Ernst Pepping

His music includes works for instruments (three symphonies), the church (the motet Jesus und Nikodemus, the Missa Dona nobis pacem), and collections including the Spandauer Chorbuch (Spandau choir book) and the three volume Großes Orgelbuch (Great Organ Book), which provides pieces for the entire liturgical year.

Ernst Pepping studied at Berlin University of the Arts. The recorded working language is German. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are symphony. Employment is recorded with Berlin University of the Arts. Distinctions recorded are Berliner Kunstpreis and Honorary doctor of the Free University of Berlin.

Born Ernst Heinrich Franz Pepping in Duisburg, Pepping first studied to be a teacher. From 1922 to 1926 he studied composition at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik with Walter Gmeindl, a pupil of Franz Schreker. Pepping composed mostly instrumental music until 1928. In 1926 his works Kleine Serenade für Militärorchester (Little serenade for military band) and Suite für Trompete, Saxophon und Posaune (Suite for trumpet, saxophone and trombone) were premiered at the Donaueschinger Musiktage. He received the composition award of the Mendelssohn Foundation. In 1929 his Choralsuite (Chorale suite) was first performed in Duisburg and well received. • Illustration — Tomb in Berlin In 1934, Pepping accepted a position as teacher of harmony, sight-reading and counterpoint at the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule of the Protestant Johannesstift Berlin in Spandau, where he lived until his death. Among his many students were Helmut Barbe and Erhard Egidi. Pepping also taught at the Berliner Hochschule from 1935 to 1938 as a professor of church music and composition. He had ties to the Confessing Church and wrote a great deal of music on German texts. In 1938, after a 1937 Church Music Festival in which he participated, he composed a German mass, Deutsche Messe: Kyrie Gott Vater in Ewigkeit (German Mass: Kyrie God Father in Eternity), which stressed the German nation, and which also followed the Party line. During World War II, even during its final phase, Pepping was included in the Gottbegnadeten list of artists deemed crucial to the art of the Third Reich, and was therefore exempted from military service. Pepping taught again at the Berliner Hochschule from 1947 to 1968. He retired in 1968 and also stopped composing. He died in Spandau and is buried in Berlin's Friedhof Heerstraße Cemetery.

• Three symphonies (recorded on cpo) 1932, 1942 (F minor), 1944 (E-flat) (Die Tageszeiten) • A piano concerto (1950) • Variations for orchestra (pub. 1949) • Zwei Orchesterstücke über ein Chanson des Binchois (1958) • Masses, motets and other works for liturgical use including • Deutsche Choralmesse (1931) • Und ist ein Kind geboren, motet (1936) • Ein jegliches hat seine Zeit, three motets from Leviticus (1937) • Jesus und Nikodemus, motet on gospel text (1938) • Deutsche Messe (1938) • Missa Dona nobis pacem (1948) • Heut und ewig Liederkreis nach Gedichten von Goethe for a cappella choir • A setting of the Te Deum (1956) • Die Weihnachtsgeschichte des Lukas, a cappella choir (1959) • Passionsbericht des Matthäus, a cappella choir (1960) • A setting of the Psalm 23 (published 1962) • Organ works (a CD of which was released by cpo in 1992, including his second concerto for organ, the Chorale Partita, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern on "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern", four fugues, and the partita Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig on "Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig") • Organ Sonata (pub. 1958), other works • Three Fugues on BACH (pub. 1949) • Großes Orgelbuch I: Advent & Christmas (pub. 1941) • Großes Orgelbuch II: Passion (pub. 1941) • Großes Orgelbuch III: Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Michaelmas (pub. 1941) • Kleines Orgelbuch (pub. 1941) • Piano works • Sonatine (1931) • Sonata for piano (pub. 1937) • Songs • Liederbuch nach Gedichten von Paul Gerhard for mezzo-soprano & piano (1946) • Haus- und Trostbuch für Singstimme und Klavier (settings by Brentano, Goethe etc.) (1949)

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