Gerd Domhardt

Gerd Domhardt was born on 19 February 1945 in Wolmirstedt (Germany). He learned to play the violin from an early age and studied music education, German studies and musicology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg from 1963 to 1968. From 1973 to 1976 he was a master student for composition with Ruth Zechlin at the Academy of the Arts in Berlin.

Until 1969 he worked at the Staatskapelle Halle under Olaf Koch. From 1969 to 1973 he was an editor at the Deutscher Verlag für Musik in Leipzig. He also was a teacher of the Halle composers class and from 1987 an honorary lecturer at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. Until 1995 he directed the Society of Composers of Saxony-Anhalt and the contemporary music festival Hallische Musiktage.

Gerd Domhardt died on 18 February 1997 in Halle/Saale (Germany).

The work catalogue of Gerd Domhardt contains the opera "Weiberkomödie", 2 symphonies for orchestra, 2 chamber symphonies, concertos for violin, viola and English horn, orchestral poems, string quartets, a violin sonata, piano compositions as well as songs and works for chorus.

In my possession are the autograph manuscripts of the four parts for the String quartet No.1 (1974) by Gerd Domhardt. This set of parts was in possession of Friedrich-Carl Erben, the first violinist of the Erben Quartet to whom the work is dedicated. The parts are clean copies but still have several handwritten remarks and revised measures stick over to the original writings. The first violin part also has two notes in a different handwriting (most likely from Friedrich-Carl Erben) about the premieres: The notes say that there was a pre-premiere on 24.09.1974 in Friedrichsbrunn at the "Quedlinburger Musiktage" and the premiere on 11.10.1974 at the University of Halle (Saxony-Anhalt) at the "XII. Hallesche Musiktage".

The score is published by Edition Peters.