State and Cathedral Choir Berlin
State and Cathedral Choir Berlin | |
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Seat: | Berlin , Germany |
Carrier: | University of Art in Berlin |
Founding: | 1465 |
Genus: | Boys' choir |
Founder: | Elector Friedrich II of Brandenburg |
Head : | Kai-Uwe Jirka |
Voices : | 80 ( SATB ) concert choir; 350 singers in all groups |
Website : | https://www.staats-und-domchor-berlin.de/ |
The Staats- und Domchor Berlin is a Berlin- based boys' choir .
history
prehistory
The Staats- und Domchor Berlin is the oldest musical institution in Berlin . As early as 1465, Elector Friedrich II of Brandenburg hired five “singing boys” for the music in the “Dhumkerke” . A good hundred years later, the founding of a court orchestra, also under the direction of Johannes Eccard , led to the first heyday of the choir, which has now expanded to twelve singers.
reorganization
In 1843 the cathedral choir was reorganized after a long decline and was given the title “Royal”. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV took the Petersburg court orchestra as a model. The Royal Cathedral Choir is the first professional choir with a fixed payment for the individual singers. The ensemble gained international renown under the direction of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy , Otto Nicolai and August Neithardt .
In 1889 the composer Albert Becker was appointed director of the cathedral choir. Three years later, a call to Thomaskantor followed from Leipzig , which he initially intended to follow. In order to keep him in Berlin, at the urging of Kaiser Wilhelm II , he was finally promised a higher salary.
20th century and present
From 1903 the Royal Cathedral Choir was financed entirely from the Kronfideikommiss and has since operated as the Royal Court and Cathedral Choir .
After the end of the First World War , the very successful Royal Court and Cathedral Choir lost its political and financial foundation with the monarchy . After a few provisional years as the Berliner Domchor eV , it was affiliated to the Berlin University of Music in 1923 under the direction of Hugo Rüdel and renamed the Staats- und Domchor Berlin .
Since the early 1930s, the National Socialist influence had an increasing impact on this ensemble. While the choir was initially involved in the Potsdam Garrison Church on the day of Potsdam, in 1935, under the direction of Alfred Sittard, it was politically sidelined because, in contrast to other important boys' choirs in Germany ( St. Thomas' Choir , Kreuzchor , Regensburger Domspatzen , Vienna Boys' Choir, etc.) refused to join the Hitler Youth .
After the Second World War, the cathedral was in ruins and the choir initially moved to the Marienkirche . After the wall was built , the choir followed the bishop to the new Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in West Berlin . In 1961 the Berlin Cathedral Choir was founded in the eastern part .
Today the State and Cathedral Choir is part of the Berlin University of the Arts , and has been singing again in the Berlin Cathedral since 1990 .
Today's repertoire includes the great works of Western choral culture as well as those of the immediate modern. In addition to numerous prizes, including the German Choir Competition , the choir was awarded the European Youth Choir Culture Prize in 2002. The ensemble members enrich Berlin's musical life through appearances in opera house productions and participation in concerts in the Berlin Philharmonic .
Directors
The directors of the Royal Court and Cathedral Choir (since 1843):
- 1843–1861: August Neithardt
- 1861–1889: Rudolph von Hertzberg
- 1889–1899: Albert Becker
- 1900–1909: Hermann Prüfer
- 1910–1933: Hugo Rüdel
- 1933–1942: Alfred Sittard
- 1942: Hugo Distler
- 1943–1955: Wolfgang Reimann
- 1955–1969: Gottfried Grote
- 1969–1973: Karl-Heinz Kaiser (provisional)
- 1973–1999: Christian Grube
- since 2001: Kai-Uwe Jirka
to travel
Concert tours have taken him to the following places (from 1974):
- South America (1974)
- Italy (1975, 1986, 1988)
- France (1977, 1983)
- Poland (1980, 1992, 2001)
- England (1966, 1981, 1984)
- Sweden (1982)
- USA (1985)
- Israel / Palestine (1986, 1995)
- Taiwan (1988)
- Korea (1988, 1995)
- Norway (1989, 2018)
- Soviet Union (1989, 1990)
- Latvia / Estonia (1990)
- Spain (1994, 1999, 2013)
- Switzerland (2003)
- Japan (2004)
- Czech Republic (annually)
- Scotland (2011)
Prizes and awards
- 1958: Zelter badge
- 1982: 1st German Choir Competition Cologne - 2nd prize
- 1985: 2nd German Choir Competition Hanover - 1st prize
- 2002: European Choir Prize
- 2010: 8th German Choir Competition Dortmund - 2nd prize + special prize folk song ( male choir )
- 2018: 10th German Choir Competition Freiburg - 2nd prize ( male choir )
literature
- Wolfgang Dinglinger (Ed.): 150 Years of the Berlin State and Cathedral Choir . Ed. Hentrich, Berlin 2015, ISBN 3-89468-084-9 .
- Kai-Uwe Jirka , Dietmar Schenk (ed.): Berlin boys have been singing - for 550 years . Ortus, Beeskow 2015, ISBN 978-3-937788-42-5 .
- Klaus Rettinghaus: On the history of the Berlin cathedral choir . In: Sacred music and choral tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries - institutions, sound ideals and repertoires in transition (= contributions to the history of Bach reception . Volume 6 ). Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2017, ISBN 978-3-7651-0481-7 , pp. 207-240 .
Web links
- Official website at the UdK Berlin
- Works by and about the Staats- und Domchor Berlin in the catalog of the German National Library
- Channel of Staats- und Domchor Berlin on YouTube
- The State and Cathedral Choir as part of the church music of the Berlin Cathedral
- Ensemble portrait at concerti
- Berlin boys sing
Individual evidence
- ↑ Results of the German Choir Competition Category C1. Retrieved on May 8, 2018 (German).