“Folk music in difficult times” was the name of the first record released in 1983 Fraunhofer string music. One might smile when comparing the situation in the music business then and now, but in this genre it was an expression of a revolutionary program at the time. Richard Kurländer, the founder and leader of the group, wanted to free traditional folk music from the clutches of folk music. As can be seen from his appearance, Kurländer did not wear a traditional costume, but rather alternative clothes and – until the end – very long hair.
The Fraunhofer Saitenmusik was also the first group to go far beyond the previously narrow Alpine boundaries in its repertoire and dealt with Irish folklore, early music and Russian folk music. The trio with Kurländer on the harp as well as the Appenzeller and Salzburg dulcimer, Heidi Zink on the dulcimer and recorder and Gerhard Zink on the double bass – later expanded into a quartet with the guitarist Michael Klein – not only broke new musical ground, but even achieved success a young audience. For decades. And performed all over the world, from India to South Africa to Haiti.
For Kurländer himself, this career was, so to speak, the third educational opportunity. Born in Munich in 1948, initially raised alone by his father, who died very early, and then raised by his grandparents, he first had to do something “safe” which led to a middle-level civil service career. Since his teenage years, however, inspired by Donovan and Bob Dylan, the guitar had demanded more and more space in his life, turning him into a “weekend bum through the streets of Schwabing with a harmonica and twelve-string guitar,” as he later described it.
The turning point came in 1971 when he heard Arthur Loibl and Wolfram Kunkel at the Chinese Tower “for the first time how beautiful instruments can sound without amplifiers and noise.” He first turned to folk music, then the dulcimer and finally the harp, which became his main instrument.
The first steps took place at the MUH until the Fraunhofer opened its doors in 1974 and became his second home. Literally, because in 1976 he resigned as a civil servant, moved into two empty rooms in the theater as a tenant (after twelve years he moved to Unterhaching), and initially presented his work Fraunhofer Stubnmusi mentioned troupe is the house band.
He also earned money as a music teacher, and in 1979 the final Fraunhofer Saitenmusik came together with the Zinks. Which was also the nucleus for another groundbreaking thing that Kurländer concocted with Fraunhofer host Beppi Bachmaier in 1990: the “Fraunhofer Folk Music Days”. Under Kurländer’s leadership, a week-long meeting of folk music fans turned into an almost two-month meeting of all conceivable folk music representatives from near and far.
For many years, until the death of Heidi Zink in 2013, the Fraunhofer Saitenmusik traditionally played the prelude – increasingly as a “classic”, Kurländer and his people remained true to the framework of traditional folk music and followed the steps of many others ( Quadro Nuevo for example) not included in the genre mix.
Richard Kurländer died last Friday after a long, serious illness. He was on leave from the hospital for a few days, sitting in his rocking chair and listening to music.