Wilhelm Petersen (composer)

Wilhelm Petersen (born March 15, 1890 in Athens , † December 18, 1957 in Darmstadt ) was a German composer .

Life

Wilhelm Petersen was the youngest of five children of the court preacher to King Georg I Waldemar Petersen (1850–1940) and his wife Theodore Petersen, née. Saggau (1855-1925). All five children were born during the couple's stay in Athens. Well-known older brothers of Wilhelm are the professor of electrical engineering Waldemar Petersen and the Nazi politician Hans Petersen .

The family first returned to Mainz in 1891 to attend school for the five children. From 1892 the evangelical pastor worked in the city parish in Darmstadt. Like his brothers, Wilhelm attended the Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium in Darmstadt. Here he made friends with Karl Thylmann . Petersen graduated from high school in 1908. Due to the move to Hesse, Wilhelm was in poor health and vulnerable from early childhood. Wilhelm therefore developed a very close bond with his mother.

The poetically gifted lived during his studies (1908–1911) in Munich among the poets around Stefan George , Karl Wolfskehl and Alexander von Bernus . He studied composition with Friedrich Klose and Rudolf Louis , and conducting with Felix Mottl . In 1911 Petersen married the former wife of Alexander von Bernus, twelve years his senior, the writer Adelheid von Sybel . The marriage remained childless.

In November 1916, Petersen, who was fragile in health, was drafted and had to do his military service with the 87th Infantry Regiment in Wiesbaden. After a physical breakdown in the summer of 1918, he was finally released.

After the First World War, Petersen initially devoted himself to music-writing in Munich, which he published in Das Reich , one of Bernus' journals closely related to anthroposophy . Petersen wrote reviews about concert life in Munich and wrote essays on social and music-philosophical topics.

The premiere of his Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 3 at the ADMV Tonkünstlerfest in 1921 in Nuremberg was a great success. The eagerly awaited premiere of his Second Symphony in E flat major op. 4 at the ADMV 1923 in Kassel could not repeat the success of 1921.

After hyperinflation destroyed his economic existence in 1922, penniless Petersen moved back to Darmstadt in 1923 and from then on lived in his parents' house. During this time he was financially supported by his parents and his older brother Waldemar Petersen . Her mother's death on June 14, 1925 represented a particular loss.

As a composer he turned to chamber music, song and the a cappella choir . His works found recognition in the regional context. In 1926 he also received the Georg Büchner Prize of the People's State of Hesse.

In 1927 Petersen became a lecturer at the Municipal Academy for Music in Darmstadt . In the following years he devoted himself to the composition of one of his main works, the Great Mass op. 27. This work, premiered in Darmstadt in 1930 under Karl Böhm , was played several times with great success in Germany - for example in 1935 at the Dresden Opera House under Böhm . Bruno Walter got to know the mass in old age and was convinced “that the originality and the importance of the musical language of the master [Petersen's works] will finally create the public space that is due to them.” (Mechsner 1996, p. 351)

In 1935 Petersen received a professorship at the Musikhochschule in Mannheim, founded in 1933. Favorable negotiations with the publisher Simrock, which was considering purchasing Petersen's complete works, were ruined by the circumstances of the 1935 Berlin performance of the Third Symphony in C sharp minor, Op. 30 . While Petersen's symphony was panned by critics loyal to the Nazis, others praised the work and pointed to the extremely successful premiere in Darmstadt in 1934. In 1937 the exhibition in Mannheim was banned.

Petersen was - in contrast to his older brothers Waldemar Petersen and Hans Petersen - an opponent of the Nazi regime, although he was a member of the NSV (1934-1944) and the Reichsmusikkammer (1933-1944). It is true that one cannot call him one of the regime's persecuted people; he was allowed to teach and his works were performed over and over again. In 1937 and 1939 his students were interrogated by the Gestapo . He himself was interrogated in 1941 because of his proximity to anthroposophy. Wilhelm Petersen has not compromised himself. There are also no works by him that he should have shamefully withheld after 1945.

The last significant event in Petersen's life was the successful - in Germany widely acclaimed - world premiere of the opera Der Goldne Topf based on ETA Hoffmann in Darmstadt, for which Petersen had also written the libretto. From 1940 to 1950 Petersen still composed chamber music, concerts and orchestral suites, only to finally fall silent as a composer in 1950.

During this time he also suffered a series of strokes of fate: in 1940 his father died after years of infirmity, on September 11, 1944, his parents' house was completely destroyed in the bombing raid on Darmstadt, and in February 1946, wealthy brother Waldemar died, who held him for years had supported financially. Resignation and illness made it impossible for him to work. So, even after two years, he gave up an hourly activity at the Musikhochschule in Mannheim that he had resumed in 1951.

Wilhelm Petersen died on December 18, 1957 in Darmstadt. He was buried in the old cemetery (grave site: I wall 36a).

literature

Wolfgang Mechsner: Wilhelm Petersen. Life and work. Biography with thematic catalog raisonné , 1996. ISBN 3-9805244-1-8
Adelheid Petersen: Wilhelm Petersen. Sketch of his being and life , Darmstadt, 1962.
Article Wilhelm Petersen , in: Stadtlexikon Darmstadt, Stuttgart 2006, p. 704.

Works

Vocal music

Choirs

Confession (18th century) for 4-8-part a cappella choir op. Posth. 11 (1924)
Original words. Orphisch by JW Goethe for a cappella choir op. 21 (1927)
Hymn for choir and orchestra (freely based on the confession from Des Knaben Wunderhorn) op.25 (1927)
Great mass for solos, choir and orchestra op.27 (1929)
Five chants based on old poems for a cappella choir op.14 (1930)
Four a cappella choirs based on poems by Spervogel (12th century) op.15 (1930)
Six a cappella choirs based on poems by CF Meyer op.16 (1930)
Four a cappella choirs based on poems by Morgenstern op.17 (1930)
Four a cappella choirs based on poems from Wegzehrung by Albert Steffen, Op. 18 (1930)
Noble Art Cantata according to the old ways for mixed choir and small orchestra op.34 (1933/34)
Four sacred chants based on old melodies for mixed choir and small orchestra, op.35 (1933/34)
To the youth of the world for 3-part choir, piano and small orchestra (text by Maria Massa-Georgi) op. Posth. 9 (cannot be dated)

Songs

Three odes after Klopstock for bass baritone and piano op.13 (1924)
Seven songs from the Seventh Ring by Stefan George for medium voice and piano op.19 (1925)
Five songs after Hölderlin and George for medium voice and piano op.20 (1926)
Chinese-German Seasons and Times of Day (Goethe) for medium voice and piano op.23 (1927)
Three baroque songs by Christian Weise and Paul Fleming for voice and piano op.26 (1927)
Five songs by Friedrich Hebbel op.31 (1931/32)
Six songs (Eichendorff) op.32 (1931/32)
Goethe songs for high voice and piano op.40 (1939)
Four songs (Christian Morgenstern) for high voice and piano op.41 (1939)
The old garden 2nd series of the Eichendorff songs for voice and piano op. 44 (1943–45)
Six chants based on texts by Claudius, Hölderlin, George, Lenau, Trakl for medium voice and piano op.45
Wunderhorn-Lieder for voice and piano op.12 (1943–45)
Songs from Shakespeare's dramas op.46 (1946–1950)
Three songs for voice and piano based on texts by Mombert, Hille and Mörike op. Posth. 10 (cannot be dated)

Stage works

Incidental music "The Death of Empedocles" (Hölderlin) op. 24 (1926)
Incidental music "The Detectors" (Sophocles) op. 28 [lost] (1926)
Music for Shakespeare's Macbeth or Op. 1 (1926)
Incidental music "The Birds" (Aristophanes) op. 29 (1928)
The golden pot. Opera in three acts - based on ETA Hoffmann or op. 2 (1938)

Instrumental works

Orchestral works and concerts

Symphonic Fantasia for large orchestra op.1 (1913)
A funeral music for large orchestra op.2 (1913)
I Symphony in C minor, Op. 3 (1916)
Symphony No. II in E flat major (about the Choral Christ has risen) Easter Symphony op.4 (1922)
Hymn based on texts by Novalis for soprano and orchestra op. 7 (1923) [lost]
Variations for string orchestra op. Posth. 12 (1924)
III. Symphony in C sharp minor op. 30 (1931/32)
IV. Symphony in D major op.33 (1931/32)
Sinfonietta for string orchestra in G major op.5 (1933/34)
Symphonic Variations for Orchestra op. 36 [lost] (1935).
Theme, Metamorphoses and Fugue for large orchestra, op.39 (1936)
Music for orchestra in two movements or op. 3 (1938)
V Symphony in D minor op. Posth. 1 (1939)
Metamorphoses for piano and orchestra op. Posth. 2 (1942)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor op. Posth. 4 (1943–45)
Suite in G minor for orchestra op. Posth. 5 (1946–1950)
Suite in C major for orchestra op. Posth. 6 (1946–1950)
Suite in A minor for orchestra op. Posth. 7 (1946–1950)
Suite in D minor for orchestra op. Posth. 8 (1946–1950)
Concerto for piano and orchestra in C minor op. Posth. 3 (1946–1950)

Chamber music

I. String Quartet op.8 (1923)
II. String Quartet op.10 (1924)
Prelude and fugue for violin and piano op.11 (1924)
II. Sonata for Violin and Piano in B minor, Op. 22 (1927)
Four little pieces for violin and piano op.37 (1935)
Four miniatures for violin and piano op.38 (1935)
Piano Quartet in C minor op.42 (1942)
III. Sonata for Violin and Piano in C minor, Op. 43 (1943–45)
I. Sonata for Violin and Piano in D minor, Op. 6 (1946)
III. String Quartet in E minor, Op. 49 (1946–1950)

Piano music

Prelude for piano or op.4 (1924)
Theme and variations for piano in C minor, Op. 9 (1932)
Suite for piano in B flat minor, Op. 47 (1946–1950)
Variations on a song by King Thibaut of Navarra (1201–1253) for piano op. 50 (1946–1950)
Suite for piano in D minor, Op. 51 (1946–1950)
Miniatures for piano op. 52 (1946–1950)
Suite for piano in C minor, Op. 53 (1946–1950)
Theme and variations for piano in D minor, Op. 48 (1946–1950)

Individual evidence

↑ The composer's manuscript of the introduction to the work can be found in the Saxon State Archives in Leipzig (holdings from Musikverlag AJ Benjamin / Sikorski).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Petersen, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German composer
DATE OF BIRTH	March 15, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH	Athens , Greece
DATE OF DEATH	18th December 1957
Place of death	Darmstadt

[1] The composer's manuscript of the introduction to the work can be found in the Saxon State Archives in Leipzig (holdings from Musikverlag AJ Benjamin / Sikorski).