Wilhelm Keilmann (composer)

Wilhelm Martin Keilmann (born August 4, 1908 in Würzburg , † November 14, 1989 in Brixen ) was a German pianist , conductor and composer . He composed 74 works, founded a chamber orchestra and was a lecturer at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich .

Wilhelm Keilmann

Life

Wilhelm Martin Keilmann received his first instruction in violin and piano playing from his father, Ferdinand Keilmann, a music teacher.

He first studied at the Aschaffenburg music school with director Hermann Kundigraber, Heinz Knettel and Valentin Härtl. After a semester at the Munich University of Music , he switched to the Würzburg Conservatory , where he studied piano under Professor Heinz Knettel, violin and viola under Willy Schaller, and learned conducting and composition under Privy Councilor Professor Doctor Hermann Zilcher .

The state examination put Wilhelm Keilmann on 13 July 1937 in all four subjects with distinction and his commissioned work "Hymn to Beauty" by Christian Morgenstern for soprano, chorus and orchestra (Op. 4) of Tilla Briem and the Munich Philharmonic on 15 First performed in Bad Kissingen in July 1937 .

After a year as Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater in Mainz , he married the violinist Hertha Bulle (born August 10, 1916) and moved with her to the rural boarding school in Schondorf am Ammersee in 1939 when the war broke out as a music teacher . There they both worked as performing artists and gave individual lessons in their instrumental subjects. Wilhelm Keilmann built up choirs and not only knew how to inspire the students for music. During this time he composed, among other things, the “Würzburger Bilder” for piano and a number of songs, often with a humorous background.

In 1942, the director of the German Philharmonic Choir, Doctor Bruno Kittel , brought him to the capital Berlin as choirmaster and répétiteur . In 1943 Keilmann performed recitals and duets with Tilla Briem (soprano) and Fred Drissen (bass baritone) in German hospitals. In the last year of the war, Keilmann was drafted and taken prisoner by the Americans.

After the war, he first established an important piano class in Aschaffenburg, which continued to be talked about for a long time, and later followed a call to the Richard Strauss Conservatory (formerly Trapp Conservatory) in Munich , where he was from 1959 to 1975 worked as a teacher for piano and composition. As an accomplished piano accompanist, he developed the subject "Prima-Vista", a methodical and stimulating guide to reading sight , which Edition Peters translates into English and Japanese under No. 8065 in Henry Litollf's Verlag / CF Peters (Frankfurt, London, New York), 1970 appeared in two volumes.

In 1975 Wilhelm Keilmann ended his active teaching activities in Munich and devoted himself from his "Haus Harmonie" in Bad Kohlgrub above all to the "Murnau Chamber Orchestra", which he founded in 1966, to the annual master concerts in the Haus Harmonie concert hall since 1951 with his wife Hertha Keilmann. the church choir Bad Kohlgrub and the composition. His versatility as a pianist, conductor and composer was exceptionally highly valued by world-famous personalities such as Elly Ney , Ludwig Hoelscher , Wilhelm Stross , Kieth Engen , Detlef Kraus , Fred Drissen , Oscar C. Yatco , Josef Märkl , Rudolf Metzmacher , Tilla Briem , Lore Fischer , Pamela Coburn and many others.

Many of his major works were created between 1975 and 1989. The "Sonnengesang" for soprano and string orchestra op. 45, the "Elegie et Allegro giocoso" for alto saxophone , the string quartet op. 61, the "Vollmondnächte" op. 62, "Mainau Island in the Magic of Flowers" op. 63 and the 2. Cello sonata op.65 and the piano quartet in F sharp minor op.60.

On November 14, 1989, Wilhelm Keilmann died unexpectedly of heart failure while on vacation in South Tyrol and found his final resting place in the Rochus cemetery in Bad Kohlgrub .

Selected compositions

• op. 4: Hymn to Beauty ( Christian Morgenstern ) for mixed choir, solo soprano and orchestra (1935)
• op.32 / c: Piano School I play from sight - short lecture studies for piano in three parts, lower and intermediate level (1970)
• op.45: The Song of the Sun for soprano and string orchestra (based on texts by St. Francis of Assisi ) (1971)
• op. 62: Full moon nights . Song cycle for soprano and piano (adapted from Japanese poems by Manfred Hausmann ) (1986)
• op. 60: Piano Quartet in F sharp minor for violin, viola, cello and piano (1984)
• op.64 / a: Duo for violin and violoncello (1988)
• op.65: 2nd Sonata in F sharp minor for violoncello and piano (1989)

Works (selection)

Piano music

• A rose has sprung up . Three Christmas Variations op.1 (1933)
• Würzburg Pictures op.13 (1941)
• Hymnus gloriosus in honorem ducis excellentissimi Lenau . Prelude and Fugue in A flat major, Op. 24 (1980)
• About the Schlaraffischen friendship song . Variation and Fugue op.28 (1979)
• Maria walked through a thorn forest . Three Variations op.34 (1933)
• “Stato d'animo della sera” al lago d'Iseo . Short impressions op.44 / a (1970)
• “Movimenti d'onde” al lago d'Iseo . Short impressions op.44 / b (1970)
• Notturno in E major op.56 (1984)
• Child portraits . Impressions op.58 (1979)
• Mainau - island in the magic of flowers . Twelve Impressions op.63 (1987)
• Gioco da Colori per pianoforte op.64 / b (1988)

Orchestral works and choral works with orchestra (selection)

• Hymn to Beauty (Christian Morgenstern) for mixed choir, solo soprano and orchestra op.4 (1935)
• Sonnenwende for mixed choir, soprano, baritone solo and orchestra op.7 (1936)
• The way to Bethlehem . Christmas cantata for solos, mixed choir, small orchestra and piano op.40 (1962)
• The Song of the Sun for soprano and string orchestra (based on texts by St. Francis of Assisi) op.45 (1971)

Piano school

• I play short lecture studies for piano in three parts, lower and intermediate level, op.32 / c (1970)

Film music

• Hakahana music for the color film of the same name from South West Africa by the Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft, Wuppertal-Barmen, a Walter Leckebusch production, realized by the Matthias-Film-Gesellschaft, Stuttgart op.42 / b (1956)

Sonatas, trios and quartets (selection)

• Sonata No. 1 in D minor for violoncello and piano op.15 (1943)
• Sonata in B minor for violoncello and piano op.26 / b (1951)
• Trio sereno for flute, double bass and piano op.36 / a (1961)
• Chamber sonata for viola and piano op.43 (1964)
• Piano Quartet in F sharp minor for violin, viola, cello and piano op.60 (1984)
• Sonata No. 2 in F sharp minor for violoncello and piano op.65 (1989)

Songs (selection)

• Song of the earth to the sun for soprano and string orchestra (based on text by Christian Morgenstern) op.18 / a (1974)
• How are the days difficult . Song cycle for baritone and piano (from "Musik des Einsamen" by Hermann Hesse) op. 26 / a (1951)
• Gitanjali . Eight songs for bass-baritone and piano (based on texts by Rabintranath Tagore) op.59 (1986)
• Full moon nights . Song cycle for soprano and piano (based on Japanese poems by Manfred Hausmann) op.62 (1986)

Web links

• Literature by and about Wilhelm Keilmann in the catalog of the German National Library