Hermann Schroeder

Hermann Schroeder (26 March 1904 – 7 October 1984) was a German composer and a Catholic church musician.

Life

Schroeder was born in Bernkastel and spent the greatest part of his life’s work in the Rheinland. His mother's family had common ancestry with Beethoven. He studied from 1926 to 1930 at the Hochschule für Musik Köln, where his most important teachers were Heinrich Lemacher and Walter Braunfels (composition), Hermann Abendroth (conducting), and Hans Bachem (organ) (Lück and Levi 2001).

His main sphere of activity as composer, conductor and organist were supplemental to his work as a professor of choral conducting, counterpoint, and composition. Upon graduation from the conservatory, he obtained a post teaching music theory at the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne. Eight years later he became organist at the cathedral in Trier. He remained in this post until the end of the war, adding the position of director of the Trier School of Music in 1940. After the war he taught music theory at the Cologne Musikhochschule beginning in 1946, becoming a professor there in 1948 and deputy director in 1958. He was also a reader at Bonn University from 1946 until 1973, and a lecturer at the University of Cologne from 1956 until 1961 (Lück and Levi 2001). He also conducted various semiprofessional ensembles such as the Bach-Verein Köln and the Rheinischer Kammerchor.

His notable students include Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Schroeder died on 7 October 1984 in Bad Orb.

Compositions

Schroeder's main accomplishments as a composer were in of Catholic church music, where he attempted to break free of the lingering monopoly held by Romantic music. His works are characterized by the employment of medieval elements such as Gregorian chant, modal scales, and fauxbourdon which he combined with quintal and quartal harmonies and 20th-century polyphonic linear, sometimes atonal writing similar to that of Paul Hindemith (Lück and Levi 2001). His catalog includes much organ music as well as folk-song settings, German settings of the Ordinary and Proper of the Mass, and chamber music (especially with the organ).

Honours and awards

Selected works

Stage

Choral

Orchestral

Organ solo

Chamber music

Chamber music with organ

References

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