Friedrich Mehler

Julius Friedrich Mehler was born on 27 September 1896 in Frankfurt am Main (Germany). His mother was Erna Borner, an educated opera singer. He studied music in Hannover from 1905 to 1914, then he moved to Berlin and continued his studies under Hans Pfitzner and Robert Kahn. After World War I Friedrich Mehler accepted a three month appointment in Visby (Sweden) where he taught music theory. This visit resulted in the emigration of Friedrich Mehler to Gotland in 1921. In 1931 he acquired the Swedish citizenship. In Visby Friedrich Mehler worked as a choir master and conductor until his passing and had an huge impact on the musical life of the island. He also taught at the Visby girls' school and the secondary school. In 1930 Friedrich Mehler founded the Visby concert society (since 1973 named Gotland concert society).
With his compositions Friedrich Mehler also became the national artist for Gotland. He composed several works relating to Gotland (for example the symphonic poem "Gotland", Five Gotland Dances for wind quintet or the cantata "We love our island"). But his main attraction as a composer is the opera "Petrus de Dacia" which is performed every year since 1929 in the ruins of the church St. Nicholas in Visby. In addition Friedrich Mehler also composed 2 symphonies, 2 violin concertos, 4 violin sonatasand other chamber music.
Friedrich Mehler died on 5 November 1981 in Visby (Sweden).

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of "Kassation - Eine heitere Serenade" for string quartet by Friedrich Mehler. The work is dedicated to a "Dr. Jakob Rollström[?]". It was published in 1930 by Adolph Fürstner and received the opus number 11 (which is not penned down in the manuscript).