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HS-256
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(Benjamin) Robert Papperitz (1826-1903) was a prominent figure at the Leipzig Conservatorium where
he held a faculty appointment (1871-1902). As was common, he taught in complementary fields which
included harmony, composition, piano, and organ. He succeeded his former teacher, Carl Ferdinand
Becker, at both the Nicolaikirche and the Conservatory.
Commentaries on the teaching at the Conservatorium during this period vary considerably from Ethel
Smyth’s amusing anecdotes about the disorganization of lessons and Moritz Hauptmann’s criticism that
composition students were still emulating Mendelssohn decades after his death, to the views of the
organist of the English Royal Church in Leipzig, C. G. Thomas, who remarked that Salomon Jadassohn’s
fugue lessons were a source of lifetime inspiration.
Papperitz’s style of teaching occasioned a commentary by Edvard Grieg: Dr. Robert Papperitz gave me freer rein than E. F. Richter. As a result I got so far off the beaten track that in my harmonisations of chorals I put in chromatic voice leading, wherever I could. One day he exclaimed “Aber diese Chromatik! Sie werden ja der zweite Spohr!” [“But this chromaticism! You are becoming the second
Spohr!”] And as Spohr seemed to me an academic, dry pedant of the first order, I was not at all pleased with that judgement.
This remark provides an interesting point of reference when we consider the chorale preludes published
here. Papperitz’s style is nothing if not chromatic at times and in the second volume (9-16) leans towards the opus 122 chorale preludes of Johannes Brahms. However, at times the unexpected chromatic turns in the accompanying voices are almost reminiscent of Max Reger. Indeed, as with Reger one has to digest a good amount of the harmonic language before one can appreciate the work(s) as a whole. In preparing this edition there have been moments when it has been natural to question a pitch or indeed a harmonic progression but it soon became clear that Papperitz yields towards the unpredictable and that this relative waywardness is an intrinsic element of these pieces. As a result, several well-known chorales are heard anew while also laying a path that leads quite clearly to Brahms.
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Publishernumber:
HS-256
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ISBN:
9790215325418
Number:
916693
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