{"id":618,"date":"2022-09-01T15:37:22","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T13:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mugi.lu\/composer\/helen-buchholtz\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T14:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T12:33:10","slug":"helen-buchholtz","status":"publish","type":"composer","link":"https:\/\/mugi.lu\/en\/subject\/helen-buchholtz\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen Buchholtz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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1877 – 1953<\/h3>\n\n\n

Helen Buchholtz<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Born in 1877 in Esch\/Alzette, Charlotte Helena, called Helen, was the fifth and last child of a middle-class family. With her father Daniel Buchholtz \u2013 owner of a hardware store and founder of the Buchholtz brewery \u2013, her mother Th\u00e9r\u00e8se and her siblings, young Helen lived in a house in the Avenue de la Gare (today 22 Boulevard John F. Kennedy). Little is known about the Buchholtz sisters\u2019 childhood and youth, but it can be assumed that they received a solid basic education, which included piano, violin and solfeggio lessons. Since the Conservatory in Esch did not exist at that time, Helen very likely had private tuition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After her time at the girls\u2019 boarding school in Longwy, which Helen attended for some time in the early 1890s, she returned to her parental home. As her nephew Fran\u00e7ois Ettinger later reported, Helen devoted almost her entire time to playing the piano and composing. An Ave Maria<\/em> (1913) is her earliest datable work.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In 1914, at the age of 36 and thus quite late for the time, Helen Buchholtz married the German physician Bernhard Geiger and moved to Wiesbaden. Here the St\u00e4dtisches Kurorchester Wiesbaden performed some of her works. With settings of the Luxembourgish poet Siggy vu Letzeburg, Buchholtz published her first songs in 1916 with the publisher Felix Krein in Esch. These were followed by three more songs published in Wiesbaden. After the sudden death of her husband in 1921, Buchholtz continued to live in Wiesbaden for a few years before purchasing a villa in Luxembourg City in the mid-1920s and moving back to her homeland. The childless widow was financially secure throughout her life and never had to work to gain a living. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1920s and 1930s, especially the march Aus frohen Tagen<\/em> and the I<\/em>st<\/em><\/sup> Valse<\/em> for harmony orchestra were quite popular and regularly performed by the Luxembourgish Military Band and the Municipal brass band of Esch. Furthermore, Buchholtz published settings of the poet Willy Goergen in 1924 and 1936, as well as three male choruses in 1927. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Mit Do\u2019deg Dierfer<\/em> von Albert Elsen vertonte Buchholtz eines der eindr\u00fccklichsten Gedichte der luxemburgischen Nachkriegsliteratur. Das Lied wurde 1949 ver\u00f6ffentlicht und in der zeitgen\u00f6ssischen Presse au\u00dfergew\u00f6hnlich ausf\u00fchrlich und durchweg positiv rezensiert; es stellt das letzte kompositorische Zeugnis der Komponistin dar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total, Helen Buchholtz left behind an extensive \u0153uvre of around 140 compositions, with a focus on songs for voice and piano in German and Luxembourgish, works for solo piano and orchestral works. However, only a fraction of her work was performed during her lifetime \u2013 primarily her songs in Luxembourgish and her works for brass orchestra, which was music that corresponded to the contemporary taste of the broad Luxembourg society. On the other hand, her piano works, including numerous sonatas and character pieces as well as the many settings of German poets (especially Anna Ritter) were kept under lock and key throughout her life. These were only recorded after the composer\u2019s rediscovery in 1998 and are regularly performed in concert. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Text: Noemi Deitz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to cite:<\/strong> Deitz, Noemi: Helen Buchholtz, in: Music and Gender in <\/span>Luxembourg, ed. by Sonja Kmec, Danielle Roster and Anne Schiltz. URL: https:\/\/mugi.lu\/en\/subject\/helen-buchholtz\/<\/a><\/span> (published online 17.12.2022, last accessed \u2026)<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t