Georg Schumann (composer)
Georg Alfred Schumann ( born October 25, 1866 in Königstein, † May 23, 1952 in Berlin, West-field lights ) was a German composer, pianist, conductor, teacher and from 1900 to 1952 director of the Sing- Akademie zu Berlin.
The life, works, honors
Georg Schumann was the son of the city music director Clemens Schumann (1839-1918), and elder brother of Camillo Schumann composer. Other siblings were Alfred Schumann (1868-1891), which had last been concertmaster with the Bremen Philharmonic, and Clemens Schumann jun. (1876-1938), 1900-1936 violinist in the Dresden Staatskapelle.
While Georg Schumann's musical education in Dresden from the Saxon " Organ King " Carl August Fischer and the former Julius Otto student Friedrich Baumfelder was continued, he has appeared as soloist with Johann Nepomuk Hummel's Piano Concerto in A minor and awakened by a self composed Piano Sonata the attention of the composer and teacher Carl Reinecke, who gave him a free place at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he studied from 1882 to 1888, especially with him. Encounters with Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Johannes Brahms, Arthur Nikisch, Gustav Mahler, Joseph Joachim, Carl Halir and Max Bruch gradually Schumann fertilized artistic development.
After working as a conductor and choir singing Association in Gdansk (1890 ) and the Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra in Bremen ( 1896) he was appointed director elected 1900 ( 1950 Honorary Director ) of the Sing- Akademie zu Berlin. In 1907 he was appointed as a member, in 1918 as vice president and in 1934 as President of the Prussian Academy of Arts, the Master School for composition, he served as successor to Max Bruch 1913-1945. Among his pupils were among them Hans Uldall, Shukichi Mitsukuri and Pancho Wladigerow.
Of these positions from Georg Schumann, the German and especially the Berlin music scene decisively influenced. Together with Richard Strauss and others, he founded the Association of German Composers - today GEMA - whose honorary member he was. He was co-founder of the Association of German concert choirs, sat in the " Hilfsbund for German musical life " for needy artists and brought inter alia musicians such as Arnold Schoenberg at the Academy of Arts.
He was the initiator of the acquisition and preservation of the Bach house Eisenach and its embodiment as a museum by the New Bach Society with the implicit consent of Kaiser Wilhelm II, in which he campaigned for the financial support of the project. Through a personal guarantee, benefit concerts - and Others with the Sing- Akademie zu Berlin and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in Eisenach 1905 - as well as a keen collector supported and promoted Schumann this project.
Sergiu Celibidache With support, the conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra and the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Chorus, Hans Chemin- Petit, he worked for the reconstruction of musical life in Berlin after 1945.
Schumann is assigned to the outgoing late Romantic period. As role models can be initially Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann - not related to Georg Schumann - call.
He wrote over 100 compositions, especially choral works, such as oratorios, chamber music and orchestral works, including an award-winning Symphony ( B minor Symphony ), the choral work Cupid and Psyche, Op 3 (1888), the first on 4 November 2003, listed in the Berlin Philharmonic after 50 years from the Berlin Philharmonic Choir again oratorio Ruth Opus 50 (1908), variations and Gigue on a Theme by Handel, Op 72 ( orchestral variation 1925), a humorous sketch in variation form, yesterday evening was cousin Michel da op 74 (orchestra - Humoresque 1925) and most of the arrangements for the so-called " Emperor song Book ", published at the instigation Sr. Mj. d German Emperor Wilhelm II, the most comprehensive collection of over 600 folk songs in older and newer sets, popularly known as " The Emperor's Songbook ", or simply " Emperor Songbook " called.
Georg Schumann received numerous offices, awards and honors. Besides those already mentioned, he was appointed in 1901 to the Royal Professor at the Friedrich- Wilhelms- University of Berlin, 1909 Master of Zelter 's Liedertafel 1916 and an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy at the Friedrich -Wilhelms- University of Berlin. He received the Beethoven Prize in 1933, the Goethe Medal for Art and Science in 1934 and the title of Honorary Director of the Sing- Akademie zu Berlin, 1950.
For his lifetime achievements Georg Schumann of the Federal Republic of Germany was from the hand of German President Dr. Theodor Heuss was the first German in 1951, the "Great Cross of Merit " award.
His house in Berlin's residential district of Lichterfelde West is run by the Georg Schumann Society as a museum and event center (Georg Schumann house). His tomb in the park cemetery Berlin light field is an honorary grave of Berlin.
List of Works
Bibliography
- Herbert Biehle: Georg Schumann. A Biography. E. Bisping, Münster 1925 ( 80 pages with a frontispiece, a representation of the marble bust of Georg Schumann, a fold-out sheet and a list of works ).
- Gottfried Eberle: 200 years of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. Nicolai, Berlin 1991.
- Uta Lehnert: the dead a voice. The park cemetery lights field. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1996.
- New German Biography. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1998.
- Bachwochen Dill V. ( ed.) Luigi Cherubini & Georg Schumann, contributions to music research. Yearbook of Bachwochen Dill 2001, culture & Commerz Publisher 2001, 96 pp.
Media (selection)
- 2011 - Georg Schumann - Piano Trios Nos. 1 and 2 ( cpo)
- 2007 - Georg Schumann - O Jerusalem, the highly built city ( Guild )
- Georg Schumann - Violin Sonatas
- 2001 - Georg Schumann - Choral Works (ASV )
- Georg Schumann - Sacred Music of the Late Romantic for choir, organ and orchestra
Papers
Letters from Georg Schumann are in stock at the Leipzig music publisher CF Peters in Leipzig State Archives.