Hess 310 Prelude for Organ in C Major
Through the kind assistance of Marta Crippa
Library Assistant
Library of the “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatory of Music
Via Conservatorio, 12
20122 Milan
Hess 310Prelude for Organ in C Major. A piece—cited exactly as we have presented it—is said to have been published in volume 87 of Kleine Praeludien, by Paul Honegger. [ A copy of this piece is held at the SBB. The edition in which it appears was prepared by Paul Homeyer (1853–1908), not “Honegger,” as Hess states. The prelude is not a work by Beethoven, but rather a slightly revised version of the final nine measures of the first prelude from Op. 39. It was listed as “No. 1” in the index of Homeyer’s publication, but without an opus number. It was published around 1900 by Steingräber Verlag in Leipzig, with later editions and distribution by Bowerman in London and Schuberth in New York. ]
Paul Homeyer was one of those musicians who did not seek fame, but depth. Born in 1853 in Osterode am Harz, he lived for the organ, for Bach, and for the seriousness of an art that allows no vanity. His figure—severe and intense—perfectly reflected his sound world: austere, monumental, yet surprisingly human.
Paul Homeyer was born on 26 October 1853 into a family in which the organ was not merely an instrument, but an inheritance. His father, Heinrich Homeyer, and his uncle, Josef Maria Homeyer, were both organists, and it was among pipes and pedals that young Paul learned to breathe music. After grammar‑school studies in Hildesheim, he moved to Göttingen and then to the Leipzig Conservatory, where he studied with Salomon Jadassohn and Benjamin Robert Papperitz—two names that embody the rigorous theoretical school of nineteenth‑century Germany.
In 1881, Homeyer began performing in the concerts organized by the Carl Riedel’scher Musikverein in Leipzig. His career gained momentum, and he soon became the official organist of the Gewandhaus concerts, one of Europe’s most prestigious musical institutions. He was not a salon virtuoso: his repertoire ranged from Bach to Schumann, from Mendelssohn to contemporary composers, always with a predilection for structure, spirituality, and depth. In 1903, King George of Saxony awarded him a special honor for his contribution to music.
Homeyer was not only a performer but also a teacher at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he trained generations of organists. He left no major treatises, nor did he seek to establish himself as a theorist. His teaching lay in sound, in gesture, in sobriety. He died on 27 July 1908 in Leipzig, leaving behind a trail of respect and admiration, but few tangible traces. Like many great performers, he lived in the musical moment, not in posterity.
Looking at his face—severe, lined, with eyes that seem to gaze into the infinite—one has the impression of standing before a man who listened to Bach not only with his ears, but with his conscience. Paul Homeyer was a bridge between Romanticism and the Baroque tradition, between Imperial Germany and the echo of Lutheran cantatas. A man who did not seek to please, but to serve.
