Lothar Windsperger was a German composer as well as long-standing literary editor and publisher at Schott.
Life and career
Born in Ampfing, Windsperger, son of a well-known organist and school teacher, received his first basic musical education from his father, who he lost at the age of five. Windsperger nevertheless remained true to music, even when he first began his training as a primary school teacher in Rosenheim, where he had moved with his mother in 1898, at a. In 1900 he finally changed to the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. There he was taught composition and harmony by Josef Rheinberger and Rudolf Louis, among others, and piano by August Schmid-Lindner. Later he continued his studies with Hugo Riemann in Leipzig and work weeks with Hermann Abendroth at the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne. In February 1905 Windsperger appeared in Munich with an orchestral concert in which he performed his one-hour, one-movement "Sinfonie der Sehnsucht". According to the judgement of H. Teibler in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung of 24 February 1905, however, he thereby "only provoked the unwillingness of all well-meaning people; this concert was an assassination of the good will of the audience". In 1913 he accepted an offer to start as a lector at the music publisher B. Schott's Söhne in Mainz. This enabled him to influence the clarification of special questions in the context of the publication of various works as well as the structure, structure and technique of the compositions of other musicians. Among other things, he was also the editor of the works of Josip Štolcer-Slavenski, Ernst Toch and Carl Orff. Windsperger was particularly fascinated by Orff's music educational ideas and his works were subsequently published in their entirety by Schott from 1923 onwards. For this reason, he introduced the Orff Schulwerk in its original version from 1930 to various kindergartens in Mainz. From his position, Windsperger often transcribed entire opera and choral works by other composers. For example, he transcribed a large part of Verdi' or Wagner' operas as well as difficult solo or chamber music compositions by other composers into easily playable piano scores. These new editions, as well as his complete own compositions, were finally published by Schott in the form of anthologies. In addition to this task, Windsperger worked as a teacher of theory and piano in Mainz and Wiesbaden and finally accepted a position at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory of the city of Mainz in 1933, where he took over the position of director as successor to Hans Gál, who had emigrated after the Nazi's Machtergreifung because of his Hungarian-Jewish descent. One of his most famous pupils here was Rudolf Desch. But only two years later Windsperger died in Franckfurt on 30 May 1935 at the age of 49. About Windsperger's work as a composer of on the way to contemporary music, Anton Würz writes in volume 14 of the Musiklexikon ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart':
Compositions
Was die deutschen Kinder singen – eine Blütenlese der heimatlichen Kinderlieder, compiled by a German mother. Set for piano by L. Windsperger. B. Schott’s Söhne, Mainz 1914.
Deutsche Kinder-Lieder. Mit Spielregeln für die Spiellieder, for piano set by L. Windsperger. Based on the original by H. Willebeek Le Maire. B. Schott’s Söhne, Mainz 1916.
Das Buch der Motive aus sämtlichen Opern und Musikdramen Richard Wagners, for piano with superimposed text edited by Lothar Windsperger. B. Schott’s Söhne, Mainz 1920.
Verdi-Album. Ausgewählte Stücke aus den beliebtesten Opern von Giuseppe Verdi, compiled and arranged for piano for 2 hands by Lothar Windsperger. Mainz, B. Schott’s Söhne 1920.
Ode in C minor for viola solo op. 13.2. B. Schott’s Söhne, Mainz 1919.
