Wilhelm new territory

Wilhelm Neuland (born July 14, 1806 in Bonn ; † 1889 there ) was a German musician .

Life

Wilhelm Neuland was born the son of Johann Caspar Neulands, a tailor and his wife Maria Catharina. Between 1814 and 1820 he attended a private school in Bonn - at that time this was a specialty: compulsory schooling was only introduced later in Prussia. In addition to attending school, he also received drawing lessons. He received his first musical training from 1820 to 1824 with JG Klebs in harmony and various instruments and with CD Stegmann in basso continuo, composition and piano.

In 1824 he began his military service as an oboist , clarinetist and cellist in the infantry music corps , which he gave up in 1826 due to health problems. Thereupon he temporarily settled as a music teacher in Bonn. A few years later, in 1828, he got a job as music director of the Société Philharmonique in Calais. Between 1830 and 1835 he also worked as a choir director as well as singing, piano and composition teacher in London . During this time he commuted between London and Calais every six months.

Numerous letters and documents provide information about his work and thinking. On April 14, 1832, he wrote to HC Breitenstein that music in London was “not at such a high level”, that Paris was “the only place for an artist”, but since the revolution of 1830 “art had suffered a lot”. Nevertheless Neuland seems to have felt very comfortable in London. His high reputation as a composer enabled his works to be published in well-known publishing houses such as Simrock in Bonn, Richault in Paris and Chappel in London. In 1859 he also traveled to Vienna , Dresden , Prague and Berlin .

Against the background of the political situation during the Franco-Prussian War and the tensions resulting from the establishment of the German Empire in 1871, Neuland moved back to Bonn, where he worked as a choirmaster until his death in 1889.

New territory and the guitar. London 1830-1835

Neuland's work as a guitarist has almost been ignored by general music historiography. Bone's claim that new territory had emerged as a guitarist is substantiated by Stuart W. Button. This shows two concerts in 1835 and 1838. In the 1830s, London was the scene of a committed guitar scene, the initiator of which was the German guitarist Ferdinand Pelzer from the Rhineland . From 1833 he published the first serious guitar magazine under the title "The Giulianiad". Pelzer's educational and organizational work and the concert career of his daughter Catherina Sidney-Pratten established a specifically English tradition of the guitar. London has been an attractive environment for many leading guitarists. Leonard Schulz, Felix Horetzky, Sokolowski, Luigi Sagrini (who accompanied Neuland on the piano) and above all Giulio Regondi lived in the city. After Fernando Sor had worked there between 1815 and 1823, the guitar was established as a respected instrument in London's musical life.

Neuland noted in the mentioned letter from 1832 to HK Breitenstein: "I work mostly for ... guitar". On February 26th, 1865 he wrote to Th. Block looking back about his compositions for guitar: “I composed these things about 30 years ago during my stay in London for the enjoyment of various friends.” In another letter to Th. March 1865 it was said: "I have not written anything for the guitar for many years and I doubt that I can still produce anything clever for this instrument."

Neuland's preoccupation with the guitar is therefore limited to the London years and beyond until the end of the 1830s. Nevertheless, the guitar works form an important group of works within his oeuvre. Neuland is one of the first composers to write guitar music, even though he was not primarily a guitarist himself.

plant

Neuland's work corresponds to the style of German Romanticism. In addition to songs and chamber music, his masses op. 30 and op. 40 are major works of his oeuvre. His way of composing is also influenced by the musical culture of the Rhineland, as represented by Robert Schumann and Ferdinand Hiller , and the practice of church music in the music centers there. His masses were performed in Cologne Cathedral and Aachen Minster in the 1960s. In today's concert programs, new territory has appeared more and more in recent years, especially his songs and his guitar works have been rediscovered.

literature

• Haase, Susanne: The Bonn composer Wilhelm Neuland: (1806-1889); Studies on life and work , Berlin / Kassel 1995
• Ed. Michael Sieberichs-Nau: Souvenir Germanique / Fantaisie pour la guitar et piano, op. 29 , Heidelberg 2009 (Chanterelle)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ All documents and letters, including those below, are from Haase, Susanne: ... quoted. See literature
2. ↑ All quotations from: Haase, Susanne… s. literature

Web links

• Prints in the Rischel & Birket-Smith Collection in the Royal Library of Copenhagen