Lotte Backes
Lotte Backes was born on 2 May 1901 in Cologne (Germany). She received her first piano lessons from her mother and studied piano at the conservatory in Strasbourg from 1915 to 1917 and completed her studies in piano and organ at the conservatory in Düsseldorf from 1918 to 1922.
After her studies Lotte Backes first worked as a concert pianist and soon received national and international recognition. Especially her interpretations of piano compositions by Franz Liszt received critical acclaim. Siegfried Wagner, the grand-son of Franz Liszt, was an admirer and supporter of the piano career of Lotte Backes.
In the late 1920s Lotte Backes also began to compose music. Her works were soon performed, broadcasted and well received by the critics. The conductor Karl Muck then helped that Lotte Backes was granted a scholarship to study composition in the master class of the Prussian Academy of Arts around 1935.
In the last days of World War II the house of Lotte Backes and nearly all of her manuscripts burned down. She reconstructed her "Te deum" which became the first performed composition in Berlin after the end of war. But beside this work Lotte Backes had to restart her compositional career. After the war Lotte Backes also performed more and more as an organist, and her work catalogue reflected this development. She also put an emphasis on vocal music and was the founder and choir master of the Berlin Chamber Choir Association from 1945 to 1961.
In 1982 Lotte Backes was awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit for her compositional lifetime achievement. Lotte Backes died on 12 May 1990 in Berlin (Germany).
3 songs for voice and piano
In my possession are three autograph manuscripts of compositions by Lotte Backes. All three works are songs and scored for voice and piano. The songs are:
- Die Stadt, for voice and piano (text by Theodor Storm)
- Du, for voice and piano (text by Lotte Backes)
- Einsamkeit, for voice and piano (text by Heinrich Frank)
The songs were composed around 1925 and these songs as well as some others were the only compositions that survived the blaze of her house in 1945. My manuscripts appear to be later copies in the hand of Lotte Backes.
None of the songs was ever published and for that reason I would like to present them here for information purpose. As far as I know the songs do NOT build a cycle or are especially connected. I nevertheless decided to put them all together in one file which can be downloaded below.
