Walter Gerwig

Walter Gerwig (* November 26, 1899; † July 9, 1966 ) was a German musician. The famous lute player, who at that time grossed numerous record is counted among the pioneers of the revival of early music and historical performance practice.

Life

Gerwig, who had worked as a choir director, transferred the Colors tab of the singing voice to the practice of the lute. Through this registration, coupled with his innate playfulness, especially his interpretations of old masterpieces were unusually strong expression and vitality.

Through its internationally held concerts of musicians contributed significantly to a renaissance of the sounds and the sound repertoire in Europe and America, and the early music movement in general. Add courses and lectures he also appeared with his suggestions for a sustainable renewal of house music.

Gerwig began in the migrant bird movement first the Gitarrenspiel.1923 he learned on an instrument exhibition in Berlin know the sounds that fascinated him immediately and on which he refined his technique and got ready for concert. 1928 brought him his childhood friend Fritz Jöde as co-founder of the first folk music school in Berlin, is joining the music school. In 1928 he was appointed Hans Joachim Moser as a lecturer for the lute to the Berlin State Academy for Church and School Music; did not occur during the time of Hitler in the Nazi Party, Gerwig was hired along with other pioneers of early music in 1943 from the Reich radio for a baroque ensemble to St. Florian near Linz, Austria ( Bruckner - pin ). Three weeks before the war ended Gerwig was drafted into the so-called " Volkssturm ". A call to the Mozarteum in Salzburg for the postwar period by the then rector Johann Nepomuk David backfired when 1945, all Germans were expelled from Austria. A 7 -year-old concert tour crisscrossing Germany with the " sound Collegium " (Eva Juliane Gerstein, soprano, Johannes Koch, viola da gamba, Walter Gerwig, lute) joined them. From 1952, he led the major class for his instrument at the State Academy of Music in Cologne. It was followed by many concerts, radio and recordings at home and abroad.

For the recording of the Suite in G Minor by ( BWV 995 ) by Johann Sebastian Bach Gerwig received a year before his death, the Prize of the German Record Critics.

Gerwig lute music was very popular not only for music production, but also as an accompaniment for voice boards: so he accompanied Mathias Wieman poetry readings for the record number Mathias Wieman small discotheque and even recitations by Gert Westphal and Karl Heinrich Waggerl with his improvisations.

In addition, various textbooks and compositions for stringed instruments come Gerwig ( The game of lute instruments, Lienau -Verlag). On many courses for guitar and lute player he inspired countless lay people for his instrument. Its over sparkling musicality also practiced on fellow musicians a strong influence. His pupils were Eugen Müller- Dombois, Michael Schaffer, Eike Funck, Marita Kersting, Paul Gerritz, Gerhard Hübner, Kristian Gerwig, Hanni Hülsemann, Hilde Frederichs ( who plays the second sounds on early recordings of "Studio of the early music " under Thomas Binkley ) and others

During his time in Cologne Walter Gerwig learned the instrument builder free from Koblenz. Together with him, but he developed a simple very good sounding and easy to play guitars for students of music schools and youth groups etc. the so-called G6 ( six-stringed ), G7 ( siebensaitig, deep h- string bass for the game ) and an octave guitar ( soprano guitar for the card game and for the harpsichord part in basso - game).

Records

• Bach: Lute Music ( Nonesuch H- 71137 )
• The Baroque Lute ( Nonesuch H- 71229 )
• The Art Of The Lute: Renaissance And Baroque Masterpieces From France, England And Germany (RCA VICS -1362 )
• The Art of the Lute, Vol 2: Renaissance Masterpieces From Italy (RCA VICS - 1408 )