Fritz Reuter (composer)

[5] Reuter's mother Johanna, née Noack (born 1878), had Sorbs Roots[7] and was the driving force in his musical education.

[5] He passed an exam in 1912 and later taught music theory and piano himself at the "Dresdner Lehranstalt für Musik", founded by Walde in 1914.

He financed this through two "Riemann scholarships", which he received for the best annual musicological works,[8] as well as interrupting his studies as a répétiteur at the famous Dresden circus Sarrasani (1917) and as a theatre conductor[3] in Allenstein/East Prussia.

[10] His teachers included among others Otto Weinreich and Robert Teichmüller in piano, Stephan Krehl in composition and Bernhard Porst in bandmaster training, as well as Hugo Riemann, Hermann Abert and Arnold Schering in musicology.

[8] In addition to his university lectureship, Reuter passed the state examination for the higher teaching profession in the subjects of music and German in 1931.

[15] In particular, due to his Daghestanian Suite for Orchestra (1927), composed for the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Dagestan, and his conducting of Leipzig Arbeitergesangverein [de] (Michaelsche Chöre), he lost his teaching positions after the Machtergreifung by the Nazis in 1933.

[4] He also maintained contacts with Jewish musicians (et al. Alfred Szendrei of the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra, whose Dirigierkunde he was to publish in 1956) and social democratic politicians.

[19] To make a living[16] and because he wanted to resume his profession,[3] he accommodated himself to those in power[4] and, with effect from 1 May 1933 he joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party member number 2.429.811) relatively early.

[16] In 1937, he moved to the Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Kultus [de] in Dresden[4] and was given the "supervision of school music affairs" in the Gau Saxony.

[21] On the other hand, in the 1940s, Reuter proposed to succeed Günther Ramin (Thomaskantor) as artistic director of the Gymnasium Leipzig, which had been founded by the National Socialists in 1941.

[4] According to his student Günther Noll (1997), he maintained contact "with his Jewish friends and helped them to escape, despite the existential dangers involved, also hiding them at his home".

[16] In 1949, he was appointed professor with a teaching assignment by the Landesregierung von Sachsen-Anhalt [de] at the request of the Faculty of Education of Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg.

[23] In addition, Reuter taught music theory and composition at the Staatliche Hochschule für Theater und Musik Halle [de] from 1950.

[28] Alongside Walter Draeger, Gerhard Wohlgemuth and others, he was one of the initiators of the 1st Hallische Musiktage, held in 1955, as a board member of the Halle Working Group.

His estate (about nine metres of shelves) with autographs, letters among others is in the music department of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

[31] His wide-ranging[3] compositional œuvre (Heinz Wegener [de] compiled a catalogue of works for the Gedenkschrift Fritz Reuter in 1966) amounts to ca.

[4][41] Reuter's compositional path was marked "from a late romantic-expressionist beginning to melodic-sentence conciseness on the basis of polyphonic voice leading", as Dieter Härtwig (2005) noted.

[3] Prieberg addressed problematic compositions by Reuter during the National Socialist era, such as the Sudetendeutsche Suite (1939), published by the Reichsverband für Volksmusik, whose title celebrated the cession of the Sudetenland.

[45] Between 1945 and 1949, several stage works were written among others the new arrangements of Pergolesi's Intermezzo La serva padrona[46] (1947) from 1733 and the ballet Henrikje (1947) by Inka Unverzagt.

[47] Considered highly developed is its Weimarhalle [de] reception (1948/49) of Goethe's Singspiel Jest, Cunning and Revenge,[48] Reuter's music was also performed in the GDR by the concert orchestra of his hometown, the Dresden Philharmonic.

[50] Magret Hager (2005) called Reuter's work a "manifesto of polarism"[51] His efforts in the GDR drew a scholarly discourse in the journal Musik und Gesellschaft, in which Siegfried Bimberg, Christoph Hohlfeld and Johannes Piersig also participated.

[52] The dispute culminated in conflict with Georg Knepler of the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler", who saw in Reuter a contradiction to dialectical materialism.

[59] According to Gerd Rienäcker (2010), he belonged, along with Hans-Georg Görner, Georg Trexler and Wilhelm Weismann, to a circle "that discredited contemporary music-making in the GDR through conservatism of various stripes".

[37] During his time as a university lecturer he supervised 19 dissertations[61] (among them: Siegfried Bimberg, Hella Brock, Walter Clemens, Werner Felix, Hans John, Rolf Lukowsky, Günther Müller, Günther Noll, Johannes Georg Pahn) and four habilitation theses[62] (Siegfried Bimberg, Hella Brock, Werner Busch and Rolf Lukowsky).

[63] Among his pupils, including conductors and composers, were his son Rolf Reuter[64][65] furthermore Heinz Roy[7] and Manfred Schubert[66] in Berlin, Günter Bust,[67] Günter Fleischhauer,[68] Horst Irrgang,[69] Erhard Ragwitz,[70] Gerhard Wohlgemuth[71] and Carlferdinand Zech[72] in Halle an der Saale and Benno Ammann,[73] Herbert Collum,[36] Musja Gottlieb,[74] Hans Heintze,[36] Franz Konwitschny,[3] Lars-Erik Larsson,[75] Werner Neumann, Assen Najdenow,[76] Otto Riemer,[77] Peter Schacht[78] and Georg Trexler[79] in Leipzig.