Ludwig Strecker Jr., also Ludwig Strecker der Jüngere, (13 January 1883 – 15 September 1978) was a German music publisher and an author of opera librettos which he wrote under the pen name Ludwig Andersen. He authored, and published through the Schott Music publishing house, two of the most successful German contemporary operas of the 1930s, Egk's Die Zaubergeige and Reutter's Doktor Johannes Faust.

Ludwig Strecker
Strecker (right) in 1957, receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Freiburg
Born
Ludwig Emanuel Strecker

(1883-01-13)13 January 1883
Mainz, Germany
Died15 September 1978(1978-09-15) (aged 95)
Wiesbaden, Germany
Other namesLudwig Andersen
Education
Occupations
OrganizationSchott Music
AwardsOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Life

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Born Ludwig Emanuel Strecker in Mainz, he was interested in poetry and literature early in life.[1] He studied law at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Humboldt University of Berlin and Leipzig University, where he obtained his doctorate in 1906.[2]

After a stay abroad, Strecker became co-owner of the Schott music publishing house in Mainz in 1909,[1] which his father Ludwig Strecker had inherited from Franz Schott [de] in 1874. Strecker and his brother Wilhelm Strecker became directors in 1920,[1] and opened the publishing house for contemporary composers such as Paul Hindemith and Carl Orff.[3] They took over the management of Schott together when their father died in 1943.[2]

Under the pseudonym Ludwig Andersen, he also worked as a librettist and translator of libretti.[2][3] Among the libretti he wrote for notable composers of the period, and then published, were Werner Egk's Die Zaubergeige, premiered in 1935 by the Oper Frankfurt, and Hermann Reutter's Doktor Johannes Faust, premiered also in Frankfurt in 1936; the two works were among the most successful German contemporary operas during the Nazi regime,[1] Die Zaubergeige being performed 198 times and Doktor Johannes Faust 116 times in Germany until 1945.[3] This success established Schott as a leading publisher of stage works.[1] Strecker translated Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's opera Gli dei a Tebe for its world premiere at the Staatsoper Hannover in 1943.[3][4]

Strecker's first wife was Friedel Preetorius (1884–1938), the daughter of the Mainz entrepreneur and politician Wilhelm Preetorius [de].[2] Strecker died in Wiesbaden at age 95.[2]

Awards

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Librettos

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Levi, Erik (2002). "Andersen [Strecker], Ludwig". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O003914. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Strecker, Ludwig Emanuel". Hessische Biographie (in German). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d Estermann, Monika; Rautenberg, Ursula, eds. (2012). "Verbindungen zwischen Verlag und Komponisten". Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens (AGB). Walter de Gruyter. pp. 53–54. ISBN 978-3-11-092903-4.
  4. ^ Der Kuckuck von Theben (in German) ku-spiegel.de
  5. ^ Die Hochzeit des Jobs OCLC 72731146
  6. ^ Der Igel als Bräutigam OCLC 165577572

Further reading

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  • August Ludwig Degener; Walter Habel, eds. (1970). Wer ist wer? [The German Who's Who] (in German). Vol. 16. Berlin: Schmidt Rönhild. pp. 1295–1296. ISBN 3-7605-2007-3.
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