Sigmund Lebert

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Sigmund Lebert

Sigmund Lebert , originally Samuel Levi (until 1846) (* December 12, 1821 in Ludwigsburg , † December 8, 1884 in Stuttgart ) was a German music teacher and co-founder of the Stuttgart Music School .

Life

Sigmund Lebert came from a Jewish family and grew up in poor conditions in Ludwigsburg. After his musical talent was noticed, Lebert went to Stuttgart in 1835, where Josef Abenheim (1804-1891), violinist in the Württemberg court orchestra , taught him piano and harmony . Lebert also received singing training. Abenheim succeeded in obtaining a scholarship for his pupil from the Israelite Higher Church Authority in Stuttgart. This support, as well as fees that he received for piano lessons, enabled Lebert to work at the Prague Conservatory from 1837 to 1839 , with Johann Wenzel Tomaschek (1774–1850), Friedrich Dionys Weber (1766–1842), Josef Proksch (1794–1864 , among others ) ) and Sigmund Goldschmidt (1815–1877) to study.

In 1839 he returned to Stuttgart and lived with his older brother Jakob Levi (1814–1883), who was employed as a court musician. Sigmund Lebert worked as a piano teacher and continued his musical training with Bernhard Molique (1802–1869), Royal Music Director and concert master in Stuttgart. In the mid-1840s Lebert worked as a music teacher at a school in Ludwigsburg. In 1846 Lebert converted to German Catholicism , which had emerged as an opposition, free religious movement in the period of Vormärz . In 1850 he moved to Munich , where he made a name for himself as a piano teacher. a. seven-year-old Sophie Menter taught. Lebert made numerous contacts in the music scene that had formed at the time of Maximilian II in Munich. He met the pianist and composer Ludwig Stark (1831–1884), who became his close collaborator.

After Lebert moved back to Stuttgart, he founded the Stuttgart Music School in 1857 together with Ludwig Stark, the church musician Immanuel Faißt (1823–1894) and the music teacher and composer Wilhelm Speidel (1826–1899) . Before that, they were able to win over some influential Stuttgart citizens for their music education idea. On April 15, 1857, the music school in Reile's house at Eberhardstrasse 1 began teaching with 60 students. According to the will of its founders, the school fulfilled a double function: it was a training center for professional musicians and at the same time a music school for laypeople in the so-called “amateur class” . In 1865 the school was renamed the Music Conservatory . Only after the First World War were the two didactic focuses of the school finally separated. The New Conservatory for Music , today's municipal music school in Stuttgart , was established in 1919 to educate broad sections of the population, and from 1921 the state-run Württemberg University of Music was responsible for training professional musicians (today: Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts ). Sigmund Lebert had already won well-known teachers and was able to secure the Stuttgart Music School an outstanding place among the German conservatories of its time.

In 1858 Sigmund Lebert and Ludwig Stark published the first edition of their initially three-volume work "Large theoretical-practical piano school for systematic instruction in all directions of piano playing from the beginning to the highest level" in the Cotta'schen Verlagbuchhandlung . With the second edition in 1863 they added a fourth volume. By 1914, the "piano school" saw numerous new editions and was an extremely popular textbook for piano lessons. There were also English, French, Russian and Italian editions, the latter with the Milan music publisher Ricordi under the title “Gran Metodo Teorico-Practico per lo Studio del Pianoforte” , which was also widely distributed.

In their “piano school” , Lebert and Stark tried for the first time to systematically present technical piano problems and to solve them methodically. For 50 years her compendium was considered the standard work in piano lessons. But the playing method they recommended, an isolated finger and hand technique in which the arm should always remain still, was considered out of date from 1900 and was increasingly rejected. Rudolf Maria Breithaupt (1873–1945) “natural piano technique” began to establish itself.

Sigmund Lebert dealt intensively with the scientifically careful publication of music literature. Together with Franz Liszt , who was on friendly terms with him, he published z. B. an arrangement of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano concertos and with the participation of Ignaz Lachner , Vinzenz Lachner and Immanuel Faißt, arrangements of the piano works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were created .

Lebert's students included u. a. the pianists Anna Mehlig (1846–1928) and Sophie Menter (1846–1918), the composer Otto Barblan (1860–1943) and the piano teacher Adolf Ruthardt (1849–1934).

Awards

  • In 1868 King Karl von Württemberg appointed Sigmund Lebert professor .
  • 1878 will give him an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Arts University of Tuebingen awarded
  • In 1881 and 1882 Lebert was honored with honorary membership of the Cecilia Academy in Rome , the Philharmonic Academy in Bologna and the Academy of the Royal Music Institute in Florence on the occasion of the appearance of the Italian edition of the "Piano School" .
  • In 1882 Lebert received the Great Gold Medal for Art and Science from the Kingdom of Württemberg .

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lebert, Sigmund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Levi, Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigsburg
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1884
Place of death Stuttgart