You bid two typewritten, signed letters ofmusicologist, painter and composer Hellmuth Christian Wolff (1906-1988), 1945-1947 conductor in Halle (Saale) and co-founder of the Kulturbund der DDR.

Dated Halle an der Saale 1946.

addressed to the pianist, composer, writer and music critic Erwin Kroll (1886-1976) in Berlin. -- From his estate.

1.) 1-sided A4 letter dated 21. October 1946.

Wolff invites Kroll to one of his concerts, organized by the Kulturbund, which takes place on September 29. October 1946 in the auditorium of the University of Halle. The Chamber Concerto in E-flat by Igor Stravinsky and a song cycle by Wolff himself will be performed as a world premiere.

"Dr. Hermann Scherchen, with whom I am well acquainted and who performed my works in Switzerland before the war, recently told me during his stay in Berlin that you were particularly interested in contemporary works. That is why I am writing to you, I would be very happy if you should have the opportunity to come here."

Pieces by Telemann, Bach, Keizer and Handel will also be performed. "The vocal soloist is Ms. Ruth Wilke from the städt. stage hall. [...] I live here as a musicologist (student of Schering and Blume), Handel specialist (Arrangement of Handel's 'Agrippina' performed Halle 1943, Göttingen 1944) and keen advocate of contemporary works. [...] I would be very happy to get to know you personally."

Signed "[with the best recommendations] Hellmuth Christian Wolff."

2.) A5 letter written on 1 page dated 6. Nov 1946.

Wolff regrets Kroll's cancellation, reports briefly on the successful concert and sends him literature references.

Signed"[Best regards] Hellmuth Christian Wolff."

Each without an envelope.

Condition: Letters punched on the side (without loss of text); Paper browned and somewhat stained and creased. BPlease also note the pictures!

Internal note: Kroll 2021-12-7 autograph autograph

About Hellmuth Christian Wolff and Erwin Kroll (source: wikipedia):

Hellmuth Christian Wolff (* 23. May 1906 in Zurich; † 1. July 1988 in Leipzig) was a German musicologist, painter and composer.

Life: Wolff was born in Zurich in 1906 as the son of Hellmuth Wolff, Professor of Statistics and Transport. He grew up in Halle/Saale; after high school graduation In 1925 he studied musicology (with Hermann Abert, Friedrich Blume, Curt Sachs, Arnold Schering and Erich Moritz von Hornbostel) as well as art (with Edmund Hildebrandt and Paul Frankl) and philosophy (with Max Dessoir) at the humanistic Stadtgymnasium Halle at the Friedrich-Wilhelms- University of Berlin and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. A study trip took him to Italy in 1927. From 1925 to 1933 he was a member of the Freie Volksbühne Berlin; In 1933/34 he worked as an assistant for direction and dramaturgy (with Heinz Hilpert) at the Volksbühne Berlin. In 1936 he was employed by Arnold Schering with the dissertation The Venetian Opera in the Second Half of the 17th Century. Century at the Faculty of Philosophy for Dr. phil. PhD. Since that time he has also appeared as a composer (operas, ballets, orchestral works, vocal and chamber music).

In 1936 he worked with Hermann Scherchen in Winterthur/Switzerland. He was initially denied a habilitation (in Berlin) in 1941 for political reasons; he did not receive a lectureship until 1945. In 1942 he habilitated with a thesis on "The Hamburg Opera in the Baroque Age (1678-1738)" at the Philosophical Faculty of the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel. The reviewers were Arnold Schering, Friedrich Blume and Max Schneider. From 1942 to 1944 he was managing director of the Lower Saxony Music Society and municipal music officer in Braunschweig and published the newsletter of the Lower Saxony Music Society in 1943/44. In 1943 he edited and translated Handel's opera Agrippina.

From 1945 to 1947 he worked as a conductor in Halle. His teaching rehearsal in 1947 was on the subject of "Baroque music on the contemporary stage". In the same year he was appointed lecturer in musicology with a teaching assignment for modern music at the University of Leipzig. In 1954 he became a professor with a teaching assignment for musicology at the Institute for Musicology. He was also the initiator of a course (for non-European music); his main area of ​​research was the history of opera. In 1960 he received a full teaching position and became deputy director of the Institute for Musicology and the Museum of Musical Instruments. He dedicated himself to the composers Béla Bartók, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern and Paul Hindemith as well as the group of composers Les Six, where he was personally acquainted with Igor Stravinsky and Paul Hindemith as well as Luigi Nono and Ernst Krenek. In 1967, disciplinary proceedings were opened against him on the basis of the (unpublished) article Rohrstock und Indexfinger, which he had sent to the East Berlin weekly newspaper Der Sonntag, as a result of which he was dismissed without notice. In 1968 he was retrospectively reinstated as a temporary assistant. He now devoted himself to the Handel Handbook. In 1971 he retired. Posthumously (1991) his disciplinary sentence from 1967 was overturned by the Rehabilitation Commission of the University of Leipzig.

In 1945, Wolff was one of the co-founders of the East German Cultural Association. From 1958 to 1967 he worked for the International Felix Mendelssohn Society in Basel. From 1963 to 1965 he was a member of the advisory board of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung. From 1961 he was a corresponding member of the Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedis in Utrecht and from 1977 a member of the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna and from 1979 the Accademia dei Concordi in Rovigo. He headed the commission for the publication of a Répertoire iconographique de l'opéra and was a board member of the pan-German Society for Music Research and the International Musicological Society.

From the mid-1950s he also devoted himself to the fine arts (many oil paintings, watercolors and drawings) with exhibitions in Leipzig and Düsseldorf.

Wolff, Evangelical Lutheran, was married to the singer Liselotte Zeman and father of two children, including the festival director Ann-Elisabeth Wolff (* 1953).

Publications (selection)

Venetian opera in the second half of the 17th century century (1937)

Agrippina - an Italian youth opera by GF Handel (1943)

The music of the old Dutch (15th century) and 16 Century) (1956)

The Handel Opera on the Modern Stage (1957)

The Baroque Opera in Hamburg (1678–1738) (2 vols., 1957)

Opera - scene and representation from 1600 to 1900. Music History in Pictures (1968)

The Opera (1971–1973)

Order and Shape – Music from 1900 to 1950 (1978)

History of the Comic Opera (1981)

Erwin Kroll (* 3. February 1886 in Deutsch Eylau, East Prussia; † 7 March 1976 in West Berlin) was a German pianist, composer, writer and music critic. Like his friend Otto Besch, Kroll was a tone poet from East Prussia.

Life:Around 1900 Kroll came to Königsberg i. Pr. and attended the royal hoof high school with Otto Besch. At the Albertus University he studied philology and music. With a doctoral thesis on ETA Hoffmann, who has always been revered in Königsberg, for a Dr. phil. after his doctorate, he went into teaching. In 1919 he devoted himself entirely to music and continued his studies in Munich, which he had begun with Otto Fiebach and Paul Scheinpflug. There he found an important teacher, especially in Hans Pfitzner. He later dedicated a highly acclaimed book to him. In addition to his studies, Kroll was a répétiteur at the Munich State Opera and secretary of the Hans-Pfitzner-Verein für Deutsche Tonkunst, which Thomas Mann had called for to found. In 1925 Kroll returned to East Prussia and became a music critic for the Hartungsche Zeitung, and from 1930 its features editor.From 1934 he worked in Berlin as a critic and writer on music. After the Second World War he headed the music department of the Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation in Berlin until 1953. With his book, Kroll has set a monument to the (forgotten) importance of Königsberg as a music city.

factories

East Prussian homeland - orchestral work

Violin Sonata in B flat major

Sonatina in F major

East Prussian Dances

Der Adebar - Fantasy on East Prussian folk tunes for large orchestra

Vocal works and song arrangements

Songs for solo voices and choral songs

writings

Music city Koenigsberg

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman. Breitkopf & Haertel, Leipzig 1923.

Hans Pfitzner. Three masks publishing house, Munich 1924.

The theater. Festschrift for the 25th anniversary of the municipal theater in Dortmund. The Theater, Berlin 1930.

Carl Maria Weber. Athenaion, Potsdam 1934.

Music city Koenigsberg. Atlantis, Freiburg i. brother 1966.

honors

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Cross of Merit on Ribbon (27. January 1956)

Culture Prize of the East Prussian Association (1960)