publisher Hans Sikorski . A collection from Siegfried Behrend's repertoire , play music for 2 guitars , including his own compositions and the series Old European Lute Music, which was freely edited for guitar . At Ricordi he edited famous opera melodies for guitar . Sikorski published his impressions of a Spanish trip. Six Spanish suites (pieces for guitar solo, for two guitars and for vocals and guitar).

In 1981 Siegfried Behrend received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on the proposal of Franz Josef Strauss .

On May 30, 1991, the German Plucked Orchestra under the direction of Wolfgang Bast gave a memorial concert for him in the Otto-Braun-Saal of the Berlin State Library .

Discography (selection)

• Belina - Behrend 24 SONGS AND ONE GUITAR (Columbia)
• Belina - Behrend FOCAL POINTS (Polydor)
• Belina and Siegfried Behrend MUSIC AROUND THE WORLD (Columbia)
• Yiddish songs "Esbrennt" (Columbia)
• Belina - Behrend Bazaar - Songs from all over the world (Polydor)
• Leaves in the Wind - A Belina Behrend Concert (Columbia)
• Eviva la Guitarra - Siegfried Behrend and his Spanish guitar (BASF)
• European Masters of the Classical Guitar (musical heritage society)
• Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez among others with the Berlin Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Satan on Strings (EMI)
• English guitar music (Deutsche Grammophon)
• German guitar music (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Chitarra Italiana (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Music at European royal courts (Acanta)
• The History of the Guitar (Columbia)
• Guitar and choir (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Italian guitar concerts (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Behrend - Pilar Lorengar Old Spanish folk songs and romances (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Behrend - Siegfried Fink Guitar & Percussion (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Siegfried Behrend (Columbia)
• Requiem on Hiroshima (Thorofon)
• Siegried Behrend-Michael Tröster Salonaden for 2 guitars (EMI)
• Galleria guitar concert (Deutsche Grammophon)
• Siegfried Behrend in Memoriam (Thorofon)
• Boccherini, Schnabel: Guitar quintets - Siegfried Behrend, Zagreb String Quartet (Da Camera, Sastruphu, SM 93606, 1973)

Re-releases on CD

• at Musicline.de: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6

literature

• Peter Päffgen: "If you have mastered the craft, you can afford everything ..." Interview with Siegfried Behrend. In: Guitar & Laute 5, 1983, No. 6, pp. 370–377 and 435 f.
• Helmut Richter: Siegfried Behrend 1933–1990 - stations. Verlag Karl Maria Laufen, Oberhausen 2000, ISBN 3-87468-171-8 .
• Maren Trekel: Siegfried Behrend: A life for the guitar, the plucked orchestra and their music . Thesis. Trekel, Hamburg 2000.
• Helmut Richter: Catalog raisonnés of composing guitarists: Heinrich Albert, Siegfried Behrend, Heinrich Bohr . Norderstedt 2016.

Web links

• Works by and about Siegfried Behrend in the catalog of the German National Library

Interviews etc.

• Homepage for Siegfried Behrend
• Interview with Siegfried Behrend
• Catalog raisonné with incipits (PDF; 1.1 MB)
• Siegfried Behrend at the Ulsamer College
• Siegfried Behrend on the history of the guitar

items

• Schrumm in tails (Der Spiegel, November 6, 1963)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgAjhACRXOI Siegfried Behrend on the history of the guitar
2. ↑ http://www.szo-online.de/szo/?Orchestergeschichte
3. ↑ http://www.mandolinengruppe-schwalmstadt.de/geschichte.htm  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ See, for example, Old German Lute Music for Guitar (= Old European Lute Music for Guitar. Issue 3). Freely edited and ed. by Siegfried Behrend. Music publisher Hans Sikorski, Hamburg 1959 (= Edition Sikorski. No. 525). In the same series of titles published (as issues 1, 2, 4 and 5) ibid ( Edition Sikorski. No. 523, 524, 526 and 527) by Siegfried Behrend Old English Lute Music , Old French Lute Music , Old Italian Lute Music and Old Spanish Lute Music .
5. ↑ Sheerpluck - World premieres by Behrend
6. ↑ Behrend and Bussotti: Ultima Rara
7. ↑ Japanese Serenade, Three Duos, Arabian Serenade, Serenata española, Scena andaluzza, Jota aragonesa .
8. ↑ Guitar & Laute 3, 1981, 1, p. 10
9. ↑ Rainer Stelle: With "remmber me" the last curtain fell. Siegfried Behrend memorial concert. In: Zupfmusikmagazin: Born 1991, No. 3, p. 98 (trade journal of the Bund Deutscher Zupfmusiker e.V. )