Martin Böttcher (born June 17, 1927, Berlin) is a German composer and conductor.

The Beginning

Böttcher (on foreign records and articles often written "Bottcher" or "Boettcher", latter being the correct transposition of that special German letter "ö") gained first musical experience when taking piano lessons at an early age. But his first passion was flying, and he wanted to become a test-pilot. Not yet seventeen years old, he got his military training in the German Luftwaffe. However, due to lack of fuel, he never went into action.

During captivity Martin Böttcher managed to get hold of a guitar and in do-it-yourself manner he learned how to play it. Following his release from captivity, he went to Hamburg. There he started his musical career with the then Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, in the dance and entertainment orchestra which had been newly created by Willi Steiner, and which was held in high esteem even in England.

At first Martin Böttcher concentrated on Jazz music, and he became the number two guitarist in a poll concerning the performance of German Jazz musicians. Already at that time, he gained important experience as an arranger for several famous film composers, e.g. Michael Jary or Hans-Martin Majewski , for whom he arranged part of the music for LIEBE 47.

The Early Years

In 1950, Martin Böttcher, who liked to work on new sounds, recorded the first trick guitar pieces in Germany in a style of Les Paul. In 1954 Böttcher left the music stand and turned to manuscript paper. The talent of Martin Böttcher did not escape the attention of the German film industry, which was just gaining new momentum at that time.

Thanks to producer Artur Brauner, Böttcher made his debut in 1955, by composing the music for the military satire DER HAUPTMANN UND SEIN HELD, and already his second soundtrack turned out to be a milestone of German film history. DIE HALBSTARKEN by Georg Tressler, starring Horst Buchholz, met with tremendous success. Martin Böttcher's Mr. Martin's Band comprised the top German jazz musicians, among them Horst Fischer, Fatty George, Bill Grah, Ernst Mosch or Hans 'James' Last .

Böttcher also composed for the great Hans Albers and Heinz Rühmann 's unforgotten 'Father Brown'-movies. In MAX, DER TASCHENDIEB (1962), the Hawaii Tattoo track was performed (on record with "The Waikikis "), which Böttcher had written under the pseudonym of Michael Thomas. Within a short time, this theme became famous all over the world, and even received attention in the US Bill Board Charts as the very first German track added there.

The Hit Writer

Martin Böttcher found his greatest success when he composed the music for the Karl May Western-movies in the 1960ies, ennobling ten of these films by his unique sound. The movies starred, among many others, American actor Lex Barker and British actor Stewart Granger. The audience was enthusiastic about the wistful tunes, the fanfare-like music accompanying attacks, and the cheerful hillbilly themes. Small wonder that these themes were in top positions in German hit-parades and selling thousands of copies of soundtrack-records. The Karl-May-movie-music can truly be called a landmark in German filmmusic-history. Only the success of these movies, with the successful music of Martin Böttcher, made possible the later so-called "Spaghetti Western" with the music of Ennio Morricone.

With the film industry declining at the end of the 1960s Martin Böttcher increasingly focused on working for German TV, which, at that time still being in its infancy, benefited from his talents as well in many series and TV shows.

In the 1970s Martin Böttcher wrote a number of successful soundtracks, among them music for the TV series Sonderdezernat K 1 (in parts today being used in Hilcona noodle commercials) or for numerous episodes of Der Alte and Derrick, which are also known outside Germany. He again encountered the name of Karl May when he wrote the soundtrack for the 26-episode Kara Ben Nemsi Effendi series. The author of Der Illegale (a TV mini-series), Henry Kolarz , said, "Even if I spoilt it—Böttcher's music is much too good for everything to go wrong."

Throughout the years that followed, Martin Böttcher composed yet more evergreen themes for TV-series, such as Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein (It doesn't always have to be caviar), Schöne Ferien (Beautiful holidays) or Forsthaus Falkenau . In the 1990s, among others, Air Albatros took off, which proved something special to the composer, for he could pay a musical tribute to his passion for flying. And when Pierre Brice mounted his horse again as Winnetou for the ZDF station, he was, of course, accompanied by a soundtrack by Martin Böttcher.

Even the Americans became aware of his perfomance as an arranger and orchestra director. When they heard his rendering of world-famous themes such as "Tara's Theme" or "A Summerplace", Martin Böttcher was made an honorary member of the Max Steiner Society. Of that one he is especially proud.

In 1998, the composer once more conquered German hit parades. A band from Cologne, the "Superboys", scored a hit with a vocal version of the "Winnetou" theme. Their song "Ich wünscht' du wärst bei mir" ("Wish U Were Here") even reached the top of the ZDF television hit parade. Another cover version by the Czech group Tezkej Pokondr called "Vinetu" even received double-platinum in their country in March 2000.

The "master of tunes" was honored in a very special way in 2002: as a jury member (Europäischer Förderpreis - a European talent award) Martin Böttcher represented Germany at that year's European Biennal for Film Music in Bonn.

Awards

• On October 9th, 1995, the Deutsche Filmmusikpreise (German movie-music-awards) were awarded at the Bonner Bundeskunsthalle. Martin Böttcher was honoured with the prize for an "outstanding contribution to German film history, which shows in an abundant musical ouvre" as the very first person to receive this prize (in later years also Mikis Theodorakis and Ennio Morricone were among the receivers).

• The continuous success of the Winnetou-themes was the reason why, at the Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg in 1997, the Schacht-Musikverlage honoured the tremendously successful composer with a "special award".

• On April 15, 2000, Martin Böttcher received the "Edgar Wallace-award in Gold" for his merits in German crime-movies and

• On January 25, 2004 Martin Böttcher was awarded in St. Moritz with the German Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit) for his lifetime achievement.

Literature

• Reiner Boller: Winnetou Melodie - Martin Böttcher - Die Biographie. Gryphon Verlag, 2003, 99 Seiten mit einem Vorwort von Pierre Brice. ISBN 3-896-024-442

External links

• Official homepage of Martin Böttcher
• Discography of Martin Böttcher (English)