The Thomanerchor (English: St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig) is a boys' choir in Leipzig, Germany. The choir was founded in 1212. The choir comprises about 90 boys from 9 to 18 years of age. The members, called Thomaner, reside in a boarding school, the Thomasalumnat and attend the St. Thomas School, Leipzig, a Gymnasium school with a linguistic profile and a focus on musical education. The younger members attend the primary school Grundschule Forum Thomanum or Anna-Magdalena-Bach-Schule.[1][2]Johann Sebastian Bach served as Thomaskantor, director of the choir and church music in Leipzig, from 1723 to 1750.
Although the choir's main musical field traditionally consists of the vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach, the repertoire comprises pieces from different eras, from the Renaissance to contemporary music. Andreas Reize is the 18th Thomaskantor since Bach.
The Forum Thomanum is the campus of the choir in the Bach quarter of Leipzig. It was inaugurated in 2012 and includes the Thomasalumnat (boarding school), kindergarten, primary school, high school, choir rehearsal space, Luther Church, youth hostel, administration buildings, gym, a rehearsal hall and more amenities.[3] Some critics[who?] contend that the Forum Thomanum project will change the way that the Thomaner are instructed and recruited.
Most of the members of the Thomanerchor live in the Thomasalumnat on Hiller Street. The boys are separated into so-called Stuben rather than school classes. Each Stube is not only a sleeping room, but also an administrative entity with a closed hierarchy and a clear assignment of tasks. One or more older choir boys live with the younger ones in each Stube in order to create a hierarchy and didactic relationship. Hence, the upbringing in the Thomanerchor is provided primarily by the older members, and the educators play a smaller role. Therefore, it is possible to have 90 boys living under one roof, supervised by only five educators. The Stuben are redistributed every year in order to maintain the age groupings and also to influence the social order in the Stube.
The Stuben have only lockable wardrobes (Köte) and one table for each boy. The rooms also have other furnishings, namely shelves for books, newspapers and satchels, radios, plants and chairs. Televisions and computers are not allowed. Each Stube consists of at least four rooms and a washroom with two showers, and each room has two to three beds.
The Thomasalumnat also has a gym, a rehearsal hall, and a dining hall where all boys eat together three times a day, a shop where the tailor sews the boys' suits for the concerts, an archive, a wing of the building for the teachers who live there, a room for the band, a model railway room, a fitness room, a living room for the older boys, a "press room" for the school's newspaper, a sauna, a library with computers and internet, an infirmary, and a television room. Communal restrooms are located on the hallway of each Stube.
The Thomanerchor gives concerts across Germany (at least two major tours a year) and abroad. The choir also sings three times a week in the Thomaskirche, "Motette" every Friday evening at 6 and every Saturday afternoon at 3, service on Sundays at 9 o'clock. The choir also sings at Protestant festivities. The children have vacations during the summer school vacations.
The tour of 2012, the choir's 800th year, presented a program of Alessandro Scarlatti's Exultate Deo, Kyrie and Gloria from Palestrina's Missa sine nomine, Bruckner's motets Vexilla regis and Christus factus est pro nobis, and Bach's motet Jesu, meine Freude. It was performed, for example, on 6 July in the Eberbach Abbey at the Rheingau Musik Festival.
History
The choir in 1953
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The Margrave of Meissen founded St. Thomas' priory for Augustinian Canons (Augustiner-Chorherrenstift zu St. Thomas) in 1212. A school was annexed to the monastery, the intended purpose of which was to develop future priests. Since the Reformation in 1539, the school and the choir have belonged to the city of Leipzig; it is also influenced by the Protestant Church of Saxony. This makes the Thomanerchor the oldest cultural entity in the city and one of the oldest in Europe; the Regensburger Domspatzen is the oldest known choir on record.[4] When Johann Sebastian Bach served as director, the choir consisted of about 50 singers, of which the best 16 were used for performance of cantatas.[5] After Bach's death, other famous musicians served as director, among them Doles, Hiller and Moritz Hauptmann.
By the end of the 19th century, the Thomasschule next to the Thomaskirche was demolished and the choir moved to the Hiller street, now the Leipziger "Music Quarter". During the Nazi era, the choir was incorporated into the Hitler Jugend in 1937. But the Nazi government did not succeed in infiltrating their ideology into the choir's repertoire because the then director Ramin concentrated on religious works. He also tried to prevent the boys from being enlisted as long as possible.
Georg Christoph Biller, who was a Thomaner himself in his youth, directed the choir from 1992 to 2015. After retiring for health reasons, he was succeeded by Gotthold Schwarz as interim cantor, the latter being officially appointed as the new Thomaskantor in June 2016.[6] The 18th Thomaskantor after Bach is Andreas Reize.
St. Thomas School, Leipzig 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 schools in the world.
Günther Werner Hans Ramin was an influential German organist, conductor, composer and pedagogue in the first half of the 20th century.
Georg Christoph Biller was a German choral conductor. He conducted the Thomanerchor as the sixteenth Thomaskantor since Johann Sebastian Bach from 1992 to 2015. He was also a baritone, an academic teacher, and a composer. Active as Thomaskantor after the German reunification, Biller returned the Thomanerchor to its original focus on church music. He was instrumental in the new buildings for the choir's boarding school, the Forum Thomanum, and in the celebration of its 800th anniversary in 2012.
Erhard Mauersberger was a German choral conductor who conducted the Thomanerchor as the 14th Thomaskantor since Johann Sebastian Bach. He was also an academic teacher and composer.
Thomaskantor is the common name for the musical director of the Thomanerchor, now an internationally known boys' choir founded in Leipzig in 1212. The official historic title of the Thomaskantor in Latin, Cantor et Director Musices, describes the two functions of cantor and director. As the cantor, he prepared the choir for service in four Lutheran churches, Thomaskirche, Nikolaikirche, Neue Kirche and Peterskirche. As director, he organized music for city functions such as town council elections and homages. Functions related to the university took place at the Paulinerkirche. Johann Sebastian Bach was the most famous Thomaskantor, from 1723 to 1750.
Gotthold Schwarz is a German Bass-baritone and conductor. Based in Leipzig, he started as a member of the Thomanerchor and has conducted the Gewandhausorchester. Between 2016 and 2021, he was the 17th Thomaskantor after Johann Sebastian Bach.
St. Matthew was a church in the old town of Leipzig. During its history it had several names and functions. As a church of the Franciscan order, built in 1488, it was known as Barfüßerkirche and Heiliggeistkirche. It served as a Lutheran church, known as Neukirche, from 1699. A new congregation formed in 1876 and named the church Matthäikirche. The building was destroyed in a bombing in 1943.
The Bach Medal is awarded by the Lord Mayor of Leipzig during the Bachfest Leipzig in recognition of efforts to promote the work of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig is an annual award.
Wolfgang Unger was a German conductor, especially a choral conductor, and an academic in Halle and Leipzig. He founded several choirs and focused on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries. Like Bach, he directed the music at the University of Leipzig, called Leipziger Universitätsmusik.
Leipziger Universitätsmusik refers to music education and performance at the University of Leipzig. Music at the university dates back to its founding of the university in the 15th century. At present, Leipziger Universitätsmusik is the name of several musical ensembles formed by students and professors, and supported by professional musicians, the choir Leipziger Universitätschor, an orchestra, two smaller instrumental ensembles, and a big band.
Clemens Flämig is a German conductor and Stadtsingechores zu Halle. In 2016, in the course of a selection procedure, he was shortlisted alongside Markus Teutschbein for the 17th Thomanerchor after Johann Sebastian Bach.
Stefan Altner is a German musician, musicologist and cultural manager.
Hagen Kunze is a German journalist, music critic and playwright.
Andreas Reize is a Swiss organist and conductor, with a focus on opera and choral conducting. He was appointed Thomaskantor on 11 September 2021, becoming the 18th director of music to take charge of the world famous Thomanerchor at Leipzig in succession to Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Forum Thomanum is a music educational campus developed from 2002 in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany, as the new home of the Thomanerchor which was founded in 1212. It was conceived in 2002 by Georg Christoph Biller, then Thomaskantor, and others, to provide an internationally oriented innovative campus for a future of the traditional choir which was defined until then by Thomaskirche and Thomasschule.
Bernhard Friedrich Richter was a German church musician in Leipzig, holding the position of Thomaskantor interim in 1892–93. He was also a Bach scholar.
Salmo 150 is a psalm setting by Ernani Aguiar. He wrote the composition, setting Psalm 150 in Latin for unaccompanied choir, in 1975. The short work was published by Earthsongs in the U.S. in 1993, and achieved international popularity.
Die Deutsche Liturgie, MWV B 57, is a collection of musical settings of the ten sung elements in the Protestant liturgy, composed by Felix Mendelssohn for double choir a cappella. He wrote it in 1846 for the Berlin Cathedral, on a request by the emperor, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia. It was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1875 in the complete edition of the composer's works.
Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen is a sacred motet for four voices that Johann Hermann Schein, Thomaskantor in Leipzig, composed in 1628, setting verses 2–4 of Psalm 84 in German.
Bernhard Knick: St. Thomas zu Leipzig. Schule und Chor. Stätte des Wirkens von Johann Sebastian Bach. Bilder und Dokumente zur Geschichte der Thomasschule und des Thomanerchores mit ihren zeitgeschichtlichen Beziehungen. Mit einer Einführung von Manfred Mezger. Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 1963.
Hans-Jochim Rothe: Thomanerchor zu Leipzig, Deutsche Demokratische Republik. Thomanerchor, Leipzig 1968.
Horst List: Der Thomanerchor zu Leipzig. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1975.
Armin Schneiderheinze: Der Thomanerchor zu Leipzig. Thomanerchor, Leipzig 1982.
Wolfgang Hanke: Die Thomaner. Union-Verlag, Berlin 1985.
Gunter Hempel: Episoden um die Thomaskirche und die Thomaner. Tauchaer Verlag, Taucha 1997. ISBN978-3-910074-67-5
Michael Fuchs: Methoden der Frühdiagnostik des Eintrittszeitpunktes der Mutation bei Knabenstimmen. Untersuchungen bei Sängern des Thomanerchores Leipzig. 1997
Stefan Altner: Thomanerchor und Thomaskirche. Historisches und Gegenwärtiges in Bildern. Tauchaer Verlag, Taucha 1998. ISBN978-3-910074-84-2
Gert Mothes, Siegfried Stadler: Die Thomaner. Passage-Verlag, Leipzig 2004. ISBN978-3-932900-91-4
Stefan Altner: Das Thomaskantorat im 19. Jahrhundert. Bewerber und Kandidaten für das Leipziger Thomaskantorat in den Jahren 1842 bis 1918. Quellenstudien zur Entwicklung des Thomaskantorats und des Thomanerchors vom Wegfall der öffentlichen Singumgänge 1837 bis zur ersten Auslandsreise 1920. Passage-Verlag, Leipzig 2006. ISBN978-3-938543-15-3
Helga Mauersberger (ed.): Dresdner Kreuzchor und Thomanerchor Leipzig. Zwei Kantoren und ihre Zeit. Rudolf und Erhard Mauersberger. Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft Marienberg, Marienberg 2007. ISBN978-3-931770-46-4
Michael Maul, Dero berühmbter Chor – Die Leipziger Thomasschule und ihre Kantoren 1212–1804 Lehmstedt Verlag, Leipzig 2012. ISBN978-3-942473-24-8
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