Werner Wolf (musicologist)

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Werner Wolf (born March 15, 1925 in Grüna ; † December 23, 2019 in Leipzig ) was a German musicologist and critic . The recognized Wagner researcher was co-editor of all of the composer's letters from 1967 to 1979 . He also presented several opera introductions. In 1981 he was appointed professor at the University of Leipzig .

Life

Werner Wolf was born in 1925 in Grüna near Chemnitz as the son of a metalworker, stocking knitter or foreman and a seamstress . After attending elementary school, he first completed a commercial apprenticeship in the iron wholesale business and attended the business school in Chemnitz. From 1941 to 1945 he worked as a commercial employee, auxiliary warehouse clerk and transport worker in the iron wholesale trade in the industrial city of Chemnitz. During this time he was supported by the composer Paul Kurzbach and his wife (piano teacher). He was also influenced by the Wagnerian tradition of the Chemnitz Opera House . In December 1944 he was called up for military service; until June 1946 he spent in British captivity in Munsterlager .

In 1945/46 he was the conductor and pianist of a dance band. From 1946 to 1951 he studied piano and clarinet (state examination) at the Leipzig University of Music ; In 1951 he passed his school leaving examination there. In addition, he was a guest student at the Musicological Institute of the University of Leipzig with Walter Serauky and Hellmuth Christian Wolff . From 1951 to 1953 he studied musicology (state examination) at the University of Leipzig and in 1953 took a university final examination for musicology at the Philosophical Faculty.

From 1953 to 1957 he was a guest student with Ernst Hermann Meyer and Georg Knepler at the Musicological Institute of the Humboldt University in Berlin . From 1953 he was also an employee of the Leipziger Volkszeitung , from 1966 to 2002 he worked as a permanent freelancer, part-time lecturer in music history at the adult education center and freelance for music publishers. He also held various teaching positions: for music history at the Faculty of Journalism as well as for opera history and for the history of classical instrumental music at the musicological institute of the Karl Marx University in Leipzig.

In 1966 he became a research assistant at the Institute for Musicology and Music Education at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig. In 1969/70 he was senior assistant at the WG musicology in the cultural studies and German studies section. In 1968 he received his doctorate with the work of Richard Wagner's intellectual and artistic development up to the year 1848: investigations into Wagner's letters, writings and works on Dr. phil. The reviewers were Georg Knepler and Richard Petzoldt . In 1969 he received the Facultas Docendi . In 1969/70 he was head of the musicology and music education teaching collective and then until 1980 head of the musicology and music education department. From 1970 to 1981 he was a university lecturer in musicology in the musicology and musical instrument museum department .

In 1978 the doctorate B followed on the topic: Contributions to the representation of the intellectual and artistic development of Richard Wagner after 1848 , the reports were carried out by Walther Siegmund-Schultze , Ernst Hermann Meyer , Udo Klement and Gustav Seeber . From 1979 to 1981 he held a teaching position for music history at the “Hans Otto” theater school in Leipzig . In 1981 he became an associate professor for Marxist-Leninist musicology. In addition to musicology, in particular music history, his main research interests were the history of musical theater and instrumental music . He gave special lectures on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Ludwig van Beethoven , Franz Schubert , Richard Wagner , Johannes Brahms , Béla Bartók , Sergei Prokofjew , Karl Amadeus Hartmann , Dmitri Schostakowitsch and Hans Werner Henze . From 1985 to 1990 he headed the musicology department in the musicology and music education department. In 1989/90 he was a lecturer in music history at the "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" University of Music in Leipzig; From 1996 to 2000 he took over the special seminar “Performance Practice and Interpretation of 19th Century Music”. In 1990 he was retired when he reached the age limit. His students included u. a. Hella Bartnig , Renate Herklotz , Allmuth Behrendt and Ingolf Huhn .

From 1954 to 1961 he was a member of the city management of the Kulturbund der DDR . From 1955 to 1958 he was the cultural committee of the Leipziger Volkszeitung . From 1955 to 1990 he was a freelancer for the magazine Musik und Gesellschaft . From 1958 to 1970 he was chairman of the district working group choir at the cabinet for cultural work in the Leipzig district . From 1958 to 1990 he was a member of the Association of Composers and Musicologists of the GDR , from 1964 on the central board and from 1968 on the district board; In 1984 he became the director of the music academy "Hans Pezold" in the Leipzig district association. From 1972 to 1990 he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Musicology at the Ministry for Higher and Technical Schools in the GDR and a member of the Music History Working Group of the Central Expert Commission there.

He published articles and a. in the Meyers Lexicon . He also designed programs for theaters in Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden and wrote introductions to Reclam books for operas and record cassettes. Since the 1990s he has worked for the Neue Musikzeitung and the specialist journal Oper und Tanz as well as the Leipzigs Neue newspaper.

Werner Wolf was married. He died in Leipzig in 2019 and was buried in the Südfriedhof .

Wagner research

Wolf mainly researched the life and work of Richard Wagner . From 1967 he was commissioned by the Richard Wagner Family Archive in Bayreuth (today: Richard Wagner Foundation Bayreuth ), together with the archivist Gertrud Strobel, to be the editor of all of the composer's letters . The basis for this was a contract between the initiator Winifred Wagner and the VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik in Leipzig, where the chronologically ordered edition was published. The length of the letters was estimated at around 5000 at the time. Wolf, who was responsible for the introduction, the comments and the register , contributed to five volumes (1967, 1969, 1975, 1979 and 1993), the fifth being completed by Hans-Joachim Bauer and Eva Gerlach . Wolf's successor was Johannes Forner .

On the 100th anniversary of Richard Wagner's death in 1983, Wolf chaired the international colloquium "Richard Wagner - Life, Work and Interpretation", which was organized together with the University of Leipzig. Around 230 musicians, scientists, etc. from 15 countries took part in it. a. Gerd Rienäcker , Dénes Zoltai , Martin Gregor-Dellin and Peter Wapnewski .

From 1983 to 1993 he was chairman of the Friends of Richard Wagner in the Kulturbund of the GDR and from 1993 to 2008 of the renamed Richard Wagner Association International Local Association Leipzig eV Until 2011 he was still active on the board, since then he has been honorary chairman of the association.

Awards

literature

  • Peter Korfmacher: The memory of the music city Leipzig . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung from December 30, 2019, p. 24.
  • Thomas Mayer: Wolf's Confession . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung from January 23, 2012, p. 20.
  • Thomas Mayer: Old and wise. A life for music - Werner Wolf turns 90. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung from 14./15. March 2015, p. 18.
  • Christoph Sramek (Ed.): Documentation on the life and work of the Leipzig musicologist, university professor and music critic Prof. Dr. sc. Werner Wolf on the occasion of his 80th birthday on March 15, 2005 . Ch.Sramek, Leipzig 2005.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Richard-Wagner-Verband Leipzig eV mourns the loss of its founder and honorary chairman Prof. Dr. sc. Werner Wolf , richard-wagner.org, January 10, 2020.
  2. ↑ It's better together . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 9, 1968, vol. 24, issue 40, p. 6.
  3. ↑ Werner Breig: On the edition history of Richard Wagner's letters . In: Reinmar Emans, Ulrich Krämer (Hrsg.): Music editions in the course of history (= building blocks for the history of the edition . Vol. 5). De Gruyter, Berlin a. a. 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-044090-4 , pp. 536-547, here: pp. 543f.
  4. ^ Colloquium on Richard Wagner . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 11, 1983, vol. 39, issue 35, p. 7.
  5. ^ Art prizes from districts for deserving cultural workers . In: Neues Deutschland , October 3, 1979, vol. 34, edition 233, p. 4.
  6. ↑ Deep mourning for the Leipzig Wagner researcher Prof. Dr. sc. Werner Wolf , wagner-verband-leipzig.de, December 30, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Wolf, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Grüna
DATE OF DEATH 23 December 2019
Place of death Leipzig