Major information to be added to the short biographical sketch presented in the first brief article of four decades ago, is Distler's membership in the Nazi party, an affiliation that has been explored in several German sources (among them Hugo Distler im Dritten Reich: papers presented at a Symposium held in the Stadtbibliothek Lübeck on 29 September 1995 [Osnabrück: Universitätsverlag Rasch, 1997]; and Roman Summereder's far-reaching discussion of the Orgelbewegung, Aufbruch der Klänge [Innsbruck: Edition Helbling, 1995]).
Distler joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933; his party-affiliation number, 2.806.768. In a photograph taken at a parade on that date the young composer is shown marching with local Lübeck politicians, apparently conversing with his Marienkirche colleague Walter Kraft. Behind the two musicians is the pastor of St. Jakobi, Axel Werner Kühl with several ministers from the Aegidienkirche. [Symposium Papers, p. 58.]
Following the death of Distler's 86-year-old widow Waltraut [June 29, 1998], the respectful silence concerning the composer's Nazi connection came to an end. Frau Distler's burial in the cemetery of her post-war residence, Marquartstein in Oberbayern, meant that, even in death, her body would remain far apart from that of the husband whose reputation and legacy she had protected throughout so many years. For future Distler scholars the open acknowledgement of his political affiliation should allow a more honest assessment of the composer's life and creative struggles.
More important, however, to our understanding of Distler's place in the musical life of 20th-century Germany is the number of fine recordings of his music made available in recent years. Most of the major sacred choral works are now available on compact disc, including the a cappella Chorale Passion, opus 7 [Thorofon CTH 2185]; the Christmas Story, opus 10 [sung by the Leipzig Thomanerchor on Berlin Classics 0092462BC]; and the superb motets of the Sacred Choral Music, opus 12, including the Dance of Death, with its interspersed theatrical texts [Cantate C 58007 and Thorofon CTH 2215]. In addition, half of the 48 compositions comprising the Mörike-Chorliederbuch, opus 19, Distler's finest unaccompanied secular choral work, may be heard in an exemplary performance [Thorofon CTH 2231].
The complete organ works are available in two versions: one, played by Armin Schoof, was recorded in Distler's own Jakobikirche, using the (altered) instruments for which they were composed, including the composer's much-loved "small" Stellwagen organ (dating, in part, from 1467), and his 1938 Paul Ott house organ, now re-installed in Lübeck [Thorofon CTH 2293/2294]. American organist John Brock's recording fills out two discs with favorite Baroque works (by Bach, Buxtehude, and Scheidt) often played by Distler, using two organs built by John Brombaugh for Central Lutheran Church, Eugene, Oregon, and Christ Church Parish, Tacoma, Washington [Calcante Recordings, Ltd. 022].
The Harpsichord Concerto(s) [Thorofon CTH 2403] include Michael Töpel's editorial completion of the early Chamber Concerto for Harpsichord and Eleven Solo Instruments [1930-32] (first noted in print in my May 1969 Diapason article "Hugo Distler's Harpsichord Concerto"), as well as the better, and better-known Concerto for Harpsichord and String Orchestra, opus 14, the work branded as "degenerate" by official state reviewers at its performance during the Festival of German Church Music (Berlin, October 10, 1937). Both works are lovingly played by Martin Haselböck. An earlier LP recording of the work by the unforgettable harpsichordist Huguette Dreyfus with the Deutsche Bachsolisten [Bärenreiter Musicaphon, Rote Serie BM 30 SL 1204] still remains, for me, the preferred interpretation, but it does not include the "extra" middle movement [Allegro spirituoso e scherzando], deleted by the composer after the 1936 premiere in Hamburg, and not heard again until it was included as a "stand-alone" movement for my concert at the American Guild of Organists national convention in Minneapolis (1980). Compact disc format allows one to program or omit this rare movement.
Harpsichord is employed as concertante keyboard instrument in the Cantata, opus 11/1 Wo Gott zu Haus nit gibt sein Gunst, heard on a disc of Liturgical Settings [Thorofon CTH 2420]. Among the 21 works in this compilation it is a special joy to encounter again the Nürnberg Great Gloria, one of the loveliest of Distler's occasional pieces, and one of the works that most captivated my ears when I first heard it on a recording made by Wilhelm Ehmann and his Westfalian Kantorei in the late 1950s [Cantate T72714 LP]. Here the composer has notated the fourth tone Gloria plainsong chant for a solo soprano, and superimposed it above the chorale Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr. The result is a lovely, impressionistic shimmer of sound, "pure Distler." Also welcome on this disc are several of the three-part motets from Der Jahrkreis, opus 5, composed for the composer's own children's choir at St. Jakobi.
Indeed at this time the only often-performed choral work not yet available on disc would appear to be A Little Advent Music (opus 4), my first English-language Distler score to be published in this country by Concordia Publishing House (St. Louis). A recording of the composer's String Quartet, opus 20/I (and its alternate version for two pianos, opus 20/II) also would be welcome.
A few previously-unknown works by Distler have surfaced during the past 40 years. Four additional short organ works--chorale preludes and chorale harmonizations--are included in the complete recordings. An incomplete third partita, Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, exists as a 14-page fragment in the Distler-Archiv; part of this 1933 work was used as the Ricercar for the three-movement work on the same chorale published in the composer's collection of shorter chorale-based works, opus 8/III.
Among the more significant works to be added to the canon of Distler compositions is a work for solo flute Es ist ein Schnitter, heisst der Tod, a German folk song theme with twelve variations intended to serve as instrumental pitch "reminders" during performances of the Totentanz motet. The work had been hidden away in a trunk, forgotten since a 1934 performance in Kassel. Rediscovered in 1976, it was published by the Bärenreiter Verlag, Distler's publisher for all works after opus 4.
There are no known recordings of the composer playing his own music, but his performances of organ works by Michael Praetorius (O lux beata trinitas), Johann Pachelbel (Fantasie in G), and Froberger (a Ricercare, mislabeled on the disc as a Frescobaldi Canzona) were preserved on May 10, 1935 during sessions at the Gothic organ in Kiedrich. These rarities were reissued as the eighth side of four LPs comprising all of Distler's published organ works, played on Ott organs by organist Arno Schön-stedt. The boxed set was released by Berlin publisher Uwe Pape (Das Komponistenportrait 1001: FSM 83781, Pape 8101) in 1978. An accompanying booklet, lavishly illustrated, contains extensive material about Distler, his organ works, his 15-stop house organ, and the organ builder Paul Ott (including a complete chronological listing of his instruments).
In 1992, fifty years after Hugo Dist-ler's suicide, the German government honored him with a 100 Pfennig postage stamp. Framed in lavender, the design features a 1936 charcoal sketch of the composer imposed on the autograph score of his chorale setting Wir danken dir, Herr Jesu Christ for three children's voices.
In 2002, "sixty years later," we honor Hugo Distler by continuing to program his haunting, individual music. Celebrate the composer by listening to the utter simplicity of Lo How a Rose (The Christmas Story), the consoling purity of Blessed are the Dead (Jahrkreis), or the blazing exultation of the ending to the Organ Partita on Wake, Awake. Distler's music, rather than our words, provides both memorial and continuing legacy.n
