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Christfried Schmidt

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Christfried Schmidt
Colour Press headshot of a smiling, elderly man with long white hair and beard, wearing a tweed suit and plaid scarf
Schmidt in 2021
Born(1932-11-26)26 November 1932
Markersdorf, Saxony, Germany
Died26 April 2025(2025-04-26) (aged 92)
Berlin, Germany
Occupations
  • Composer
  • teacher
Websitewww.christfried-schmidt.de Edit this at Wikidata

Christfried Schmidt (German pronunciation: [ˈkʁɪstfʁiːt ˈʃmɪt]; 26 November 1932 – 29 April 2025) was a German composer who worked as a church musician and piano teacher. In composition, he felt mostly self-taught. Some of his works for large choirs and orchestras were not performed during the period of East Germany, but were premiered decades after he wrote them, such as his 1975 St Mark Passion in Berlin in 2019 and his 1968 Second Symphony in memory of Martin Luther King in Dresden in 2021.

Life and career

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Schmidt was born in Markersdorf in Upper Lusatia on 26 November 1932,[1][2] the son of a miller.[3][4] He attended the grammar school In Görlitz and received piano and organ lessons from Humperdinck's pupil Emil Kühnel. From 1951 to 1954, he studied church music at the Kirchenmusikschule Görlitz [de] (B exam) and from 1955 to 1959 at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig (A exam), organ with Werner Buschnakowski and composition with Johannes Weyrauch.[1][2][4] In Leipzig, he familiarised himself with contemporary music with Hermann Heyer. He discovered compositions by 20th-century composers of the Second Viennese School on radio, music that was rarely performed in East Germany, being regarded as not suitable to socialist realism.[4]

From 1960 to 1962, Schmidt was a church musician in Forst.[1][2] From 1963 to 1964, he worked as kapellmeister at the theatre of Quedlinburg. From 1965 to 1980, he was a freelance piano teacher and choir director in Quedlinburg.[1][2] He began to focus on composition which was mostly self-taught,[5] teaching on three days per week and composing the rest of the time.[6] In Warsaw, he met the Japanese musicologist Ichirō Tamura, who enabled him to perform his works in Japan, including the first premiere of one of his pieces in 1970.[5]

Schmidt (right) and musicologist Frank Schneider in 1976

From 1980 until his death, Schmidt lived as a freelance composer in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg.[1][2][5][6] Lacking commissions or a publisher, he composed major works for choir and orchestra. He was inspired by Bach, Anton Bruckner and Max Reger, and Alban Berg in the 20th century whose expressiveness based on formal construction was a model for his works.[5] He preferred early works by Schoenberg to later more formal compositions, and felt close to the music of Bernd Alois Zimmermann. He travelled to the Warsaw Autumn festival several times where he was impressed by the free aleatoric music of Witold Lutosławski.[4] Schmidt composed Lieder setting texts by Friedrich Hölderlin and Heiner Müller, and a cycle of orchestral works inspired by graphic art of Edvard Munch.[5] Schmidt's artistic breakthrough came with the premiere of his Oboe Concerto performed by Burkhard Glaetzner at the DDR-Musiktage 1984.[7] He remained an outsider in East Germany where his major works were not performed.[3] He was a member of the Akademie der Künste der DDR from 1990 to 1991.[1]

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, performances of Schmidt's compositions for large choirs and orchestra remained rare. He was a member of the Sächsische Akademie der Künste from 1998;[1] the institution holds his archive.[7] His new orchestral work Memento was premiered in 2002 in the Leipzig Gewandhaus by the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fabio Luisi.[8][9] The work is memorial of the composer's mother.[9] In 2009 his Munch-Musik was played, and a reviewer from Die Zeit described its "unheard colours, magical and sometimes intoxicating, a music about love".[6] In 2019, the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin conducted by Kai-Uwe Jirka [de] premiered his St Mark Passion from 1974 after 45 years.[4] The highly expressive, headstrong work combines aleatoric compositional procedures with a polyphonic way of thinking in the wake of Bach and the Viennese School.[10][5] It ends with a Kyrie described as humble.[11] Schmidt's Second Symphony "In memoriam Martin Luther King" was produced for radio on 3 October 2021 by Deutschlandfunk, live from the Kulturpalast in Dresden with the Dresden Philharmonic conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer.[12] His Horn Concerto, which includes an episode in memory of Nelson Mandela, and his opera have remained unperformed.[6]

Personal life

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Schmidt lived in Berlin from 1980,[7] first in a basement apartment that he shared with a colleague.[6] He was married; his wife also worked as an artist, and the couple had a daughter. They moved within Prenzlau.[6]

Schmidt died on 29 April 2025, aged 92, in Berlin.[3][13]

Awards and memberships

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Schmidt's awards included:[7][1]

Work

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Year Title[7][15] Premiere year Premiere location
1965 Motet Landnahme after Hans Magnus Enzensberger for 8-part choir[1] 1994 Berlin
1965 Motet An die Sonne after Ingeborg Bachmann for 6-part choir[1]
1967 Symphony No. 1 "Hamlet"
1968 Symphony No. 2 "Martin Luther King" 2021 Dresden
1969 Piano Concerto 1974 Berlin
1969/1995 Kammermusik I ‒ "Von Menschen und Vögeln", for flute, oboe, trumpet and strings 1998 Görlitz
1970 Petite Suite 1970 Tokyo
1970 Psalm 21 1971 Nürnberg
1971 Wind Quintet 1974 Berlin
1971 Geistliches Konzert (Psalm 60)
1971 Kammermusik II for flute (also Cor Anglais), clarinet in B (also bass clarinet), percusion and piano 1998 Görlitz
1971 Cantiones sacrae
1972 Musica per i DueBoemi, for bass clarinet and piano
1973 Kammermusik VI 1983 Berlin
1973 Tonsetzers Alptraum 1976 Dresden
1974 Violin Concerto 1991 Berlin
1974 Cello Concerto 1976 Leipzig
1974 St Mark's Passion 2019 Berlin
1974 Kammermusik VII "Epitaph auf einen Bohemien", for wind quintet and Klavier 1983 Berlin
1975 Die Niemandsrose und das Unsichtbare 2007 Nürnberg
1975 Aulodie, episodes for oboe 2001 Berlin
1976 Moments musicaux, pour piano
1977 Flute Concerto 1978 Berlin
1978 Ein Märchen – kein Märchen, after texts by Harry Martinson, Eduard Mörike and Hugo von Hofmannsthal 1981 Berlin
1979 Ich, so voll Hoffnung, after texts by Hölderlin, for choir
1979 Zwoller Schnitgerei, for organ
1980 Munch-Musik (Sieben Orchesterstücke nach Graphiken von Edvard Munch) inspired by graphic art of Edvard Munch 1981 Leipzig
1980 String Quartet No. 2
1981 Kammermusik VIII, for flute (also alto flute), oboe (also Cor Anglais), clarinet in B, percussion, piano, violin, viola and cello
1981 Kammermusik IX
1982 Die Zeit und die Zeit danach, after texts by Giuseppe Ungaretti, Cesare Pavese, Salvatore Quasimodo and Bachmann 1985 Berlin
1983 Oboe Concerto 1984 Berlin
1985 Orchestermusik I 1988 Berlin
1986 Kammermusik X, for trombone, piano and percussion
1989 Das Herz, Opera after Heinrich Mann
1990 Orchestermusik II, for oboe, cello and piano
1996 Clarinet Quintet 1997 Berlin
1996/2000 Drei späte Lieder, for tenor und piano, after texts by Heinz Czechowski, Günter Kunert and Heiner Müller
1996 Clarinet Quintet 1997 Berlin
1999 Orchestermusik V "Memento" 1 2000 Leipzig
2004 Orchestermusik VI "Memento" 2
2006 Pièce de flûte 2007 Berlin
2013 Horn Concerto, in memory of Nelson Mandela[6]
2015 Canto funebre, in memory of Georg Elser, for piano 2017[16] Berlin

Discography

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  • Entreß, Matthias R.; Schmidt, Christfried (2010). Christfried Schmidt – Komponistenportrait. DRK. OCLC 707194110.
  • Schmidt, Christfried; Munch, Edvard; Kluttig, Christian; Pommer, Max; Clementi-Trio; Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig (1994). Munch-Musik : Orchesterstücke nach Graphiken von Edvard Munch : (1980). Mainz, Germany: WERGO. OCLC 163113218.
  • Schmidt, Christfried; Hartmann, Andreas; Leipziger Schlagzeugensemble; Leipziger Hornquartett (2008). Leipziger Schlagzeugensemble (in German). Altenburg (Leipzig): Kamprad. OCLC 723752643.
  • Eisler, Hanns; Kochan, Günter; Thiele, Siegfried; Matthus, Siegfried; Dessau, Paul; Bredemeyer, Reiner; Schubert, Manfred; Goldmann, Friedrich; Mauersberger, Rudolf; Weismann, Wilhelm; Asriel, André; Schmidt, Christfried; Schenker, Friedrich (1995). Musik in der DDR. Vol. II : Vokalmusik (in German). [Germany]: Berlin Classics. OCLC 811450660.
  • Schmidt, Christfried; Zechlin, Ruth; Thiele, Siegfried; Friedrich, Felix (1989). Die Jehmlichorgel der Stadthalle Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz). Berlin: Dt. Schallplatten. OCLC 1281567655.
  • Glaetzner, Burkhard; Kegel, Herbert; Schmidt, Christfried; Dresdner Philharmonie (1986). Oboenkonzert. Berlin: Dt. Schallpl. OCLC 257358865.
  • Hindemith, Paul; Blacher, Boris; Domhardt, Gerd; Koerppen, Alfred; Schmidt, Christfried; Hölszky, Adriana; Schwehr, Cornelius; Huber, Klaus (2001). Musik in Deutschland 1950–2000 / Konzertmusik d, Vokale Kammermusik Kammerchor Serie. (1,d,31,50), 1950–2000 (in German). Munich: BMG Ariola Classics. OCLC 314167526.
  • Otte, Hans; Schnebel, Dieter; Schmidt, Christfried; Finkbeiner, Reinhold; Hespos, Hans-Joachim; Wallmann, Johannes; Zacher, Gerd; Seiler, Erich; Gottwald, Clytus; Mai, Ludger; Schwarz, Peter; Darmstadt, Hans; Schumann, Peter; Rickenbacher, Karl Anton; Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin; Vocalensemble (Kassel); Schola Cantorum (Stuttgart); Ars-Nova-Ensemble (Berlin, West) (2001). Alpha – Omega II. [S.l.]: BMG Classics. OCLC 163139701.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thein, Annette (2016). "Schmidt, Christfried". MGG (in German). Retrieved 8 May 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Christfried Schmidt". Munzinger Archiv (in German). 29 March 1993. OCLC 1482436830. Retrieved 3 March 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Felber, Gerald (29 April 2025). "Jenseits vom Geschwätz". FAZ (in German). Retrieved 4 May 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e Herzfeld, Isabel (18 April 2019). "Nach 45 Jahren: Christfried Schmidts „Markuspassion" wird uraufgeführt". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Neuner, Florian (19 March 2025). "Komponist Christfried Schmidt – Der eigensinnige Modernist". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Felber, Gerald (25 March 2014). "Vom Harzer Dorf in den Berliner Kiez". Deutschlandfunk Kultur (in German). Retrieved 4 May 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Christfried Schmidt". Sächsische Akademie der Künste (in German). 29 March 1993. Archived from the original on 21 March 2013.
  8. ^ "Christfried Schmidt". Archiv Zeitgenössischer Komponisten (in German). Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden. 3 May 2025. Retrieved 4 May 2025.
  9. ^ a b Sindermann, Frank (27 October 2002). ""Preisend die Göttlichkeit schweigt das Gedicht!"". Leipzig Almanach (in German). Retrieved 4 May 2025.
  10. ^ "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden!". Sing-Akademie zu Berlin (in German). 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  11. ^ Felber, Gerald (25 April 2019). "Mut zu hoffnungsloser Vereinzelung". FAZ (in German). Retrieved 8 May 2025.
  12. ^ "Die Radiowoche vom 27.09.21–03.10.2021". Jazzzeitung (in German). 27 September 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2025.
  13. ^ Neuner, Florian (3 May 2025). "Nicht integrierbar. Zum Tod des Komponisten Christfried Schmidt". Junge Welt (in German). Retrieved 3 May 2025.
  14. ^ "Schmidt". Akademie der Künste, Berlin (in German). Retrieved 8 May 2025.
  15. ^ "Christfried Schmidt". Casa Ricordi. 2025.
  16. ^ "17 Künstler*innen erinnern Revolutionen". Achim Freyer Stiftung (in German). 1 February 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2025.

Further reading

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  • Ursula Stürzbecher: Komponisten in der DDR. 17 Gespräche. Hildesheim 1979, ISBN 3-8067-0803-7.
  • Georg-Friedrich Kühn: Unbefangen, ungebärdig. Die Extreme des Ausdrucks. Glied der musikalischen Gesellschaft: Christfried Schmidt. In Musik-Texte 4/1984
  • Frank Schneider: Klang-Bilder. Ein alter Aspekt in neuer Musik der DDR. In Bildende Kunst 6/1984
  • Frank Schneider: Christfried Schmidt. In Prospekt Deutscher Verlag für Musik. Leipzig 1987
  • Gerald Felber: Verletzbare Leidenschaftlichkeit. Der Komponist Christfried Schmidt. In Sonntag 36/1987
  • Habakuk Traber: Notizen. Christfried Schmidt zum 60. Geburtstag.In Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 12/1992.
  • Beate Schröder-Nauenburg: Christfried Schmidt. In Komponisten der Gegenwart (KDG). Edition Text & Kritik, Munich 1996, ISBN 978-3-86916-164-8
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