CASTELBERG, Martha Von

Martha von Castelberg, née von Orelli, was a Swiss composer and musician, born in Zürich on 5 April 1892. She grew up in a wealthy Catholic family and received violin lessons from Joseph Ebner, a member of the Zürich String Quartet, and later from the violinist and conductor Alexander Schaichet. Although her parents did not permit her to pursue professional musical studies, she taught herself to play the piano and began composing at an early age. Her earliest surviving songs date from 1912.
In 1920 she married the lawyer Victor von Castelberg, with whom she had two sons. Her connection with Disentis and the Surselva region became an important source of cultural and spiritual inspiration. She maintained close contact with Catholic religious institutions and with Romansh-language writers, whose poetry she set to music.
Castelberg composed more than seventy works, concentrating principally on vocal music. Her deeply held Catholic faith inspired sacred songs and approximately twenty motets on Latin and German religious texts. The four-part a cappella writing of these motets reflects the influence of Palestrina and the ideals of the Cecilian movement, while their expressive harmonies reveal an individual twentieth-century musical language.
Her secular songs include settings of German and Romansh poetry, such as Die wilde Biene, Alpen-Enziane, Bitte, Il pur suveran and Allas steilas. During 1947 and 1948 she composed a Mass for soloists, choir and orchestra, as well as a short piano sonata. Her late works include the songs Dämmerung and Die Nachtigall and Domine, non sum dignus for alto and orchestra, recorded in 1968 by the Swiss contralto Elsa Cavelti.
Only a small part of Castelberg’s music was published during her lifetime, including Sieben geistliche Lieder in 1947 and a collection of choral works in 1953. Her manuscripts are now being preserved and prepared for publication by the Martha von Castelberg Foundation. She died in Zürich on 1 October 1971.