Wilhelm Twittenhoff

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Wilhelm Twittenhoff (born February 28, 1904 in Werdohl , Westphalia ; † September 23, 1969 in Cologne ) is a German musicologist and music teacher who made a significant contribution to the development of the German music school system and who helped found numerous associations in post-war Germany . He published numerous works on music schools and music education, but also his own compositions and teaching materials for music school lessons.

Life and work

After completing a commercial apprenticeship, Twittenhoff passed his private music teacher exam in Heinz Schüngeler's music seminar in Hagen in 1929 . He then studied musicology , philosophy and sociology at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin and at the University of Halle . He completed his studies with a doctorate on the music-theoretical writings of Joseph Riepel in Halle in 1933 and then worked until 1936 as a music teacher at the training center of the Association for Free and Applied Movement in Munich, founded and managed by Carl Orff and Dorothee Günther .

After a short teaching position at the Hochschule für Lehrerbildung Hirschberg (Silesia) , he moved to the Hochschule für Musik Weimar in 1937 , where in 1938 he was already head of the two-year course for folk and youth music directors. With the support of the university rector Paul Sixt , the course was expanded from 1942 to a three-year "seminar for music educators of the HJ ", which could now also be completed with the private music teacher exam and was therefore equivalent to regular seminars at the music academies. Twittenhoff was appointed head of the seminar in April 1943 and officially sworn in as a teacher in June 1944. Even if he made a significant contribution to the establishment of a musical education alongside the general schools and private music teachers through the conception and implementation of the seminar, Elfriede Thomas was in fact always in charge, as he himself had been doing military service on the North Sea since December 1940 . After his return in September 1945, he was dismissed from civil service because of his membership in the NSDAP from May 1937 and the leadership of the HJ seminar. After his objection and because of the commitment of the new university rector Walter Schulz for the "excellent specialist", he received an official certificate stating that there were no concerns about private activity as a music teacher.

In the following years Twittenhoff worked as a music school teacher in Welver near Soest and from 1950 built up the youth music school in Dortmund . He advocated the establishment of further music schools in the young Federal Republic and in 1951 published his text "New Music Schools", the basis for the establishment of the Association of Youth and Folk Music Schools by the then twelve music schools in the Federal Republic and West Berlin was presided over in 1952. In 1953 he became head of the youth music school in Hamburg , but remained chairman of the Association of Youth and Folk Music Schools based in Dortmund until the beginning of 1969 and then became its honorary chairman .

In 1958, Twittenhoff was the founding director of the Remscheid Music Education Center (later the Remscheid Academy for Music Education and Media Education), in this role he continued to campaign for music education and supported the merger of associations in the Federal Association for Young Musicians Education in 1963, of which he became the founding chairman. He was also co-editor of the magazine Musik und Bildung .

Works (selection)

  • Introduction to the school work by Carl Orff Schott, Mainz 1935.
  • New music schools. A demand of our time Schott, Mainz 1952.
  • The first play on the school flute Schott, Mainz 1952.
  • Youth and Jazz Schott, Mainz 1953.
  • New Music Schools II. The Youth Music School in Idea and Reality Schott, Mainz 1956.
  • Musical education. Thoughts from 20 years of Schott, Mainz 1972. (posthumous)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Music in Past and Present, Vol. 16. Bärenreiter 1986, p. 1889.
  2. ↑ Huschke, Wolfram: Future Music. A history of the Liszt School of Music Weimar. Böhlau 2006, p. 296 f.
  3. ↑ http://www.musikschulen.de/vdm/chronik/
  4. ↑ Music in Past and Present, Vol. 16. Bärenreiter 1986, p. 1889.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Twittenhoff, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Werdohl
DATE OF DEATH 23rd September 1969
Place of death Cologne