Ottmar Gerster (29 June 1897 in
Braunfels,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
– 31 August 1969 in
Borsdorf
Borsdorf is a municipality in the Leipzig district in Saxony, Germany.
Geography
Modern Borsdorf municipality consists of three historical villages: Borsdorf (originally the smallest among the three, serving as a toll station at the historical ma ...
) was a German
viola player,
conductor and
composer who in 1948 became rector of the
Liszt Music Academy in
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
.
Life
Ottmar Gerster was born some 50 km (30 miles) north of
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
during the closing years of the nineteenth century. His father was a
neurologist
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...
and his mother was a
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
. He attended an
Academic secondary school ("Gymnsium") and entered, in 1913, the
Dr Hoch Music Conservatory where his teachers included
Bernhard Sekles (improvisation) and
Adolf Rebner (violin). It was at the Hoch Conservatory that Gerster also got to know
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 ' ...
who was a near contemporary.
[
Between 1916 and 1918 his music education was interrupted when he was called up for military service, but he concluded his formal studies successfully in 1920. From 1921 he was working with the Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, initially as the Concertmaster ("leader") and the between 1923 and 1927 as a solo viola player. During the 1920s Gerster also joined up with the labour movement and organised Workers' Choral Groups. In addition, from 1927 till 1947 he taught at the ]Folkwang University of the Arts
The Folkwang University of the Arts is a university for music, theater, dance, design, and academic studies, located in four German cities of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since 1927, its traditional main location has been in the former Werden Abbey in ...
in Essen, specialising in violin, viola, chamber music, music theory and composition.[
In January 1933 the NSDAP (Nazi Party) took power and quickly set about creating a one-party state out of ]Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. During the ensuing twelve years Gerster's relationship with the Hitler regime was often collaborative, but at other times problematic. He composed a "Consecration piece" for the regime in 1933 as well as a "battle hymn" for (Nazi) German Christian organisation entitled "You should burn",[''Ihr sollt brennen''] setting a text by Baldur von Schirach.[ Fred K. Prieberg: ''Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945'', CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, pages 2055–2056] In 1936 there was a popular song entitled "The stranger bride" and a choral song "German airmen". In 1939, briefly, he was required to undertake "army service" as a "Road construction soldier". In 1940 he composed a song for which he had himself written the words and which was entitled "Song of the Essen Road building corps".[Fred K. Prieberg: ''Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945'', CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, page 2057]
Gerster's Opera "The Witches of Passau" had its first performance in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
in 1941. Further productions quickly followed in Bremen, Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...
, Essen und Liegnitz
Legnica (Polish: ; german: Liegnitz, szl, Lignica, cz, Lehnice, la, Lignitium) is a city in southwestern Poland, in the central part of Lower Silesia, on the Kaczawa River (left tributary of the Oder) and the Czarna Woda. Between 1 June 1975 ...
, and in the same year the city of Düsseldorf awarded him its version of the Robert Schumann Prize for the work. In 1943 the National Office for Music Production (die ''Reichsstelle für Musikbearbeitung'') gave him a 50,000 Mark
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* F ...
contract to compose his opera "The Nutter" (''"Rappelkopf"'')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, page 181. which was later renamed, less colloquially, "The enchanted self" (''"Das verzauberte Ich"''). During the closing period of the war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
Chancellor Hitler included him on the official schedule of "Divinely gifted artists", produced in August/September 1944. This listed more than 1,000 people from the arts establishment who on account of their cultural value should be kept away from involvement in fighting even, as the enemy armies advanced, on the home front
Home front is an English language term with analogues in other languages. It is commonly used to describe the full participation of the British public in World War I who suffered Zeppelin raids and endured food rations as part of what came t ...
. Around this time Gerster returned to Essen where he lived till 1947.[
In May 1945 the war ended and Gerster found himself on the ]blacklist
Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, ...
of the occupying American army. He nevertheless continued to lecture in Essen till 1947 which was the year in which he relocated from the British occupation zone
The British occupation zone in Germany (German: ''Britische Besatzungszone Deutschlands'') was one of the Allied-occupied areas in Germany after World War II. The United Kingdom along with her Commonwealth were one of the three major Allied po ...
to 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 ...
. The Soviet zone was by now in the process of being transformed into the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). In 1947 he joined the new country's newly formed Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED / ''Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands'').[ In 1947 he accepted a professorship in composition and music theory at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in ]Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
, where between 1948 and 1951 he was the rector. In 1950 he was a founding member of the East German Cultural Academy. In 1951 he left Weimar and took a position at what was then called the Mendelssohn Music Academy in Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
, where he remained till his retirement
Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload.
Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...
in 1962.
Between 1951 and 1968 Gerster was Chairman of the country's Association of Composers and Musicologists.
Style
Gerster was a relatively traditional composer. He stuck to the framework of conventional extended tonality
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations, stabilities, attractions and directionality. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or triadic chord with the greatest stability is ca ...
, often using church music modes
Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine
* ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...
, essentially building his chord structures on fourths and fifths. His works were mostly classical in their architecture: he made extensive use of Sonata form
Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th c ...
. Like many composers at this time he felt an affinity with folk songs, from which his music sometimes incorporates melodies. There is also a stress on a "hand-crafted" element in his tonality. Gerster was an early exponent of music for the masses and had no difficulty in accommodating his work to the guidelines of Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...
on which, at least during the early 1950s, the state insisted. There is frequently a certain amount of neo-classicism injected, but Gerster is also able to write with great pathos. Sometimes his style resembles that of his student contemporary, 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 ' ...
.
Awards and honours
* 1926: Schott Music prize
* 1941: Robert Schumann Prize of the city of Düsseldorf
* 1951: National Prize of East Germany Class 2 for culture and literature
* 1962: Patriotic Order of Merit
The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...
in Silver
* 1967: National Prize of East Germany Class 1 for culture and literature
Compositions
* Orchestral works
** Symphony Nr.1 ''Kleine Sinfonie'' (1933/34)
** Symphony Nr.2 ''Thüringische Sinfonie'' (1949–52)
** Symphony Nr.3 ''Leipziger Sinfonie'' mit Schlusschor (1964/65, 2. Fassung 1966)
** Symphony Nr.4 ''Weimarer Sinfonie'' (nur 1. Satz vollendet, 1969. for 20th anniversary of the GDR)
** ''Oberhessische Bauerntänze'' (1938)
** ''Festive Toccata'' (1941/42)
** '' Festival Overture 1948'' (1948)
** ''Dresdener Suite'' (1956)
* Concertos
** Piano concerto in A (1931, rev. 1955)
** Violin concerto (1939)
** Concertino for Viola and Chamber orchestra op.16 (ca. 1928)
** 'Cello concerto in D (vor 1946)
** Horn concerto (1958)
** Capriccietto for four kettle drums and String orchestra (ca. 1932)
* Opera
** ''Madame Liselotte'', Oper (1932/33; UA 21. Oktober 1933, Essen)
** '' Enoch Arden oder Der Möwenschrei'', Opera (1935/36; UA 15. November 1936, Düsseldorf; Text: Karl Michael Freiherr von Levetzow)
** ''Die Hexe von Passau'', Oper (1939–41; UA 11. Oktober 1941, Düsseldorf)
** ''Das verzauberte Ich'', Oper (1943–48, UA 1949, Wuppertal)
** ''Der fröhliche Sünder'', Oper (1960–62)
*Various vocal works
** ''Das Lied vom Arbeitsmann'' (1928)
** ''Der geheimnisvolle Trompeter'', Kantate (1928)
** ''Wir!'', sozialistisches Festspiel (1931/32)
** ''Ihr sollt brennen'', Kampfchoral der Deutschen Christen (Text: Baldur von Schirach, 1933)
** ''Gedenket ihrer'', Kantate für Sopran, Sprecher, Männerchor und Orchester (1939, for Nazi Heroes Day)
** ''Eisenkombinat Ost'', Kantate (1951)
** ''Sein rotes Banner'', Song to Karl Marx (1954)
** ''Ballade vom Manne Karl Marx und der Veränderung der Welt'' (Text: Walther Victor, 1958)
** zahlreiche Chöre
** Lieder
** Volksliedbearbeitungen
* Chamber music
** String quartet Nr.1 in D (1920/21)
** String quartet Nr.2 in C (1954)
** String trio op.42 (ca. 1922)
** String sextet in c op.5 (1921/22)
** Sonata for Violin and Piano (1950/51)
** Sonata for Viola and Piano Nr.1 in D (1919–22)
** Sonata for Viola and Piano Nr.2 in F (1954/55)
** ''Higs quartet'' for 4 double basses (1932)
** Sonatine for Oboe and Piano (1969)
** Works for Accordion
* Piano music
** Phantasie in G op.9 (1922)
** Sonatine (1922/23)
** other small pieces
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerster, Ottmar
German classical composers
German male classical composers
20th-century classical composers
German classical violists
German male conductors (music)
German classical musicians
Education in Weimar
University of Music and Theatre Leipzig faculty
Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit
Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany
Socialist Unity Party of Germany members
1897 births
1969 deaths
20th-century German conductors (music)
20th-century German male musicians
20th-century German composers
20th-century violists