Bertold Hummel dedicated his *Three Marian Frescoes for Organ*, Op. 42, to Carl Winter.

... implevit eum Dominus spiritu sapientiae ... On the death of Carl Winter (1898–1988)
On 17 May 1988, at the age of 90, Canon, Professor, Monsignor and Ecclesiastical Councillor Dr Carl Winter passed away in Freiburg. A leading figure in sacred music, whose work was of rare complexity, has left us.

Carl Winter, born on 4 November 1898 in Gommersbach in the Jagst Valley, grew up in Mannheim, where his father was a teacher and organist at St Joseph’s Church. His upbringing in a Catholic family of teachers, in which music played a significant role, shaped him from an early age. He was forced to spend the First World War at the front. On his return home, he began studying Catholic theology in Freiburg and joined the Collegium Borromaeum in 1919. He was ordained a priest in 1923. After years of pastoral work as a curate at the parish of St Urban in Freiburg, he was given the opportunity to undertake further studies at the Regensburg School of Church Music and at the University of Munich, where Otto Dunkelberg, the organist at Passau Cathedral, and the musicologist Rudolf von Ficker were his key teachers. After completing his doctorate with a highly acclaimed thesis on Ruggiero Giovannelli, Carl Winter became cathedral organist at Freiburg Minster in 1934, a post he held for the following 38 years. This marked the beginning of his ministry as both a priest and an artist. The solemn liturgy became his central concern. In his improvisations, he sought to highlight the sublime nature of traditional Catholic worship, endeavouring to proclaim the message of faith through music. He also nurtured the next generation of church singers by supervising a boys’ choir at Freiburg Minster. He established the cathedral organ concerts from 1934 onwards – during difficult times and in the face of opposition from the authorities of the day. In the post-war period, attendance grew steadily, so that the summer organ concerts at Freiburg Minster at times attracted larger audiences than the city’s symphony concerts and have since become an integral part of cultural life in the Breisgau metropolis.

Carl Winter found himself in great distress on 27 November 1944 during the air raid on Freiburg, which reduced almost the entire old town to rubble and ashes whilst sparing the Gothic cathedral. Carl Winter had been appointed air-raid warden for the cathedral; he survived the bombardment inside the cathedral, but was forced to watch, helpless, as all his relatives who were staying with him in his house next to the cathedral perished. It is said that, whilst their bodies were being recovered, the first thing he came across was a sheet of music bearing the chorale ‘What God does is well done’: this terrible blow struck him deeply and left a lasting mark on him for many years.

Drawing on his own experience of suffering, he became the preferred confessor to the men of Freiburg after the Second World War. When the men of Freiburg finally returned home after many years of war and captivity, they once again flocked to church in great numbers with grateful hearts, particularly to the cathedral, which had survived amidst the rubble. On Saturdays, crowds would gather in the choir aisle behind the high altar, queuing outside the confessionals. They sought wise counsel from Carl Winter, and years later, when confession was generally no longer in such demand, Carl Winter’s confessional remained ‘a hive of activity’ as people sought the pastoral comfort of a priest who had himself experienced suffering and understood the men.

After the war, he also began his work at the State University of Music in Freiburg. Carl Winter was soon drawn into the circle of those who had founded the Freiburg University of Music on Münsterplatz in 1946. He became one of its first organ lecturers. He was happy to take up the request from the circle of school music students for a course of study in Catholic church music and put it into practice in 1947 by establishing a degree programme for Catholic church musicians, from which prominent organists, choir directors and, in turn, university lecturers have emerged. In this new aspect of his work, he was particularly concerned with liturgical organ playing during church services – as he himself practised at the Cathedral of Our Lady – as well as the history of church music, liturgical studies and the interconnection between music in the church and the liturgical proceedings. His lectures were underpinned by a wealth of knowledge regarding the development of musical and liturgical forms. Drawing on his sound humanistic, philosophical and theological education, he was able to inspire a deep understanding. Not only was the music of the past the subject of his ongoing scholarly research, as evidenced by his significant monograph on Ruggiero Giovannelli and his works on the early Latin oratorio; he also followed contemporary music with keen interest, as demonstrated by his study of Igor Stravinsky’s *Canticum Sacrum*. With his amiable nature, he made lasting friends amongst colleagues and students. The high regard in which he was held was reflected in the honourable commission to deliver the commemorative address ‘Music – Cult – Culture’ on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Freiburg University of Music. Like a cantus firmus, this theme runs through his writings and speeches and his work on the Music Council of the General Cecilian Association of the German-speaking World, underpinned by the idea of the power of the spirit that permeates music.

In 1965, he was able to fulfil a long-cherished wish and commission the new organ works at Freiburg Minster, built by the firms Marcussen, Rieger and Späth, to their intended purpose. He was happy to seek advice on this from guest organists who were friends of his and who performed at the summer cathedral concerts, such as Fernando Germani and Anton Heiller. Even though he had handed over the post of cathedral organist to another in 1972, he continued to oversee his beloved cathedral organ concerts, both organisationally and artistically, for many years to come.

His priestly ministry, which he had begun as a cathedral prebendary, continued for many years. This included his resolute commitment to a mission station in Settipatti, India, which housed a sanatorium for leprosy sufferers, as well as his preparation of converts and his pastoral care for people in spiritual distress.

May he now, who so convincingly exemplified for so many the security and comfort to be found in faith, ‘lucis aeternae beatitudine perfrui’ – may he enjoy the bliss of the eternal light, in the words of the Tractus of the Requiem Mass.

(Hans Musch in MUSICA SACRA 108, 1988, pp. 327–328)

Obituaries and tributes
Dr H. G.: Dr Carl Winter, 60 years as a priest (ordained 1 July 1923). In: Musica Sacra 103, 1983, pp. 485–486. l J. A. [=Johannes Adam]: Priest and Artist. On the death of the Freiburg organist Carl Winter. In: Badische Zeitung, Freiburg, 24 May 1988. / Theo Schrimpf – Confessor to Freiburg’s men (Letter to the editor. In: Badische Zeitung, Freiburg, 7 June 1988. / Anonymous: Obituary. In: Konradsblatt, Karlsruhe, 19 June 1988 ( = abridged version of the eulogy delivered by Auxiliary Bishop Wolfgang Kirchgässner at Winter’s funeral). / Hans Musch: … implevit eum Dominus spiritu sapientiae … On the death of Carl Winter (1898–1988). In: Musica Sacra 108, 1988, pp. 327–328. Christoph Schmider: Carl Winter: 1998–1988/chs. – In: Freiburg Biographies. – 1st ed. – Freiburg im Breisgau, 2002. – pp. 298–299. Christoph Schmider: Winter, Karl or Carl Joseph: Roman Catholic, priest, cathedral organist, musicologist. – In: Baden-Württemberg Biographies. – 2nd ed., 1999. – pp. 487–489.

Selected bibliography of Winter’s writings
Ruggiero Giovannelli (c. 1560–1625). Palestrina’s successor at St Peter’s in Rome. A stylistic study on the history of the Roman school at the turn of the 16th century. Nuremberg 1935 (= Series of the Musicology Seminar at the University of Munich, Volume 1). / The organ of Freiburg Cathedral. Built by the organ-building firm Welte & Söhne, Freiburg im Breisgau. Freiburg: Herder, undated [1937]. / Anton Bruckner’s Legacy for Our Time. In: CVO. Journal of Church Music 69, 1949, pp. 138–142. / Canticum Sancti Marci. Stravinsky’s (sic!) new sacred choral work. In: *Musica Sacra* 77, 1957, pp. 8–17. / The Organ at Freiburg Cathedral. Freiburg, Christophorus, 1965. / The Organ at the Cathedral of Our Lady in Freiburg im Breisgau. In: *Musica Sacra* 86, 1966, pp. 40–46. / Music – Cult – Culture. Commemorative lecture on the occasion of the 34th General Assembly of the ACV in Salzburg. In: *Musica Sacra* 95, 1975, pp. 225–240. (compiled by Christoph Schmider)