You are bidding on one handwritten, signed letter of the conductor and composer Alfred Rahlwes (1878-1946).
DatedHalle-Saale, 21. December 1924.
On strong letterhead paper "Robert Franz Singing Academy, musical director: Professor Dr. Alfred Rahlwes."
Addressed to a Mr. Wilhelm; di the concert singer Martin Wilhelm in Berlin.
Contents:Request to participate in the performance of the St. Matthew Passion on August 8th. April (role of evangelist).
For financial reasons ("due to lack of money") there will only be one performance. "Just please do me the favor of not asking for a high fee, we're still in a gay situation."
Signed "Your devoted Alfr. Rahlwes."
Scope:1 p. (28.8 x 22.5 cm).
Condition:Slightly creased, small tear in the fold, otherwise good. Please notee also the pictures!
Internal note: Folder 7b/7
About Rahlwes (source: catalogus professorum halensis) and the Singakademie Halle (source: wikipedia):
Alfred Rahlwes
born:23. October 1878 Wesel on the Rhine
died:20. April 1946 Hall
Denomination: Protestant
Father: music teacher and organist
After attending schools in Wesel, Rahlwes studied music at the University of Music in Cologne from 1893 to 1898. In 1898 he passed his school leaving examination. In 1899 he began training as a conductor at the Hoftheater Stuttgart. He was a conductor in Liegnitz, Königsberg and Elbing. In 1911 he became university music director in Halle, at the same time working as a lecturer for musicological subjects. In 1917 Rahlwes received the title of professor. In 1917/18 he was obliged to do auxiliary service. After the First World War he also directed the Robert Franz Singing Academy. Retired in August 1945, he was reinstated in September 1945 and died after a short illness.
Organizations: 1908 to 1913 member of the Constantia Masonic Lodge for the Crowned Concord in Elbing (II. Degree).
Rahlwes composed, among other things, the comic opera “Jungfer Potiphar” (1907) as well as choirs, songs, chamber music and violin pieces.
After the Berlin Singing Academy, the Halle Singing Academy is one of the oldest singing academies in Germany, founded in 1814 by Johann Friedrich Naue, who, along with Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, was a student of Carl Friedrich Zelter, among others. Since 1907 it has borne the name of its most important director (Robert Franz-Singakademie). In 1953 it was affiliated with the Staatskapelle Halle. The institution consists of a semi-professional amateur choir with currently 70 active singers. Nikolaus Müller has been the artistic director since 2014.
Story
The Singing Academy under its founder JF Naue: In 1808 the desire for such an institution was first expressed in the Hallisches Patriotisches Wochenblatt, and in 1814 in the same newspaper there was talk of a singing academy for the first time, which would be held for the academic celebration in Halle Cathedral on the birthday of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. (3. August) had sung. In the remark that the “under the direction of Prof. Maaß and Mr. Naue, a highly respectable singing academy that has been formed for some time... Compositions by the great Handel, who was once Britain's pride and, as a native of Halle, is our pride", the increasing identification of the people of Halle with Georg Friedrich Handel, their greatest son in the city, is expressed, which is also reflected in their longing for a growing national feeling - something that could be observed throughout Germany around the time of the wars of liberation.
When Johann Friedrich Naue received composition lessons from Carl Friedrich Zelter in Berlin, he became acquainted with the world's first singing academy, which was founded in 1791 by Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch and passed on to his student Carl Friedrich Zelter in 1800. Presumably he then took the initiative, together with his former academic teacher Johann Gebhard Maaß, to set up such an institution in Halle, after one had just been established in Leipzig and Dresden. Naue, appointed in 1817 as university music director at the Friedrichs University, which was in the process of merging with the Wittenberg University, founded in 1502, directed the Halle Singing Academy himself until 1833. The highlight of his term in office for the Singakademie was the First Music Festival of the Thuringian-Saxon Music Association in Halle, which he organized in 1829, at which it presented itself with 371 singers and Georg Friedrich Handel's oratorio Samson. The institution then fell into a serious crisis, which was only overcome when his successor Simon Georg Schmidt revived the academy as part of the Halle Music Association.
Robert Franz
The heyday under Robert Franz: In 1841 Schmidt went to Bremen. As a farewell, he conducted the 300th. Anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation on January 1st November 1841 in St. Moritz, Halle with the participation of 300 singers Handel's Messiah HWV 56. After a new crisis in the years 1847 to 1849, which was based on the separation of the Singakademie from the Halle Music Association, the institution experienced a heyday under the composer, organist and choir director Robert Franz, which made it known throughout Germany.
The native of Halle took over the position of conductor in 1842 as a worthy successor to Johann Friedrich Naue and brought with him new members, singers from a private choir that he led. Max Erlanger, who had been at the academy a few months before him, was not up to the task. Initially, members and music lovers also viewed Robert Franz skeptically because the new leader was not a gifted conductor of his time. But it turned out that his strength lay in motivating the participants by understanding the true essence of each work. In 1865 the Halle Singing Academy had 400 members, 100 of whom actively sang in the choir. During these years, Franz studied numerous works that are now part of standard musical literature: Mozart's Requiem at the annual soirées for the Sunday of the Dead (often alternating with Cherubini's Requiem), oratorios by Handel such as Messiah HWV 56, Israel in Egypt HWV 54, Judas Maccabaeus HWV 63 and cantatas by Bach. But works by contemporaries at the time were also performed, such as Robert Schumann, who lived in Leipzig, Das Paradies und die Peri op. 50 or Romberg's bell. The Halle Singing Academy continued to study Handel works until the mid-1870s. After that she largely limited herself to repetitions.
The rehearsals usually took place in the hall of the Hotel and Gasthof Zum Kronprinzen on Kleine Klausstr. 16 took place on the market square, where theater and concert events regularly took place, including the Music Days with Carl Friedrich Zelter in 1829 and a concert with Clara Wieck in 1835 (today: Ärztehaus Mitte, Halle).
The Academy as a carrier for the revival of adapted works by Bach and Handel
“I vehemently reject performances based on sheet music editions that only reproduce the 'original text' without any additions, because in my opinion, their faithful reproduction led to bloodless interpretations that only reproduce a distorted image of the actual music." (Robert Franz)
Robert Franz - like Mozart before him in 1788/89 - prepared the works of Bach and Handel especially for the concerts with the Singakademie and had them printed so that they were distributed far beyond the circle of the Singakademie. However, important Bach researchers such as Philipp Spitta and the Handel researcher Friedrich Chrysander, who lives in Hamburg, heavily criticized Robert Franz's arrangements at the time: the instruments that were no longer in use or were no longer considered suitable were replaced by modern ones, enriched with additional wind instruments, in order to meet standards of the 19th Century to achieve a “harmonious sound”. Franz dropped many thoroughbasses for various wind instruments because, according to his ideas, an organ did not offer sufficient expressive possibilities. In 1871, Robert Franz published an “Open Letter to Eduard Hanslick about arrangements of older musical works, especially Bach's and Handel's vocal music,” in which he explained his views and motivations. For 30 years, the Halle Singing Academy became, in its own way, an important supporter of the revival movement of Bach and Handel's works that began at the beginning of the 19th century. Century began with Carl Friedrich Zelter and in particular the musical work of his most important student Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.
The era after Robert Franz: Robert Franz resigned from the musical direction of the Singing Academy in 1867. It was so strongly influenced by him, especially in the works of Bach and Handel, that in the era after him there were tensions within the academy and ultimately a split.
Their new leader, Felix Voretzsch, initially continued to use Franz's adaptations, but then gradually moved away from them. As a result, the board of the Singing Academy deposed its conductor in 1880, whereupon most of the members resigned and a year later founded a second, a New Singing Academy, with their ex-conductor, which saw itself less connected to Robert Franz, the old director, and his customs. Voretzsch directed the New Singing Academy until 1900. His successor was Willywurfschmidt. Both singing academies existed side by side until the 1920s, with the one associated with Robert Franz (originally founded by Naue) consciously calling it the Robert Franz Singing Academy from 1907 onwards and the one founded by Voretzsch in 1908 provocatively calling it the Hallische Singakademie. Both regularly offered high-quality concerts, oratorios by George Frideric Handel, sometimes the day after the other had performed a major work.
After the split from 1880 to 1911, the Robert Franz Singing Academy was under the direction of a Liszt student who was very successful in Halle as an organ and piano virtuoso. The choice fell on him, the university music director Otto Reubke, because, in addition to his role as a music teacher and lecturer, he had already led a singing society with over 100 members for a long time and had experience with performing works by Handel and Bach in French arrangements. The Singing Academy's work under Reubke was now more focused than before on public performances, the quality of which was to be increased by the inclusion of professional soloists. His successor was the Royal Music Director and University Music Director Alfred Rahlwes, who directed the Robert Franz Singing Academy until 1946 and arranged several Handel works for it.
Since then, the Singing Academy has undergone an eventful development, including in 1953 when it was affiliated with the Halle State Symphony Orchestra, which has since obliged it to perform a certain number of concerts annually together with the orchestra, in Halle and in central Germany. Guest performances took the academy's singers to Veszprém in 1970, to Paris in 1975, to Hanover and Hildesheim in 1991, to Saint Petersburg in 1992 with the Handel oratorio L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato (Franz's adaptation), and to Braunschweig and Burg in 1995 Gnandstein and to Rome in 2005. At IV. The Halle Singing Academy received a silver diploma at the International Choir Competition in Budapest in 1993. She received the Zelter plaque in 1999. The choir has been a member of the Association of German Concert Choirs (VdKC) since 1990.
georg Friedrich Handel
Significance of the Singing Academy for European Handel education: In George Frideric Handel's birthplace, as far as can be judged today, his music did not play a significant role until the beginning of the 19th century. Century, although after the first Handel concert outside England in Berlin in 1766 (Alexander's Feast), there were also isolated performances in cities such as Florence, Hamburg, Weimar, Leipzig and Braunschweig. With Messiah (Mozart's version) KV572, Daniel Gottlob Türk performed a Handel work for the first time in Halle in 1803 at a Handel evening specially organized for this purpose.
The merit of the Singakademie Halle for the European care of Handel is that from 1814 onwards an awareness of the care of his works was consolidated in George Frideric Handel's birthplace. Even during its founding years, it appeared under Johann Friedrich Naue, unlike in other societies, with several Handelian oratorios, such as in 1820 with Saul and Solomon, in 1836 under Schmidt with Messiah, Judas Maccabaeus and again Saul, and in 1838 with the Dettinger Te Deum, Alexander's Feast and Israel in Egypt.
The most important director of the Singing Academy, Robert Franz, prepared numerous arrangements of Handel's works especially for the Academy and published them with it beyond the city limits. For this reason, the members of the Academy have always seen themselves as important contributors to the preservation of Handel (in addition to the preservation of Bach and Franz's works).
The first highlight of European Handel culture is undoubtedly the elaborate celebrations for the 100th anniversary in 1859. Anniversary of the composer's death, in which the Halle Singing Academy played a key role. Years earlier, Georg Gottfried Gervinus launched an appeal to all music associations in German-speaking countries to organize performances in favor of a monument honoring the composer, which should be placed in Handel's birthplace on the market square opposite the market church of Our Lady, where he played the organ with Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow learned. In fact, a lot of donations were received not only from numerous cities in Germany, but also from England. The Singakademie Halle played a significant role in this project, which surprisingly became a German-English one, as it performed several impressive oratorios under Robert Franz for the benefit of the monument fund in the years following Gervinus' appeal. In March 1856 in the hall of the Francke Foundations Handel's Samson and in 1857 the Messiah (Mozart-Franz version), which was repeated a year later. In the same year the Singakademie also performed Israel in Egypt and Samson again. Thanks to their commitment and other associations, they were able to attend the ceremonial inauguration of the Handel Monument in Halle on January 1st. July 1859 Hermann Heidel as well as numerous notables and important artists, including Franz Liszt, arrived, whereupon the Singing Academy then thanked Our Dear Women in the market church with an extraordinary performance of the Handel oratorio Samson, in which well-known soloists sang such as Johanna Jachmann-Wagner (Richard Wagner's niece). Handel works were now performed almost every year in Halle, the composer's birthplace.
At the celebrations for the 200th On George Frideric Handel's birthday, the former head of the Halle Singing Academy, Robert Franz, was appointed honorary president of the preparatory committee. On the eve of Handel's birthday (23. February 1885), the New Singing Academy, briefly founded under Voretzsch, performed Handel's Hercules in the hall of the Schützenhaus. The older Singing Academy under Otto Reubke performed the Messiah (Mozart-Franz version) on the anniversary evening.
Since the founding of the annual Handel Festival in 1952, the Singakademie, together with the Halle State Symphony Orchestra, has traditionally organized the final concert of the festival in the Galgenbergschlucht and has been significantly involved in establishing and consolidating a tradition of these festivals, which are now regular alongside those in Göttingen and Karlsruhe with the most renowned Handel experts from all over the world, such as in 1997 with Emma Kirkby, in 1999 with Trevor Pinnock and in 2000 with John Eliot Gardiner.
The task of the Robert Franz Singing Academy today, in an increasingly globalized world, is therefore increasingly to intellectually overcome national borders with regard to the biographical peculiarities of its composer Handel, who has had an impact over the centuries, in order to join other important choral associations in a music city like Halle ad Saale to remain sustainable.
Head of the Halle Singing Academy
1814–1833 Johann Friedrich Naue
1833–1841 Simon Georg Schmidt
1841–1841 Max Erlanger
1841–1867 Robert Franz
1867–1881 Felix Voretzsch
1881–1911 Otto Reubke
1911–1946 Royal Music Director Alfred Rahlwes
1946–1948 Johannes Piersig
1948–1953 Hans Stieber
1953–1956 Werner Gößling
1956–1964 Horst Förster
1964–1973 Hartmut Haenchen
1973–1987 Wolfgang Unger
1987–1991 Christian Schicha
1991–1992 Boehme
1992–1995 Uta Lesch
1995–2011 Gothart Taurus
2011–2014 Frank-Steffen Elster
since 2014 Nikolaus Müller