Wilhelm Rettich

Wilhelm Rettich was born on 3 July 1892 in Leipzig (Germany). The family was of Jewish faith and the famous ethnomusicologist Abraham Zevi Idelsohn belonged to the maternal side of the family. After his school Wilhelm Rettich was meant to study medicine, but enrolled at the Leipzig conservatory and studied music under Carl Wendling (piano), Max Reger (composition), Hans Sitt (conducting) and Richard Hofmann (instrumentation). He completed his studies in 1912 and first worked as a repetiteur at the local city theatre. In 1913 he became kapellmeister in Wilhelmshaven. After the outbreak of World War I Wilhelm Rettich was drafted for military service and already in September 1914 captured in Russia. He was jailed in a prisoner-of-war camp in Sibiria. Wilhelm Rettich had to stay there for 3 years and was freed after the February Revolution in 1917. He remained in Russia and lived in Chita for the next years where he worked as a piano teacher. In 1920 Wilhelm Rettich started his return to Germany which took him to Shanghai, Trieste and Vienna. In 1922 he finally returned to Leipzig where he again worked as the city theatre. Over the next years Wilhelm Rettich remained migrant and worked as a kapellmeister in Plauen, Slupsk, Kaliningrad, Bremerhaven and Szczecin. In 1933 the Nazi regime came into power and Wilhelm Rettich immediately decided to emigrate. He moved to Amsterdam where he was appointed head of the orchestra class as well as lecturer for music theory and piano at the Haarlemse Muziek Instituut. After in the invasion of Nazi Germany into the Netherlands in 1940, Wilhelm Rettich lost all his positions and had to go into hiding for the next five years. After the end of World War II Wilhelm Rettich remained in the Netherlands, became conductor of the Hoofdstad Operette and had different other jobs. But his professional success was moderate and so Wilhelm Rettich returned to Germany in 1964 and settled near Baden-Baden. In Germany he received the adequate appreciation: Among several awards he received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and became honorary citizen of Baden-Baden.
Wilhelm Rettich died on 27 December 1988 in Sinzheim (Germany).

In my possession are the autograph manuscripts of the songs "Rondeel" and "Namen" for voice and piano.

The work "Rondeel" belongs to the song cycle "5 songs op.45" and is the number 4 in the order. Curiously the autograph manuscript numbers the work op.44 No.4. The text of the song is by A. D. M. Binnendijk.

The work "Namen" belongs to the song cycle "7 songs op.47" and is the number 4 in the order. The song cycle remained unpublished and I could not find the titles of the other songs of the work. The text for this song was written by P. C. Bonteus.

Curiously both songs were later published as part of a cycle titled "3 songs op.83a" together with the song Zomernacht in an instrumentation for voice, viola and piano.