Siegfried Strohbach

Siegfried Strohbach (2011)

Siegfried Strohbach (born November 27, 1929 in Schirgiswalde , Upper Lusatia ; †  July 11, 2019 in Hanover ) was a German composer and conductor .

Life

Siegfried Strohbach was already known in his home town as a three-year-old with his accordion as a “musical child prodigy”. At the age of five he received his first professional piano lessons. From 1939 until the end of the war in 1945 he was a student at the Musisches Gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main, initially majoring in piano, and later he also received composition lessons from Kurt Thomas . After the war he continued his studies privately: composition and conducting with Kurt Thomas. Piano with August Leopolder . From 1947 to 1949 he worked as a répétiteur at the Städtische Bühnen in Frankfurt .

In 1949 he moved to Hanover and studied singing with Paul Gümmer. As a choir director, he took over several amateur choirs in and around Hanover. His first successes in composition also fell during this time (world premiere of the chamber opera Die Wette , five drinking songs based on ancient texts , marble songs , sacred choral music, solo songs and piano music), which led to his first contacts with publishers (Breitkopf & Härtel).

From 1951 to 1953 he was acting Kapellmeister at the Lower Saxony State Theater in Hanover. In 1953 he founded the "Propsteichor Hannover", and in the same year the "Collegium Cantorum Hannover", a semi-professional ensemble that became known through many radio broadcasts and concerts, and which Strohbach directed until 1982. From 1953 to 1966 he taught as a music teacher at the St. Ursula School in Hanover and was also a freelancer at the Lower Saxony State Theater. In the years 1951 to 1993, around 40 drama pieces were created.

In 1966 he was appointed lecturer for composition at the Hanover University of Music and Theater , where he was appointed professor in 1973. He taught here until his retirement in 1994.

In addition to his university activities, he was Kapellmeister at the Landesbühne Hannover, musical director at the festival weeks “Music and Theater in Herrenhausen”, with concerts and operas (Monteverdi, Mozart, but above all Handel). In 1994 he was awarded the Lower Saxony Art Prize.

Until 1996, Siegfried Strohbach gave concerts at home and abroad as a conductor (opera, choir, orchestra). As a long-time piano and organ accompanist of the Hannover Girls Choir, he traveled to almost all European countries, Japan and Brazil. As a harpsichordist in the chamber music group Ferdinand Conrad he gave concerts a. a. in South Africa.

From 1996 Strohbach devoted himself only to his compositional work. In addition to a chamber opera, chamber music and solo songs, his extensive catalog of works includes choral music of all genres and sizes, from sacred and secular cantatas with a large orchestra, to masses, psalm settings, motets, choral song cycles, to simple folk song settings. Strohbach died on July 11, 2019 in Hanover, he was 89 years old.

Choral works (selection)

• Symphonic cantata Because the Lord is near for solos, mixed choir and large orchestra
• Missa beatae virginis for soprano solo, female choir and organ
• St. John Passion for solo voice and mixed choir a cappella
• 6 gospel motets for mixed choir a cappella
• 7 Mary motets for female choir a cappella
• Large calendar of texts by Fritz Graßhoff for male choir, solo piano and orchestra, new version for mixed choir, 2 pianos and percussion
• Eichendorff serenade for mixed choir and 3 instruments
• Cantata Viva la musica for baritone solo, 3 choirs and orchestra
• Cantata Max & Moritz on texts by Wilhelm Busch , for mixed choir and piano
• Five drinking songs based on old texts, for baritone solo, male choir and piano
• Dance over - dance over , a round trip with European dance songs, for female choir, piano and percussion instruments
• Cantata Der Stern aus Jakob for baritone solo, mixed choir, oboe and organ
• Cantata Window of Heaven for soprano (tenor) solo, mixed choir and organ
• Psalm 100 Jubilate - Shout to the Lord for 2 mixed choirs and 2 pianos
• Psalm 103 Praise the Lord, my soul for baritone solo, male choir and piano (organ)

Web links

• Works by and about Siegfried Strohbach in the catalog of the German National Library
• Sheet music and audio files by Siegfried Strohbach in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Composer Siegfried Strohbach dies at the age of 90. HAZ , July 16, 2019, accessed August 6, 2019.