Walter Gerwig

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Walter Gerwig (born November 26, 1899 in Frankfurt / Oder ; † July 9, 1966 in Heisterschoss ) was a German musician . The well-known lute player , who made numerous records at the time, is counted among the pioneers of the revival of early music and historical performance practice.

Life

Gerwig, who had also worked as a choir director, transferred the register colors of the singing voice to the practice of the lute . This registration, coupled with his very own joy in playing, gave his interpretations of old masterpieces in particular unusually strong expression and liveliness.

Through his international concerts, the musician contributed significantly to a renaissance of the lute and the lute repertoire in Europe and America, as well as the early music movement in general. In courses and lectures, he also made a lasting contribution to the renewal of house music with his suggestions .

Gerwig started playing the guitar in the Wandervogel movement . In 1923 he got to know the lute at an instrument exhibition in Berlin, which immediately fascinated him and on which he refined his technique and made it ready for concert. In 1928 his childhood friend Fritz Jöde brought him in as a co-founder of the first folk music school in Berlin, the Berlin folk music school . From 1928 onwards, Hans Joachim Moser appointed him as a lecturer in lute playing at the State Academy for Church and School Music in Berlin ; did not join the NSDAP during the Hitler era , Gerwig was engaged by the Reichsrundfunk together with other early music pioneers in 1943 for a baroque ensemble in St. Florian near Linz, Austria (Bruckner-Stift). 3 weeks before the end of the war, Gerwig was drafted into the so-called " Volkssturm ". A call to the Mozarteum in Salzburg for the post-war period by the then rector Johann Nepomuk David failed when in 1945 all Germans were expelled from Austria. A 7-year concert tour across Germany with the "Lautencollegium" (Eva Juliane Gerstein, soprano, Johannes Koch, viola da gamba , Walter Gerwig, lute) followed. From 1952 he directed the main subject class for his instrument at the State University of Music in Cologne. Many concerts, radio and vinyl recordings at home and abroad followed.

For the recording of the Suite in G minor by (BWV 995) Johann Sebastian Bach, Gerwig received the German Record Critics' Prize a year before his death .

Gerwig's lute music was in great demand not only for music productions, but also as accompaniment for speech records : he accompanied Mathias Wieman's poetry readings for the record series Mathias Wieman's small discotheque , but also recitations by Gert Westphal and Karl Heinrich Waggerl with his improvisations.

In addition, various textbooks and compositions for stringed instruments are from Gerwig (Das Spiel der Lauteninstrument, Lienau-Verlag). On many courses for guitar and lute players, he inspired countless amateurs for his instrument. His exuberant musicality also had a strong influence on fellow musicians. His students were Eugen Müller-Dombois , Michael Schäffer (1937–1979), Eike Funck (1934–2005), Maritta Kersting , Paul Gerrits (1935–2010), Gerhard Hübner, Kristian Gerwig (* 1943), Hanni Hülsemann and Hilde Frederichs who plays the second lute on early recordings made by Thomas Binkley (1931–1995) in the "Studios of Early Music". a.

During his time in Cologne, Walter Gerwig met the Koblenz instrument maker Max Erich Klein (1901–1984), who came from Markneukirchen. Together with him he developed simple but very good sounding and easily playable guitars for students of music schools and youth groups etc. a. the so-called G6 (six-string), G7 (seven-string, low B-string for bass playing) and an octave guitar (soprano guitar for playing quartet and for the harpsichord part in figured bass).

Records

  • Bach: Lute Music (Nonesuch H-71137)
  • The Baroque Lute (Nonesuch H-71229)
  • The Art Of The Lute: Renaissance And Baroque Masterpieces From France, England And Germany (RCA VICS-1362)
  • The Art of the Lute, Vol. 2: Renaissance Masterpieces From Italy (RCA VICS-1408)

Fonts

  • People, keep watch! : A song book for youth by VD A (Ed.?)
  • How do I accompany folk and children's songs on the lute? (1932)
  • The lutenist. 7 booklets.
  • The game books. 12 booklets.
  • Christmas at home. Old Christmas carols for voice with lute / guitar accompaniment. Robert Lienau, Berlin-Lichterfelde.
  • The playing of the lute instruments. 3 volumes (I. The one-part game. II. The multi-part game. III. The song accompaniment. ) (Schulwerk, 1955)
  • Eicke Funck (Ed.): I'm learning to play the guitar. 2 volumes (1960)
  • Brother Singer, guitar edition (Bärenreiter 19 ??)

Awards

  • German Record Critics' Prize 1965

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank / Altmann: Concise Tonkünstler Lexicon. Second part: additions and extensions since 1937. Wilhelmshaven 1974.