Rosenthal, Robert

Robert Rosenthal (born 1954 in Cologne)

After largely self-taught beginnings on the piano, I received three years of primary training in organ playing from the Cologne cantor and composer Günter Hempel, before transferring to the ''Rheinische Musikschule'' at the age of 16 and becoming a student of Wolfram Gehring (organ) and Bojidar Dimov (ear training, harmony, composition). While still a student at the ''Dreikönigsgymnasium'', I became organist at the ''Romanesque Basilica of St. Gereon'' in Cologne and remained so while studying Romance and German Studies at the University of Cologne. In 1985, I got a job as a teacher of French and German at the ''Collegium Augustinianum Gaesdonck'', the boarding high school on the Lower Rhine. At the same time, music continued to play an important role in my life, especially after my retirement from teaching in 2007 due to a diagnosed Parkinson's disease. There is no doubt that music, especially organ playing, contributed significantly to mitigating the course of this disease.


The Gaesdonck Organ Book

The "Gaesdoncker Orgelbuch" is a collection of organ compositions that I wrote for church music use. The pieces are of varying difficulty, mostly easy to moderately difficult, so that they can be used in organ lessons of the first years of learning. In addition to free organ pieces (Kleine Orgelmusik für Elise, Sonatine, Rhapsodie über ein litauisches Volkslied, "Kölsche Tön" für Orgel, etc.), there are pieces that relate to songs from the ''Gotteslob''. They are suitable for the opening of the mass, as preludes to congregational singing, as interpolated meditations or postludes. They were also used in masses on the Gaesdonck organs. Mostly I designed them for a specific Gaesdonck occasion, e.g. for the mass on the first day of a school year, for the welcome or farewell of a colleague, for an anniversary or the thanksgiving mass of the high school graduates. For the arrangement of the traditional Sunday Mass at 9:45 a.m. or the school Masses during the week, which I occasionally took over, I kept coming up with ideas, sometimes only cursorily jotting them down and collecting them. Many of these miniatures I only worked out for the planned publication in the Gaesdonck Organ Book. Thus, from 1985 onwards, this present collection gradually came into being, in parallel with my time in Gaesdonck as a teacher of French and German. I wrote most of the compositions after leaving teaching, and new pieces are still being added. Following the example of French composers (Guilmant, Tournemire) who published their organ collections in individual deliveries ("livraisons"), the pieces were originally intended to appear in 7 thematic booklets. Instead, I decided to publish them in the online music library Musicalion.com, where they are available for download and printing to anyone interested for the duration of a membership. For many of the posted organ pieces there are audio samples in MP3 format, which I recorded on the organ of the Gaesdoncker Klosterkirche.

In addition to these organ pieces, "Musicalion.com" also contains many of my compositions for piano, electric piano or synthesizer (e.g. the collection of 24 "Children's Songs" for piano or keyboard), horn etudes or Christmas music for wind ensembles and choir. I am happy to be able to share my music with others thanks to Musicalion. If you like, feel free to send me feedback on your experiences with my pieces.


Gaesdonck, April 2023 Robert Rosenthal