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Cultural Family Background:
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| Georg Raphael
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Paternal Background:
Grandfather: A b r a h a m R a p h a e l (1822 - 1875), cloth manufacturer.
Grandmother: The singer J u l i e C o h n (1835 - 1914), directed
a "musical and literary salon” in Berlin where Joseph Joachim
- among other famous personages – was a regular guest and performer.
Father: G e o r g R a p h a e l (1865-1904).
Since assimilation of Jewish citizens was in keeping with
the spirit of the time - but especially because of his love
to J.S.Bach’s music - he converted to the Protestant confession.
He began studying medicine and then music; he was engaged
as a church musician at the Luther Kirche and later became the music director
of the Matthäi Kirche in Berlin.
Compositions: various psalm settings, choral motets, sacred
songs, works for organ, violin and for orchestra.
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| Albert Becker |
Maternal Background:
Grandfather: A l b e r t B e c k e r (1834-1899).
Albert Becker was an important Berlin composer and church
musician who came from a long line of church music directors dating back
to the early 1600s (from Quedlinburg).
He taught at the Scharwenka Conservatory of Music and in
1891 became the director of music at the Dom in Berlin.
His students included Jean Sibelius, his son-in law Georg Raphael, as
well as Kaiser Wilhelm I.! - Kaiser Wilhelm II. would not allow him to
accept the illustrious offer of Thomaskantor in Leipzig; rather he made
him a member of the Royal Academy of the Arts and then also supported
Becker’s Dom Choir.
Compositions: countless works for choir, song, chamber music, and various
concert pieces.
Mother: M a r i a B e c k e r (1878 - 1952), violinist.
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Curriculum Vitae Günter Raphael
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1903
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born on April 30th in Berlin.
From his earliest years he is surrounded by his family’s cultural tradition
and thereby acquires an extensive knowledge of classical and humanistic
literature. The comprehensive libraries of his father Georg R. and his grandfather
A.Becker give him access to the entire music literature. |
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1913
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His first composition is a short "Lied"
for piano. Günter Raphael, viola player and pianist, plays and works
through the complete chamber music and violin repertoire with his mother.
In addition he studies the piano and organ literature as well as all other
available scores from the past centuries. |
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1918
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According to his own diary, op.1 is a Rondo for
violin, viola and piano. By the age of eighteen he is familiar with every known score, is at home
with all musical styles and has already acquired the skills of a composer
on his own. He takes private composition lessons from Arnold Ebel. |
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1922
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Because of his extraordinary entrance examination
results to attend the Berlin University of Music, he is awarded the Robert
Schumann Leipzig Foundation Scholarship and studies composition with Robert
Kahn. However Kahn – like Arnold Ebel before him – is hardly capable
of teaching Raphael anything he did not already know. |
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1923
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Karl Straube, Thomaskantor in Leipzig and a friend
of his father, becomes Raphael’s mentor and advisor. |
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1925
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On Straube’s initiative, Raphael receives
private instructions with Arnold Mendelssohn in Darmstadt. The premiere
in Berlin of his First String Quartet in E minor is performed by the Busch
Quartet. |
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1926
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The Second String Quartet in C major is also premiered
by the Busch Quartett in Berlin. Raphael signs his first contract with Breitkopf & Härtel and moves to Leipzig where the first performance of his
Symphony Nr.1 is conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler with the Gewandhaus
Orchestra. |
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1926-34
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Raphael teaches music theory and composition at
the State Conservatory of Music in Leipzig. |
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1934
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Under the Nazi regime’s nomenclature, Raphael
is declared to be a "half-Jew”, which in turn forbids all professional
endeavors and the performance of his music. At the end of the summer semester
he loses his teaching position at the Leipzig Conservatory. He marries his Danish
student, the pianist Pauline Jessen*, in Copenhagen and they move to Meiningen
(Thuringia) where Jessen already held a teaching position. It is there that two
daughters Dagmar and Christine are born eight years apart. (Christine Raphael (1943 - 2008)
became a solo violinist and performer of the complete violin compositions of her
father). During the course of this year, Raphael contracts a life threatening
tuberculosis that will force him to undergo numerous operations and spend extended
periods of time in sanatoriums. |
1934-45 |
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Not to be diverted in spite of his illness, miserable
hospital circumstances, professional ostracism and the increasing mortal
danger posed by the SS (especially after 1941) Raphael continues to compose
profusely. His doctors often protect him from imprisonment by the Nazis.
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1945-49
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His tuberculosis forces Raphael to move to Laubach
(near Gießen) to reside in the vicinity of his friend and surgeon,
Professor Franz Volhard. It is very difficult for Raphael to regain recognition
after the war, he has been banned too long from German musical life by the
Nazis. Though he helps his collegues through the procedure of denazification
giving them a new chance, ironically enough there is no support for him.
Even though he finds publishers for the unpublished pre-1945 compositions
and the radio stations reopen their doors for him, it is impossible to reclaim
his prewar musical status such as the teaching position he had held in Leipzig.
Together with his wife Pauline they perform as a piano duo, giving numerous
concert tours and radio broadcasts. |
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1948
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Raphael is granted the Franz-Liszt-Award
for composition. (His grandfather, Albert Becker had received that same
award seventy years earlier.) |
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1949-53
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He teaches at the Duisburg Conservatory
of Music. During this period a further operation and a ten-month stay at
a sanatorium in Uppsala (Sweden) is financed by the Swedish government. |
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1956
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He is offered the position of Thomaskantor
in Leipzig which he declines, not wishing to lose his artist freedom in
East Germany. He becomes a lecturer at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory
of Music in Mainz and at the Cologne University of Music. |
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1957
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He is appointed Professor at the
Cologne University of Music. |
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1960
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Günter Raphael dies in an ambulance en route to Herford as a result
of his long-standing illness.
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1968
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Günter Raphael is posthumously
awarded the title "Senator of Honour” at the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartoldy
University of Music in Leipzig. |
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*
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Pauline Raphael (-Jessen), (1910 - 2002) |
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