Born: June 11, 1895 - Hannover, Germany
Died: August 24, 1974 - Lauterecken in der Pfalz, Germany

The German bass, Paul Gümmer, studied first at the Musikhochschule of Hannover, was then a pupil of Franzsika Martienssen-Lohmann in Berlin; he also studied in Hamburg with W. Wissiak, and in Berlin with J. Raatz-Brockmann; finally in Vienna with Otto Iro.

In 1921 Paul Gümmer appeared for the first time in the concert hall and attracted immediately gig attention. He turned particularly to the music of the Baroque time and was considered as a highly talented Bach interpreter. He supported the musical work of forgotten masters of this era of music history. In and the 1930's and 1940's he gave regularly concerts in the German music centres, i.e. in Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Cologne, Hamburg and Hannover. He was also an important Lieder interpreter (Winterreise by F. Schubert).

Paul Gümmer's main skills were, however, appropriate for the educational area and he taught several generations of musicians. In 1927 he became lecturer at the Musikhochschule Hannover, from 1928 to 1943 he worked at the same time at the Evangelischen Kirchenmusikschule in Berlin-Spandau. He saw an important task in the revision and in the re-publication of Evangelist church songs. Since 1930 he was lecturer at the Westfälischen Landeskirchenschule in Herforsd; in 1959 he was appointed Professor. Together with the choir conductor and music pedagogue Hans Hoffmann he created the annual Heinrich Schütz-Wochen in Bethel by Bielefeld. Despite this extensive educational activity he appeared repeatedly in the concert hall as soloist in oratorios sand sacred music works into. He wrote, among other things, Die Erziehung der menschlichen Stimme ("the education of the human voice") (Kassel, 1940).

Recordings: Cantate (works of J.S. Bach, Georg Neumark and other sacred Baroque music); Decca (Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) by J.S. Bach).

Source: Großes Sängerlexikon (Authors: K. J. Kutsch / Leo Riemens; Expanded 3^rd edition 1999/2000; K. G. Saur Verlag, Munich), English translation by Aryeh Oron (June 2006)
Contributed by Thomas Braatz (June 2006)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Under his name

Bass

Arias from BWV 83, BWV 117

Kurt Thomas

Bass

BWV 245

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