Banat music history: Andreas Schein impresses with his dissertation!

Banat music history: Andreas Schein impresses with his dissertation!

Dr. Franz Metz, a musicologist from Munich, highly praised Andreas Schein's doctoral thesis on Banat music history. Schein, who defended his dissertation summa cum laude on the topic “The opera and operetta creation of the Banat composers between 1850 and 1950,” recently chaired the 39th Music Week in Löwenstein, Germany. The event attracted over 150 musicians and featured important works from the region.

Among the outstanding pieces that Schein analyzed, the operetta “Grüß mein Banat” by Emmerich Bartzer stands out. Bartzer, who was born on September 1, 1895 in Lovrin, Kingdom of Hungary, and died on May 5, 1961 in Jimbolia, People's Republic of Romania, was an important Romanian-German violinist, conductor and composer of the Banat Swabians. Bartzer is considered a leading musician in the interwar and post-war period in the Swabian Banat and made significant contributions to the music scene. Among his most famous works is the comic opera “The Village Barber” by Wilhelm Franz Speer.

Important works and musicians

“Grüß mein Banat” premiered two years ago, and a song recital is being planned. Bartzer's operetta, along with other important compositions, was distributed primarily in Banat, while Speer's opera remained largely unknown. Hermann Klee, another important composer, was also covered in Schein’s research, particularly his Romanian pieces “Se face ziuă” and “Făt Frumos”.

Works by Johann Strauss, Otto Sykora, Mascagni and Franz Hübl were rehearsed in Löwenstein. The music week has established itself in the region and primarily attracts many young people who report enthusiastically about the event. The participants come not only from Germany, but also from Romania, especially from Transylvania and Banat.

Challenges and future outlook

However, the choir master of the music week, Andrea Kulin, and the youth choir director Markus Piringer also faced challenges, such as convincing the participants of the feasibility of the works and financing the events. Schein himself is an opera and operetta conductor and is actively committed to the correct biography of Bartzer, as there are many discrepancies about his life on the Internet.

Dr. Metz also provided Schein with access to his extensive music archive in Munich. The next plans for the 40th Music Week include the composition of a new work for choir and orchestra, which is intended to carry on the tradition of Banat music history and could open a new chapter in the history of local musical culture.

The musical achievements of Bartzer and his contemporaries remain a significant part of the region's cultural heritage, and Schein's efforts to keep the history and work of these composers alive are invaluable.