He was a German music teacher born in Berlin who entered military service in 1914 and became a prisoner-of-war in Siberia for the next 5 years. He kept many diaries about his life as a prisoner but also the more positive experiences of the culture and music.
He returned to Berlin in 1920 and resumed his life as a leading figure of the musicians’ guild in the youth music movement in Germany. He also worked as a primary school teacher where he often taught about poems, fairy tales, folk songs, music and dance.
In 1924 he took a year out to study music at the Charlottenburg Academy for Church and School Music which made him more involved in musician’s guild work. He took extensive tours with the choir in countries such as Holland, England and Norway and promoted a German-English partnership with his lifelong friend Rolf Gardiner in reviving English folk dances.
He agreed to become a music teacher at the reform educational school founded by Martin Luserke on the island of Juist in the Frisian Islands in the North Sea. However, in 1929 he decided to join the new Musikheim training school for music teachers in Frankfurt (Oder) where he held the position of the head teacher, remaining in that position until 1942.
in the 1930s he married Katherine Trevelyan and later became a father but in 1936 his wife and daughters returned to England and they were divorced around 1938. In 1950 he was married for a second time to Heidi Ringhardtz.
From 1952 he was involved in founding the Burg Fursteneck adult education centre and was the cultural and musical anchor for the educational program. One of the traditions that he started there was the maintaining of English country dances according to the baroque publisher John Playford. There is a study retreat that is still at the castle which bears his name.
He published several papers and books including Happy Choral Songs before 1940, Social Dance Book Volumes 1-3, German Choral Songs Volumes 1-3, Old Counter Dances and New Counter Dances along with many others.
His interest in folk and choral songs saw him writing the modern German version of the traditional Austrian Christmas lullaby “Still, Still, Still”.
By 1954 he had become seriously ill after having suffered health issues and kidney surgery several years earlier. He stayed with his brother in Friedrichshafen and died there in 1956 when he was 61 years old.
Paul Hill Chorale Recordings
Still, Still, Still (Traditional Austrian/Georg Goetsch)
Centaur CRC 2258 (CD: A Paul Hill Chorale Christmas)
Conductor – Paul Hill
Organist – Sondra Proctor
National Capital Brass and Percussion Ensemble
Sources:
- https://www.adjb-jugendmusikbewegung.de/georg-goetsch
- https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_G%C3%B6tsch
- https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&query=118695967
- https://www.burg-fuersteneck.de/home/
- https://www.discogs.com/artist/5358396-Georg-G%C3%B6tsch?filter_anv=1&anv=G%C3%B6tsch