Gottfried Wolters (8 April 1910 – 25 June 1989) was a German

choral conductor Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duties ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Life

Wolters was born in

Emmerich am Rhein Emmerich am Rhein ( Low Rhenish and nl, Emmerik) is a city and municipality in the northwest of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The city has a harbour and a quay at the Rhine. In terms of local government organization, it is ...

. He began studying music at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

, but did not complete his dissertation on ''

Johann Baptist Wanhal Johann Baptist Wanhal (12 May 1739 – 20 August 1813) was a Czech classical music composer. He was born in Nechanice, Bohemia, and died in Vienna. His music was well respected by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert. He was an instrumental perf ...

as a symphonist''. Fred K. Prieberg: ''Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945'', CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, . After the seizure of control by the

National Socialists Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

he worked as an editor at P. J. Tonger Verlag in Cologne and also as a freelance composer and choir director. On the (Day of national work) (1 May 1933), he became a member of the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

and registered under the 2,227,516. However he was dropped in 1934, because he had missed the monthly registration. Since 1934 he appeared as a composer of

Hitlerjugend The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

anthems and songs.

Ernst Klee Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was concer ...

: ''Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945.'' S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, , . As Gaumusikreferent of the

German Labour Front The German Labour Front (german: Deutsche Arbeitsfront, ; DAF) was the labour organisation under the Nazi Party which replaced the various independent trade unions in Germany during Adolf Hitler's rise to power. History As early as March 1933, ...

he was already active as a single conductor during the late 1930s and early 1940s. In World War II, he was drafted into the

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

. His songbook published together with Hugo Wolfram Schmidt ''Uns geht die Sonne nicht unter. Eine Auswahl der meistgesungenen Lieder der Jugend'' (1935) was listed on the in the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...

. In the post-war years he founded the Norddeutscher Singkreis, a

mixed choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

, in Hamburg. With this choir he led Bach's ''

St John Passion The ''Passio secundum Joannem'' or ''St John Passion'' (german: Johannes-Passion, link=no), BWV 245, is a Passion or oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach, the older of the surviving Passions by Bach. It was written during his first year as direc ...

'' and ''

St Matthew Passion The ''St Matthew Passion'' (german: Matthäus-Passion, links=-no), BWV 244, is a '' Passion'', a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander. It sets ...

'',

Hugo Distler August Hugo Distler (24 June 1908 – 1 November 1942)Slonimsky & Kuhn, ''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'', v. 2, p. 889 was a German organist, choral conductor, teacher and composer. Life and career Born in Nuremberg, Distler at ...

's '' Choralpassion'' and Mörike's ''Chorliederbuch'',

Günter Bialas Günter Bialas (19 July 1907 – 8 July 1995) was a German composer. Life Bialas was born in Bielschowitz (today Bielszowice, a subdivision of Ruda Śląska) in Prussian Silesia. His father was the business manager of a German theatre, and his ...

's ''Im Anfang'' and many more serious modern and

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

works. His special love was the German and later the European folk song, which he sang together with his choir and the audience with his own instrumental movements at the monthly Open Singstunden in Hamburg. Worldly music from

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number o ...

to vocal music by

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...

was another focus. In the early 1960s he founded the movement

Europa Cantat Logo The European Choral Association - Europa Cantat is a European choral organisation founded in 1963. It is the biggest European choral organisation with members in 40 European countries and 10 countries outside of Europe. It is a network of cho ...

with other European choral conductors and had active connections with the French choral movement and the choir leader

César Geoffray César Geoffray (20 February 1901 – 24 December 1972) was a French composer. 1901 births 1972 deaths 20th-century French composers French male composers Musicians from Lyon 20th-century French male musicians {{France-composer-s ...

. He organized numerous training courses and singing weekends and became leader of the (AMJ). He was editor for the in

Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel (; nds, Wulfenbüddel) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District. It is best known as the location of the internationally renowned Herzog August Library and for having the largest c ...

and published the songleaf series ''Das Singende Jahr''. Later, followed the multi-volume work ''Ars Musica'' Volume I-V with many choral movements and

monophonic Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduc ...

folk songs, as well as the ''Chorbuch Romantik''.''Chorbuch Romantik''
on Worldcat. His compositional work comprises monophonic and polyphonic, mostly secular songs. There are several recordings of his performances. Wolters also prepared folksong programmes for radio with the choir. He also developed ''St. John Passion'' with the concert audience by rehearsing the

chorale Chorale is the name of several related musical forms originating in the music genre of the Lutheran chorale: * Hymn tune of a Lutheran hymn (e.g. the melody of "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"), or a tune in a similar format (e.g. one of the t ...

together in advance so that everyone could sing along to the performance. In addition to his intensive choral work, his goal was to bring people in Western and Eastern Europe together through travel and great singing meetings. Wolters died in Emmerich at age 79.

References

External links

* * J. W.
''Gottfried Wolters''
, 16. Juni 2010, online bei musicanet.ort (PDF; 72,5 KB). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolters, Gottfried 20th-century German composers Literary editors German choral conductors Nazi Party members 1910 births 1989 deaths People from Emmerich am Rhein Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Kriegsmarine personnel of World War II