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Born: March 26,1904 - Bernkastel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Died: October 7, 1984 - Bad Orb, Hesse, Germany |
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The German composer, Catholic church musician and choral conductor, Hermann Schröder [Schroeder], spent the greatest part of his life’s work in the Rheinland. His mother's family had common ancestry with L.v. 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).
Hermann Schröder's 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 World War II, 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. He also conducted various semi-professional ensembles such as the Bach-Verein Köln and the Rheinischer Kammerchor. His notable students include Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Hermann 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. 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: Robert Schumann Prize of the City of Düsseldorf (1952); Arts Prize of the State of Rheinland-Pfalz (1956). |
