Erwin Walther was able to handle text well. He had an unmistakable intuition as to when and where music fitted or not fitted. He didn’t want to cover up with music the literary original or the play, or meaninglessly modify it. His intensive analysis of texts often only led him to illustrate and accompany them if this was stylistically needed. If not, he always composed a demonstrating tune which kept its originality. Walther’s taste and his historical and literary knowledge was quite subtle leading him to almost always finding the right tone whereby he never extended his composition over and above the text. Walther’s most amazing quality was his talent for improvising which he predominantly performed using the piano. During a stage performance he more than once was sitting on the piano to elaborate the corresponding prelude, interlude, and postlude freely or was redesigning existing tunes spontaneously. Doing all that the timelines remained strictly within what was agreed upon with the director.

Erwin Walther composed a range of songs for cabarets, partly falling back to the twenties and partly aiming for something new. His music often leads beyond the text, sharpening its themes. His humour is harder, more gripping, and lucid. The musical scale reaches from briskly dabbed-along marching pace to elegiac-ironical melodies.

Walther’s working for television, which intensely occupied him for twenty years, demonstrates his knowledge of the historically developed forms and concepts, which re-emerged in present time. There is a need for adaptation to the communication medium, which wants to show and to entertain while maintaining its originality. Walther committed himself to this compromise without losing himself in it. With many productions he was lucky that they were ready for the experiment.

Text following: Werner Simon: H.E. Erwin Walthers Musik für Bühne, Hörfunk und Fernsehen, in: Bieler, Emmerig, Kraus, Simon: Komponisten in Bayern, Band 36, Tutzing 1998