Carl Puttmann, music teacher/composer, leads the Adelaide Liedertafel for 20 years from 1866
Adelaider Liedetafel, formed in 1858, is the longest continuous male choir in Australia.
Image courtesy Adelaider Liedertafel choir.
Carl (Charles) Puttmann rose to eminence in 19th Century Adelaide as music teacher and composer.
He was the Cologne-born son of Hermann Puttman, a literary staff member of Cologne Gazette, who was forced by civil unrest in 1848-49 to emigrate to England and then Melbourne where he was a prominent contributor to local German newspapers.
Carl Puttmann studied violin under the best Victorian teachers, and by 1858 was playing professionally. He accompanied the Lyster Opera Company on its first grand tour through New Zealand and Australia.
During that tour in 1863, he dedcided to stay in Adelaide and set himself up as a music and singing teacher.
In 1865, he married a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Loessel, and in 1866 became conductor of the Adelaide Liedertafel, a post he held for 20 years. The society’s first performance under his baton was also the first amateur opera in Adelaide: Die Mordgrundbruck bei Dresden at the Theatre Royal in 1868.
Putmann also gained repute as a composer. His Victorian Cantata was composed for the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition of 1887. It opened with variations on Carl Linger’s “The Song of Australia” and ended with a fuge on “God Save the Queen”.
Puttmann taught music at St Peter’s College, Prince Alfred College and Christian Brothers’ College as well as large private practice. He was frequently called upon to accompany visiting soloists on violin.
Puttmann died after a horse carriage accident coming back from Belair national park in 1898. The Liedertafel sang at his Mitcham Cemetery grave the chorus the late musician had taught them years before: “Es ist bestimmt Gottes Rath” by Ernst Freiherr von Feuchtersleben.
