Oskar Gottlieb Blarr


Oskar Gottlieb Blarr is a German composer, organist, church musician and academic teacher.
WWW blarr.info

Career

Blarr was born in Sandlack near Bartenstein. The Gothic church with its Baroque organ fascinated him early on; he began to form a lifelong love for organs. Blarr and his family fled to West Germany in 1945. He wrote his first compositions at the age of 12. He studied church music from 1952 at the Kirchenmusikschule in Hannover, percussion at the Musikhochschule Hannover, and composition with Heinrich Spitta. He continued his studies, conducting with Dean Dixon and Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg, composition with Bernd Alois Zimmermann in Cologne, Krzysztof Penderecki at the Folkwang-Hochschule in Essen, and Milko Kelemen and at the Robert Schumann Hochschule. He was the church musician of the Neanderkirche in Düsseldorf from 1961 to 1999. He also lectured there at both the Katechetisches Seminar and the Robert Schumann Hochschule from 1984.
Blarr composed four oratorios about the life of Jesus, four symphonies, chamber music and works for organ. He also set many songs of the genre Neues Geistliches Lied to music, some of under the pseudonym Choral Brother Ogo. His organ works were recorded with organists Wolfgang Abendroth and Martin Schmeding. He was a member of the ecumenical Textautoren- und Komponistengruppe der Werkgemeinschaft Musik e.V. and the association Musik in der Ev. Jugend (now: Textautoren- und Komponistengruppe TAKT.
Blarr visited Israel to experience where Jesus lived as a Jew. In 1983, the Israeli composer Josef Tal dedicated his organ work Salva Venia to Blarr, who premiered it the following year in Düsseldorf. In 2016 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn.

Awards

Selected works

The German National Library holds four works authored by Blarr, and 168 compositions, as of 2017:

Oratorio

Jesus-Passion Jesus-Geburt. Weihnachtsoratorium Oster-Oratorium
  • ''Die Himmelfahrt''

Chamber music

Psalm 47, a setting of Psalm 47 for soprano, tenor, choir, trumpet, trombone, percussion, violin, harp and double bass Tangos and Chorales für Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  • Stadt am Fluß, four short piano works ; Edition Gravis, Bad Schwalbach, 1990.

Orchestra

  • Symphony No. 1 "Janusz Korczak en karem concerto"
  • Symphony No. 2 "Jerusalem"
  • Symphony No. 3 "Zum ewigen Frieden"
  • Symphony No. 4 ""Kopernikus"

Organ

  • Sonata Schaallu schlom Jeruschalajim Lischuatcha kiwiti AdonaiKenne Sie die Geschichte... ?Schlaflied für MirjamDream talk
  • Missa brevis Hommage Handkuß für St. MargarethaAl har habajit – auf dem Tempelberg "... qui tollis" – Seufzer für BAZIRoncalli-Nashorn ElseFrühligsstimmen
  • ''Zum ewigen Frieden''

Neues Geistliches Lied

Arrangements

Bilder einer Ausstellung after Mussorgsky, for organ