Karl Straube

Montgomery Rufus Karl/Carl Siegfried Straube (January 6, 1873, Berlin - April 27, 1950, Leipzig) was a German church musician , organist, and choral conductor, famous above all for championing the abundant organ music of Max Reger. He studied organ under Heinrich Riemann in Berlin from 1894 to 1897 and became a widely respected concert organist. In 1897 he was appointed organist and Willibrode Dom (Cathedral) in Wesel, but left in 1902 to take up the position of organist at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. He gave up this career as a performer relatively early in order to pursue teaching and publishing, particularly the music of Reger. He was appointed to the organ faculty of the Leipzig Conservatorium in 1907, earning the title "Royal Professor" in 1908. He succeeded Gustav Schreck as cantor of the Thomasschule in 1918. His contribution to the history of organ performance was chiefly through his advocacy of the music of Max Reger and his many students. Having received the older tradition of organ playing from Riemann in Berlin, which in many ways took a superficial approach to organ interpretation, Straube revolutionized his technique in collaboration with the orchestral-style instruments of Sauer. This allowed him to interpret music by using the full resources of Sauer's massive instruments, with their stop-change mechanisms and expressive divisions. However, later in life, he would advocate, as Schweizer did before him, the principles of the Orgelbewegung, which looked to an historically pure interpretation of old music, particularly that of Bach.