Hermann Goetz - Biographie

First edition «Music-Sechs Lieder»

To the top

     The Königsbergian Hermann Goetz (1840 – 1876), who was trained at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin by Hans von Bülow, had been called by Carl Reinecke to Winterthur to replace Theodor Kirchner as an organist in the city church in 1863. As per 1870, he lived in Zürich, contributed the «Abonnement»-concerts, wrote critics for the «Neue Zürcher Zeitung» and gave piano-lessons until 1875. He spent the summer month in the Klöntal composing as he was sick to his lungs, working outside, like Gustav Mahler would do later on. The masterpiece of Hermann Goetz, who was friends with Brahms and Friedrich Hegar, was the comical opera «Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung» after Shakespeares comedy on a libretto by Josef Viktor Widmann, who discovered and supported Robert Walser.

     The «Sechs Lieder op. 12» that were published in the year of the «Genrebilder» op. 13 for piano in Leipzig 1876 have matured since 1869 during his first years of marriage and are dedicated to «his beloved Laura». The very difficult piano part reminds in some ways Mendelssohn Bartholdy, but in the music-setting of Storm «Schliesse mir die Augen beide» and «Wandervöglein» with its effectful fluttering with the regular sixteenth movement, the influence of Schumann is noticeable.

     In the New Year Edition of the «Allgemeinen Musik-Gesellschaft, Zürich, 1907,» the first biographer of Hermann Goetz, Adolf Steiner, depicted the character of the early-deceased composer as follows:

«…With Goetz it is always the warmth and truthfulness of his musical language that impresses, the wonderful balance building the essence of his beeing and of his creations, herein Mozart has always been his brillant model…

     …Humanly, he incorporates the humble heroism of someone sentenced to an early death, the victory of the mind over a fragile health, the fervent look for truth and activities for the benefice of all. The artist covers the person who considers his work a mission and tried to work ethically as well as aesthetically…

     …His life was full of productivity, full of soulfulness from his family and physical ailments, and up to its end rich with honour and sucess, that made his old age of a short life golden…»

Walter Labhart
Illustration: Dokumentationsbibliothek Walter Labhart CH-5304 Endingen AG


© Vision of Paradise, Music + Art Ruth Juon and Evi Juon, Switzerland