Retired Domkapellmeister and church music director Konrad Wagner died in Dresden at the age of 91. For more than 40 years Wagner was the director of the Dresdner Kapellknaben and responsible for the church music at the former court church, since 1980 cathedral of the diocese of Dresden-Meißen. The city awarded him the Art Prize in 1995 for his services to music in Dresden, in 2001 he received the Saxon Merit Medal and in 2014 the Pope awarded him the Order of Gregory.
As a ten-year-old Wagner came from Sebnitz to the Kapellknaben in Dresden. He was enthusiastic about the great history of Dresden court and court church music, and he felt a lifelong commitment to its tradition. He had to witness how the National Socialists closed the St. Benno-Gymnasium, the musicians of the Staatskapelle forbade the participation in the court church and the church the accommodation of the chapel boys in the clerical house in the Schlossstrasse. As a high school graduate in the destroyed city, he looked after the ten boys at the time and performed their first musical services.
Always open to new ideas
After completing his studies, in 1955 he took over the direction of the choir and the position of organist. He used the opportunity to expand the choir, to have the outsourced Silbermann organ built into the church again. For him, maintaining tradition also means being open to new things. The addition of own male voices and the liturgical changes after the council led to an expansion of the repertoire. German motets were added to the Latin chants. Heinrich Schütz, as the former Saxon court conductor, was one of them, as were contemporary composers. Georg Trexler and Helge Jung composed especially for Wagner and “his” band boys. Together with today’s cathedral choir, which he founded, large orchestral masses were performed again on solemn festivals and special holidays. Conscious of tradition, he ensured the participation of musicians from the Staatskapelle and the soloists from the opera ensemble.
Since the 1960s, the band boys have been performing the high mass every Sunday in the former court church, and regular concert tours have taken them across the GDR. Wagner, appointed from the instructor to the cathedral choirmaster and then to the cathedral music director and church music director, was an important figure and authority in the church music scene in the GDR. The Dresden Kapellknaben, established as an important instrument in the cathedral, increasingly appeared in the non-church environment.
Concert in front of the UN in New York
Before the Wall came down, they were allowed to perform in Austria and France. The highlights were the 1992 reception by Pope John Paul II and the appearance on the UN anniversary in New York in 1995. In addition to the expanded travel options, the Peaceful Revolution also offered the opportunity to rebuild the Catholic St. Benno High School. Wagner was the driving force behind the initiative, promoted the new school, was chairman of the school board for many years and never tired of referring to the school’s tradition and the connection between the school and the Kapellknaben.
Even after Wagner had given up the duties of cathedral music director, he remained committed and interested. Generations of band boys, who were band boys under his direction and who often love and honor him like a father, will carry on his memory.
The Requiem for Konrad Wagner will be celebrated on Friday, September 17th, at 11 a.m. in the Dresden Cathedral. The funeral will take place at 1 p.m. in the Old Catholic Cemetery.
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