Roswitha Trexler (born 23 November 1936) is a German operatic soprano and mezzo-soprano who became internationally known especially as an interpreter of the music of Hans Eisler and for her commitment to

avantgarde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...

vocal music Vocal music is a type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment ( a cappella), in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but ...

Life and career

Trexler was born in 1936 in Leipzig as the daughter of the composer, cantor and professor of catholic

church music Church music is Christian music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. History Early Christian music The on ...

Georg Trexler Georg Max Trexler (1903 in Pirna – 1979 in Leipzig) was a German composer. Originally a student of economics at the University of Leipzig, he switched to music under the influence of Karl Straube, and became a choirmaster and organist at the St ...

. She attended the

Thomasschule St. Thomas School, Leipzig (german: Thomasschule zu Leipzig; la, Schola Thomana Lipsiensis) is a co-educational and public boarding school in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1212 and is one of the oldest scho ...

there and made her debut in 1956 at a festival week with medieval church music. From 1957 she appeared at the Bach performances in Leipzig's Thomaskirche under

Thomaskantor (Cantor at St. Thomas) is the common name for the musical director of the , now an internationally known boys' choir founded in Leipzig in 1212. The official historic title of the Thomaskantor in Latin, ', describes the two functions of cantor ...

Kurt Thomas. For several years she belonged to the

MDR Rundfunkchor MDR Rundfunkchor is the radio choir of the German broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), based in Leipzig, Saxony. Dating back to 1924, the choir became the radio choir of a predecessor of the MDR in 1946, then called Kammerchor des Senders L ...

under

Herbert Kegel Herbert Kegel (29 July 1920 – 20 November 1990) was a German conductor. Kegel was born in Dresden. He studied conducting with Karl Böhm and composition with Boris Blacher at the Dresden Conservatory from 1935 to 1940. In 1946 he began co ...

and was active in special ensembles for

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classic ...

(''Capella lipsiensis'', ''Capella fidicina''). Her career as an interpreter of contemporary music began on 22 May 1969 in a by

Radio DDR 2 Radio DDR 2 ( en, Radio GDR 2) was a radio channel in East Germany run by Rundfunk der DDR, created in October 1958. It was a regional service in the morning and at 01:00 local time, broadcast centralized classical music and radio plays produc ...

with works by

Luigi Dallapiccola Luigi Dallapiccola (February 3, 1904 – February 19, 1975) was an Italian composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions. Biography Dallapiccola was born in Pisino d'Istria (at the time part of Austria-Hungary, current Pazin, Cr ...

under the direction of the composer. In the following years she worked with

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

Luigi Nono Luigi Nono (; 29 January 1924 – 8 May 1990) was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music. Biography Early years Nono, born in Venice, was a member of a wealthy artistic family; his grandfather was a notable painter. Nono b ...

Witold Lutosławski Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szyma ...

Milko Kelemen Milko Kelemen (30 March 1924 – 8 March 2018) was a Croatian composer. Life Milko Kelemen was born in Slatina, Croatia (then Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes). He studied under Stjepan Šulek in Zagreb, under Olivier Messiaen in Paris ...

and

Frederic Rzewski Frederic Anthony Rzewski ( ; April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021) was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. His major compositions, which often incorporate social an ...

on concerts and radio recordings. She also worked for the premiere of works by

Reiner Bredemeyer Reiner Bredemeyer (2 January 1929 − 5 December 1995) was a German composer. He was born in Vélez, Santander and went to school in Breslau. In 1944 he was drafted into military service and was briefly held as a prisoner of war of the American ...

Paul Dessau Paul Dessau (19 December 189428 June 1979) was a German composer and conductor. He collaborated with Bertolt Brecht and composed incidental music for his plays, and several operas based on them. Biography Dessau was born in Hamburg into a mu ...

Edison Denisov Edison Vasilievich Denisov (russian: Эдисо́н Васи́льевич Дени́сов, 6 April 1929 – 24 November 1996) was a Russian composer in the so-called " Underground", "alternative" or "nonconformist" division of Soviet music. ...

Paul-Heinz Dittrich Paul-Heinz Dittrich (4 December 1930 – 28 December 2020) was a German composer and academic teacher. Based in East Berlin, he focused on chamber music, with many works inspired by poetry. His works were performed earlier in the West than in the ...

Georg Katzer Georg Katzer (; 10 January 1935 – 7 May 2019) was a German composer and teacher. The last master student of Hanns Eisler, he composed music in many genres, including works for the stage. Katzer was one of the pioneers of electronic new music ...

Hermann Keller Hermann Keller (20 November 1885 – 17 August 1967) was a German Protestant church musician and musicologist. Life Born in Stuttgart the son of an architect, he followed his father's profession by also studying architecture in Stuttgart and Mu ...

, Luca Lombardi,

Robert Moran Robert Moran (born January 8, 1937) is an American composer of operas and ballets as well as numerous orchestral, vocal, chamber and dance works. Life A native of Denver, Moran studied twelve-tone music privately with Hans Apostel in Vienna and ...

and

Friedrich Schenker Friedrich Schenker (23 December 19428 February 2013) was a German avant-garde composer and trombone player. Life Born in the German town of Zeulenroda, Schenker learned trombone and piano as a child and made his first compositional attempts a ...

. One focus of her work was on

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...

: within the framework of the record edition of the GDR label

Nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

she was entrusted with the complete recording of his ''Lieder mit Klavier'' and the ''Kantaten aus dem Exil'', and in 1982 she

premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its f ...

d his full-length '. As Schönberg interpreter she appeared under

Kurt Masur Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orch ...

with the ''

Pierrot Lunaire ''Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds "Pierrot lunaire"'' ("Three times Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's 'Pierrot lunaire), commonly known simply as ''Pierrot lunaire'', Op. 21 ("Moonstruck Pierrot" or "Pierrot in the Moonlight"), is a m ...

'' and played with

John Tilbury John Tilbury (born 1 February 1936) is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM (group), AMM. Early life and education ...

(piano) for the label Eterna the song cycle ''Das Buch der hängenenden Gärten''. A side branch of her repertoire was the chanson/song; she has also reflected theoretically on her

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

interpretations. Her international career started in 1971 at the festival Steirischer Herbst and led her to focal points of New Music like the

Warsaw Autumn Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...

, the Buffalo-Festival, the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte Montepulciano, the

Centre Georges-Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

in Paris and the Musikbiennale in Zagreb.

Discography

* ''Porträtplatte mit Werken von Paul Dessau, Hanns Eisler, Witold Lutosławski'' (

Wergo WERGO is a German record label focusing on contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1962 by German art historian and music publisher (1903–1975) and the musicologist Helmut Kirchmeyer. Their first release, filed under "WER 60001", was ...

, 1975) * Hanns Eisler: ''Kantaten aus dem Exil'' (Nova, 1977) * Hanns Eisler: ''Aus dem Hollywooder Liederbuch'' (Nova, 1978) *

Arnold Schönberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

: ''Das Buch der hängenden Gärten'' / Alban Berg: ''Sieben frühe Lieder'' (Eterna, 1979) * Paul Dessau: ''Lieder und Gesänge'' (Nova,1981) * Hanns Eisler: ''Lieder aus dem Exil'' (Nova 1981) * Hanns Eisler: ''Frühe Lieder'' (Nova, 1983) * ''Heiter-satirische Verse'' (works by

Rainer Kunad Rainer Kunad (24 October 1936, Chemnitz – 17 July 1995, Reutlingen) was a German conductor and composer, especially of opera. Life Kunad studied choir and ensemble conducting at the Dresden Conservatoire from 1955 to 1956 and then, until 195 ...

Christfried Schmidt Christfried Schmidt (born 26 November 1932) is a German composer and arrangeur. Life Schmidt was born in 1932 as the son of a miller in Markersdorf. In Görlitz, he attended the grammar school and received piano lessons from Humperdinck's pu ...

, Friedrich Schenker,

Hans Jürgen Wenzel Hans Jürgen Wenzel (4 March 1939 – 8 August 2009) was a German conductor and composer. He was chairman of the and professor for musical composition at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden. Life Born in Weißwasser, Wenzel ...

) (Nova, 1984) *

Kurt Schwaen Kurt Schwaen (June 21, 1909 in Katowice – October 9, 2007 in Berlin) was a German composer. Professional career Schwaen studied piano, organ and composition under Fritz Lubrich. From 1929 to 1933 he studied at the universities of Berlin a ...

: ''Lieder'' (Nova, 1984) * Luca Lombardi: ''Tui-Gesänge'' (Eterna, 1985) *

Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and ste ...

: ''Lieder'' (Eterna, 1987) *

Rudolf Wagner-Régeny Rudolf Wagner-Régeny (28 August 1903, Szászrégen, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Reghin, Romania) – 18 September 1969, Berlin) was a composer, conductor, and pianist. Born in Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, ...

: ''Lieder'' (Nova, 1989) * Individual contributions, also participation in ensemble pieces, on numerous other records

TV films

Klaus Ager Klaus Ager (born 10 May 1946) is an Austrian composer and conductor. Born in Salzburg, Ager studied piano, composition, and conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and musicology at Salzburg University. He continued his studies in composition ...

: ''La Règle du Jeu'' (

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

, 1979) * ''Versuche über Roswitha – Roswitha Trexler und die neue Musik'' (

Deutscher Fernsehfunk Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF; German for "German Television Broadcasting") was the state television broadcaster in the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) from 1952 to 1991. DFF produced free-to-air terrestrial television programmin ...

, 1981) *

Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

in den Zwanzigern: ''Brecht als Komponist'' (Radiotelevisione della Svizzera Italiana, 1983) * ''Ich will singend sagen, wie ich die Welt sehe – Porträt von Roswitha Trexler'' (, director Gitta Nickel, 1985)

Awards and distinctions

* 1974

Kunstpreis der Stadt Leipzig From 1959 to 1989, the city of Leipzig awarded the Kunstpreis der Stadt Leipzig, which was given for outstanding merits in the artistic field to persons who promoted the reputation of the city beyond the region: architects, visual artists, compo ...

. * 1975

Kunstpreis der DDR The Art Prize of the German Democratic Republic (German: ''Kunstpreis der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik'') was an East German state award bestowed on individuals for contributions in various fields of art. History The Art Prize was annually a ...

. * 1979 Ehrennadel des Verbandes der Komponisten und Musikwissenschaftler. * 1984

Stern der Völkerfreundschaft The Star of People's Friendship (german: Stern der Völkerfreundschaft), Star of Nations' Friendship, was an Order (decoration), order awarded by the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR). Established 20 August 1959, it was given to i ...

in Silber.''Neues Deutschland'', 5 October 1985, 5

References

External links