Karl Straube
Montgomery Rufus Karl Siegfried Straube ( born January 6, 1873 in Berlin, † April 27, 1950 in Leipzig ) was a German organist and conductor of the St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig.
Life and work
Education and work
Karl Straube received initial training from his father, the organist and harmonium builder was. After that he taught himself on; academic study, he did not complete. However, he was soon a known organ virtuoso. In 1897 he received an appointment as organist at the Cathedral Willibrordi in Wesel.
In January 1903 Straube was organist at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. In the same year he was a choral conductor of the Leipzig Bach Society. 1907 Straube organ teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Leipzig. In 1908 he was appointed professor here. Straube played in this function a similar role as Marcel Dupré in Paris - it was up in the 1970s, hardly a significant organist in Germany, which had not gone through his school. The author of a standard work for organ improvisation Karl Ludwig Gerok (1906-1975) was one of his students. His last prominent student was Karl Richter.
Ten years later, in 1918 Straube was appointed as successor to Gustav Schreck to Leipzig cantor. The office of organist at St. Thomas Church, he handed Günther Ramin. In 1919 he founded the Church Music Department at the Conservatory, which he directed until 1941 and again from 1945 to 1948. Finally Straube united in 1920 the Choir of the Leipzig Bach Society with the Gewandhaus Choir, of which he was until 1932. Straube was married to Hertha Johanna born Küchel (1876-1974), with whom he had ( Elizabeth, 1904-1924 ) a daughter.
In the autumn of 1920, accompanied Straube as the person responsible, the first foreign trip of the St. Thomas Boys Choir, led by Denmark and Norway and the foundation stone for this was laid, that the choir increasingly international received a high reputation.
Role in National Socialism
Karl Straube was in 1926 a member of the NSDAP ( Mitglieds-Nr. 27,070 ), of which he was once again in May 1933. After the " seizure of power" of the Nazis, he signed in May 1933, the Declaration of church music in the Third Reich, published in the journal "Music " and in the " Journal of Music " was published in August 1933: " We are committed to folk- based all church music. "In October 1933, Straube honorary Board of the Reich Institute for Church Music of the Protestant Church, the " Reich Bishop " Ludwig Müller was under. Since 1934 he was a member of the management committee of the Reich Music Chamber. As part of the Reichsmusiktage the Hitler Youth in November 1937 in Stuttgart, he led the St. Thomas Boys Choir in the HJ ( St. Thomas Choir of the Hitler Youth ), the St. Thomas Boys Choir appeared in Hitler Youth uniform.
At the end of 1939 Straube resigned as cantor of St. Thomas, but continued to teach at the Leipzig Academy of Music. His successor in Thomaskantorat in 1940 his pupil Günther Ramin. After bombed his apartment Straube short lived in Tübingen, but returned in May 1945 back to Leipzig. Following a review of his political activity during the Nazi period, the anti - Fascist Democratic Bloc told him in October of the same year for rehabilitated. Until March 1949 Straube still gave organ lessons, but was always frailer and suffered from increasing deafness.
Unpublished letters from Karl Straube are in stock at the Leipzig music publisher CF Peters in Leipzig State Archives. Also the Zurich Central Library has a collection of Straube directed letters.
Work as choirmaster
Straube was for centuries the first cantor of St. Thomas, who did not compose themselves. Instead, he devoted himself to working with the choir, which in fact had to be rebuilt after the First World War. He increased the number of concerts among other things, by the fact that he, the previous rehearsal on Friday for the second motet (in addition to the already listed on Saturday ) redesigned.
Gradually Straube studied with the St. Thomas Choir a all cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, which he performed in the service from 1931 first Sundays. The four-year broadcasting of all Bach cantatas withdrew because of various difficulties back to 1937. The radio broadcasts that took place also partly abroad and overseas, helped to make the St. Thomas Choir of the Leipzig city limits known, which in turn promoted the travel.
Work in the organ trade
Straube turned increasingly from the dominant late-romantic style now and again sought the baroque sound ideal, which he greatly influenced the organ movement in Germany. This change in style is also well within the range of published by him in the scores "Old Masters of organ playing ."
Significantly Straube is also the first interpreter of the organ music of the same age, friends of his Max Reger, whose work he greatly promoted and also greatly influenced (about the demolition work on Reger's Latin Requiem). In 1901 he took over the first performance of Reger's three chorale fantasias. The two stood in a lively exchange of ideas and correspondence.
Memberships
- Leonids