Hugo Distler was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

, choral conductor, teacher and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Life and career

Born in Nuremberg

Nuremberg

Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

, he attended Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 Conservatory from 1927 to 1931, first as a conducting student with piano as his secondary subject, but changing later, on the advice of his teacher, to composition and organ. He studied there with Martienssen (piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

), Ramin (organ

Organ

-Biology and medicine:*Organ , a collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function*Organ pipe coral, a marine organism native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans*Stenocereus thurberi, the organ pipe cactus plant-Music:...

) and Grabner (harmony).

He became organist at St. Jacobi in Lübeck

Lübeck

The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...

 in 1931. In 1933 he married Waltraut Thienhaus. That same year he joined the NSDAP: reluctantly, but his continued employment depended on his doing so. In October 1933 Distler was appointed head of the chamber music department at the Lübeck Conservatory, and at about the same time he began teaching at the Church Music School, Spandau, Berlin.

In 1937 Distler was appointed as a lecturer at the Württemburg Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

, where he also directed its two choirs. In 1940 he moved to Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 to teach and conduct at the Hochschule für Musik there, and in 1942 he was named the conductor of the State and Cathedral Choir.

He became increasingly depressed from the deaths of friends, aerial attacks, job pressures, and the constant threat of conscription

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

 into the German army

German Army

The German Army is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the disbanding of the Wehrmacht after World War II, it was re-established in 1955 as the Bundesheer, part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr along with the Navy and the Air Force...

, causing him to commit suicide in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 at the age of 34. However, his suicide was probably not a direct result of antagonistic government pressure; "rather, it appears that he saw the futility of attempting to serve both God and Nazis, and came to terms with his own conscience unequovocally."

Music

Distler enjoyed his first success in 1935 at the official Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

 Music Days (Kasseler Musiktage). He achieved his greatest public success in 1939, at the festival of German Choral Music in Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

, when the Stuttgart Hochschule choir gave the première of sections from the Mörike-Chorliederbuch; the event was regarded as the climax of the festival, but the dissemination of the work took place only after the war. His Mörike-Chorliederbuch is now recognized as "the most important German secular a cappella collection of the 20th century."

He composed chamber pieces and works for solo, piano, and two concertos (one for harpsichord

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

 in 1935-36 and one for piano in 1937), but he is known mostly for his sacred choral music and as a champion of Neo-Baroque music

Neo-Baroque music

Neo-Baroque is a term used to describe music which displays important aspects of Baroque style, but is not from the Baroque period proper—i.e., the 17th and 18th centuries...

. His works are a re-invention of old forms and genres, rich with word painting, based on the music of Heinrich Schütz

Heinrich Schütz

Heinrich Schütz was a German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi...

 and other early composers.

His music is polyphonic and frequently melismatic, often based on the pentatonic scale

Pentatonic scale

A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave in contrast to a heptatonic scale such as the major scale and minor scale...

. His works remain "tonally anchored," while at the same time they "reveal an innovative harmonic sense." Because of these characteristics, his music was stigmatized by some Nazis as "degenerate art

Degenerate art

Degenerate art is the English translation of the German entartete Kunst, a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German or Jewish Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were...

."

He is now recognized as "one of the most significant German composers of his generation." He is often associated with other German neo-Baroque choral composers, including Johann Nepomuk David

Johann Nepomuk David

Johann Nepomuk David was an Austrian composer.He began his musical career in the monastery of Sankt Florian, and was a composition student of Joseph Marx....

, Ernst Pepping

Ernst Pepping

Ernst Pepping was a German composer of classical music.-Professional career:Pepping studied composition at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik with Walter Gmeindl between 1922 and 1926...

, and Wolfgang Fortner

Wolfgang Fortner

Wolfgang Fortner was a German composer, composition teacher and conductor.-Life:Fortner was born in Leipzig. From his parents - both singers - Fortner very early on had intense contact with music...

. His style was spread by choirs in Germany and abroad during the years after World War II, stimulating and influencing other later composers.

In 1953 a choir in Berlin was named for the composer, the Hugo-Distler-Chor, and ensemble that is still active today.

Writings

• Postulat eines neuen musikalischen Lebens- und Gestaltungsprinzips, Der Wagen (1933), 77–84
• Neue Unterrichtswege in der Berufsausbildung des praktischen Kirchenmusikers, Lübeckische Blätter, lxxvi (1934), 147–8
• with E. Thienhaus: Die beiden Orgeln in St Jakobi zu Lübeck (Lübeck, 1935)
• Gedanken zum Problem der Registrierung alter, speziell Bachscher Orgelmusik, Musik und Kirche, xi (1939), 101–6
• Funktionelle Harmonielehre (Kassel, 1941)
• Harmonielehre früher und jetzt’, Zeitschrift für Hausmusik, x (1941), 41–6

Musical compositions

• Opus 1 - Konzertante Sonate für 2 Klaviere
• Opus 2 - Choralmotette "Herzlich lieb hab’ ich dich, o Herr"
• Opus 3 - Eine deutsche Choralmesse
• Opus 4 - Kleine Adventsmusik
• Opus 5 - Der Jahrkreis
• Opus 6/I - Kleine Geistliche Abendmusik
• Opus 6/II - Drei kleine Choralmotetten:
• Opus 7 - Choralpassion
• Opus 8/I - Orgelpartita "Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland"
• Opus 8/II - Orgelpartita "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"
• Opus 8/III - Kleine Orgelchoral-Bearbeitungen
• Opus 9/I - Das Lied von der Glocke
• Opus 9/II - An die Natur (Weltliche Kantate)
• Opus 10 - Die Weihnachtsgeschichte
• Opus 11/I - Wo Gott zum Haus nit gibt sein Gunst
• Opus 11/II - Nun danket all und bringet Ehr
• Opus 12 - Geistliche Chormusik:
• Opus 13 - Liturgische Sätze über altevangelische Kyrie- und Gloriaweisen
• Opus 14 - Konzert für Cembalo und Streichorchester
• Opus 15a - Sonate für zwei Geigen und Klavier
• Opus 15b - Elf kleine Klavierstücke für die Jugend
• Opus 16 - Neues Chorliederbuch:
• Opus 17 - Drei geistliche Konzerte für Sopran und Orgel
• Opus 18/I - Dreissig Spielstücke für die Kleinorgel
• Opus 18/II - Orgelsonate (Trio)
• Opus 19 - Mörike-Chorliederbuch
• Opus 20/I - Streichquartett a-moll
• Opus 20/II - Konzerstück für 2 Klaviere
• Opus 21/I - Lied am Herde (Kantate, Gedicht von Fritz Dietrich)
• Opus 21/II - Kleine Sing- und Spielmusik

For further reading

• Wolfgang Jennrich: Hugo Distler. Berlin 1970.
• Ursula Herrmann: Hugo Distler. Rufer und Mahner. Berlin 1972.
• Ursula v. Rauchhaupt: Die vokale Kirchenmusik Hugo Distlers. Eine Studie zum Thema „Musik und Gottesdienst“. Gütersloh 1963.
• Alexander L. Suder (Hgrs.): Hugo Distler. In: Komponisten in Bayern. Band 20. Tutzing 1990.
• Casper Honders: In der Welt habt ihr Angst. In: Dietrich Schuberth (Hrsg.): Kirchenmusik im Nationalsozialismus. Kassel 1995, S. 144-153.
• Dirk Lemmermann: Studien zum weltlichen Vokalwerk Hugo Distlers. Analytische, ästhetische und rezeptionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Mörike-Chorliederbuches. Frankfurt am Main 1996.
• Stefan Hanheide (Hrsg.): Hugo Distler im Dritten Reich. Osnabrück 1997.
• Bettina Schlüter: Hugo Distler. Musikwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen in systemtheoretischer Perspektivierung. Elektronische Ressource CD-ROM. Stuttgart 2000.
• Winfried Lüdemann: Hugo Distler. Eine musikalische Biographie. Augsburg 2002.
• Barbara Distler-Harth: Hugo Distler. Lebensweg eines Frühvollendeten. Schott Music. Mainz 2008.

External links

• http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Distler-Hugo.htm More on Distler's choral music