Austria on Music Theory Print

Adalbert Gyrowetz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Adalbert Gyrowetz (; 20 February 1763 – 19 March 1850) was a Czech-Austrian composer. He mainly wrote instrumental works, with a great production of string quartets and symphonies; his operas and singspiele numbered more than 30, including Semiramide (1791), Der Augenarzt (1811), and Robert, oder Die Prüfung (1815). Biography Gyrowetz was born 20 February 1763 in České Budějovice. His father was the choirmaster in the cathedral there, and Adalbert first studied with him. He then travelled to Prague, where he studied law but continued to learn music. At around this time Gyrowetz was in the employ of Count Franz von Fünfkirchen in Brno, whose employees were all musicians. Here he started composing (among other things) symphonies, of which he was eventually to write more than 60. In 1785, he moved to Vienna and met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who performed one of Gyrowetz’s symphonies in the same year. From 1786 to around 1793, he travelled throughout Europe. He spent some time in Paris, where he established that some symphonies that had been published as the work of Joseph Haydn were in fact his work. He spent three years in Italy, meeting Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Rome and studying

Agnes Tyrrell

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Agnes Tyrrell (20 September 1846 – 18 April 1883) was a composer and pianist of English and Czech descent. Life Agnes Tyrrell was born in Brno, the regional capital of Moravia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was the daughter of English teacher Henry Foster Tyrrell, who had established himself among the German-speaking community of Brno, and his Czech wife Josefína Kotulánová. Agnes Tyrrell grew up speaking English, German, and Czech fluently. A child prodigy, she performed in her first piano recital at nine, and attended the Vienna Conservatory at sixteen. She studied piano with Adalbert Pacher in Vienna and composition with Anton Bruckner’s teacher Otto Kitzler in Brno. She had to give up an active career as a pianist due to failing health (heart problems), and instead devoted her short life to composition Oeuvre Tyrrell was a prolific composer. During her fairly short life (she was 36 when she died), she composed 39 compositions for piano solo, 55 vocal compositions ranging from songs to choral music, oratorio and opera, and several major orchestral works. Tyrrell was one of the few women to compose a symphony before 1900. In 2018, her Overture in C Minor received a world pre

Alban Berg

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early life#

Berg was born in Vienna, the third of four children of Johanna and Konrad Berg. His father ran a successful export business, and the family owned several estates in Vienna and the countryside. The family’s financial situation turned to the worse after the death of Konrad Berg in 1900, and it particularly affected young Berg, who had to repeat both his sixth and seventh grade to pass the exams. One of his closest lifelong friends and earliest biographer (under the pseudonym Hermann Herrenried), architect Hermann Watznauer, became a father figure (partly at Konrad’s request), being ten years Berg’s senior. Berg wrote him letters as long as thirty pages, often in florid, dramatic prose with idiosyncratic punctuation. Berg was more interested in literature than music as a child and would consider a career as a writer several times, turning to music slowly and at times unconfidently until the success of Wozzeck. He did not begin to compose until he was fifteen, when he started to teach himself music, although he did take piano lessons from his sister’s governess. With Marie Scheuchl, a maid in the family estate of Berghof in Carinthia and fifteen years his senior, he fathered a daughter, Albine, born 4 December 1902. In 1906 Berg met the singer (1885–1976), daughter of a wealthy family (rumoured to be in fact the illegitimate daughter of Emperor Franz Joseph I from his liaison with Anna Nahowski). Despite the outward hostility of her family, the couple married on 3 May 1911, although “her father insisted on a Protestant ceremony to facilitate the divorce he foresaw as inevitable.”

Alexander Moosbrugger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Alexander Moosbrugger (born 21 August 1972 in Bregenzerwald) is an Austrian composer, living since 2001 in Berlin. Biography Alexander Moosbrugger completed studies at the Vorarlberger Landeskonservatorium (organ and harpsichord), at the Universität Wien (Philosophy) and at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart. Characteristic musical concerns Moosbrugger’s work encompasses a fine differentiation of the entire soft dynamic range. He primarily is writing in chamber ensemble settings, rarely doubled, preferring among other genres the string quartet. In the foreground of a composition Moosbrugger interweaves auditory and non-auditory sources, establishing musical relations through translations of historical, sociopolitical and private points of reference, analysis of symbolic functions, the devising of intonations, and “reconceived instrumental practices”. Playing techniques manifest the “speaking” of musical images and are devised anew in each piece, or series of works. His compositions are internationally played, for example in the Konzerthaus Berlin or at King’s College, Cambridge, in festivals of contemporary music (2013 at the London Ear Festival, F

Alexis Agrafiotis

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Alexis Agrafiotis (born 1970) is a German-Greek composer, conductor and pianist. Life Alexis Agrafiotis was born the son of conductor Dimitris Agrafiotis and Evangelia Syngelakis. Soon after his birth in Salzburg, the family moved to Reutlingen, where his father became principal conductor of the . In 1978, the family moved to Ettlingen, where he attended primary school and the Albertus-Magnus-Gymnasium Ettlingen. He attended the last two years of secondary school at the German School of Athens (Abitur 1989). He graduated in piano at the Athens Conservatory “Athenaeum” and studied Orchestra Conducting with Uros Lajovic and Composition with Erich Urbanner (magister artium 1995 and 1996) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He attended courses with Roland Seiffarth, Péter Eötvös and Karl Österreicher and was assistant to Gunther Schuller, Rüdiger Bohn and Hans Drewanz. Stations as a solo répétiteur and conductor took him to the theatres in Görlitz, Lübeck, Bern, the Zeitgenössische Oper Berlin and the Theater Bielefeld. From 2011 to 2017 he was engaged as director of studies and Kapellmeister at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg. Since December 2017, he has been engag

Alfred Grünfeld

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Alfred Grünfeld (4 July 1852 in Prague – 4 January 1924 in Vienna) was an Austrian pianist and composer. Life Alfred Grünfeld was born as the second of eight children to Jewish leather merchant Moritz Grünfeld (born 1817 Kolín nad Labem) and his wife Regina, nee Pick (born 1826 Osek), in Prague – New Town. Moritz Grünfeld was a leather merchant, and Grünfeld grew up in a middle-class, musical Jewish family. His siblings included: the cellist Heinrich Grünfeld; Ludwig Grünfeld, who worked for Deutsche Grammophon, and Siegmund Grünfeld, répétiteur at the Vienna Hofoper. The family lived at Zeltnergasse 38. He gave his first public concert on 12 April 1865 in the Konviktsaal in Prague. Grünfeld then studied under Josef Krejčí and Bedřich Smetana at the Prague Conservatory, and later at Theodor Kullak’s Neue Akademie der Tonkunst in Berlin. In the winter of 1871, Gustav Mahler was sent by his father to school in Prague, and boarded with the Grünfeld family. This proved to be an unpleasant experience for the eleven-year-old Mahler, and his wife Alma Mahler reported that his “clothes and shoes were taken from him and worn by others and he had to go barefoot and hungry also”. She also wro

Alfred Peschek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Alfred Peschek (14 May 1929 – 4 February 2015) was an Austrian composer and musician. Life and career Born in Linz, Peschek was drafted into the Volkssturm as a 15-year-old in the last year of the war, suffered a leg injury and was briefly taken prisoner of war in America. From 1946 he was able to continue piano lessons, received cello and music theory lessons and wrote his first compositions. Due to interruptions in his schooling caused by several months of hospitalisation, he did not complete the Matura until 1951 and then studied church music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna as well as art history at the University of Vienna. He received his doctorate in 1957 with a dissertation on the masses of František Tůma. During his studies he was a member of the Akademie-Kammerchor, played organ concerts and appeared as a percussion substitute with the Wiener Symphoniker. Between 1957 and 1968 he wrote music reviews for daily newspapers and specialist journals and was on the staff of the ORF. In 1961, while working as a scientific advisor at the Anton Bruckner Private University, he conducted the first Brucknerfest in Linz and in nearby Sankt Florian, He worked as a f

Alfred Prinz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Alfred Prinz (4 June 1930 – 20 September 2014) was an Austrian composer, clarinetist, and music educator. In 1947 he was awarded a gold medal at the Geneva Music Competition and in 1971 he won a composition award from the city of Vienna. His compositional output includes 7 symphonies, many concertos, several works for solo piano, songs, and chamber music. In 1998 his Fünf Goethe-Lieder (Five Goethe Songs) were premiered by soprano Caroline Dowd-Higgins for whom Prinz had composed the pieces. As a concert clarinetist, he performed as a soloist with orchestras throughout the world and performed in concerts of chamber music internationally. He recorded for Ariola Records, Decca Records, Deutsche Grammophon, His Master’s Voice, and the Telarc International Corporation among other record labels. Born in Vienna, Prinz began studying the clarinet at the age of 9 at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna with Leopold Wlach of the Vienna Philharmonic. He also earned a diploma in piano performance, studying from 1942 with Bruno Seidlhofer. He later studied music composition under Alfred Uhl and conducting under Hans Swarowsky. In 1945, at the age of 15, he became a clarinetist i

Alfred Uhl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Alfred Uhl (5 June 1909 – 8 June 1992) was an Austrian composer, violist, music teacher and conductor. Biography Uhl was born in Vienna and studied with Franz Schmidt at the Vienna Music Academy, receiving a diploma in composition with honours in 1932. He subsequently worked as Kapellmeister of the Swiss Festspielmusik in Zürich. While there he composed scores for a variety of cultural and industrial films. He returned to Vienna in 1938 and in 1940 was drafted into the Austrian Army. From 1940 to 1942 he commanded a French prison camp in Neumarkt. He joined the faculty of the Vienna Music Academy in 1945, where he taught theory, orchestration and composition until his retirement in 1980. One of his notable students was Alfred Prinz. He was the recipient of the Vienna Schubert Prize (1943), the Austrian State Prize (1960), the Vienna Music Prize (1961), the Viennese Gold Medal of Honour (1969) and the Austrian Badge of Honour for Service and Arts (1980). He also served as the president of the Austrian Gesellschaft der Autoren, Komponisten und Musikverleger (1970) and the Künstler-Union (1976). As a composer, Uhl synthesized elements from neo-classicism, atonality, serialism and trad

Alois Melichar

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Alois Melichar (18 April 1896, in Vienna – 9 April 1976, in Munich) was an Austrian composer, conductor, arranger, and music critic. He was a student of Joseph Marx at the Vienna Academy of Music, then of Franz Schreker at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, but later became increasingly culturally conservative. From 1923 to 1926 Melichar was in the Caucasus, where he collected materials on Caucasian folk songs. He then lived in Berlin and Vienna. As a composer, he followed the safe footpath of Max Reger, Hans Pfitzner, and Paul Graener; he wrote a symphonic poem, Der Dom (1934); Rhapsodie über ein schwedisches Volkslied (1939); Lustspiel-Ouvertüre (1942); lieder; and film music. Under contract to UFA he composed music for many films during the National Socialist period. After World War II Melichar became increasingly polemic in his attacks on modernist music. His pamphlets include Die unteilbare Musik (“Indivisible music” 1952), Musik in der Zwangsjacke (“Music in the Straitjacket” 1958), and Schönberg und die Folgen (“Schoenberg and his Consequences” 1960). Selected filmography * Court Waltzes (1933) * Night in May (1934) * Song of Farewell (1934) * Farewell Waltz (1934) * The Yo

Alois Taux

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Alois Taux (5 October 1817 – 17 April 1861) was a German conductor and composer. He was important in the musical life of Salzburg, and initiated music festivals there dedicated to Mozart. Life Taux was born in Baumgarten, in Silesia (now Braszowice in Poland); he showed musical talent at an early age, and during school years he learned to play violin and organ, and composed church pieces. He took lessons in piano and organ from the organist at the abbey of Camenz (now Kamieniec Ząbkowicki). He was admitted to Prague Conservatory in 1834, where he studied with Bedřich Diviš Weber and the horn player Johann Nepomuk Janatka. In 1837 he joined the theatre orchestra in Graz, playing second violin and later horn. In 1839 he went to Linz, where he was assistant director of the theatre orchestra. He founded in 1847 the Salzburger Liedertafel, a men’s choir, of which he was musical director to 1850 and from 1858 until his death. He became in 1858 choirmaster of the Salzburg Singakademie. Invited to conduct at various venues, he travelled to Germany, Belgium, England and France; an autograph collection, preserved by the Salzburger Liedertafel, shows that he met cultural figures including Hec

Amandus Ivanschiz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Amandus (Matthias Leopold) Ivanschiz (bapt. 24 December 1727 – 1758) was an Austrian composer of the early classical period and a member of the Pauline order. Other spellings of his surname adopted in Slavic musicological literature (“Ivančić” or “Ivančič”) are not evidenced in historical accounts. His father came from the village of Baumgarten (presently in the Austrian Burgenland) inhabited by the Croatian minority. Matthias Leopold was baptized on 24 December 1727 in Wiener Neustadt. He entered the Pauline order in his hometown and choose the name of Amandus likely by the end of 1742. After his novitiate in the Ranna monastery at the age of 16 (25 December 1743) he took his monastic vows. He then studied in Maria Trost and Wiener Neustadt, where he was ordained a priest on 15 November 1750. Between 1751 and 1754 he stayed in Rome as an assistant to the Procurator General of the order, from where he returned to Wiener Neustadt. In 1755 he was sent again to the Maria Trost monastery, where he died in 1758, at the young age of 31. Despite his early passing, Ivanschiz left behind a remarkable number of compositions. His output comprises about 20 symphonies, 15 string trios, 17 masse

Andre Asriel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Andre Asriel (22 February 1922 – 28 May 2019) was an Austrian-German composer. Life Born in Vienna, Asriel first attended the Akademisches Gymnasium and then the Bundesgymnasium IX (Gymnasium Wasagasse) in Vienna, where the later Oscar winner and composer Ernest Gold was his classmate. Here he pursued musical studies at the same time, studying piano with Grete Hinterhofer and theory with Richard Stöhr at the State Academy of Music in Vienna from 1936 to 1938. He was extraordinarily gifted and an outstanding pianist even at a young age. After the Anschluss to Nazi Germany, his mother ensured that her 16-year-old son Andre was able to emigrate to England with a Kindertransport as a racially persecuted person at the end of 1938. She herself did not manage to escape. With the beginning of the war in September 1939, all ties to the old homeland and the family were severed. Music was Asriel’s interest even in a foreign country, but he did not know how to start and finance a suitable course of study. Through an encounter with the later poet Erich Fried - also a former pupil of Wasagymnasium - he found contact with the exile organisation Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ), which also financed his

Anna Maria Erdődy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Countess Anna Maria (Marie) von Erdődy (21 August 1778 – 17 March 1837) was a Hungarian noblewoman and among the closest confidantes and friends of Ludwig van Beethoven. Dedicatee of four of the composer’s late chamber works, she was instrumental in securing Beethoven an annuity from members of the Austrian high nobility. Life She was born Countess von Niczky in Arad, then part of the Kingdom of Hungary, today Romania. On 6 June 1796 she married Count Péter Erdődy of Monyorokerék and Monte Claudio, scion of the noted Erdődy line of the Hungarian/Croatian aristocracy. They had two daughters and a son: Marie, Friederike, and August, affectionately known as Mimi, Fritzi, and Gusti. Marie was instrumental in helping to sway members of the Imperial nobility to granting Beethoven a lifelong annuity in an effort to induce him to remain in Austrian lands in the face of an offer of employment as Kapellmeister in Cassel, from Jérôme, King of Westphalia. Jan Swafford characterizes Beethoven’s real intentions thus: Thayer states, “It seems likely that the suggestion that formal stipulations for a contract be drawn up under which Beethoven would decline the offer from Cassel and remain in Vienn

Anna Pessiak-Schmerling

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anna Pessiak-Schmerling (1834 – 14 March 1896) was an Austrian composer born in Vienna. Life and career She was born Anna Schmerling, daughter of Maria Anna Giannatasio del Río (1792–1868), and the granddaughter of Cajetan Giannatasio del Río (1764–1828) who had a boarding school in Vienna. She studied with Mathilde Marchesi (1821–1913), and afterward worked as a professor of voice at the Vienna Conservatory. She composed piano work and songs, and was noted for her masses and other sacred works. Beethoven wrote the “Hochzeitslied” Wedding Song , WoO 105, for the wedding of Anna’s mother to Leopold Schmerling in 1819. The Giannattasio del Rio family was associated with Beethoven through his nephew Karl, and Franziska (Fanny) Giannatasio del Río, Anna Pessiak-Schmerling’s aunt, was a source for biographical detail on the composer. According to her, Beethoven wrote the song “Ruf vom Berge” for Anna’s mother during an excursion to Himmel. References

Anton Bruckner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early life#

Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden (then a village, now almost a suburb of Linz) on 4 September 1824. The ancestors of Bruckner’s family were farmers and craftsmen; their history can be traced as far back as the 16th century. They lived near a bridge south of Sindelburg, which led to their being called “Bruckhner an der Bruckhen” (bridgers on the bridge). Bruckner’s grandfather was appointed schoolmaster in Ansfelden in 1776; this position was inherited by Bruckner’s father, Anton Bruckner Sr., in 1823. It was a poorly paid but well-respected position in the rural environment. Bruckner Sr. married , and they had eleven children, Anton Bruckner being the eldest. Music was part of the school curriculum, and Bruckner’s father was his first music teacher. He entered school when he was six, proved to be a hard-working student, and was promoted to upper class early. While studying, Bruckner also helped his father in teaching the other children. After Bruckner received his confirmation in 1833, Bruckner’s father sent him to another school in Hörsching. The schoolmaster, Johann Baptist Weiß, was a music enthusiast and respected organist. Here, Bruckner completed his school education and refined his skills as an organist. Around 1835 Bruckner wrote his first composition, a Pange lingua – one of the compositions which he revised at the end of his life. When his father became ill, Anton returned to Ansfelden to help him in his work.

Anton Diabelli

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anton (or Antonio) Diabelli (5 September 17818 April 1858) was an Austrian music publisher, editor, and composer. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his set of thirty-three Diabelli Variations. Early life Diabelli was born in Mattsee in Austria, then in the Archbishopric of Salzburg. A musical child, he sang in the boys’ choir at Salzburg Cathedral where he is believed to have taken music lessons with Michael Haydn. By the age of 19 Diabelli had already composed several important compositions including six masses. Diabelli was trained to enter the priesthood and in 1800 joined the monastery at Raitenhaslach, Bavaria. and published much music by Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss. In 1872 the firm was taken over by Friedrich Schreiber and in 1876 it merged with the firm of August Cranz who bought the company in 1879 and ran it under his name. Diabelli died in Vienna at the age of 76. Compositions Diabelli composed a number of well-known Classical works, including an operetta called Adam in der Klemme, several masses, songs and numerous piano and classical guitar pieces. Numerically his gu

Anton Eberl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anton Franz Josef Eberl (13 June 1765 – 11 March 1807) was an Austrian composer, teacher and pianist of the Classical period. He was a student of Salieri and Mozart. He was also seen as an early friend and rival of Beethoven. Biography Eberl was born in Vienna, Austria in 1765, the son of a wealthy imperial official. He was a gifted pianist who gave recitals in Vienna from the age of eight. The family eventually fell into financial difficulties, so Eberl was unable to continue courses and training as a lawyer. Instead, he was then free to pursue his studies in music. Eberl may have been taught by Mozart starting around 1781, when the famous composer arrived in Vienna. Stylistic similarities with Mozart led to several of Eberl’s works being mistakenly published under Mozart’s name. Eberl’s cantata “Bei Mozarts Grabe”, completed just six days after Mozart died in December of 1791, may well represent the homage of a student to his teacher and mentor. Eberl maintained strong connections to the Mozart family, performing a Mozart piano concerto promoted by Mozart’s wife Constanze in 1794, and accompanying her and her sister Aloysia Lange on a tour of Germany in the winter of 1795–96. One

Anton Heiller

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anton Heiller (15 September 1923 – 25 March 1979) was an Austrian organist, harpsichordist, composer and conductor. Biography Born in Vienna, he was first trained in church music by Wilhelm Mück, organist of Vienna’s Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral). He then combined work as répétiteur and choirmaster at the Vienna Volksoper with further study at the Vienna Academy of Music under Bruno Seidlhofer (piano, organ, harpsichord) and Friedrich Reidinger (music theory and composition) while serving in the military, mostly as a medical aide. In 1945, he both graduated from the academy and was appointed organ teacher there. He was promoted to professor in 1957. Heiller’s career after World War II is an uninterrupted list of concerts, lectures, records, jury service at contests, and professional honors. In 1952 he won the International Organ Competition in Haarlem, Netherlands, and toured both Europe and the United States, where his organ recitals at Harvard University (on the then new C.B. Fisk instrument in Memorial Church) — still available on a 4-CD boxed set — were particularly appreciated. A few years before this, he had released a set of recordings for Vanguard of many of Bach’s

Anton Stamitz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anton Thadäus Johann Nepomuk Stamitz (November 1750 – c. 1798–1809) was a German composer and violinist. He was born in the Holy Roman Empire. Anton was born during a family visit to Německý Brod and baptised there on 27 November 1750. He and his brother Carl received their first violin instruction from their father Johann. After their father’s death in 1757 they were taken on as students by Christian Cannabich, who had been a student of their father’s. Both were by this time already violinists in the Mannheimer Kapelle and participated in its development. In 1770, with his brother Carl, he visited Paris and established himself there. Between 1782 and 1789 he played in the King’s court orchestra in Versailles, and obtained the title ordinaire de la musique du roi. He was the violin teacher of Rodolphe Kreutzer. His biography after the French Revolution in 1789 is not known, but he probably died in Paris or Versailles. He may have died as late as 1809. Selected list of works *Three sets of symphonies: 3 as Op. 1 (1783–1784), 3 as Op. 2 (1784), 6 as Op. 3 (c.1785–1788), 3 as Op. 4 (c.1788–1793) *At least four concertos, in B-flat, F (1779), G and D, for viola d’amore, now also perfor

Anton Webern

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bucolic#

Anton Webern, of the , was born on 3 December 1883 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, the only surviving son of Carl von Webern, a decorated army veteran, high-ranking civil servant, and mining engineer who owned the Lamprechtsberg copper mine. He grew up mainly in Graz (1890–1894) and Klagenfurt (1894–1902), with one stay in Olomouc and more in Vienna for his father’s work. He excelled only in the humanities and likely sang in choir at school. He began piano and sang opera with his mother Amalie (née Geer), a trained pianist and accomplished singer, danced with his sisters Rosa and Maria, and received drums, then a trumpet, and later a violin as Christmas gifts. Local musician Edwin Komauer also taught him piano, cello, and likely counterpoint from Bach’s music and cello suites. The family played chamber music, including Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven, and Webern played in local orchestras. The children spent Easter holidays () and summer vacations () at the Preglhof, the extended family’s country estate near Schwabegg in Carinthia. They played in forests under the Koralpe and on a high meadow by the parish church, where cattle grazed pasture under the care of herders. Webern drove horses to a fair in Bleiburg, fought a wildfire, and saved Rosa from drowning in the bathing pond. In winter, they ice-skated the to the Wörthersee. These experiences, and reading Peter Rosegger, an Austrian contributor to the broader () movement, shaped his distinct and lasting sense of ().

Antonie Brentano

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Antonie Brentano (28 May 1780 – 12 May 1869 in Frankfurt), born Johanna Antonie Josefa Edle von Birkenstock and known as Toni, was an Austrian philanthropist, art collector, arts patron, and a close friend of famous German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, being the dedicatee of his “Diabelli” variations. Early life Antonie was born 28 May 1780 in Vienna. She was the daughter of Austrian diplomat, educational reformer, and art collector and his wife Carolina Josefa von Hay (born 1755 in Fulnek/Böhmen; died 18 May 1788 in Vienna). She had three siblings, two of whom died in infancy: * Hugo Konrad Gottfried von Birkenstock (15 December 1778 in Vienna – 10 April 1825 in Ybbs an der Donau). Lieutenant in the k.u.k. Weydenfeld-Infantry * Konstantin Viktor von Birkenstock (born and died 1782 in Frankfurt) * Johann Eduard Valentin von Birkenstock (born and died 1784 in Frankfurt) Her father was an Imperial advisor to Empress Maria Theresa and the reformist Emperor Joseph II. Through his wife, he was the brother-in-law of Joseph von Sonnenfels, the dedicatee of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 (1801). Antonie von Birkenstock Brentano’s mother was the sister of the Reformbisc

Antonín Dvořák

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early life#

Dvořák was born in Nelahozeves near Prague, in the Austrian Empire, and was the eldest son of (1814–1894) and his wife, (1820–1882). František worked as an innkeeper, a professional player of the zither, and a butcher. Anna was the daughter of Josef Zdeněk, the bailiff of the Prince of Lobkowicz. Anna and František married on 17 November 1840. Dvořák was the first of 14 children, eight of whom survived infancy. Dvořák was baptized as a Roman Catholic in the village’s church of St. Andrew. Dvořák’s years in Nelahozeves nurtured his strong Christian faith and the love for his Bohemian heritage that so strongly influenced his music. In 1847, Dvořák entered primary school and was taught to play violin by his teacher Joseph Spitz. He showed early talent and skill, playing in a village band and in church. František, unsuccessful as innkeeper and butcher but managed a living as a musician, was pleased with his son’s gifts. At the age of 13, through the influence of his father, Dvořák was sent to Zlonice in 1853 to live with his uncle Antonín Zdenĕk in order to learn the German language. His first composition, the “Forget-Me-Not Polka” in C (“Polka pomněnka”) was written possibly as early as 1855. Dvořák took organ, piano, and violin lessons from his German-language teacher . Liehmann also taught the young boy music theory and introduced him to the composers of the time; Dvořák had much regard for Liehmann despite his teacher’s violent temper. Liehmann was the church organist in Zlonice and sometimes let Antonín play the organ at services. Dvořák took further organ and music theory lessons at Česká Kamenice with Franz Hanke, who encouraged his musical talents even further and was more sympathetic. At the age of 16, at the urging of Liehmann and Zdenĕk, František allowed his son to become a musician, on the condition that the boy should work toward a career as an organist. After leaving for Prague in September 1857, Dvořák entered the city’s Prague Organ School, studying singing with Josef Zvonař, theory with František Blažek, and organ with . The latter was not only a professor at the Prague Conservatory, but also a composer for the organ; his son Josef Bohuslav Foerster became a better known composer. Dvořák also took an additional language course to improve his German and worked as an “extra” violist in numerous bands and orchestras, including the orchestra of the St. Cecilia Society. Dvořák graduated from the Organ School in 1859, ranking second in his class. He applied unsuccessfully for a position as an organist at , but remained undaunted in pursuing a musical career. In 1858, he joined Karel Komzák’s orchestra, with whom he performed in Prague’s restaurants and at balls. The high professional level of the ensemble attracted the attention of Jan Nepomuk Maýr, who engaged the whole orchestra in the Bohemian Provisional Theatre Orchestra. Dvořák played viola in the orchestra beginning in 1862. Dvořák could hardly afford concert tickets, and playing in the orchestra gave him a chance to hear music, mainly operas. In July 1863, Dvořák played in a program devoted to the German composer Richard Wagner, who conducted the orchestra. Dvořák had had “unbounded admiration” for Wagner since 1857. In 1862, Dvořák began composing his first string quartet. In 1864, Dvořák agreed to share the rent of a flat located in Prague’s Žižkov district with five other people, including violinist Mořic Anger and Karel Čech, who later became a singer. In 1866, Maýr was replaced as chief conductor by Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák was making about $7.50 a month. The constant need to supplement his income pushed him to give piano lessons.

Antonín Kraft

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Antonín Kraft (30 December 1749 – 28 August 1820) was a Czech cellist and composer. He was a close friend of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. He worked in the Holy Roman Empire and later in the Austrian Empire. Biography Kraft was born on 30 December 1749 in the Bohemian town of Rokycany of a German Bohemian ethnic family which had assimilated into Czech. He received early musical education on the cello from his father before going to university in Vienna to study law. He soon obtained a position in the Imperial Hofkapelle. In 1778, he was appointed cellist in Prince Nikolaus Esterházy’s orchestra, where he met and studied composition with Haydn. In 1789, he met Mozart in Dresden and took part in the premiere of his divertimento for string trio in E-Flat. Mozart played the viola part and Anton Teyber played the violin part. After Esterházy died in 1790, his successor, Prince Anton Esterházy, dismissed most of the court orchestra. Kraft went to Vienna and became a founding member of the Schuppanzigh Quartet, where he helped establish the traditions of string quartet playing. He played in the Grassalkovich court and from 1796 was employed in the orchestra of Prince Joseph Franz von Lobk

Antonio Casimir Cartellieri

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Antonio Casimir Cartellieri (27 September 1772 – 2 September 1807) was a Polish-Austrian composer, violinist, conductor, and voice teacher. His reputation dissipated after his death, not to be resurrected until the late 20th century. One son was the spa physician Paul Cartellieri. Another, Josef Cartellieri, compiled some largely second-hand biographical notes about the father he scarcely knew. Life and career Cartellieri was born in Gdańsk, Poland. His father, Antonio Maria Gaetano Cartellieri, was Italian, and his mother, Elisabeth Böhm, was Latvian of Baltic German origin. Both of his parents were opera singers and he received his earliest musical education from them. When he was 13, his parents divorced, at which time Cartellieri moved with his mother to Berlin. In that city he began studying music composition. In 1791, at the age of 18, Cartellieri became court composer and music director for Michał Kazimierz Ogiński in Poland. In 1793, he returned to Berlin with his employer where his first opera premiered successfully. He then went with the Count to Vienna, where he continued with further musical studies in music theory and composition under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and

Antonio Salieri

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Antonio Salieri (18 August 17507 May 1825) was an Italian composer and teacher of the classical period. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg monarchy. Salieri was a pivotal figure in the development of late 18th-century opera. As a student of Florian Leopold Gassmann, and a protégé of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Salieri was a cosmopolitan composer who wrote operas in three languages. Salieri helped to develop and shape many of the features of operatic compositional vocabulary, and his music was a powerful influence on contemporary composers. Appointed the director of the Italian opera by the Habsburg court, a post he held from 1774 until 1792, Salieri dominated Italian-language opera in Vienna. During his career, he also spent time writing works for opera houses in Paris, Rome, and Venice, and his dramatic works were widely performed throughout Europe during his lifetime. As the Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824, he was responsible for music at the court chapel and attached school. Even as his works dropped from performance, and he wrote no new operas after 1804, he still

Armin Suppan

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Armin Suppan (born 16 October 1959) is an Austrian brass musician and composer. Life Born in Graz, son of the musicologist Wolfgang Suppan, Suppan studied music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz as well as at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold. In 1984, he received his diploma in French horn training with Michael Hoeltzel. In 1987, he completed additional studies in conducting and chamber music with Walter Hügler in Biel and Milan Turković in Vienna. Initially active as a conductor of wind orchestras in the South Baden area of Kappelrodeck, Ortenberg, he began his military bandmaster training in Austria in 1994. In 1999, Suppan passed the military bandmaster examination. In the same year he joined the teaching staff of the , where he heads the wind department and the wind music information centre. Suppan has gained international recognition as wind music expert and instrumentator for Symphonic Wind Orchestra. Compositions * Johann-Joseph-Fux-Suite, Freiburg 1987, Schulz. * Rondo für Schulorchester, für solistische Bläser und Streichquartett, Freiburg 1988, Schulz (Musik aus der Steiermark, issue 128). * Schlossberg-Hymne, Freiburg 1988, Schulz. * Wiener Barock-Ouver

Arnold Schoenberg

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1874–1894: Upbringing#

Arnold Schönberg was born on 13 September 1874 at Obere Donaustraße 5 in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt (historically a Jewish ghetto), into a lower-middle-class Jewish family. His father, Samuel, a shoe shopkeeper from Szécsény, Hungary, had moved to Vienna via Pozsony (Pressburg; now Bratislava). His mother Pauline Nachod was from a Prague family belonging to the Old New Synagogue. He began violin at eight and soon started writing music autodidactically by arranging and imitating what he played or heard, like military band repertoire, for informal performance. Juvenilia survive from as early as 1882, sometimes only as fragments or parts. They include a birthday march and arrangements of Gustav Pick’s Fiakerlied and Vincenzo Bellini’s “Ite su colle”. He composed violin duets after Ignaz Pleyel and Giovanni Battista Viotti, and advanced to string trios (for two violins and viola) without clear models.

Arvo Pärt

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early life, family and education#

Pärt was born in Paide Järva County Estonia, on 11. September 1935. He was raised by his mother and stepfather in Rakvere in northern Estonia. He began to experiment with the top and bottom notes of the family’s piano as the middle register was damaged. Pärt’s musical education began at the age of seven when he began attending music school in Rakvere. By his early teenage years, Pärt was writing his own compositions. His first serious study came in 1954 at the Tallinn Music Middle School, but less than a year later he temporarily abandoned it to fulfill military service, playing oboe and percussion in the army band. After his military service he attended the Tallinn Conservatory, where he studied composition with Heino Eller and it was said of him, “he just seemed to shake his sleeves and the notes would fall out”. During the 1950s, he also completed his first vocal composition, the cantata Meie aed (‘Our Garden’) for children’s choir and orchestra. He graduated in 1963.

Augustinus Franz Kropfreiter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Augustinus Franz Kropfreiter (9 September 1936 – 26 September 2003) was member of the Austrian , composer and organist. Life Born in Hargelsberg, Kropfreiter spent his school years from 1948 at the Catholic Bischöfliches Gymnasium Petrinum, where he received his first basic musical education. Immediately after the Matura he entered the Augustiner-Chorherrenstift St. Florian in 1953, where he was initially taught music theory by Johann Krichbaum. From 1955 to 1960 he studied composition and organ at the Linz Anton Bruckner Private University and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. After completing his studies, he worked as an organist in Sankt Florian. Along the way he was also a teacher of the St. Florian Boys’ Choir and, from 1966, director of the monastery choir (Regens Chori). Kropfreiter died in 2003 in Sankt Florian at the age of 68. Works Kropfreiter created an extensive organ oeuvre and is thus one of the most important Austrian organ composers of the 20th century. He helped The St. Florian Monastery to even greater fame. He composed several orchestral works (among others organ concertos, 3 symphonies), masses, church music, choral music, chamber music and

Avgust Ipavec

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avgust Ipavec (2 June 1940 – 3 October 2023) was a Slovenian Roman Catholic priest and composer. Biography Ipavec was born at the onset of World War II in Gorizia. In the 1960s, he studied theology at the in Ljubljana and was ordained a priest in 1966 in . He graduated from composition at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana in 1974. After graduation, he moved to Vienna to further his musical knowledge, and he then worked there as a hospital priest for almost 50 years. In his free time, he composed works mostly for large ensembles, such as oratorios, symphonies, and cantatas. His major compositions were the Christmas Pastorale; the oratory titled (“The Mass in the Field”) he wrote for the 900th anniversary of Cistercians in Stična; the only existent mass in four languages titled (“The Mass of the Nations”); and the symphony Colours of the Green Emerald, which premiered in September 2016, dedicated to the memory of the 100th anniversary of World War I. He occasionally visited his house in Bovec. In December 2006, the Chancellor of Austria awarded Ipavec the Decoration of Merit in Gold of the Republic of Austria for his music, which “connects peoples as music is the only language that c

Balduin Sulzer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Balduin Sulzer (Cistercians) (as Josef Sulzer (15 March 1932 – 10 April 2019) was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest. He became known as a music educator and composer. Life Sulzer was born in Großraming. At the age of ten Sulzer came to Linz, where he attended grammar school. He sang as an altar boy in the New Cathedral, Linz in the “Domschola” under the direction of Josef Kronsteiner. After the Matura, he joined the religious order of the Cistercians in Wilhering Abbey in 1949 and received the religious name “Balduin”. He began his philosophical-theological studies in Linz and Rome, as well as studying history at the University of Vienna. He completed his musical education at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, among others with Hans Gillesberger. In 1955, Balduin Sulzer received the priesthood ordination. From 1959 to 1977, he was a music teacher at the Wilhering Abbey, where he led the Wilhering Boys’ Choir and the Wilhering Kantorei. From 1974 to 1997, Sulzer was a music professor at the Linzer Musikgymnasium. He was also répétiteur at Linz’s Anton Bruckner Private Unive

Bedrich Smetana

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Family background and childhood#

Bedřich Smetana, first named Friedrich Smetana, was born on 2 March 1824, in Litomyšl (German: Leitomischl), east of Prague near the traditional border between Bohemia and Moravia, then provinces of the Habsburg Empire. He was the third child, and first son, of František Smetana and his third wife Barbora Linková. František had fathered eight children in two earlier marriages, five daughters surviving infancy; he and Barbora had ten more children, of whom seven reached adulthood. The Smetana family came from the Hradec Králové (German: Königgrätz) region of Bohemia. František had initially learned the trade of a brewer, and had acquired moderate wealth during the Napoleonic Wars by supplying clothing and provisions to the French Army. He subsequently managed several breweries before coming to Litomyšl in 1823 as brewer to Count Waldstein, whose Renaissance castle dominates the town. František Smetana played violin in a string quartet, and Barbora Smetana was a dancer. Bedřich was introduced to music by his father and in October 1830, at the age of six, gave his first public performance. At a concert held in Litomyšl’s Philosophical Academy he played a piano arrangement of Auber’s overture to La muette de Portici, to a rapturous reception. In 1831 the family moved to Jindřichův Hradec in the south of Bohemia—the region where, a generation later, Gustav Mahler grew up. In 1835, František retired to Růžkovy Lhotice Castle. whose departure for Prague in 1838 may have influenced Smetana’s own desire to experience life in the capital. The following year, with František’s approval, he enrolled at Prague’s Academic Grammar School under Josef Jungmann, a distinguished poet and linguist who was a leading figure in the movement for Czech national revival.

Benedikt Schack

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Benedikt Emanuel Schack (; 7 February 175810 December 1826) was a composer and tenor of the Classical era, a close friend of Mozart and the first performer of the role of Tamino in Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Early life Benedikt Schack (also spelled as Žák, Ziak, Cziak or Schak) was born on 7 February 1758 in Mirotice, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic, then part of the Habsburg monarchy). Like Joseph and Michael Haydn, he worked as a chorister as a child, singing from 1773 in the cathedral in Prague, then moved to Vienna (1775) to study medicine, philosophy and singing. His voice teacher in Vienna was , a tenor who performed under Joseph Haydn. From 1780, Schack worked for several years as Kapellmeister to Prince Heinrich von Schönaich-Carolath in Silesia. In 1786, Schack joined the traveling theatrical troupe of Emanuel Schikaneder, working both as a tenor and as a composer of Singspiele. The troupe settled in Vienna in 1789, performing in the suburban Theater auf der Wieden. Friendship and collaborations with Mozart It was around this time that Schack became a friend and professional colleague of Mozart, who was gradually increasing his involvement with Schikaneder’s troupe. S

Bernard Grun

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bernard Grun (; 11 February 1901 28 December 1972) was a Central European composer, conductor, and author. He is primarily remembered as the compiler of The Timetables of History. Early life Grün was born on 11 February 1901 in Startsch, Moravia, Austria-Hungary (now Stařeč, Czech Republic). He completed a degree in philosophy and a doctorate in law at Vienna and Prague, From 1924 to 1929 he worked as a conductor in Prague at the Neues Deutsches Theater (New German Theatre). His first major work was the 1929 Bohemian Musicians, In 1946, he published his compilation The Timetables of History, adapted from Werner Stein’s Kulturfahrplan, presenting human history since 5000BC in tabular form. Each century, then decade, then year, is presented with its major events (if known) divided under the seven headings: * Influential leaders and political events * Literature & Theater * Religion, Philosophy, Learning * Visual Arts * Music * Scientific and technological inventions * Daily Life, innovations, trends. It has been in constant publication, with the most recent update in 2005. In the postwar period, Grun continued writing film music for titles such as White Cradle Inn (1947), The Blind G

Bernhard Lang

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bernhard Lang (born 24 February 1957 Linz, Austria) is an Austrian composer, improviser and programmer of musical patches and applications. His work can be described as contemporary classical, with roots, however, in various genres such as 20th-century avant-garde, European classical music, jazz, free jazz, rock, punk, techno, EDM, electronica, electronic music, and computer-generated music. His works range from solo pieces and chamber music to large ensemble pieces and works for orchestra and musical theatre. Besides music for concert halls, Lang designs sound and music for theatre, dance, film and sound installations. Bernhard Lang came to prominence with his work cycle Differenz/Wiederholung (DW, Difference/Repetition), composed since 1998, in which he illuminated and examined the themes of reproductive and DJ cultures based on the philosophic work of Gilles Deleuze. Sociocultural and socially critical questions, as in Das Theater der Wiederholungen/The Theatre of Repetitions (2003) are examined as closely as intrinsically musical and music-cultural problems (“I hate Mozart”, 2006). Another focus is the “recycling” of historic music, which Lang creates using self-programmed patc

Bijan Khadem-Missagh

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bijan Khadem-Missagh (; born 26 October 1948) is an Austrian violinist, composer and conductor of Iranian descent. He is the founder and was the artistic director of the International Chamber Music Festival until 2016. . Concerts and Festivals Khadem-Missagh celebrated an early debut as a violin soloist, which was followed by numerous international concert tours. In 1971, he became first concertmaster of the Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester. In the same year he won the Grand Prix at the International Chamber Music Competition in Colmar, France. Also in 1971 he founded the Eurasia Quartet and in 1977 the Tonkünstler Chamber Orchestra, later called Academia Allegro Vivo. In 1979, he founded Allegro Vivo, the international chamber music festival in Horn, where the summer academy also takes place, where young musicians can attend master classes. Allegro Vivo also sees itself as a place of encounter and a fixed component of public life in the region. From 1980 to 1990, the musician was artistic director of the Midsummer Music Festival in Umeå, Sweden. In 1981, he founded the Badener Beethoventage in Baden near Vienna, of which he was artistic director until 1998. In 1997, he

Blaž Arnič

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Blaž Arnič (31 January 1901 – 1 February 1970) was a Slovenian symphonic composer. Born in Luče, Lower Styria, Austria-Hungary, Arnič grew up on an isolated farmstead near Mount Raduha in the Kamnik Alps. He taught himself how to play the accordion, and at the age of nineteen moved to Ljubljana to study music. Life Arnič studied composing at the Ljubljana Conservatory, and later (1930-1932) at the New Vienna Conservatory, under the tutelage of Professor Rudolf Nilius, with advanced composition in Warsaw, Kraków In 1943 Arnič was arrested for his political views, and in 1944 he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where he became seriously ill (eventually causing him to go blind in one eye). His music has been compared to that of Bruckner and classified as “neo-romantic realism.” Arnič developed from a neo-romantic base, but avoided the dissonance of the Expressionists. The first film for which Arnič wrote music was Partizanske bolnice v Sloveniji in 1948, a documentary about a partisan infirmary. In 1955, Milan Kumar of Triglav Film made a 452-minute film entitled Ples čarovnic starring ballerina Stanislava Brezovar which featured Arnič’s symphonic poem by the same name. In 2

Bohuslav Martinů

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1890–1923: Polička and Prague#

The setting of Martinů’s birth was unusual. He was born in the tower of the St. Jakub Church in Polička, a town in Bohemia, close to the Moravian border. His father, Ferdinand, a shoemaker, also worked as the church sexton and town fire watchman. For this, he and his family were allowed to live in the tower apartment. As a small boy Bohuslav was sickly, and frequently had to be carried up the 193 steps to the tower on the back of his father or his older sister. In school he was known to be very shy, and did not participate in the plays or pageants with his classmates. But as violinist, he excelled and developed a strong reputation, giving his first public concert in his hometown in 1905. The townspeople raised enough money to fund his schooling, and in 1906 he left the countryside to begin studies at the Prague Conservatory. Whilst there he fared poorly as a student, showing little interest in the rigid pedagogy or the hours of violin practice required. He was far more interested in exploring Prague and learning on his own, attending concerts and reading books on many subjects. This was in contrast to his roommate, Stanislav Novák, an excellent student and brilliant violinist. They frequently attended concerts together at which Martinů became engrossed in analyzing new music, particularly French impressionist works. He could memorize much of it, to the extent that when back in their room, he could write out large parts of the score almost perfectly. Novák was astonished at how meticulously Martinů could do this. He became convinced that his roommate, while lacking in other subjects, possessed an incredible brain for analyzing and memorizing music. They became friends for life. Dropped from the violin program, Martinů was moved to the organ department that taught composition, but dismissed in 1910 for “incorrigible negligence”. Martinů spent the next several years living back home in Polička, attempting to gain some standing in the musical world. He had written several compositions by this time, including the Elegie for violin and piano, and the symphonic poems Angel of Death (Anděl smrti) and Death of Tintagiles (Smrt Tintagilova), and submitted samples of his work to Josef Suk, a leading Czech composer. Suk encouraged him to pursue formal composition training, but this would not be possible for years. In the meantime, he passed the state teaching examination and maintained a studio in Polička throughout World War I, while continuing to compose and study on his own. It was during this time that he studied the ancient choral hymns of the Bohemian Brethren, which influenced his style and musical scope. As World War I drew to a close and Czechoslovakia was declared an independent republic, Martinů composed the celebratory cantata Czech Rhapsody (Česká rapsodie), which premiered in 1919 to great acclaim. He toured Europe as a violinist with the National Theatre Orchestra, and in 1920 became a full member of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra that was led by the inspired young conductor Václav Talich, who was the first major conductor to promote Martinů. He also began formal composition study under Suk. During these last years in Prague he completed his first string quartet and two ballets: Who is the Most Powerful in the World? (Kdo je na světě nejmocnější?) and Istar.

Bruno Granichstaedten

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bruno Bernhard Granichstaedten (September 1, 1879, Vienna – May 30, 1944, New York City) was an Austrian composer and librettist. He composed sixteen operettas and music for various films. He contributed the song “Zuschau’n kann i net” to the musical play The White Horse Inn. He emigrated from Austria, ending up in the United States of America in 1940, where he was only able to earn his living by playing the piano at night clubs. Works *Bub oder Mädel? ( and Adolf Altmann), operetta, prologue and 2 acts (13 November 1908 Vienna, Johann Strauss Theater) *Wein, Weib and Gesang (Adolf Altmann), operetta 1 act (1909 Vienna) *Lolotte (Bruno Granichstaedten and Alfred Schick-Markenau), operetta 3 acts (1910 Vienna) *Majestät Mimi (Felix Dörmann and Roda Roda), operetta (1911 Vienna) *Casimirs Himmelfahrt (Arthur Maria Willner and Robert Bodanzky), burlesque operetta (1911 Vienna) *Die verbotene Stadt (Bruno Granichstaedten and Karl Lindau, operetta (1913 Berlin) *Der Kriegsberichterstatter (Rudolf Österreicher and ), bunte Bilder vom Tage (1914 Vienna) (Music: Eysler, Granichstaedten, Nedbal, Weinberger and Ziehrer) *Auf Befehl der Herzogin (der Kaiserin) ( and Robert Bodanzky), operetta

Bruno Liberda

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bruno Liberda (born 17 February 1953, in Mödling, Vienna) is an Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. Life Liberda started his academic and musical education when he was 16. He studied composition under Alfred Uhl at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien. Later, he studied under Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, who became his most influential teacher and mentor. He received several awards and scholarships in Europe & US. Today Liberda lectures electronic music at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien. His ballet Valse triste (1978) was the first composition of electronic music ever to be performed in the Staatsoper Wien. By combining traditional and electronic instruments, he explores the fascination of music as so aptly described by Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński: Music is the corporealisation of the intelligence that is in sound. His scores are often the result of process-oriented, non-linear composing. Traditional notation, optical stimulation and integration of graphical & verbal description are key elements of his attempt to describe sound in a very direct way. Compositions Stage * Yerma, ballet (1977) • Valse triste, ballet (1978) • Das Ende d

Carl Czerny

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carl Czerny (; ; 21 February 1791 – 15 July 1857) was an Austrian composer, music educator, and pianist of Czech origin. His music spanned the late Classical and early Romantic eras. His vast musical production amounted to over a thousand works and his books of studies for the piano are still widely used in piano teaching. He was one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s best-known pupils and would later on be one of the main teachers of Franz Liszt. Early life Infancy Carl Czerny was born in Vienna (Leopoldstadt) and was baptized in St. Leopold parish. His father was of Czech origin; his mother was Moravian. Czerny came from a musical family: his grandfather was a violinist at Nimburg, near Prague, and his father, Wenzel, was an oboist, organist and pianist. When Czerny was six months old, his father took a job as a piano teacher at a Polish manor and the family moved to Poland, where they lived until the third partition of Poland prompted the family to return to Vienna in 1795. As a child prodigy, Czerny began playing piano at age three and composing at age seven. His first piano teacher was his father, who taught him mainly Bach, Haydn and Mozart. He began performing piano recitals in his p

Carl de Groof

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carl de Groof (born Karl Krof; 3 December 1923, in Vienna, Austria – 18 January 2007, in Javea, Spain) was an Austrian composer, film composer and orchestra conductor. De Groof began his career shortly after the end of the Second World War. He worked as an orchestral musician and a writer for composers like Hans Lang. He also became a conductor, most notably for the Hofburg Palace in 1946 and for the Vienna Boys’ Choir. In 1953 he founded the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra RAVAG, later dance orchestra of the Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation). In the same year he graduated with his own orchestra and also made an appearance in Anna Louise and Anton. De Groof was then selected to write the background music and arrangement by Helmut Käutner for his legendary guerrilla and anti-war film Die letzte Brücke (The Last Bridge). He also conducted the Austrian song in the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest. De Groof carried on in media and television work until the late 1960s and became known to many directors including Georg Tressler, Rolf Thiele and Rudolf Jugert. His career ended in 1969 with the theme tune to the programme Der alte Richter starring Paul Hörbiger. De Groof h

Carl Frühling

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carl Frühling (28 November 186825 November 1937) was an Austrian composer and pianist. Born in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine), he attended from 1887 until 1889 the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde where he was taught the piano by Anton Door and music theory by Franz Krenn. He became a piano accompanist and teacher, working with Bronisław Huberman, Pablo de Sarasate, Egon Wellesz, and the Rosé Quartet. He died in Vienna in poverty. His early piano works are salon pieces, while his Piano Quintet, Op. 30, and Clarinet Trio, Op. 40, are more substantial, written in the Romantic tradition. In 2009, his Piano Quintet was reprinted by Edition Silvertrust. Much of his music is lost or has yet to be uncovered. Steven Isserlis, the cellist, has championed his music, some of which he has rediscovered and performed. Compositions Orchestral *Piano Concerto, Op. 12 *Festmarsch, Op. 23 *Scènes de ballet, Op. 34 *Suite in F major, Op. 36 *Heitere Ouvertüre, Op. 75 *Miniaturen, suite, Op. 78 *Humoreske, Op. 87 Chamber *Sonata, Op. 22, for cello and piano *String Quartet in E major, Op. 25 *Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 30 *Piano Trio in E major, Op. 32 *Piano Quartet in D major, Op. 35 *Trio in A minor,

Carl Maria von Bocklet

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carl Maria von Bocklet (30 November 1801 – 15 July 1881) was a composer, pianist and teacher of music. Bocklet was born in Prague. He studied with Bedřich Diviš Weber and in 1821 he moved to Vienna, where he “created a great stir…through his interesting free fantasias on the piano forte.” In Vienna, Eduard Marxsen was one of his notable students. () Ludwig van Beethoven wrote letters of introduction for him, more than likely, he was influential to Frédéric Chopin. He was also admired by Franz Liszt as the two collaborated on concerts together. In 1828 he was, with Ignaz Schuppanzigh and Joseph Linke, the first performer of Schubert’s two piano trios (1827). Among his own compositions is a variation for Part II of Diabelli’s Waltz of the Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. Carl Maria von Bocklet died in Vienna, aged 79. References External links *

Carl Michael Ziehrer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carl Michael Ziehrer (more rarely spelled Karl Michael Ziehrer) (2 May 1843 – 14 November 1922) was an Austrian composer. In his lifetime, he was one of the fiercest rivals of the Strauss family; most notably Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss. Biography Born in Vienna, Ziehrer was taught music by Simon Sechter, a famous Viennese music theorist and pedagogue, and Johann Emanuel Hasel. He was soon discovered by music publisher Carl Haslinger, the young conductor appeared as the head of a newly formed orchestra aimed at toppling the Strauss dynasty at the Dianabad-Saal in Vienna. Not long after that, he secured a place at one of the Viennese military bands. As was the current trend, he took over as Kapellmeister of a large civilian orchestra in 1873. He also published the journal “Deutsche Musikzeitung” around the same time, and was credited as being one of the important sources of music study in the late 1870s. Not long after founding the music journal, he changed his publisher to Döblinger, and toured Eastern Europe and Germany for many years, earning a good reputation as a strict yet efficient conductor. It was in 1881 that he met his future wife, Marianne Edelmann, a famous ope

Carl Millöcker

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carl (or Karl) Joseph Millöcker ( – ), was an Austrian composer of operettas and a conductor. NOTOC He was born in Vienna, where he studied the flute at the Vienna Conservatory. While holding various conducting posts in the city, he began to compose operettas. The first was Der tote Gast, an operetta in one act, premiered in 1865 with libretto by Ludwig Harisch, after the novel by Heinrich Zschokke. The international success of Der Bettelstudent enabled him to retire from conducting. However, he never achieved a comparable success afterward. Carl Millöcker died in Baden bei Wien; on 31 December 1899. He was buried in an honorary grave in Vienna’s Zentralfriedhof cemetery (group 32, A35). Works See List of operettas and operas by Carl Millöcker. Notes References *Lamb, Andrew (1992), ‘Millöcker, Carl’ in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London) External links * *List of Millöcker works at the Index to Opera and Ballet Sources Online * *Photo of Millöcker, 1890s * Broadcast audition " P. Zhuravlenko, F.Chaliapin & S. Guitry, Yvonne Printemps” (cycle " The sound history of the operette” by Maxim Malkov – in Russian) * * * Works * * *

Carl Zeller

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Carl Adam Johann Nepomuk Zeller (19 June 1842 – 17 August 1898) was an Austrian composer of operettas. Zeller was born in Sankt Peter in der Au, the only child of physician Johann Zeller and Maria Anna Elizabeth. Zeller’s father died before his first birthday, after which his mother remarried Ernest Friedinger. In 1875, Zeller married Anna Maria Schwetz. Zeller had a fine soprano voice, and sang in the Vienna Boys’ Choir before studying and composition in the University of Vienna. while composing choral works and a number of operettas, the best-known of which is Der Vogelhändler. All of his librettos were written (or co-written) by Moritz West, often together with Ludwig Held. Legal troubles, including a perjury conviction, ended Zeller’s career at the ministry and led to prison and public disgrace in the mid-1890s (although his prison sentence was later repealed). After an injury in 1895 from falling on the ice, he spent his last years physically and then mentally ill. Zeller died of pneumonia in Baden bei Wien at the age of 56. Operettas *Joconde (1876) *Die Fornarina (1878) *Capitän Nicoll, oder Die Carbonari (1880) *Der Vagabund (1886) *Der Vogelhändler (The Bird Seller) (1891)

Casimir von Pászthory

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Casimir von Pászthory (1 April 1886 – 18 February 1966) was an Austrian composer. His music, which is stylistically rooted in the Wagner-Strauss tradition, without renouncing elements of his own style, has largely fallen into oblivion today. It experienced at least a partial renaissance in 2004 with a revival of the opera Tilman Riemenschneider on the occasion of the 1300th anniversary of the city of Würzburg. Life Born in Budapest, Pászthory was the son of a senior government official of the Royal Curia, who came from an old Hungarian family. His mother was the pianist Gisela von Voigt, who came from a German noble family with origins in Hanover. As a former pupil of Franz Liszt, she was active until her old age and at the age of 84 she played one of the master’s piano concertos on his grand piano at a Liszt celebration in Budapest. After his mother’s second marriage to August Göllerich, Pászthory came to Nuremberg where he attended the Gymnasium. He then studied at the Law Faculty in Vienna, but concentrated mainly on his music studies, especially cello lessons with Paul Grümmer. After extensive travels, which took him all over Europe and as far as Asia Minor, he settled in Vienn

Celestina Ekel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Celestina Terezija Ivana Ekel, Sister Alakok, (November 15, 1867 – April 20, 1935), was a Slovenian music teacher, musician, organist and composer. Childhood and youth Celestina was born on November 15, 1867, in Novo Mesto, into a wealthy and prominent family. Her father was Joseph Ekel, a district governor and government councilor in Novo Mesto, and her mother was Cölestine von Stransky, a noblewoman. Celestina as composer As a composer, in 1925 Celestina published her first 12 church songs through the Graz-based publishing house Styria: 10 benediction hymns and 2 in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the booklet Lasset uns anbeten! (Let Us Adore!). This work was also published in Slovene in 1927 under the title Pridite molimo! (Come, Let Us Pray!) by the Yugoslav Bookstore in Ljubljana. The main difference between the two editions was that the German version was arranged for a women’s choir, while the Slovene version was arranged for a mixed choir. References

Christoph Wigelbeyer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Christoph Wigelbeyer (born 1973) is an Austrian choir director, conductor, singer and music educator. Life Born in Wels, Wigelbeyer completed singing school, piano and violin in his hometown and at the Linz Bruckner Conservatory within the framework of the Upper Austrian promotion of young talent. This was followed by teacher training in music education and instrumental music education with a focus on singing and choral conducting, as well as three years of solo singing training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, in addition to which he completed master classes and private lessons. In 1998, in his diploma thesis, he portrayed Ernst Ludwig Leitner, also born in Wels. A year later, he also wrote an essay about Leitner in the Österreichische Musikzeitschrift. He sang, among others, in the Wiener Kammerchor and the Wiener Singverein (directed by ) and in the Vocal Ensemble Company of Music (conducted by ). On piano, he can be heard on Nancy Van de Vate’s 1998 album Vol. IV together with Elke Eckerstorfer and Sybille Bouda, among others, with the piece Contrasts for two Pianos, six Hands (1984). With Eckerstorfer, he also played the Little Suite for twenty fingers op

Christoph Willibald von Gluck

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ancestry#

Gluck’s earliest known ancestor is his great-grandfather, Simon Gluckh von Rockenzahn, whose name is recorded in the marriage contract (1672) of his son, the forester Johann (Hans) Adam Gluck (c. 1649–1722) and grandfather of Christoph. ‘Rockenzahn’ is believed to be Rokycany, located in the central part of western Bohemia (about 70 km southwest of Prague and 16 km east of Pilsen). The family name Gluck (also spelled Gluckh, Klugh, Kluch, etc.) likely comes from the Czech word for boy (kluk). one of four sons of Hans Adam Gluck who became foresters or gamekeepers. Alexander served in a contingent of about 50 soldiers under Philipp Hyazinth von Lobkowitz, the son of Ferdinand August von Lobkowitz, during the War of Spanish Succession, and, according to Gluck family tradition, rose to the level of gunbearer to the great general of the imperial forces, Eugene of Savoy. In 1711 Alexander settled outside Berching as a forester and hunter in the service of the monastery Seligenporten, Plankstetten Abbey, and the mayors of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz. He took the vacant position of hunter in Erasbach in 1711 or 1712 (his predecessor had been found shot in the forest). About Gluck’s mother, Maria Walburga, almost nothing is known, including her surname, but she probably grew up in the same area as she was named after Saint Walburga, the sister of Saint Willibald, the first bishop of nearby Eichstätt.

Ciprian Porumbescu

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ciprian Porumbescu (; born Cyprian Gołęmbiowski; 14 October 1853 – 6 June 1883) was a Romanian composer born in Șipotele Sucevei in Bucovina. He was among the most celebrated Romanian composers of his time; his popular works include Crai nou, Song of the Tricolour, Song for Spring, Ballad for violin and piano, and Serenada. In addition, he composed the music for the Romanian patriotic “Song of Unity”, also known as “Pe-al nostru steag e scris Unire” (“On our flag is written Unity”), which was Romania’s anthem from 1975 to 1977 and is currently used for Albania’s national anthem, “Himni i Flamurit”. His work spreads over various forms and musical genres, but the majority of his work is choral and operetta. Life and career Ciprian Porumbescu was born into the family of Iraclie Gołęmbiowski a Romanian Orthodox priest and Emilia Clodnițchi, Polish, daughter of the forest brigadier from Voievodeasa. Iraclie Gołęmbiowski called himself Iraclie Porumbescu from his youth, but he did not officially change his name until 1881, when Ciprian was at school in Suceava. He was assigned as a priest to Șipotele Sucevei, a Hutsul village, as a punishment for repeatedly criticizing Bishop Eugene Hack

Constanze Geiger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Constanze Therese Adelaide Geiger, Freifrau von Ruttenstein (16 October 1835 – 24 August 1890) was an Austrian pianist, theatrical actress, composer and singer. Biography Geiger was the daughter of the composer and the court hat-maker/modist Theresia Geiger (née Ržiha, 1804–1865). Her parents nurtured her musical talents, and her father was her first piano teacher. She continued piano lessons with Johann Wenzel Tomaschek as well as Simon Sechter. Sechter gave her lessons in composition and counterpoint as well. Geiger made her public debut as a concert pianist at age six. She played her own compositions in public first at age eight. She made her theatrical stage debut in 1852 at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Städtische Theater, Geiger is the first female composer ever to be featured in the Vienna Philharmonic’s Neujahrskonzert. Selected compositions Source: * 4 Valses, op. 3 (1845) * Preghiera * Ave Maria (1846) * Duettino (for tenor and bass) * Frühlings-Träume Walzer, op. 8 (1847) * Abschieds-Walzer, op. 9 (1848) * Ferdinandus-Walzer (1848) * Das Fuchslied als Trauermarsch (1849) * Radetzky Marsch, op. 14, no. 1 * Sehnsucht (Romanze), op. 15 (1850) * Carlsklänge (Walzer) * Franz Joseph-M

David Popper

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

David Popper (June 18, 1843 – August 7, 1913) was a Bohemian cellist and composer. Life Popper was born in Prague, and studied music at the Prague Conservatory. His family was Jewish. He studied the cello under Julius Goltermann (1825–1876) and soon attracted attention. He made his first tour in 1863; in Germany he was praised by Hans von Bülow, son-in-law of Franz Liszt, who recommended him as Chamber Virtuoso in the court of Prince von Hohenzollern-Hechingen in Löwenberg. In 1864, he premiered Robert Volkmann’s Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 33, with Hans von Bülow conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. He lost this job a couple of years later due to the prince’s death. In 1866, after a successful season in London, he was invited by the court of Württemberg to stay at Friedrichshafen for two weeks. The invitation included the pianist Anna Mehlig as well. The two of them were expected to perform regularly for the royal couple, which they seemed to have fulfilled satisfactorily, as Anna Mehlig was awarded the honorary title of court pianist shortly afterwards. Popper composed a “Romance” for piano and cello during his stay which he dedicated to Mehlig. He made his debut in Vienna in 1

Davorin Jenko

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Davorin Jenko (born Martin Jenko; 9 November 1835 – 25 November 1914) was a Slovene and Serbian composer. He is sometimes considered the father of Slovenian national Romantic music. Among other songs, he composed the melody for the Serbian national anthem “Bože pravde” (“God of Justice”), the former Slovenian national anthem “Naprej, zastava Slave” (“Forward, Flag of Glory!”), and the popular Serbian and Montenegrin song “Serbian Marseillaise”. Biography Jenko was born in the Upper Carniolan village of Dvorje, in what was then the Austrian Empire, and baptized Martinus Jenko. After graduating from high school in Trieste, he went to Vienna, where he studied law. During his Viennese stay, he founded the Slovene Choir Society in Vienna. In 1862, he moved to the town of Pančevo in southern Vojvodina, now in Serbia, but then in the Hungarian part of the Danube monarchy, where he worked as the choirmaster of the local Serbian Orthodox Church. He later moved on the other side of the border to Belgrade, where he worked as a composer in the Serbian National Theatre. and composed the music for the Serbian national anthem, based on the lyrics of Jovan Đorđević. Most of his Slovene pieces were

Dieter Kaufmann

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dieter Kaufmann (22 April 1941 – 23 September 2025) was an Austrian composer, and a pioneer of electroacoustic music. He headed the new Institut für Komposition und Elektroakustik at the Vienna Music Academy from 1970, following models in Paris and Cologne. He held leading positions in Austrian and international organisations. He composed for voices, traditional instruments and electronics, often in combinations. Some were inspired by his socio-political interests. Life and career Kaufmann was born in Vienna on 22 April 1941 Personal life Kaufmann was married to Gunda König, a singer and actress. He died on 23 September 2025, at the age of 84. External links * * * Dieter Kaufmann (Composer) Bach Cantatas

Edmund Eysler

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Edmund Samuel Eysler (12 March 1874 – 4 October 1949), was an Austrian composer. Biography Edmund Eysler was born in Vienna to a merchant family. He was supposed to enter the engineering profession, but his acquaintance with Leo Fall led him to study music at the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied composition under Robert Fuchs, and became educated as a piano teacher and Kapellmeister. After completing his degree with many plaudits, Eysler made ends meet by teaching piano. In 1898, he married Poldi Allnoch, with whom he had two daughters, and in 1901, he found a position as a Kapellmeister. After that, he composed chamber music and piano pieces, as well as the opera Fest auf Solhaug (Celebration on Solhaug), and the ballet Schlaraffenland. Through a magnanimous relative, Eysler met the librettist Ignaz Schnitzer, who was compiling the text for Zigeunerbaron (Gypsy King). Eysler was given the task of setting this text to the opera Der Hexenspiegel (The Witches’ Mirror) by Schnitzer. Originally, the work was supposed to be staged at the Vienna Court Opera upon completion, but it was spurned by the director for having overly simple music. Josef Weinberger encouraged Eysler to turn

Edmund Meisel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Edmund Meisel (14 August 1894 – 14 November 1930) was an Austrian-born composer. He wrote the score to Walter Ruttmann’s Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (1927), The Battleship Potemkin (1925), and other films of Sergei Eisenstein. Meisel was one of the more important and pioneering figures in film music. He began composing incidental music for the stage in the 1920s. Early credits included the scoring of plays by Bertolt Brecht. His acquaintance with Erwin Piscator led to him writing music for films soon after. Meisel quickly came to be considered a talented composer, capable of working in a different styles, encompassing expressionism and jazz, as well as traditional orchestral modes. Meisel’s niece was the writer and member of the German Resistance, Hilde Meisel. Selected filmography * Battleship Potemkin (1925) * The Holy Mountain (1926) * Superfluous People (1926) * Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis (1927) * October: Ten Days That Shook the World (1928) * Deutscher Rundfunk (1928) * The Crimson Circle (1929) * The Blue Express (1929) External links * * References

Eduard de Lannoy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Baron Henri Eduard Joseph de Lannoy (3 December 1787 – 28 March 1853), was a Flemish composer, teacher, conductor, and writer on music who spent most of his life in Austria. His compositions bridge the classical and early romantic styles. His full name and title in German was ‘Heinrich Eduard Josef, Freiherr von Lannoy’. Biography Political background The turbulent political events from 1789 include the Belgian Revolution and the French Revolution; during the subsequent French Revolutionary Wars, French troops under Napoléon Bonaparte pushed the armies of the First Coalition as far as the Rhine, and in 1795 the Republic of France formally annexed the Southern Netherlands (now Belgium. See Map of Europe in 1812.) A number of government officials left the country, including Lannoy’s father and Jean Vesque de Puttelange; they both eventually obtained official government positions in Vienna, where their sons had fruitful musical careers. Early life Eduard de Lannoy was born in Brussels, then in the Duchy of Brabant, a region of the Austrian Netherlands, part of the Holy Roman Empire. His father was Pierre Joseph Albert, baron de Lannoy (1733–1825), of the Lannoy family, one of the olde

Eduard Nápravník

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Eduard Francevič Nápravník (; 24 August 1839 – 23 November 1916) was a Czech conductor and composer. Nápravník settled in Russian Empire and is best known for his leading role in Russian musical life as the principal conductor of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg for many decades. In that capacity, he conducted the premieres of many operas by Russian composers, including those by Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Biography Nápravník was born in Býšť, Bohemia, in 1839. His studies of music were precariously uneven as a child, being the son of a poor teacher. Orphaned in 1853 at the age of 14, he first worked as a local church organist. In 1854 he entered the Prague Organ School, where he studied under Jan Bedřich Kittl and others, eventually becoming an assistant teacher as Kittl’s generosity allowed him to continue his studies. In 1861, he worked in Russia for the first time as conductor of the private orchestra of Prince Yusupov in St. Petersburg. Nápravník became organist and assistant conductor at the Imperial theatres in 1863, second conductor in 1867, and chief conductor, succeeding Liadov, in 1869, holding the post until his death. He led the first

Edwin Wendler

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Edwin Wendler (born 11 April 1975) is an Austrian composer working in Los Angeles, California. Biography Born into a musical family (Wendler’s father, Prof. Dr. Anton Wendler, worked as a tenor and assistant director at the Vienna State Opera while his mother had a brief career as an operatic soprano before switching careers to work for the United Nations), Wendler attended the Vienna Choir Boys from 1985 until 1989, participating in four tours around the globe, singing in more than 500 concerts and opera performances, sharing stages with José Carreras, Agnes Baltsa, and Alfredo Kraus, and working with conductors such as Colin Davis and Horst Stein. After his voice changed, Wendler attended the Theresianische Akademie, from which he graduated with honors, in 1993. Wendler’s interest in film music started at around the age of 10, and by the time he graduated from high school, his collection of soundtrack CD’s exceeded 1500. From 1996 until 1998, Wendler wrote, directed, and scored several short films for the Austrian independent film company, Magellan-Film. His work was showcased at several independent, local and international film festivals, including the UNICA Festival. Wendler ea

Egon Kornauth

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Egon Kornauth (14 May 1891 – 28 October 1959) was an Austrian composer and music teacher. Kornauth was among the most important 20th-century composers active in Salzburg. Life Kornauth was born in Olmütz, Moravia. A cellist and pianist from his youth, he went in 1909 to Vienna, where he studied with Robert Fuchs, Guido Adler, Franz Schreker (with whom he quarrelled) and Franz Schmidt. After teaching music theory at Vienna University from 1919, Kornauth embarked on an international career as pianist, accompanist and conductor that took him to Indonesia (1926-9) and to South America (1934-5). In 1940 he resumed a teaching career in war-time Vienna and Salzburg. He joined the Nazi-sponsored Reichsmusikkammer, but continued to support his teacher Adler, who was held under house arrest as a Jew, until the latter’s death in 1941. In post-war Austria, Kornauth became director of the Salzburg Mozarteum (1946-1947), and was elected to the Austrian Arts Senate in 1954. He died in Vienna in 1959. Kornauth himself recognised in his 1958 autobiography that “epigonism was inherent in my personality.” The musicologist Cliff Eisen described Kornauth as among the most important 20th-century compose

Egon Neumann

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Egon Neumann (21 July 1894 – 1948) was an Austrian composer and Kapellmeister. Life Born in Mödling, Austria-Hungary, Neumann, whose father was a lawyer, studied musicology at the University of Vienna with Guido Adler from 1913. (Dr. phil. 1919), then worked as a bandmaster at the Moravian Ostrava in 1920, at the Neues Operettenhaus Berlin in 1921, at the Central Theater Berlin in 1922, and was an entertainers’ composer. From 1920 to 1928, at the Bürgertheater as Kapellmeister, where he conducted the premiere of his operetta Donauweibchen. He later lived in Berlin, 1932–1934 again in Vienna, then in Paris. On New Year’s Eve 1939/1940 he took part in the revue Meslay lacht wieder organised by Karl Farkas. The diplomat Gilberto Bosques helped him. References Further reading * Monika Kornberger: Neumann, Egon. In Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon. Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ; Print edition: Vol. 3, Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften press, Vienna 2004, * Neumann, Egon, in , Bärbel Schrader, Dieter Wenk, Ingrid Maaß: Handbuch des deutschsprachigen Exiltheaters 1933–1945. Vol. 2. Biographisches Lexikon der Theaterkünstler. Munich: Saur, 1999, , pp. 699f. External links *

Egon Wellesz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Egon Joseph Wellesz, CBE, FBA (21 October 1885 – 9 November 1974) was an Austrian, later British composer, teacher and musicologist, notable particularly in the field of Byzantine music. Early life and education in Vienna Egon Joseph Wellesz was born on 21 October 1885 in the district of Vienna to Samu Wellesz and Ilona Wellesz (née Lövényi). Although his parents met and married in Vienna, they both originated from Hungary and were Jewish. . As a boy he attended the on where he received a classical education in Greek and Latin. Work as a scholar, lecturer, and composer in Vienna The main focus of Wellesz’s early musicological research was Baroque opera; particularly those by composer Giuseppe Bonno who was the subject of his dissertation at the University of Vienna. He also edited Johann Joseph Fux’s 1723 opera for publication in Adler’s Denkmäler. Many years later Wellesz published a monograph on Fux in 1965. He graduated from the University of Vienna with a degree in musicology in 1908, and his dissertation on Bonno was published the following year. This interest initially arose from dialogues and debates with the Austrian art historian Josef Strzygowski who at this time was putt

Elena Asachi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Elena Asachi, née Teyber; also known as Hélène and Eleonora (30 October 1789 – 9 May 1877) was a Romanian pianist, singer, translator and composer of Austrian birth. She was the daughter of Austrian composer Anton Teyber and niece of concertmaster Franz Teyber. She studied music under her father as a child in Dresden. Later she studied in Vienna under opera singer Domenico Donzelli. She became a professor at Iași Conservatory where she was known as a pianist and composer from 1827 to 1863. She married Gheorghe Asachi, with whom she collaborated on songs and theatrical works. Together with her husband she promoted the creation of the first music institute in the Principality of Moldavia, the Philharmonic-Drama Conservatory. Life Elena Asachi was born Elena Teyber, on 30 October 1789 in Vienna. She was the daughter of Austrian composer Anton Teyber and the niece of concertmaster Franz Teyber. Asachi was a pianist, singer, translator and composer. She studied music under her father as a child in Dresden, including theory, solfege, harmony and counterpoint. After completing her studies, she became a professor at Iași Conservatory where she was known as a pianist and composer from 1827

Elise Schlick

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maria Elisabeth, Countess of Schlick (, ; c. 1790 – 14 December 1855) was a Bohemia-born composer and poet. She composed music for lieder and also wrote poetry that other composers set to music. She published under the name Countess Elise Schlick or Gräfin Elise Schlick. Although Schlick is often described as German, some sources list her birthplace as Prague and her birth year as 1792. Little is known about Schlick’s early life or education. She was the sister-in-law of Count Franz zu Bassano und Weisskirchen, an Austrian general who helped suppress the Hungarian uprising in 1849. She was described as a patroness of Franz Liszt in Prague. Schlick produced compositions through at least opus 5. Her musical compositions were published by Franz Gloggl and C. A. Spina in Vienna; August Cranz in Hamburg; and Schott in Mainz. *“Gute Nacht” *“Lieb Liebchen, leg’s Händchen aufs Herze,” opus 5 (text by Heinrich Heine) *“Lieder der Nacht” Poetry *“Die Lüfte weh’n so lind” (music by Conradin Kreutzer *“Du frische Saat, heraus/Frühlingsfreude” (music by Amalie Scholl) *“Glaubet nicht es wären Tränen” (music by Jan Bedřich Kittl) References

Elizabeth Gyring

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Elizabeth Gyring (1886–1970) was an American composer born in Vienna, Austria. Early life and education Gyring’s father was Leopold Rethy, a laryngologist. Gyring attended the Vienna Academy of Music, studying harmony with Joseph Marx and piano with Ludwig Gzaczkes, then in 1910 composition with Arnold Schoenburg. Career Gyring had several of her early works performed in concerts and broadcast on the radio by players from the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. Following her emigration to the United States, she had a successful compositional career, with her works performed and recorded by American soloists and ensembles. In 1944 Gyring became an American citizen. *Piano Sonata No.2 (1957) *Hymn of Gratitude (1948) *Arabesque for bassoon (1963-1964) *String Quartets *Violin Concerto Several of her works were recorded on Phonograph. References

Emanuel Aloys Förster

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

NOTOC Emanuel Aloys Förster (26 January 1748 – 12 November 1823) was a composer and music teacher, who spent most of his life in Vienna, Austria. Early life Emanuel Aloys Förster was born in Niedersteine bei Glatz, County of Glatz (Kingdom of Prussia). Almost nothing is known of his family or parents except that his father was an administrator in an economics office. From his early youth, Emanuel composed several concertos and many sonatas purely from his correct musical ear. He acquired only later a copy of a theoretical work by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (probably Versuch über die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen, “Essay on the true art of keyboard playing”), which he copied out. When he had left school he went to work for some years in his father’s office, and then he was called up into the Prussian army and spent the last two years of the Seven Years’ War as an oboist in the “Fouquet’schen Regiment”. After that (around 1763) he went to Mittelwalde where he lived in the intimate circle of, and studied with, the (at that time) famous organist Johann Georg Pausewang. Probably through his agency, Förster went to Prague from 1776 to 1779, after which he settled in Vienna, where h

Emil von Reznicek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Emil Nikolaus Joseph, Freiherr von Reznicek (4 May 1860, in Vienna – 2 August 1945, in Berlin) was an Austrian composer of Romanian-Czech ancestry. Life Reznicek’s grandfather, Josef Resnitschek (1787–1848), was a trumpet virtuoso and band leader in the Imperial regiments Nos. 32 (Esterhazy), based in Budapest, and 60 (Gustav Wasa), based in Vienna where he played music with Johann Strauss Sr. and Joseph Lanner. Reznicek’s father Josef Resnitschek/Reznicek (1812–1887) entered the army as a cadet and eventually became Feldmarschall-Lieutenant, the second-highest rank in the Austrian army, gaining an ordinary diploma of nobility in 1851 and the rank as a Baron (Freiherr) in 1859. His mother, Clarisse Fürstin Ghika Budești (1837–1864), belonged to the influential Ghika family of Romania. Emil Nikolaus was the half-brother of the artist Ferdinand von Řezníček (1868–1909). Reznicek passed his childhood in Vienna, until the family moved to Graz in 1874. He began piano lessons in 1871; his first compositions date from 1876–78, when he was a student in Graz and at the Staatsgymnasium in Marburg an der Drau (Maribor). He studied law and music in Graz from 1878–80. He never finished his law

Emmerich Kálmán

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Emmerich Kálmán ( ; 24 October 1882 – 30 October 1953) was a Hungarian composer of operettas and a prominent figure in the development of Viennese operetta in the 20th century. Among his most popular works are Die Csárdásfürstin (1915) and Gräfin Mariza (1924). Influences on his compositional style include Hungarian folk music (such as the csárdás), the Viennese style of precursors such as Johann Strauss II and Franz Lehár, and, in his later works, American jazz. As a result of the Anschluss, Kálmán and his family fled to Paris and then to the United States. He eventually returned to Europe in 1949 and died in Paris in 1953. Biography Kálmán was born Imre Koppstein in Siófok, then in Austria-Hungary, on the southern shore of Lake Balaton, to a Jewish family. Kálmán initially intended to become a concert pianist, but because of early-onset arthritis, he focused on composition instead. He studied music theory and composition at the National Hungarian Royal Academy of Music (then the Budapest Academy of Music), where he was a fellow student of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály under Hans Kössler. His early symphonic poems Saturnalia and Endre és Johanna were well-received, although he fai

Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (; May 29, 1897 – November 29, 1957) was an Austrian composer and conductor, who left Europe in the mid-1930s and later adopted US nationality. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. During the 1920s he re-orchestrated, re-arranged and nearly re-composed several operettas by Johann Strauss II. By 1931 he was a professor of music at the Vienna State Academy. At the request of motion picture director Max Reinhardt, and due to the rise of the Nazi regime, Korngold moved to Hollywood in 1934 to write music for films. His first was Reinhardt’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935). He subsequently wrote scores for such films as Captain Blood (1935), which helped boost the career of its starring newcomer, Errol Flynn. His score for Anthony Adverse (1936) won an Oscar; two years later he won another Oscar for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Korngold scored 16 Hollywood films in all, and received two more nominations for Oscars. Along with Max Steiner and Alfred Newman, he is one of the founders of American film music. Although his late-Romantic style of classical composition was no longer as popular when

Erik Freitag

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Erik Freitag (born 1 February 1940) is an Austrian composer and violinist. Life Born in Vienna, Freitag studied violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, with, among others, Eduard Melkus and composition with Karl-Birger Blomdahl at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. From 1964 to 1967, he was violinist in the Sveriges Radio Symfoniorchester and from 1967 to 1970 in the Stockholms Filharmoniska Orchester. He then directed the Vienna-Ottakring Music School until 2003. In 1987, together with and René Staar, he founded the “Ensemble Wiener Collage”, which is dedicated to the interpretation of contemporary works, especially by Austrian composers. Awards * 1975: Förderungspreis des Bundesministeriums für Unterricht und Kunst * 1979: Förderungspreis der Stadt Wien * 1988: Theodor Körner Prize * 1996: Composer in Residence der Northwestern University of Michigan Work * Hymnus – cantata for speaker, tenor, mixed choir, alto flute, harp, vibraphone and violin, 1970 * Kleine Suite für Streicher und Klavier, 1972 * Moving Studies – Szenen für Tänzer, 1973 * Drei Stücke für Streichquartett, 1976 * Drei Miniaturen für Klavier zu vier Händen, 1977 * Divertimento für Bläserqui

Ernest Gold

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ernst Sigmund Goldner (July 13, 1921 – March 17, 1999), known professionally as Ernest Gold, was an Austrian-American composer of film and television scores. He won an Academy Award and two Grammy Awards for his work on the film Exodus (1960), and a Golden Globe for On the Beach (1959). He received an additional three Oscar nominations throughout his career, and was the first composer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Early life Gold was born in 1921 in Vienna, the son of Elisabeth (Stransky) and Gustav Goldner. Gold’s father’s mother (Jaiteles) ancestry from Szeged, Hungary and mother’s mother (Therese Sprung) from Temesvár (at the time part of Hungary and now in Romania) and Budapest (Spitzer). Ernest Gold came from a musical family. His father played the violin and his mother sang. His father also studied under Richard Heuberger. Ernest Gold said he learned to read music before he learned to read words. Gold went to movie theaters as a teenager, not only to watch the films but to listen to the musical score. Among prominent film composers of the time, he admired Max Steiner. In New York City, he earned money by working as an accompanist and writing popular songs.

Ernst Krenek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ernst Heinrich Krenek (23 August 1900 – 22 December 1991) was an Austrian, later American, composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now (1939), a study of Johannes Ockeghem (1953), and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music (1974). Krenek wrote two pieces using the pseudonym Thornton Winsloe. Life Born Ernst Heinrich Křenek in Vienna (then in Austria-Hungary), he was the son of a Czech soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army. He studied there and in Berlin with Franz Schreker before working in a number of German opera houses as conductor. During World War I, Krenek was drafted into the Austrian army, but he was stationed in Vienna, allowing him to go on with his musical studies. In 1922 he met Alma Mahler, widow of Gustav Mahler, and her daughter, Anna, to whom he dedicated his Symphony No. 2, and whom he married in January 1924. That marriage ended in divorce before its first anniversary. At the time of his marriage to Anna Mahler, Krenek was completing his Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 29. The Australian violinist Alma Moodie assisted Krenek, not with the scoring of the violin part, but with obtaining financial ass

Ernst Ludwig Leitner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ernst Ludwig Leitner (born 14 October 1943) is an Austrian composer, organist and academic teacher. Education Born in Wels, Leitner studied music education, organ and composition at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and finally musicology at the University of Innsbruck from 1963 until 1968. Work His artistic output is documented in the music collection of the Austrian National Library and covers several genres, including four symphonies, eight instrumental concertos, a requiem and three operas. Leitner’s works have received numerous awards and have been performed by renowned orchestras and ensembles at renowned venues and festivals. The artist has an extensive discography. Operas * So weiß wie Schnee, so rot wie Blut (1999) * Fadinger (2014) Awards * 1981 Kulturmedaille der Stadt Wels * 1983 1. Preis beim Internationalen Kompositionswettbewerb München * 2012 Heinrich Gleißner Prize * 2013 References Further reading * Christoph Wigelbeyer: Ernst Ludwig Leitner. Ein Portrait. Diplomarbeit aus Musikgeschichte, Universität für Musik Wien, 1998. * Christoph Wigelbeyer: Ernst Ludwig Leitner: „So weiß wie Schnee, so rot wie Blut.“ In Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, vol. 54, fascicules 7

Ernst Toch

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ernst Toch (; 7 December 1887 – 1 October 1964) was an Austrian composer of European classical music and film scores, who from 1933 worked as an émigré in Paris, London and New York. He sought throughout his life to introduce new approaches to music. Biography Toch was born in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, into the family of a humble Jewish leather dealer when the city was at its 19th-century cultural zenith. He studied philosophy at the University of Vienna, medicine at Heidelberg and music at the Hoch Conservatory (1909–1913) in Frankfurt under Iwan Knorr. His main instrument was the piano, and he was a pianist of considerable stature, performing to acclaim throughout much of western Europe. Much of his writing was intended for the piano. Toch continued to grow as an artist and composer throughout his adult life, and in America came to influence whole new generations of composers. His first compositions date from c. 1900 and were pastiches in the style of Mozart (quartets, 1905 album verses for piano). His first quartet was performed in Leipzig in 1908, and his sixth (Opus 12, 1905) in the year 1909. In 1909, his Chamber Symphony in F major (written 1906) won the Frankfurt/Main Mozart pr

Erwin Schulhoff

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Erwin Schulhoff (; 8 June 189418 August 1942) was an Austro-Czech composer and pianist. He was one of the figures in the generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany and whose works have been rarely noted or performed beyond Czechoslovakia until the 1980s. Life Schulhoff was born in Prague into a German family of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. His father Gustav Schulhoff was a wool merchant from Prague and his mother Louise Wolff from Frankfurt. The pianist and composer Julius Schulhoff was his great-uncle. Antonín Dvořák encouraged Schulhoff’s earliest musical studies, which began at the Prague Conservatory when he was ten years old. , and Cologne; where his teachers included Claude Debussy, Max Reger, Fritz Steinbach, and Willi Thern. He won the Mendelssohn Prize twice, for piano in 1913 and for composition in 1918. He served on the Russian front in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I. He was wounded and was in an Italian prisoner-of-war camp when the war ended. He lived in Germany after the war before returning in 1923 to Prague, where he joined the faculty of the conservatory in 1929. Schulh

Eugen Brixel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Eugen Brixel (27 March 1939 – 16 October 2000) was an Austrian composer, musician and musicologist. The focus of his work was international wind music research. Life Brixel was born in 1939 in Šumperk. After the World War II, driven out by the Czechs, his family finally arrived in Vienna, where he completed his compulsory schooling with the school brothers. At first, Eugen Brixel learned the profession of druggist, in accordance with his parents’ wishes. On 12 June 1956 he passed the druggist’s examination, but his passion belonged to playing the clarinet. From the age of sixteen he studied the clarinet with Leopold Wlach and Karl Österreicher at the Vienna Music Academy (today the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) and graduated with distinction in 1962. After passing the Externistenmatura on 11 October 1960, he also studied theatre studies, musicology and psychology at the University of Vienna, where he obtained a doctorate in Dr. phil. on 16 July 1967. In 1964, Brixel married his wife Eva Leeb, in 1965 his daughter Constanze Viola was born and in 1973 his daughter Regine Cosima. He served in the military from 1967 to 1969 with the Gardemusik Vienna and the Militärmu

Evelyn Faltis

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Evelyn Faltis (20 February 1887 – 13 May 1937 ) was a Czech composer. Life Evelyn Faltis was born in Trutnov, Bohemia, in 1887, the second of three daughters of Carl Johann and Maria Anna Cecilia Magdalena Faltis (born Wiesenburg) who were Viennese bourgeoisie. She began her music studies at the Assomption convent in Paris and later studied at the Vienna Music Academy with Robert Fuchs and Eusebius Mandyczewski. She also studied at the Dresden Conservatory with Felix Draeseke and Eduard Reus, and in Munich with Sophie Menter. After completing her studies she moved to Berlin, but settled in Vienna in 1933. She became the first female coach at Bayreuth and worked as an accompanist at the Nuremberg Stadttheater am Ring and the Darmstadt Hoftheater, and after 1924 at the Städtische Oper in Berlin. She died in Vienna of pneumonia. Works Faltis composed for orchestra, chamber ensemble, instruments and chorus. *Sonata in B minor for piano (no Op., about 1909) *Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 1 *Fantastic symphony for orchestra, Op. 2a *Hamlet symphonic poem, Op. 2b *Piano Concerto, Op. 3 *Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 4 *Andante and Slavic Dance, Op 5. (Op. 5 was counted twice) *Adagio for Violin

Felix Weingartner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Paul Felix Weingartner, Edler von Münzberg (2 June 1863 – 7 May 1942) was an Austrian conductor, composer and pianist. Life and career Weingartner was born in Zara, Dalmatia, Austrian Empire (now Zadar, Croatia), to Austrian parents. The family moved to Graz in 1868, and his father died later that year. He studied with Wilhelm Mayer (who published his own compositions under the pseudonym of W. A. Rémy and also taught Ferruccio Busoni). In 1881 he went to Leipzig to study philosophy, but soon devoted himself entirely to music, entering the Conservatory in 1883 and studying in Weimar as one of Franz Liszt’s last pupils. Liszt helped produce the world premiere of Weingartner’s opera Sakuntala in 1884 with the Weimar orchestra. According to Liszt biographer Alan Walker, however, the Weimar orchestra of the 1880s was far from its peak of a few decades earlier and the performance ended up poorly, with the orchestra going one way and the chorus another. Walker got this account from Weingartner’s autobiography, published in Zürich and Leipzig in 1928–1929. The same year, 1884, he assumed the directorship of the Königsberg Opera. From 1885 to 1887 he was Kapellmeister in Danzig, then in Ham

Ferdinand Laub

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ferdinand Laub (19 January 1832 – 17 March 1875) was a Czech violinist and composer. Life and career Laub was born in Prague from a German Bohemian family which had assimilated into the ethnic Czech community. His father Erasmus (1794–1865) arranged for Ferdinand’s first public appearance at age six. His first solo concert was at age ten in the Estates Theatre (a theater in Prague). From 1843 to 1846, he studied at the Prague Conservatory. He began his adult career as a virtuoso in Vienna, at the imperial court. In 1850, he traveled across Europe with a series of exhibitions. He stayed for a longer time in Weimar and Berlin (1855–62 as professor at the Stern Conservatory). From 1866 to 1874 he was professor of violin at the Moscow Conservatory, where his many notable students included Stanisław Barcewicz. Laub was a well-admired violinist, winning awards all over Europe; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky called him “the best violinist of our time”. He was the first violinist in the premiere performances of both Tchaikovsky’s First and Second String Quartets, and the posthumous dedicatee of the Third of 1876. In January 1868, during Hector Berlioz’s second trip to Moscow, Laub performed the

Ferenc Erkel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ferenc Erkel ( , ; November 7, 1810 – June 15, 1893) was a Hungarian composer, conductor and pianist. He was the father of Hungarian grand opera, written mainly on historical themes, which are still often performed in Hungary. He also composed the music of “Himnusz”, the national anthem of Hungary, which was adopted in 1844. He died in Budapest. Biography Erkel was born in Nyíregyháza to an originally Danube Swabian Erkel family, a son of Joseph Erkel who was a musician. His mother was the Hungarian Klára Ruttkay. The libretti of his first three operas were written by Béni Egressy. Beside his operas, for which he is best known, he wrote pieces for piano and chorus, and a majestic Festival Overture. He acquainted Hector Berlioz with the tune of the Rákóczi March, which Berlioz used in The Damnation of Faust. He headed the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra (founded in 1853). He was also the director and piano teacher of the Hungarian Academy of Music until 1886. The Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest was opened in 1884, of which he was the musical director. In 1839, he married Adél Adlers. Four of his sons participated in the composing of his later operas:Nyíregyháza (July 4, 1842, P

Florian Leopold Gassmann

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Florian Leopold Gassmann (3 May 1729 – 21 January 1774 ) was a German-speaking Bohemian opera composer of the transitional period between the baroque and classical eras. He was one of the principal composers of dramma giocoso immediately before Mozart. He was one of Antonio Salieri’s teachers. Life and career Gassmann was born in Brüx, Bohemia, and was most likely trained by Johann Woborschil, the local chorus master. His father was a goldsmith who may well have opposed his son’s choice of a musical career. From 1757 until 1762, he wrote an opera every year for the carnival season in Venice, and was also appointed choirmaster in the girls’ conservatory in Venice in 1757. Many of the librettos he set were by the renowned Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni. In 1763 he was called to Vienna as court ballet composer, and was held in great affection by Emperor Joseph II. In 1764 he was appointed chamber composer to the Emperor, and in 1772 court conductor. In 1766 Gassmann met up-and-coming young Antonio Salieri in Venice, invited him to return with him to Vienna and taught him composition using Johann Joseph Fux’s textbook Gradus ad Parnassum. Salieri remained in Vienna, and succeeded Ga

Francesco Pollini

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Francesco Giuseppe Pollini (25 March 1762 – 17 September 1846) was an Italian pianist, composer and academic. Life Pollini was born in Ljubljana (now in Slovenia) in 1762, son of a medical doctor. He moved to Vienna in 1783, and was a student there of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He returned to Ljubljana, performing there as a singer and actor. In Italy he appeared as a pianist, violinist and opera singer, appearing in several cities. From 1790 he lived mainly as a piano teacher in Milan, where in 1793 he took lessons from Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli. He made guest appearances in Paris and in German cities. From 1809 he was a professor of piano at Milan Conservatory; he died in Milan in 1846. Pollini was highly regarded by his contemporaries; Vincenzo Bellini dedicated the opera La sonnambula to him. Works He composed piano music, which demand a virtuoso technique; chamber music; two operas (Il genio insubre and La casetta nei boschi); a Stabat Mater and other church music. His instruction book for pianists, Metodo pel clavicembalo, was used as a textbook at Milan Conservatory. The three-hand effect He is associated with the three-hand effect of piano playing; his biographer in A Dictio

František Drdla

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

František Alois Drdla (Germanised as Franz Drdla; 28 November 1868 – 3 September 1944) was a Czech concert violinist and composer of light music. Biography Drdla was born in 1868 in Žďár nad Sázavou in Moravia, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic). He studied violin and composition first at the Prague Conservatory and later at the Vienna Conservatory where his teachers were Joseph Hellmesberger Jr. for violin, Anton Bruckner for music theory and Franz Krenn for composition. However, Drdla’s music shows none of his teachers’ influences. From 1890 to 1893 he played violin in the orchestra of the Vienna Court Opera, and from 1894 to 1899 he pursued his career as the director and concertmaster of the Theater an der Wien. By then a well-known concert violinist, Drdla toured throughout Europe (1899–1905) and later the United States (1923–1925). Drdla enjoyed a good reputation as a violinist with a technically refined tone. In 1927 he received an honorary title from the President of Austria. Drdla died in Bad Gastein, Austria on 3 September 1944. Although he composed three operettas, a violin concerto, several orchestral works and two piano trios, international fame came to Drdla as a

František Hertl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

František Hertl (18 April 1906, Zbůch – 23 February 1973, Prague) was a Czech double bassist, composer and conductor. Life Hertl was the oldest of five children born in to a Kapellmeister. As a child he was taught by his father; he played violin and several other instruments. In 1920 he took the entrance exam for violin study at the Prague Conservatory; on the recommendation of František Černý he switched to double bass, and studied with Černý at the Conservatory from then on. After concluding his studies in 1926, Hertl was engaged as principal bassist at the National Theatre in Ljubljana. At the same time, he took a teaching position at a music school in the city. After a short stint in the military, he became the principal bassist of the Czech Philharmonic, then directed by Václav Talich, with whom Hertl studied conducting. He also studied composition from 1933 to 1936 with Otakar Šín and Jaroslav Řídký at the Prague Conservatory. In 1935, he left the Czech Philharmonic and took a position with the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Prague (Symfonický orchestr Českého rozhlasu). He served as principal double bassist there until 1950. From 1936 to 1950 he was also the artistic director a

František Ondříček

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

František Ondříček (29 April 1857 – 12 April 1922) was a Czech violinist and composer. He gave the first performance of the Violin Concerto by Antonín Dvořák, and his achievements were recognised by the rare award of honorary membership of the Philharmonic Society of London (now the Royal Philharmonic Society) in 1891. Life and career František Ondříček was born in Prague on 29 April 1857, the son of the violinist and conductor Jan Ondříček. His younger brother is Karel Ondříček (1865–1943), also a violinist. František studied at the Prague Conservatory under Antonín Bennewitz, and was then supported by Henryk Wieniawski through two years studying at the Paris Conservatoire with Lambert Massart. He shared a first prize with Achille Rivarde. Ondříček was the soloist in the first performance of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, Op. 53 in Prague on 14 October 1883, and performed it again in Vienna on 2 December. In the late 1880s he settled in Vienna, where he taught. He also published a technical treatise on violin technique in 1909. After World War I, Ondříček returned to Prague, where he directed the violin masterclass at the Prague Conservatory. Notable students include composer Karel Nav

František Škroup

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

František Jan Škroup (; 3 June 1801 – 7 February 1862) was a Czech composer and conductor. His brother Jan Nepomuk Škroup was also a successful composer and his father, Dominik Škroup, and other brother Ignác Škroup were lesser known composers. He is the author of the melody for the Czech national anthem “Kde domov můj?”. Biography Škroup was born on 3 June 1801 in Osice near Hradec Králové in Bohemia. At the age of eleven he moved to Prague where he supported himself as a choir boy and flautist. He continued his schooling at one of the most important Czech national revival movement centres, Hradec Králové, where he was a choirboy at the cathedral. While there he studied with the local choirmaster and composer Franz Volkert. He later moved back to Prague to study at the university. He became a fairly successful opera and singspiel composer producing more than a dozen stage works. Among Škroup’s part-time jobs was organist at the “Temple of the Israelite Society for Regulated Worship,” known since the late nineteen-forties as the “Spanish synagogue.” His last position was as the musical director of the German opera in Dutch Rotterdam. He died in Rotterdam on 7 February 18 and, as a

Franz Bendel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Bendel (23 March 18333 July 1874) was a German Bohemian pianist, composer, and teacher. Bendel was born in Schönlinde, Bohemia, Austrian Empire. He was a student of Franz Liszt for five years in Weimar. From 1862, he lived in Berlin and taught at Theodor Kullak’s Music Academy, Neue Akademie der Tonkunst. He was also the author of over four hundred compositions, many of them for the piano, including one piano concerto. Bendel was a superb pianist who toured extensively until his death from typhoid fever in Boston while on an American tour. He was aged 41. Life Franz Bendel was a son of an elementary school teacher. After the first instruction from his father, he became a student of Josef Proksch. Through his teacher, who encouraged him very much, Bendel later went to Franz Liszt in Weimar, where he also met Wendelin Weißheimer. In 1848, Count Otto von Westphal hired Bendel as a house and music teacher. He held this office for 14 years. Bendel had already emerged a composer by 1885, when Proksch performed a mass by him in Prague. In 1862, Bendel settled in Berlin and became a lecturer at the Neue Akademie der Tonkunst. He lived and worked there until his death, only interrupte

Franz Cibulka

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Peter Cibulka (23 December 1946 – 27 June 2016) was an Austrian composer. Career Cibulka was born in Fohnsdorf, Austria. Having completed his musical studies in Clarinet, composition and orchestral conducting at the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Graz, he served as Professor of Clarinet, Chamber Music and Music Theory at the Johann Joseph Fux Conservatory in Graz until July 2002. Cibulka achieved an international reputation following the performance in 1997 of several of his works at the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) held in Schladming, Austria. He was later invited to Australia, America, Russia, and many European countries as a composer, conductor, performer, juror, and lecturer. He died on 27 June 2016. Work His list of works includes more than 300 compositions of the most diverse instrumentation and styles resulting from his artistic collaboration with various performers. Cibulka mainly arranged compositions on demand, respecting the artists’ wishes and ideas. However, he also wrote music that reflected his own creativity and visions. This can be thoroughly felt in pieces such as Aquarius, in which he transformed his despair about hu

Franz Clement

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Joseph Clement (November 17, 1780 – November 3, 1842), was an Austrian violinist, pianist, composer, conductor of Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, and a friend of Ludwig van Beethoven. Life and career A talented violinist from a young age, he was known for his extraordinary ability to play complex pieces from memory after only briefly viewing them. He would alternate his virtuoso performances with lighthearted showmanship, with such intermission antics as playing a sonata on one string with the violin upside-down. A critic in 1805 described his unique style as follows: “His is not the marked, bold, strong playing, the moving, forceful Adagio, the powerful bow and tone which characterise the Rode-Viotti School; rather, his playing is indescribably delicate, neat and elegant; it has an extremely delightful tenderness and cleanness that undoubtedly secures him a place among the most perfect violinists. At the same time, he has a wholly individual lightness, which makes it seem as if he merely toys with the most incredible difficulties, and a sureness that never deserts him for a moment, even in the most daring passages.” Beethoven became acquainted with Clement in 1794 when he atte

Franz Danksagmüller

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Danksagmüller (born 1969) is an Austrian composer and organist. Life Born in Sankt Martin im Innkreis, Danksagmüller received his first musical instructions in piano, organ and theory from his father. 1980-1988 he was a pupil of Walther R. Schuster in Passau. This was followed by studies in church music and organ with Michael Radulescu and composition with and Erich Urbanner at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Between 1993 and 1995 he studied organ with Daniel Roth in Saarbrücken and then electronic music and music technology at the Studio for Advanced Music & Media Technology with Karlheinz Essl Jr. at the Anton Bruckner Private University. Danksagmüller was church musician at the Karlskirche from 1990 to 1994, organist at St. Elisabeth in Vienna IV from 1994 to 1999 and teacher at the Conservatory for Church Music in Linz from 1993 to 1999. From 1995 to 2003 he also taught organ and improvisation as a lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. From 1999 to 2005 he was cathedral organist and composer at Sankt Pölten Cathedral. Since October 2005 he has been professor of organ and improvisation at the Lübeck Academy of Music. Work Hi

Franz Doppler

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Albert Franz Doppler (16 October 182127 July 1883) was a flute virtuoso and a composer best known for his flute music. He also wrote one German and several Hungarian operas for Budapest, all produced with great success. His ballet music was popular during his lifetime. Life Doppler was born in Lemberg (Austrian Empire), now Lviv, Ukraine. From 1828 to 1831, he received flute lessons from his father, Joseph Doppler, who was an oboist, and made his debut as a flautist at the age of 13. He formed a flute duo with his brother Karl, four years younger, who mainly wrote songs and incidental music, and as a duo they caused quite a sensation throughout Europe. They toured and both became members of the orchestra of the German Theatre, Budapest, in 1838 and both moved to the Hungarian National Theatre in 1841. There, five of Franz’s operas were staged with success. Franz and Karl continued to make regular tours of Europe and helped found the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra in 1853. At the age of 18 Franz was the first flautist at the opera in Budapest, and he went on to be the first flautist and stand-in conductor and eventually chief conductor, of the Vienna Court Opera, as well as acquir

Franz Joseph Haydn

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early life#

Joseph Haydn was born in Rohrau, Austria, a village that at that time stood on the border with Hungary. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who also served as “Marktrichter”, or marketplace supervisor. Haydn’s mother Maria, née Koller, had worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach, the presiding aristocrat of Rohrau. Neither parent could read music; however, Mathias was an enthusiastic folk musician, who during the journeyman period of his career had taught himself to play the harp. According to Haydn’s later reminiscences, his family was extremely musical, and they frequently sang together and with their neighbours. Haydn’s parents had noticed that their son was musically gifted and knew that in Rohrau he would have no chance to obtain serious musical training. It was for this reason that, around the time Haydn turned six, they accepted a proposal from their relative Johann Matthias Frankh, the schoolmaster and choirmaster in nearby Hainburg, that Haydn be apprenticed to Frankh in his home to train as a musician. Haydn therefore went off with Frankh to Hainburg; he never again lived with his parents. Life in the Frankh household was not easy for Haydn, who later remembered being frequently hungry and humiliated by the filthy state of his clothing. However, he quickly profited from his musical training, and could soon play both harpsichord and violin; he also sang treble parts in the church choir. There is reason to think that Haydn’s singing impressed those who heard him, because in 1739 he was brought to the attention of Georg Reutter the Younger, the director of music in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, who happened to be visiting Hainburg and was looking for new choirboys. Haydn passed his audition with Reutter, and after several months of further training moved to Vienna (1740), where he worked for the next nine years as a chorister. Haydn lived in the Kapellhaus next to the cathedral, along with Reutter, Reutter’s family, and the other four choirboys, which after 1745 included his younger brother Michael. The choirboys were instructed in Latin and other school subjects as well as voice, violin, and keyboard. Reutter was of little help to Haydn in the areas of music theory and composition, giving him only two lessons in his entire time as a chorister. However, since St. Stephen’s was one of the leading musical centres in Europe, Haydn learned a great deal simply by serving as a professional musician there. Like Frankh before him, Reutter did not always bother to make sure Haydn was properly fed. As he later told his biographer Albert Christoph Dies, Haydn was motivated to sing well, in hopes of gaining more invitations to perform before aristocratic audiences, where the singers were usually served refreshments. Anthony Tommasini writes that “Matthias Hyaydn must have felt guilty, if not horrified, when he received a letter from the choir director proposing that Joseph’s soprano voice be surgically preserved.”

Franz Lehár

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Lehár ( ; ; 30 April 1870 – 24 October 1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas, of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe). Life and career Lehár was born in the northern part of Komárom, Kingdom of Hungary (now Komárno, Slovakia), the eldest son of Franz Lehar Sr. (1838–1898), an Austrian bandmaster in the Infantry Regiment No. 50 of the Austro-Hungarian Army and Christine Neubrandt (1849–1906), a Hungarian woman from a family of German descent. He grew up speaking only Hungarian until the age of 12. He later put an acute accent above the a of his father’s surname Lehar to indicate the pronunciation of the vowel as , in accordance with Hungarian orthography. While his younger brother Anton entered cadet school in Vienna to become a professional officer, Franz studied violin at the Prague Conservatory, where his violin teacher was Antonín Bennewitz, but was advised by Antonín Dvořák to focus on composition. However, the Conservatory’s rules at that time did not allow students to study both performance and composition, and Bennewitz and Lehár senior exerted pressure on Lehár to take his degree in viol

Franz Liszt

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early life#

Franz Liszt was born to Anna Liszt (née Maria Anna Lager) and Adam Liszt on 22 October 1811, in the village of Doborján (now Raiding, Austria) in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary, which was part of the Habsburg monarchy. Liszt’s father was a land steward in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy; a keen amateur musician, he played the piano, guitar and flute, and knew Joseph Haydn and Johann Nepomuk Hummel personally. A renowned child prodigy, Franz began to improvise at the piano from before the age of five, and his father diligently encouraged his progress. Franz also found exposure to music through attending Mass, as well as travelling Romani bands that toured the Hungarian countryside. His first public concert was in Sopron in 1820 at the age of nine; its success led to further appearances in Pressburg and for Prince Nikolaus’ court in Eisenstadt. The publicity led to a group of wealthy sponsors offering to finance Franz’s musical education in Vienna. There, Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. Czerny, already extremely busy, had only grudgingly agreed to hear Liszt play, and had initially refused to entertain the idea of regular lessons. Being so impressed by the initial audition, however, Czerny taught Liszt regularly, free of charge, for the next eighteen months, at which point he felt he had nothing more to teach. Liszt remained grateful to his former teacher, later dedicating to him the Transcendental Études on their 1830 republication. Liszt also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, the accomplished music director of the Viennese court who had previously taught Beethoven and Schubert. Like Czerny, Salieri was highly impressed by Liszt’s improvisation and sight-reading abilities. Liszt’s public debut in Vienna on 1 December 1822 was a great success. He was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and met Beethoven and Schubert. To build on his son’s success, Adam Liszt decided to take the family to Paris, the centre of the artistic world. At Liszt’s final Viennese concert on 13 April 1823, Beethoven was reputed to have walked onstage and kissed Liszt on the forehead, to signify a kind of artistic christening. There is debate, however, on the extent to which this story is apocryphal. The family briefly returned to Hungary, and Liszt played a concert in traditional Hungarian dress, in order to emphasise his roots, in May 1823. In 1824 a piece Liszt had written at the age of 11 – his Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli (S. 147) – appeared in of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein as his first published composition. This volume, commissioned by Anton Diabelli, includes 50 variations on his waltz by 50 different composers ( being taken up by Beethoven’s 33 variations on the same theme, which are now separately better known simply as his Diabelli Variations). Liszt was the youngest contributor to the project, described in it as “a boy of eleven years old”; Czerny was also a participant.

Franz Mittler

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Mittler (April 14, 1893 in Vienna – December 28, 1970 in Munich) was an Austrian (and later on an American) composer, musician, and humorist. Life and work Mittler was born in Vienna. His maternal grandmother financed his earliest musical education which started out under Mr. Deutsch and later Oscar Stock (violin). His first public performance took place in 1902 when he performed the Schubert Sonatina in D D. 384 with the then 7-year-old Clara Haskil. In 1904 he moved from the violin to the pursuit of piano where his teacher became Theodor Leschetizky. He studied theory with Joseph Labor (also teacher of Julius Bittner and Arnold Schoenberg), later composition with Richard Heuberger and Karl Prohaska. From these teachers, Mittler attained his neo-Brahmsian style. Further studies included Fritz Steinbach and Carl Friedberg at the Vienna University and the Conservatory in Cologne. He also studied with Heinrich Schenker. In 1913 Mittler volunteered for a one-year stint in the Imperial and Royal Austrian Army in the supply and logistics division. As sub-lieutenant his military duties included the supervision of a bread-baking unit during all of World War I. During that time he ca

Franz R. Friedl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz René Friedl (30 May 18925 December 1977), was an Austrian violist and composer. He was born in Oberkappel, then part of Austria-Hungary. From 1933 he was music composer for theatre and films, including The Eternal Jew, a film promoting Nazi ideology against Jews. He is listed on some recordings as the conductor of the “Berlin Symphony Orchestra”, a pseudonym of an unidentified ensemble, but it is doubtful whether he actually was the conductor. From 1940 to 1945 he was musical director of Die Deutsche Wochenschau. The grandchild of his only daughter is Björn Stenvers. He died in Essen, on 5 December 1977. *1933 Von Gemsen und Steinböcken *1933 Aus der Heimat des Elchs *1933 Tierbilder aus den finnischen Wäldern *1935 Frischer Wind aus Kanada *1935: Abessinien von heute – Blickpunkt der Welt (Dokumentarfilm) *1935 Stützen der Gesellschaft *1935: Im Lande Widukinds *1935 Die Heilige und ihr Narr *1935: Kater Lampe *1936 Flitterwochen *1936 Annemarie, the story of young love *1938 Es leuchten die Sterne *1938 Liebelei und Liebe *1938 Rätsel der Urwaldhölle *1938 Der Edelweißkönig *1939 Arinka (USSR, Lenfilm) *1939 Das Ekel *1940 Kampf um Norwegen *1940 Der ewige Jude *1949 (UA 19

Franz Schmidt (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Schmidt, also Ferenc Schmidt (, 22 December 1874 – 11 February 1939) was an Austro-Hungarian composer, cellist and pianist. Life Schmidt was born in Pozsony/Pressburg, in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary (today Bratislava, Slovakia) to a half-Hungarian father – with the same name, born in the same city – and to a Hungarian mother, Mária Ravasz. He studied piano briefly with Theodor Leschetizky, with whom he clashed. He moved to Vienna with his family in 1888, and studied at the Vienna Conservatory (composition with Robert Fuchs, cello with Ferdinand Hellmesberger, and, for a few lessons, counterpoint with Anton Bruckner, who was already seriously ill at that time ), graduating “with excellence” in 1896. He obtained a post as cellist with the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra, where he played until 1914, often under Gustav Mahler. Mahler habitually had Schmidt play all the cello solos, even though Friedrich Buxbaum was the principal cellist. Schmidt was also in demand as a chamber musician. Schmidt and Arnold Schoenberg maintained cordial relations despite their vast differences in eventual outlook and style (Schmidt certainly shows a perceptible influence from Schoenberg’s ea

Franz Schreker

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Schreker (originally Schrecker; 23 March 1878 – 21 March 1934) was an Austrian composer, conductor, librettist, teacher and administrator. Primarily a composer of operas, Schreker developed a style characterized by aesthetic plurality (a mixture of Romanticism, Naturalism, Symbolism, Impressionism, Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit), timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and conception of total music theatre into the narrative of 20th-century music. Formative years He was born as Franz Schrecker in Monaco, the eldest son of the Bohemian Jewish court photographer Ignaz Franz Schrekker (Germanized from Ignácz Furencz, originally Isak), he moved into the composition class of Robert Fuchs, graduating as a composer in 1900. His first success was with the Intermezzo for strings, Op. 8, which won an important prize sponsored by the Neue musikalische Presse in 1901. His first opera, Flammen, was completed in 1902 but failed to receive a staged production. Career launch Schreker had begun conducting in 1895, when he had founded the Verein der Musikfreunde Döbling. In 1907 he formed the Vienna Philharmonic Chorus, which he conducted until 1920: among its many premi

Franz Schubert

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early life and education#

Franz Peter Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund (now a part of Alsergrund), Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, on 31 January 1797, and baptized in the Catholic Church the following day. He was the twelfth child of Franz Theodor Florian Schubert (1763–1830) and Maria Elisabeth Katharina Vietz (1756–1812). Schubert’s immediate ancestors came originally from the province of Zuckmantel in Austrian Silesia. His father, the son of a Moravian peasant, was a well-known parish schoolmaster, and his school in Lichtental (in Vienna’s ninth district) had numerous students in attendance. He came to Vienna from Zuckmantel in 1784 and was appointed schoolmaster two years later. only five survived to adulthood. At the age of five, Schubert began to receive regular lessons from his father, and a year later he was enrolled at his father’s school. Although it is not known exactly when he received his first musical instruction, he was given piano lessons by his brother Ignaz, but they lasted for a very short time as Schubert exceeded him within a few months. Ignaz later recalled: When Schubert was eight years old, his father gave him his first violin lessons, training him to the point where he could play easy duets proficiently. Soon after, Schubert was given his first lessons outside the family circle by Michael Holzer, organist and choirmaster of the local parish church in Lichtental. In addition to instruction in piano and violin, Holzer gave the young Schubert lessons in organ, voice, harmony, and figured bass. Holzer later asserted that he did not give him any real instruction as Schubert would already know anything that he tried to teach him, recalling that he looked upon Schubert with “astonishment and silence”. According to Ferdinand, Schubert also composed songs and piano pieces during this time, although none of these first compositions have survived. Young Schubert first came to the attention of Antonio Salieri, then Vienna’s leading musical authority, in 1804, possibly at Holzer’s recommendation. His exposure to these and other works, combined with occasional visits to the opera, laid the foundation for a broader musical education. Schubert’s friendship with Spaun began at the Stadtkonvikt and lasted throughout his short life. In those early days, the financially well-off Spaun furnished the impoverished Schubert with much of his manuscript paper. In the meantime, Schubert’s talent began to show in his compositions; Salieri decided to start training him privately in music theory and composition. According to Ferdinand, the boy’s first composition for piano was a Fantasy for four hands; his first song, Klagegesang der Hagar, was written a year later. Schubert was occasionally permitted to lead the Stadtkonvikt’s orchestra, the first orchestra he wrote for. He devoted much of the rest of his time at the Stadtkonvikt to composing chamber music, several songs, piano pieces and, more ambitiously, liturgical choral works in the form of a “Salve Regina” (D 27), a “Kyrie” (D 31), in addition to the unfinished “Octet for Winds” (D 72, said to commemorate the 1812 death of his mother), the cantata Wer ist groß? for male voices and orchestra (D 110, for his father’s birthday in 1813), and his first symphony (D 82).

Franz Xaver Gruber

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Xaver Gruber (25 November 1787 – 7 June 1863) was an Austrian primary school teacher, church organist and composer in the village of Arnsdorf, who is best known for composing the music to “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”). Life Gruber was born on 25 November 1787 in the village of Hochburg-Ach, Upper Austria, the son of linen weavers, Josef and Maria Gruber. His given name was recorded in the baptismal record as “Conrad Xavier,” but this was later changed to “Franz Xaver”. The Hochburger schoolteacher Andreas Peterlechner gave him music lessons. Gruber worked as a weaver until the age of 18, then trained to become a schoolteacher. He completed his music education studying with the church organist of Burghausen, Georg Hartdobler. In 1807, Gruber became a schoolteacher in Arnsdorf. He also became the church caretaker and organist. In 1808, he married a widow, Maria Elisabeth Fischinger Engelsberger. They had two children, both of whom died young. After the death of his first wife in 1825, Gruber married a former student, Maria Breitfuss. They had ten children, four of whom survived to adulthood. In 1829, Gruber moved to Berndorf, and in later years to Hallein, Salzburg, where he

Franz Xaver Süssmayr

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Xaver Süssmayr or Süßmayr (; 1766 – September 17, 1803), also anglicized as Suessmayr, was an Austrian composer and conductor. Popular in his day, he is now known primarily as the composer who completed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s unfinished Requiem. Life Süssmayr was born in Schwanenstadt in upper Austria. He received early music lessons from his father Franz Karl Süssmayr, and later was educated at Kremsmünster Abbey, where Georg Pasterwitz was a teacher. At the monastery he composed symphonies, cantatas and church music, which were performed at the abbey theatre. He moved to Vienna in 1788, where he became a student and friend of Mozart. On Mozart’s last journey to Prague in 1791, where his opera La clemenza di Tito was first performed, Süssmayr accompanied him; Süssmayr, at Mozart’s request, composed the secco recitatives for the opera. In 1792 he became the substitute conductor at the Burgtheater, and from 1794 to 1803 he was conductor at the Theater am Kärntnertor. He composed operas that were staged at these theatres and at Emanuel Schikaneder’s theatres: the Theater auf der Wieden and later the Theater an der Wien. Of special note may be the clarinet concerto (SmWV 501)

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (26 July 1791 – 29 July 1844), also known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Jr., was the youngest child of six born to composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife Constanze and the younger of his parents’ two surviving children. He was a composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher of the late classical period whose musical style was of an early Romanticism, heavily influenced by his father’s mature style. He knew Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, both of whom held him in high esteem. Biography Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart was born in Vienna, four months and ten days before his father’s death. Although he was baptized Franz Xaver Mozart, he was always called Wolfgang by his family. Under the supervision and support of close family friend Joseph Haydn, he received excellent musical instruction from Antonio Salieri and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, and studied composition with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Sigismund von Neukomm. He learned to play both the piano and violin. Like his father, he started to compose at an early age. “In April 1805, the thirteen-year-old Wolfgang Mozart made his debut in Vienna in a concert in the Theater an der Wien.” Mozart became a pro

Friedrich Wildgans

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Friedrich Wildgans (5 June 1913 in Vienna – 7 November 1965 in Mödling) was an Austrian composer and clarinettist. Life Wildgans was born into the family of the well-known poet and Burgtheater director Anton Wildgans (1881-1932) and his wife Lilly, née Würzl. In 1915, the family moved to Mödling. From 1934 to 1935 he was in Salzburg Teacher at the Mozarteum. From 1936 to 1940, he worked as principal clarinettist in the stage orchestra of the Vienna State Theatres. Wildgans supported the conservative resistance group around Roman Karl Scholz, was therefore arrested by the Gestapo on 25 October 1940 and remained in pre-trial detention until 24 February 1942. After the liberation of Vienna in April 1945, he worked as a teacher at the Austrian Academy of Music, which he had to leave again at the beginning of the 1946/47 academic year. It was not until 1955 that he received a permanent position there again. From 1946 to 1950 Wildgans, who had been a member of the KPÖ since April 1945 (until his resignation or expulsion in July 1950), worked as a music officer in the Cultural Office of the City of Vienna under Viktor Matejka. Since its re-establishment in April 1945 he was executive vice

Fritz Heinrich Klein

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Fritz Heinrich Klein (2 February 1892 – 12 July 1977) was an Austrian composer. Life and music Klein was born in Budapest. He was a student of Alban Berg and the inventor of the all-interval twelve-tone row. He studied with Schoenberg from 1917 to 1918, with Berg from 1918 to 1924, and prepared the piano-vocal score for Berg’s Wozzeck and the piano score of Berg’s Chamber Concerto. Klein’s twelve-tone theories, which he refers to as “extonal”, appear to originate independently of Schoenberg’s as with Josef Matthias Hauer’s, and these claims as well as frequent stylistic changes helped to exclude him from the Second Viennese School, though Klein’s theories where highly influential on Alban Berg. Klein considered his piece for two pianos, Die Maschine: Eine extonale Selbstsatire The Machine: An Extonal Satire , Op. 1 (1921) the first in which a twelve-tone row appears along with its retrograde, inversion, and transposed forms. An all-interval row is a tone row arranged so that it contains one instance of each interval within the octave, 0 through 11. For example, the first all-interval row, by Klein: F, E, C, A, G, D, A, D, E, G, B, C. In integers this row is represented as 0 e 7 4 2

Fritz Kreisler

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Friedrich “Fritz” Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian and American violinist and composer. Of Jewish descent, he was however baptised at the age of 12. At age seven, Kreisler entered the Vienna Conservatory where he studied under Anton Bruckner, Jakob Dont and Joseph Hellmesberger Jr., and studied composition and violin at the Paris Conservatory between 1885 and 1887, where his teachers included Léo Delibes, Lambert Massart and Jules Massenet. He graduated from the Paris Conservatory with the highest “Premier Prix” in violin at the age of 12, competing against 40 other players, most of whom were at least 20 years of age. He made his United States debut at the Steinway Hall in New York City on November 10, 1888, and his first tour of the United States in 1888–1889 with Moriz Rosenthal. He then returned to Austria and applied for a position in the Vienna Philharmonic, but was turned down by the concertmaster Arnold Rosé. As a result, he left music to study medicine. He spent a brief time in the army before returning to the violin in 1899, when he gave a concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Arthur Nikisch. It was this concert and a series of Ame

Fritz Spielmann (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Fritz Spielmann (20 November 190621 March 1997) was an Austrian composer, pianist, singer and cabaret artist. As an émigré in America from 1939 he composed under the name Fred Spielman. Early life Born in Vienna, Spielmann began studying piano and composition the Vienna Academy of Music from 1918, where his teachers included Joseph Marx and Hans Gál. He worked as an accompanist and conductor in Berlin and Breslau, and from 1931 he was one of the founders of the literary cabaret Der Liebe Augustin with Stella Kadmon. He became well known as a cabaret pianist and entertainer, mixing jazz and Viennese song. From 1934 until 1937 he formed a song-writing team with Stephan Weiss (1899-1989). The song ‘Schinkenfleckerln!’, taken up by Hermann Leopoldi was one of their biggest successes. Following the Anschluss he emigrated from Vienna to Paris in May 1938 - while most of his family fell victim to the Nazis. The following year he moved to New York and began working with fellow exiles Leopoldi and lyricist Jimmy Berg (1909-1988), changing his given name to Fred. America Written with Kermit Goell, Spielmann’s song ‘Shepherd Serenade’ was recorded by Bing Crosby, selling over a million copies

Gandalf (musician)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gandalf (born Heinz Strobl, born 1952) is an Austrian New Age composer. He plays a wide variety of instruments, including guitar, keyboard, synthesizers and sitars. He includes electronic sounds in his music. He released his first album Journey to an Imaginary Land on 17 March 1981, and his second, Visions, almost one year later on 16 March 1982. He has become one of Austria’s most accomplished international musicians. Discography Studio albums *1981 - Journey to an Imaginary Land *1982 - Visions *1983 - To Another Horizon *1983 - More Than Just a Seagull *1984 - Magic Theatre *1985 - Tale from a Long Forgotten Kingdom *1987 - The Universal Play *1987 - Fantasia *1987 - From Source to Sea *1989 - Invisible Power *1990 - Labyrinth (Soundtrack) *1990 - Symphonic Landscapes *1992 - Gallery of Dreams (feat. Steve Hackett) *1992 - The Stones of Wisdom *1994 - To Our Children’s Children *1994 - Colours of the Earth *1995 - Echoes from Ancient Dreams *1996 - The Shining (with Galadriel) *1996 - Gates to Secret Realities *1997 - Barakaya: Trees Water Life *1999 - Into the Light *1999 - Samsara *2000 - Visions 2001 (CD1: inspired by Tolkien, Lord of the Rings. CD2: a compilation “20 Years G

Georg Christoph Wagenseil

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Georg Christoph Wagenseil (29 January 1715 – 1 March 1777) was an Austrian composer. He was born in Vienna, and became a favorite pupil of the Vienna court’s Kapellmeister, Johann Joseph Fux. Wagenseil himself composed for the court from 1739 to his death. He also held positions as harpsichordist and organist. His pupils included Johann Baptist Schenk (who was to teach Ludwig van Beethoven), and Marie Antoinette. He traveled little, and died in Vienna having spent most of his life there. Wagenseil was a well-known musical figure in his day — both Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are known to have been familiar with his works. His early works are Baroque, while his later pieces are in the Classical style. He composed a number of operas, choral works, symphonies, concertos, chamber music and keyboard pieces. Compositions Operas *La generosità trionfante (1745) *Ariodante (1745) *La clemenza di Tito (1745) *Demetrio (1746) *Alexander der Grosse in Indien (1748) *Il Siroe (1748) *L’olimpiade (1749) *Andromeda (1750) *Antigono (1750) *Euridice (1750) *Armida placata (1750) *Vincislao (1750) *Le cacciatrici amanti (1755) *Prometeo assoluto (1762) *Catone (?) *Merope (1766) Concer

Georg Friedrich Haas

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Georg Friedrich Haas (born 16 August 1953) is an Austrian composer. In a 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000, pieces by Haas received the most votes (49), and his composition in vain (2000) topped the list. Education and career Georg Friedrich Haas was born in Graz. He grew up in Tschagguns, Vorarlberg, and studied composition with Gösta Neuwirth and Iván Erőd and piano with Doris Wolf at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria. Since 1978, he has been teaching at the Hochschule as an instructor, and since 1989 as an associate professor in counterpoint, contemporary composition techniques, analysis, and introduction to microtonal music. Haas is a founding member of the Graz composers’ collective Die andere Seite. Haas completed two years of postgraduate studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Friedrich Cerha, participated in the Darmstädter Ferienkurse (1980, 1988 and 1990), and the computer music course at IRCAM (1991). He received a fellowship from the Salzburg Festival (1992–93), was awarded the Sandoz Prize (1992) and a music grant from the National Ministry of Science, Research, and Culture (1995).

Georg Pasterwitz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

NOTOC Georg Pasterwitz, baptized as Robert Johannes Ivo Pasterwitz (7 June 1730 – 26 January 1803) was an Austrian composer and teacher. He was born in Bierhütte, near Passau. First educated at Niederaltaich, he entered the Benedictine monastery in Kremsmünster in 1749. When he took his vows in 1750, he adopted the name “Georg” as his religious name. He then enrolled at the University of Salzburg, studying theology, law and mathematics. It was during this time that he met Johann Ernst Eberlin, who became his music teacher. Pasterwitz completed his studies in 1759 and soon started teaching philosophy at the monastery’s Ritterakademie, eventually rising to teach courses in mathematics, physics, economics, and political science; since about 1755 he was also active as composer, producing stage works for the monastery almost every year. Between 1767 and 1783 Pasterwitz served as the monastery’s choir director. Due to reforms started by Joseph II, he had to give up some of his duties and became instead the monastery’s treasurer and eventually official representative, when it was threatened with dissolution in 1785. Pasterwitz died in 1803 in Kremsmünster, having served as dean of the

Gerd Kühr

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gerd Kühr, also Gerd Kuhr (born 28 December 1952), is an Austrian conductor, composer of classical music and academic teacher. He is known for operas, such as Stallerhof on a libretto by the author of the play, Franz Xaver Kroetz, and film music including Schlöndorff’s Eine Liebe von Swann. Career Born in Maria Luggau, Kühr studied history, conducting and composition at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and took master classes in conducting with Gerhard Wimberger, Hans Swarowsky and Sergiu Celibidache. He continued his studies of composition with Josef Friedrich Doppelbauer and Hans Werner Henze. In 1983 he collaborated with Henze, David Graham and Marcel Wengler to compose the film music for Volker Schlöndorff’s Eine Liebe von Swann after Marcel Proust. His opera Stallerhof, to a libretto of Franz Xaver Kroetz based on his own play, was premiered at the first Munich Biennale in 1988, as a co-production with the Staatstheater Wiesbaden. Ulf Schirmer conducted the premiere at the Kongresssaal of Deutsches Museum. The play Stallerhof, a dialect play on a taboo subject matter, was premiered in 1972. A review of the opera in a production of the Theater Luzern remarks: Kroetz’s Stallerhof is a

Gerhard Gruber

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gerhard Gruber (born 6 May 1951 in Aigen im Mühlkreis) is an Austrian composer and piano player. As accompanist for silent films, he has become the leading authority in Austria since 1988. He has performed for about 600 different films (Istanbul 2018, Paris, Krasnoyarsk /Siberia, Mexico, Kyiv, Odesa 2017, Los Angeles 2012, Mumbai-Pune 2012, Washington-Los Angeles 2011, Delhi-Pune-Goa/India 2011, Tokyo 2006/2007/2008, Hobart/Australia 2007–09, Rotorua/New Zealand 2008/2010, Padova, Motovun Film Festival 2007, Cineconcerts Bordeaux 2005, Filmfestival Pisek/CZ 2008/2011, Filmfestival Uherske Hradiste 2009/2011, Viennale 1999-2004/2012, Munich, Hamburg, Diagonale). He composed the music for Café Elektric. From 1983 until 2011 Gerhard Gruber was working and performing as a composer and musician for theatre. He was featured in Ilse Aichinger’s Subtexte as “the one who first makes each film possible and, at the same time, unnecessary. Those who have seen his hands move on the illuminated keys might even risk forgetting Chaplin” Awards Gruber was awarded the Nestroy Theatre Prize in 2006 and the Bühnenkunstpreis des Landes Oberösterreich in 2008. Performances for silent movies (out of 600)

Gerhard Präsent

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gerhard Präsent (born 21 June 1957) is an Austrian composer, conductor and academic teacher. Professional career Born in Graz, Präsent studied from 1976 at the Musikhochschule Graz, composition with Iván Erőd and conducting with Milan Horvat. He graduated in 1982 in composition and in 1985 in conducting, in both subjects with distinction. He then taught at the institute. Until 1999 he held a composers’ workshop, responsible for 48 concert programs. From 1986 to 1992 he was an assistant to Erőd, and also to Horvat for the orchestra. In 1992 he was appointed professor for music theory, musical form, analysis, conducting, and chamber music for strings. in 1988 Präsent founded the ALEA Ensemble, an ensemble for contemporary music, and has been its artistic director. He was vice president of the Steirischer Tonkünstlerbund (Styrian Tone Arts Association) from 2003 and has been its president since 2005. He is married to the violinist Sigrid Präsent, the first violinist of the ALEA Ensemble. Himmelslicht (Heavenly Light), a concerto for trumpet, brass and percussion (1986–1987), was premiered at the festival steirischer herbst in 1987. Marcia funebre for chamber ensemble (1992) was first

Gerhard Schedl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gerhard Schedl (5 August 1957 – 30 November 2000) was an Austrian composer. His works included chamber works, operas, theater pieces, symphonies, concertos, and sonatas. Early life and education Schedl was born in Vienna and began composing during his childhood. In 1976 he began his professional studies with Erich Urbanner at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. He graduated with distinction in 1980. Career For nearly 20 years, Schedl taught at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. Schedl had early success with his music dramatic works including his oratorio Der Großinquisitor (The Grand Inquisitor) and his opera for children Der Schweinehirt (The Swineherd). Schedl also composed chamber music and symphonic works. His compositions were played by musicians, ensembles and orchestras such as David Geringas, Dennis Russell Davies, the ORF Symphony Orchestra and the Ensemble Modern. Personal life and death After a long period of severe depression, Schedl shot himself in the woods near his home in Eppstein. He was buried in an honorary grave at the central cemetery of Vienna, group 40 No. 97. Gerhard Schedl Prize In 2009 the Neue Oper Wien created a composition competition

Gerhard Wimberger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gerhard Wimberger (30 August 1923 – 12 October 2016) was an Austrian composer and conductor. Career Wimberger studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. His teachers were Cesar Bresgen and Johann Nepomuk David for composition, and Clemens Krauss and Bernhard Paumgartner for conducting. After World War II, in which he served in the army, he worked as vocal coach at the Vienna Volksoper, then as conductor at the Landestheater in Salzburg, before becoming a teacher for conducting and composition at the Mozarteum. Among his many pupils were Klaus Ager, Sergio Cárdenas, Dieter Lehnhoff, and Gerd Kühr. Wimberger also served as member of the directory of the Salzburg Festival, and as president of the Austrian Composers’ Association AKM. He died in October 2016 at the age of 93. A memorial concert was held in his honor at the Mozarteum in January 2017. Scenic works *Heinrich und Kleist, Scenes for Music Theatre (2004), chamber opera (2011 ) *Wolf Dietrich Prince of Salzburg (1985/87), scenic chronicles *Paradou (1981/58), opera after Émile Zola *The Golden Shoes (1983), ballet music for television *Jedermann (1983), incidental music *Rules of Life (1970/73), scenic music *Helen the Victim (1967

Giovanni Punto

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jan Václav Stich, better known as Giovanni Punto (28 September 1746 in Žehušice – 16 February 1803 in Prague) was a horn player from Bohemia and a pioneer of the hand-stopping technique which allows natural horns to play a greater number of notes. Early life Stich was born in Žehušice in Bohemia. His father was a serf bonded to the estate of Count Joseph Johann Thun und Hohenstein, but Stich was taught singing, violin and finally the horn. The Count sent him to study horn under Joseph Matiegka in Prague, Jan Schindelarz in Munich, and finally with A. J. Hampel in Dresden (from 1763 to 1764). Hampel first taught Stich the hand-stopping technique which he later improved and extended. Stich then returned to the service of the Count, where he remained for the next four years. At the age of 20 Stich and four friends ran away from the estate. The Count, who had invested heavily in Stich’s education, dispatched soldiers with orders to knock out Stich’s front teeth to prevent him ever playing the horn again, but they failed to capture the group, and Stich crossed into Italy. Punto around Europe On arriving in Italy, Stich changed his name to Giovanni Punto (an approximate Italianisation of

Gösta Neuwirth

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gösta Neuwirth (; born 6 January 1937) is an Austrian musicologist, composer and academic teacher. He studied in Vienna and Berlin, where he wrote a dissertation on harmony in Franz Schreker’s Der ferne Klang. He has taught at universities and music schools including the Musikhochschule Graz, University of Graz, Hochschule der Künste Berlin and University of Freiburg. His compositions include a string quartet and a chamber opera. Life Born in Vienna, Neuwirth comes from a musical family; the pianist Harald Neuwirth is his brother, whose daughter Olga Neuwirth is a composer. He received instruction in violin and piano starting in 1944. (1916). Vienna 1981, * Themen und Zeitstrukturen in Alban Bergs Kammerkonzert, in Alban-Berg-Symposion Wien 1980. Tagungsbericht, Vienna 1981, * Erzählung von Zahlen, in Josquin des Prés (Musik-Konzepte, volume 26/27), Munich 1982, * Bemerkungen zu einigen späteren Werken Ernst Kreneks, in Ernst Krenek (Studien zur Wertungsforschung, volume 15), Vienna 1982, . Reprint in Ernst Krenek (Musik-Konzepte, volule 39/40), Munich 1984, * Die Zwölftöner. Musik in Fremdheit und Isolation, in Das größere Österreich. Geistiges und soziales Leben von 1880 bis zur

Gottfried Rieger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gottfried Rieger (1 May 1764 – 13 October 1855) was a Czech-German composer, conductor and teacher. He lived for many years at Brno in what is today the Czech Republic. Life Rieger was born on 1 May 1764 in Tropplowitz in Austrian Silesia in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Habsburg monarchy (now Opavice, part of Město Albrechtice in the Czech Republic). His father owned some land here on the Geppersdorf Estate, and was a musician. He received music lessons from his father, and played at village festivals. He became at age 13 a member of the private orchestra at Geppersdorf Castle (today Linhartovy Castle) of Count . Here he learned to play more instruments. On the recommendation of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, he studied music theory with Father Damasus Brosmann, rector of the Piarist monastery at Bílá Voda. He moved to Brno in 1787, where from 1790 he directed the orchestra of the civic theatre, and was a music teacher. Count Haugwitz offered him in 1805 the post of Kapellmeister at his castle at Náměšť nad Oslavou, and he was resident there until 1808; he then returned to Brno, resuming as music teacher and for two more years director of the theatre orchestra. He established a music ins

Gottfried von Einem

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gottfried von Einem (24 January 1918 – 12 July 1996) was an Austrian composer. He is known chiefly for his operas influenced by the music of Stravinsky and Prokofiev, as well as by jazz. He also composed pieces for piano, violin and organ. Biography Einem was born in the Swiss capital Bern into the noble family. According to Einem’s publisher, his father was William von Einem, military attaché of the Austro-Hungarian embassy. According to another source, however, he was adopted by Einem, his natural father being the Hungarian aristocrat Count László von Hunyadi. His mother, Baroness Gerta Louise née Rieß von Scheurnschloss, an officer’s daughter from Kassel, led a lavish lifestyle between Berlin and Paris. The family moved to Malente in the Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein, when Gottfried was four years old. After his school days in Plön and Ratzeburg, Gottfried von Einem went to Berlin in 1937, to study at the State School of Music with Paul Hindemith who nevertheless resigned his post in October that year in protest against his modernist music being banned from public performances by Joseph Goebbels. By the agency of the tenor Max Lorenz, he started an employment as a répé

Grete Hinterhofer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Grete Hinterhofer (18 July 1899 – 27 June 1985) was an Austrian pianist, music teacher and composer. Life Hinterhofer was born in Wels. Her father was a teacher, and her mother was a piano teacher and composer. At the age of nine, Hinterhofer received her first private piano lessons from Cäcilie (von) Frank (1851-1936?), who ran an illustrious musical salon in the 1st district of Vienna and was piano accompanist to the Hellmesberger Quartet and Arnold Rosé. She received extensive artistic training from her and made several public appearances that were reviewed in local newspapers. Cäcilie (von) Frank’s apartment was also an important meeting place for the Viennese musical world. One of Hinterhofer’s schoolmates was Arnold Schönberg’s student Vilma von Webenau. She also took piano lessons in 1909/10 at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien with Hugo Reinhold and 1914 with Emil von Sauer. Residenz, Salzburg 2001, . . * Susanne Wosnitzka: “Gemeinsame Not verstärkt den Willen” – Netzwerke von Musikerinnen in Wien, in Annkatrin Babbe und Volker Timmermann (ed.): Musikerinnen und ihre Netzwerke im 19. Jahrhundert. Oldenburg 2016 (Schriftenreihe des Sophie Drinker Institut

Grete von Zieritz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Grete von Zieritz (10 March 1899 – 26 November 2001) was an Austrian-German composer and pianist. She studied with Martin Krause, a student of Franz Liszt, Franz Schreker and Rudolf Maria Breithaupt. She became a composer, and music teacher. In 1939 she was the only woman at the International Music Festival in Frankfurt am Main among composers from 18 nations. In 2009 in Vienna’s Donaustadt the street Zieritzgasse was named after her. Life Grete von Zieritz was born in Vienna, Austria on 10 March 1899, into a noble family, and grew up in Vienna, Innsbruck and Graz. She received her first piano lessons at the age of six, and later studied at the Styrian Conservatory in Graz, studying piano with Hugo Kroemer and composition with Roderich Mojsisovics von Mojsvar. Moving to Berlin in 1917, she continued her studies with Martin Krause, a student of Franz Liszt, and Rudolf Maria Breithaupt. After the successful performance of her “Japanese Songs” in 1921, she decided to become a composer. She toured in Germany and abroad, often performing her own works, and won the Mendelssohn state prize for composition in 1928. In 1958 the Austrian Federal President appointed her as Professor, the firs

Guido Mancusi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Guido Mancusi (born 14 June 1966) is an Austrian-Italian conductor and composer. Life Born in Portici near Naples, Mancusi was the son of the Neapolitan conductor Enrico Mancusi and the Viennese singing teacher Ines Mancusi and grew up in Naples and Padua. He received his first piano lessons from his father, who was a close friend of the composer Nino Rota. After his father’s early death, his mother decided to return to her hometown of Vienna with her two children. Mancusi became boy soprano with the Vienna Boys’ Choir. After the Matura at the , he began studies in bassoon and singing at the Konservatorium der Stadt Wien. During his school years he became a member of the Catholic secondary school fraternity K. Ö. St. V. Frankonia zu Wien, to which he still belongs today. Studies followed at the Vienna Academy of Music in composition with Erich Urbanner and conducting with Karl Österreicher, he received diplomas with distinction. In 1992, he became magister artium with a thesis on Paul Hindemith and founded the Baroque Ensemble Vindobona. First engagements led the Kapellmeister to the Landestheater Niederösterreich in St. Pölten and Coburg, to the Raimundtheater and the Theater an d

Gunter Waldek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gunter Waldek (born 26 July 1953) is an Austrian composer, conductor and music educator. Life and career Waldek was born in Linz. Already in his youth he received piano, organ and music theory lessons at the Anton Bruckner Private University. After the Matura in 1971, he studied music education, musicology and Romance studies at the Mozarteum University Salzburg and the University of Salzburg. In 1977, he graduated with Staatsexamen and Magister degree and from then on taught at grammar schools in Linz and Salzburg. He completed his further studies (conducting), choir conducting and composition with Helmut Eder with the Magister artrium. Work Particularly successful were the church opera Das Hohe Lied (1993) and Ein etwas seltsames Abendessen, musical music theatre (1994). His extensive output (more than 150 compositions since 1980) includes various genres: * 13 Ways of Looking at Blackbird (song cycle, 1984). * …meins trarens is … (violin Concerto, 1986) * Up & Down (Sinfonietta for string orchestra, 1989) * Lacrimosa (for large orchestra, 1989) * Dream Songs (after Indian texts for choir, 1990) * Domklang (spatial installation, 1990) * Et l’enfant dit: … (scenic cantata for

Gustav Mahler

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Family background#

The Mahler family came from eastern Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic, and were of humble circumstances—the composer’s grandmother had been a street pedlar . Bohemia was then part of the Austrian Empire; the Mahler family belonged to a German-speaking minority among Bohemians, and was also Jewish. From this background the future composer developed early on a permanent sense of exile, “always an intruder, never welcomed”. The pedlar’s son Bernhard Mahler, the composer’s father, elevated himself to the ranks of the petite bourgeoisie by becoming a coachman and later an innkeeper. He bought a modest house in the village of Kaliště (), and in 1857 married Marie Herrmann, the 19-year-old daughter of a local soap manufacturer. In the following year Marie gave birth to the first of the couple’s 14 children, a son named Isidor, who died in infancy. Two years later, on 1860, their second son, Gustav, was born.

György Ligeti

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early life#

Ligeti was born in 1923 at Diciosânmartin (Dicsőszentmárton; renamed to Târnăveni in 1941) in Romania, to Dr. Sándor Ligeti and Dr. Ilona Somogyi. His family was Hungarian Jewish. He was the great-grandnephew of violinist Leopold Auer and second cousin of Hungarian philosopher Ágnes Heller. Some sources say he was Auer’s grandnephew, rather than great-grandnephew. Ligeti recalled that his first exposure to languages other than Hungarian came one day while listening to a conversation between Romanian-speaking town police. Before that, he didn’t know that other languages existed. He moved to Cluj with his family when he was six years old. He did not return to the town of his birth until the 1990s. In 1940, Northern Transylvania became part of Hungary following the Second Vienna Award, thus Cluj became part of Hungary as well. In 1941 Ligeti received his initial musical training at the conservatory in Kolozsvár (Cluj), He studied under Pál Kadosa, Ferenc Farkas, Zoltán Kodály and Sándor Veress. He conducted ethnomusicological research into the Hungarian folk music of Transylvania. However, after a year he returned to Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, this time as a teacher of harmony, counterpoint, and musical analysis. He secured this position with the help of Kodály and held it from 1950 to 1956. As a young teacher, Ligeti took the unusual step of regularly attending the lectures of an older colleague, the conductor, and musicologist Lajos Bárdos, a conservative Christian whose circle represented a safe haven for Ligeti. The composer acknowledged Bárdos’s help and advice in the prefaces to his two harmony textbooks (1954 and 1956). Due to the restrictions of the communist government, communications between Hungary and the West by then had become difficult, and Ligeti and other artists were effectively cut off from recent developments outside the Eastern Bloc.

Hannes Löschel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hannes Löschel (born 1963 in Vienna) is an Austrian composer of avant-garde electronic music. Löschel began playing the piano when he was five years old. Following his music education at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, he initially performed contemporary music on stage. From c. 1990 onwards, he began developing works that spanned several styles as a composer, ensemble conductor and arranger. In 1995, he founded the Austrian trio Löschel Skrepek Zrost, with Paul Skrepek and Martin Zrost, who won the Hans Koller Preis for album of the year for their first CD While You Wait in 1997. He subsequently worked on a range of styles in formations including the electro-acoustic formation antasten together with Thomas Lehn and Josef Novotny, the free improvisation trio Kinds with David Tronzo as well as together with Phil Minton in Songs of Innocence ‘, the song cycle he composed in 2008. Other formations co-founded or led by Löschel were, among others, the duo Chroma with Elisabeth Flunger, Phls Trio with Peter Herbert and Paul Skrepek, the Velvet Lounge, Kratky Baschik, Kinds of Orchestra, Hannes Löschel Stadtkapelle and weana korn. He has performed concerts and tour dates at numerous fe

Hanns Jelinek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hanns Jelinek (5 December 1901 – 27 January 1969) was an Austrian composer of Czech descent who is also known under the pseudonyms Hanns Elin, H. J. Hirsch, Jakob Fidelbogen. Biography Jelinek was born and died in Vienna. His father was a machine operator (died 1917). At the age of 6 he began violin lessons and at age 7, began learning the piano. In 1918 he became a member of the newly founded Communist Party of Austria. In 1918–19 Jelinek studied with Arnold Schoenberg at Eugenie Schwarzwald’s School in Vienna, and privately with Alban Berg. These two influenced him to write many works in the twelve-tone technique. In 1920 he started the study with Franz Schmidt at the Vienna Academy of Music. However, in 1922 he broke off his studies for financial reasons, and thereafter studied music on his own. In order to support himself as a self-employed composer in Vienna, he appeared as a pianist in bars and cinemas and composed popular music under the pseudonym Hanns Elin. From 1958 on, he was a lecturer and, after 1965, a professor at the Vienna Academy of Music. In 1966, he was awarded the Grand Austrian State Prize. Compositions Since 1934 (starting with his Second String Quartet op. 1

Hans Erich Apostel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hans Erich Apostel (22 January 1901 – 30 November 1972) was a German-born Austrian composer of classical music. Life and career Hans Erich Apostel was born on 22 January 1901 in Karlsruhe, Germany. He studied at the Munz Conservatory in his native city from 1915 to 1919. There he was a pupil Alfred Lorenz who taught him piano, music theory, and conducting. In 1920 he was and at the Badisches Landestheater in Karlsruhe. He studied in Vienna with Arnold Schoenberg from 1921 to 1925, and from 1925 to 1935 with Alban Berg, two prominent members of the Second Viennese School. At the same time, he taught piano, composition and music theory privately. his works have rarely been performed. He is buried in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Group 32 C, No. 57. References Further reading *Burton, Anthony. 2002. “Apostel, Hans Erich”. The Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Alison Latham. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. *Gruber, Gerold W. 1989. “Hans Erich Apostel: Fischerhausserenade op. 45 (1971)”. In Dodekaphonie in Österreich nach 1945, edited by Gottfried Scholz. Vienna: Verband der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaften Österreichs. *Gruber, Gerold W. 2001. “Apostel, Hans Erich”.

Hans Gál

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hans Gál OBE (5 August 1890 – 3 October 1987) was an Austrian composer, pedagogue, musicologist, and author, who emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1938. Life Gál was born to a Jewish family in the small village of Brunn am Gebirge, Lower Austria, just outside Vienna, the son of a doctor, Josef Gál. In 1909, his piano teacher Richard Robert (who also taught George Szell, Rudolf Serkin and Clara Haskil) appointed Gál as a teacher when he became director of the New Vienna Conservatory. From 1909 to 1913, Gál studied music history at the University of Vienna under music historian Guido Adler, who published Gál’s doctoral dissertation on the style of the young Beethoven in his own Studien zur Musikwissenschaft. From 1909 to 1911, Gál studied composition privately with Eusebius Mandyczewski, who had been a close friend of Johannes Brahms, and with whom he later edited ten volumes of the Complete Edition of Brahms’s works, published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1926. Mandyczewski became a “spiritual father” to him. In 1915, Gál was the first recipient of the new Austrian State Prize for Composition for his first symphony, though he later discarded this work and its successors, as well as a l

Hans Haselböck

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Haselböck (26 July 1928 – 20 October 2021) was an Austrian organist, composer, author and academic teacher. He was organist at the Dominican Church, Vienna, for 65 years, and was professor of organ and improvisation at the Vienna Music Academy, where he later also served as head of the faculty of church music and as deputy rector. He gave organ concerts in Europe, North America, and the Near and Far East. Haselböck is regarded as a pioneer of Catholic church music in the German language after the Second Vatican Council. Biography Haselböck was born in , now part of Bergern im Dunkelsteinerwald. He attended the gymnasium in Krems, Lower Austria, achieving the Matura in 1947. He then studied organ and church music at both the Vienna Conservatory and the Vienna Music Academy, graduating in 1952. Haselböck became organist at the Dominican Church, Vienna, and held the office for 65 years. He also taught Latin and German at the later . He achieved first prize at the , an international competition in organ improvisation at the St. Bavo church, three times in a row until 1960. Haselböck and his wife Lucia had two sons, Martin Haselböck, also an organist, and Lukas Haselböck, a compo

Hans Lang (Austrian composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hans Lang (5 July 1908, in Vienna – 28 January 1992, in Vienna) was an Austrian composer of light music, film music and Viennese songs. He wrote one operetta, the musikalisches Lustspiel, Lisa, benimm dich!, which premiered in Vienna on 21 March 1939. Selected songs * It’s Oh So Quiet * Wozu ist die Straße da * Lach ein bissel, wein ein bissel * Liebe kleine Schaffnerin * Der alte Herr Kanzleirat * Wenn der Steffel wieder wird, so wie er war * Mariandl * Du bist die Rose vom Wörthersee * Stell dir vor, es geht das Licht aus * Wenn ich mit meinem Dackel * Wann i blau bin-siecht mei Alte “Rot” * Das Wiener Wetter * Der alte Sünder Film music References : Much of the information in this article is taken from the German Wikipedia article.

Hans Redlich

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hans Ferdinand Redlich (11 February 1903 – 27 November 1968) was an Austrian musicologist, writer, conductor and composer who, due to political disruption by the Nazi Party, lived and worked in Britain from 1939 until his death nearly thirty years later. Redlich’s continental years Redlich was born in Vienna, the son of Josef Redlich (1869-1936), then Professor of History at the University of Vienna. He studied piano privately with Paul Weingarten and harmony and counterpoint with Hugo Kauder. He was a student of Carl Orff in Munich after 1921. He was a university student in both cities and studied German literature and musicology. Redlich served as répétiteur for the Berlin-Charlottenburg city opera in 1924–1925 and as opera conductor for the Stadttheater Mainz from 1925 to 1929. From 1929 until 1931, Redlich studied musicology at Frankfurt University where he completed a dissertation on stylistic changes in Claudio Monteverdi’s madrigals. From then until 1937, Redlich resided in Mannheim as a composer and writer. His interest in Monteverdi led to his preparation of a performing edition of the 1610 Vespers, based on Gian Francesco Malipiero’s pioneering collected edition of Montev

Hans Rott

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Nepomuk Karl Maria Rott (1 August 1858 – 25 June 1884) was an Austrian composer and organist. His music is little-known today, though he received high praise in his time from Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner. He left a symphony and Lieder, among other works. Life Rott was born in Braunhirschengrund, a suburb of Vienna. His mother Maria Rosalia (1840–1872; née Lutz) was an actress and singer. His father Carl Mathias Rott, who married her in 1862 (born 1807; né Roth), was a famous comic actor in Vienna who was crippled in 1874 by a stage accident which led to his death two years later. Studies Hans was left alone to continue his studies at the Conservatory. Fortunately, both his skill and financial need were recognized and he was excused from paying tuition. While studying, he briefly roomed with Gustav Mahler and . He studied piano with Leopold Landskron and Josef Dachs, harmony with Hermann Graedener, counterpoint and composition—like Mahler—with Franz Krenn. He studied organ with Bruckner, starting in 1874, and graduating from Bruckner’s organ class in 1877, with honors. Bruckner said that Rott played Bach very well, and even improvised wonderfully (a high compliment since

Hans Sitt

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hans Sitt (born Jan Hanuš Sitt on 21 September 1850, Prague – 10 March 1922, Leipzig), was a Bohemian violinist, violist, teacher, and composer. During his lifetime, he was regarded as one of the foremost teachers of violin. Most of the orchestras and conservatories of Europe and North America then sported personnel who numbered among his students. Biography Sitt was born in Prague the son of Anton Sitt (originally Szytt) the Elder (1819–1878), a prominent Hungarian-born violin maker. Sitt’s musical talent manifested itself early and from all accounts, he could easily have enjoyed the typical career of a “wunderkind” had his parents chosen to exploit him, but they wisely refused this course. Instead, he was allowed to have a normal life and received a regular education at a gymnasium (high school) before being sent to the Prague Conservatory. There he studied violin with Moritz Mildner (1812–1865) and Antonín Bennewitz, and composition with Josef Krejčí (1821–1881) and Johann Friedrich Kittl (1806–1868) from 1861 to 1867. along with Hugo Becker, Julius Klengel, and founder Adolph Brodsky. Besides his pedagogical works, Sitt wrote several pieces for violin and orchestra, including s

Hans Stadlmair

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hans Stadlmair (3 May 1929 – 13 February 2019) was an Austrian conductor and composer. He conducted the Münchener Kammerorchester for almost four decades. He conducted more than 6000 concerts, many in collaboration with the Bayerischer Rundfunk, including premieres. His compositions include works of all genres except opera. His Miró, an Entrada for orchestra, premiered at the Gasteig in Munich in 2011, with Christian Thielemann conducting the Münchner Philharmoniker. Career Born in Neuhofen an der Krems, Hans Stadlmair studied from 1946 to 1952 at the Vienna Academy of Music with Clemens Krauss and Alfred Uhl, and from 1952 to 1956 in Stuttgart with Johann Nepomuk David. From 1956 to 1995 he was artistic director of the Münchener Kammerorchester (MKO) and conducted several premieres. He conducted more than 6000 concerts, as well as on international tours and in collaboration with the Bayerischer Rundfunk. In 1971 Stadlmair conducted the premiere of Wilhelm Killmayer’s Fin al punto, composed for the 20th anniversary of the Münchener Kammerorchester. In 1981 he premiered Ulrich Stranz’s Contrasubjekte, a Passacaglia on B-A-C-H for fourteen strings. In 1986 he collaborated with trumpe

Hartmann von An der Lan-Hochbrunn

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hartmann von An der Lan-Hochbrunn (21 December 1863 – 6 December 1914) was an Austrian Catholic priest, composer, organist, and conductor. Life He was born Paul Eugen Josef von An der Lan-Hochbrunn in Salorno, County of Tyrol, descended from an ancient noble Tirolean family. His father was a railway officer in Salorno. He completed his first musical studies at the Academy of Bolzano. In 1880, he joined the Order of Friars Minor (better known as the Franciscan friars) at the age of sixteen at their novitiate in Salzburg, where he received his religious name of Hartmann. He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1886 in Brixen. After serving as organist and choir director in Lienz and Reutte, he then studied in Innsbruck with Josef Pembauer. In 1893 Lan-Hochbrunn was sent to the Holy Land, where he became organist at the Monastery of Saint Saviour and director of the Philharmonic Orchestra in Jerusalem, and from 1894 organist at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre there. In 1895, Lan-Hochbrunn went to Rome, where he worked as organist at the Franciscan Basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli on the Capitoline Hill and from 1901 as director of the conservatory on the Piazza Santa Chiara

Heinrich Berté

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Heinrich Berté (), born Heinrich Bettelheim (8 May 1857 – 23 August 1924) was an Austrian-Hungarian composer of operas and operettas. Life Heinrich Berté was born in Galgócz, Hungary (now Hlohovec, Slovakia) in a Jewish family. At the beginning of his career, he was a relatively unsuccessful composer of ballets and an opera. In 1911 he was offered a libretto by the writer Alfred Maria Willner for an opera about Franz Schubert, based on the novel, Schwammerl by Rudolf Hans Bartsch, but this was turned down and he was told to use Schubert’s music in a pastiche instead. On 15 January 1916, his first performed work, an arrangement of Franz Schubert’s Das Dreimäderlhaus was premiered in the Raimund Theater in Vienna, Gretl Schörg’s voice was discovered during the run. The operetta was translated into 22 languages and in 1921 it opened as Blossom Time in New York City, in 1922 as Lilac Time in London), and was performed in over 60 countries, it was a worldwide success. The operetta was filmed several times. Berté could not build on this success; his second Schubert operetta was unsuccessful. He died in Perchtoldsdorf, Austria, aged 66. Works Opera * Schneeflocke (Vienna, 1896) Operettas

Heinrich Gattermeyer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Heinrich Gattermeyer (9 July 1923 – 5 July 2018 ) was an Austrian composer and music educator. Life Born in Sierning, Gattermeyer, son of the local poet Karl Gattermeyer, After the war, he studied piano with Bruno Seidlhofer, Choral conducting and conducting with Ferdinand Grossmann, as well as composition with Alfred Uhl at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna from 1945 to 1950. He also completed studies in German at the University of Vienna, graduating in 1948/49 with a teaching certificate. Gattermeyer died in Vienna at the age of 94 and was buried at . Among his notable students is Lukas Ligeti. Awards * 1964: Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst. * 1971: Förderungspreis der Stadt Wien für Musik. * 1980: Kulturpreis des Landes Oberösterreich für den Bereich Musik * 1981: Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria. * 1992: Großes Silbernes Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um die Republik Österreich. Work Ensemble music * Sizilianisches Trinklied – Quintett für drei Pauken, zwei Klaviere und Männerchor, text (1958) * Die drei goldenen Blumen – Schattenspiel für 9 Instrumente (1966) * Der Wundergarten – Schattenspiel für 9 Instrumente

Heinrich Grünfeld

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Heinrich Grünfeld (21 April 1855 – 26 August 1931) was a Czech-Austrian cellist, music educator and composer. He published his autobiography, ‘In Dur und Moll’ in 1923, an historically important source for Brahms, Joachim, and Richard Strauss. He is the brother of pianist and composer Alfred Grünfeld. Early life Heinrich Grünfeld was born on 21 April 1855 into an affluent Jewish family in Prague, the son of merchant Moritz Grünfeld (1817, Kolín – 1882, Vienna) and his wife Regina, née Pick (1826, Dobruška – 1881, Vienna). After the discovery of his elder brother Alfred’s musical talent, the family home became a key part of Prague’s music scene. Grünfeld thus became acquainted with many of the prominent Czech musicians of the time, including Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák and David Popper, with the latter of whom he became close friends. Popper later dedicated two Spanish dances to Grünfeld. Grünfeld studied the cello from the age of fourteen, first with Alois Neruda and then with Frantisek Hegenbarth at the Prague Conservatory, graduating in 1873, where he was a contemporary of Hanuš Wihan, Karel Halíř, Otakar Ševčík and Florián Zajíc. Three of Grünfeld’s four brothers also went o

Heinrich Jalowetz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Heinrich Jalowetz (December 3, 1882 – February 2, 1946) was an Austrian musicologist and conductor, who settled in the United States. He was among the musicians associated with Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School. Biography Heinrich Jalowetz was born on December 3, 1882, in Brünn, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, to Jewish parents Emilie Jalowetz (née Deutsch) and Julius Jalowetz. A musicology pupil of Guido Adler, Jalowetz was among Arnold Schoenberg’s first students in Vienna, 1904–1908. He completed his doctorate degree in 1908, with a dissertation on Ludwig van Beethoven’s early techniques in melody. From 1909 to 1933, he worked as a conductor in Regensburg, Danzig, Stettin, Prague, Vienna and Cologne (as successor to Otto Klemperer). In 1933, he left Germany and moved to Prague with his wife because of the rise of anti-semitism in Nazi Germany. After emigrating to the United States in 1938, he taught at Black Mountain College, North Carolina. Though his name is less widely known than that of many of Schoenberg’s more famous students, Schoenberg regarded Jalowetz very highly indeed. He is one of the seven “dead friends” (the others being Alban Berg, Anton Weber

Heinrich Reinhardt (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Heinrich Reinhardt (1865–1922) was an Austrian composer. He died on 31 January 1922 in Vienna and is buried at the Döbling Cemetery. Biography Reinhardt was born on 13 April 1865 in Pressburg (now Bratislava). The son of a jeweller, he went to Vienna to study at the conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde where he was one of Anton Bruckner’s pupils. He became an accomplished pianist and organist, and his familiarity with several other instruments later served him well as orchestrator of his own works and those of others. Between 1890 and 1900 he published numerous songs, piano and salon pieces, as well as an opera, Die Minnekönigin (1895). He also wrote music reports for the Neue Freie Presse, Neues Wiener Journal and Die Zeit, but abandoned this after the tremendous success of his first operetta, Das süsse Mädel (Carltheater, 25 October 1901). It opened a new phase for Viennese operetta, being more overtly in the song and dance musical comedy style. However, Reinhardt’s dozen later works were eclipsed by those of Edmund Eysler, Franz Lehár, Oscar Straus and Leo Fall. Compositions Operas * Die Minnekönigin (1895) * Der Söldner (1922) Operettas * Das süsse Mädel (1901) * D

Heinrich Schalit

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Heinrich Schalit (January 2, 1886 – February 3, 1976) was an Austrian-American, Jewish composer and musician; best known for his sacred music, art songs, and chamber music. Along with other Jewish composers such as Isadore Freed, Hugo Chaim Adler and Abraham Binder, Schalit modernized Jewish sacred music in the first half of the 20th century. His most popular work is Freitagabend-Liturgie (Friday Evening Liturgy). Life and career Education Heinrich Schalit was born in Vienna, Austria on January 2, 1886 to Joseph Schalit and Josefine Fischer. He had four siblings, including first secretary of the Zionist Office, Isidor Schalit. Schalit began his musical education and career without any connection or influence to Jewish music. He studied organ, piano and composition privately in 1898 with Josef Labor; and in 1903 he began studying at the Conservatory of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. His teachers included Polish pianist Theodor Leschetizky and composer Robert Fuchs. In 1906, he graduated and received the Austrian State Prize for Students of Composition for his Piano Quartet in E minor. Schalit moved to Munich in 1907, where he worked as a private music teacher and composed nume

Heinrich von Herzogenberg

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Heinrich Picot de Peccaduc, (10 June 1843 – 9 October 1900) was an Austrian composer and conductor descended from a French aristocratic family. He was born in Graz and was educated at a Jesuit school in Feldkirch and also in Munich, Dresden and Graz before studying law, philosophy and political science at the university of Vienna. He soon turned his energies to music and attended the composition classes of Felix Otto Dessoff until 1864. Early on he was attracted to the music of Richard Wagner, but after studying J. S. Bach’s works he became an adherent of the classical tradition and an advocate for the music of Brahms. In 1866 he married Elisabeth von Stockhausen, who had been a piano pupil of Brahms; Brahms’s letters to and from both Herzogenbergs form one of the most delightful sections of his correspondence. They lived in Graz until 1872, when they moved to Leipzig. In 1874, with the Bach scholar Philipp Spitta, Herzogenberg founded the Leipzig Bach-Verein, which concerned itself with the revival of Bach’s cantatas. Herzogenberg was its artistic director for ten years, during which time Ethel Smyth was one of his composition pupils. From 1885 he was Professor of Composition at t

Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (8June 18128 – October 1865) was a Moravian-Jewish violinist, violist and composer. He was seen as the outstanding violinist of his time and one of Niccolò Paganini’s greatest successors. He contributed to polyphonic playing and discovered new ways to compose polyphonic violin music. His most famous, and technically difficult, compositions include the sixth of his Polyphonic Studies “Die letzte Rose”, and Grand Caprice on Schubert’s “Erlkönig”. Biography Ernst was born in Brno, Moravia on 8 June 1812. He began playing violin at the age of 9, and attended the Vienna Conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde from 1825, studying violin under Joseph Böhm and Joseph Mayseder, and composition under Ignaz von Seyfried. In 1828, Niccolò Paganini visited Vienna. Ernst heard him and was deeply impressed by his violin playing. It is said that Ernst then played for Paganini who predicted a brilliant career for him. Paganini gave 14 concerts in Vienna, and Ernst attended many of these to observe the master. In April 1829, Ernst left Vienna for Munich for an employment in the royal orchestra, but Paganini advised him to aim for something higher. After that, Ernst play

Heinz Kratochwil

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Heinz Kratochwil (23 February 1933 – 2 April 1995) was an Austrian composer and music teacher. Life Heinz Kratochwil was born in Mödling a short distance to the south of Vienna. He graduated with a teaching qualification in 1955 from the Faculty of German Studies at the University of Vienna and was then, till 1961, a student of composition at the city’s University of Music and Performing Arts (“Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien”) where his teachers included Alfred Uhl and Othmar Steinbauer. His compositions blended elements of late romantic, impressionist, twelve-tone and jazz styles. A highlight, published in 1987, was his first “opera” (described as a “church opera” / “Kirchenoper”), “Franziskus” (op. 161), a setting lasting approximately 75 minutes, using a libretto by Herbert Vogg, and concerned with the life of St. Francis. The first performance took place at the appropriately futuristic Wotruba Church on the western fringe of Vienna only in 1999, however, several years after the composer’s death. * 1969 First Prize in “The New Song!” (“Das neue Lied!”) competition from Austrian Radio * 1978 First Prize for Composition from the Austrian Choral Association (“Cho

Helmut Schiff

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Helmut Adalbert Josef Schiff (30 January 1918 – 20 December 1982) was an Austrian composer and music educator. Life and career Schiff was born in Bratislava. After studying philosophy and musicology at the University of Prague and the University of Bratislava. (1936 to 1938), he studied piano and composition with Johann Nepomuk David from 1939 to 1943 at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig with Robert Teichmüller and Felix Petyrek. In addition, he also pursued piano studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Emil von Sauer in 1941 and taught at the Leipzig Music School. He was married to Helga Riemann from 1944 to 1977. The couple lived from 1944 until the 1970s, first in Gmunden and later in Altmünster, interrupted by a six-year stay (1953 to 1959) in Hamburg for professional reasons. Their sons were Hans Christian (born 1949) and Heinrich Schiff (1951-2016). Schiff taught composition and piano at the Bruckner Conservatory from 1946, with interruptions through employment in music and secondary schools, until his death in 1982. His estate is administered by the library of the Anton Bruckner Private University, with scholarships and prize money disbur

Herbert Blendinger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Herbert Blendinger (3 January 1936 - 15 May 2020) was an Austrian composer and viola player of German origin. Career Born in Ansbach, Blendinger studied viola and composition with Willy Horwath and Max Gebhard at the conservatory in Nuremberg, then from 1961 to 1963 at the Musikhochschule München with Georg Schmid and Franz Xaver Lehner. As a composer, he was inspired also by Paul Hindemith. He worked from 1961 as principal viola player of the Rheinisches Kammerorchester in Cologne. He was also a member of the Bamberger Symphoniker and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. He played chamber music with the Bamberger Klavierquartett and the Sinnhoffer-Quartett, among others. Blendinger taught at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich and the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. From 1981 until his retirement in 1988 he was professor for viola at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz. Blendinger was a member of the board of the Styrian Tone Arts Association. Performances Blendinger’s works were performed by the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Wolfgang Sawallisch, his concerto for string quartet and orchestra in 1976, the cantata Media in vita (In the Midst of Life) in 1980 an

Herbert Prikopa

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Herbert “Happi” Prikopa (30 November 1935 – 8 December 2015) was an Austrian television presenter, conductor, operatic tenor, actor, composer, writer, pianist and cabaret artist. Life and career Born in Vienna, in 1935, at the age of 19, Prikopa became the youngest répétiteur at the Wiener Volksoper. After a singing engagement at the Wiener Kammeroper he became a member of Gerhard Bronner’s "" in the cabaret programm Brettl vorm Klavier. In 1957 a soloist contract was signed at the Volksoper instead of the répétiteur contract. From 1988 to 2009 Prikopa belonged to the radio cabaret team “”. In the 1998/1999 to 2007/2008 seasons, Prikopa was musical director and conductor of the Johann Strauss Concert Gala in Vienna. He was the presenter of the children’s television programme on the ORF in the 1980s. Here he appeared as Herbert Happi Prikopa. On 21 March 2005, Prikopa received the professor. He died in Vienna on 8 December 2015 at age 80. Filmography * 1957: * 1957: Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress * 1960: My Niece Doesn’t Do That * 1962: No Kissing Under Water (also co-storyboard) * 1963: Kaiser Joseph und die Bahnwärterstochter (director: Axel Corti) * 1963: Our Crazy Aunts in

Herman Rechberger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Herman Rechberger (14 February 1947 – 11 January 2022) was an Austrian-born Finnish composer, conductor and musician. Life and career Born in Linz, Allied-occupied Austria, Rechberger studied classical guitar at the Bruckner-Konservatorium in his hometown and later continued his musical studies in Zürich and at the Brussels Conservatory. In 1970 he moved to Finland to attend the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, graduating in recorder, guitar and composition. Rechberger’s compositions spanned different genres, including operas, symphonies, happenings, sonic sculptures, electronic music, orchestral compositions as well as reconstructions of ancient music. He was also active as a recorder player, touring with and The Poor Knights, and as a conductor. He died on 11 January 2022, at the age of 74. References External links * * *

Hermann Grabner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hermann Grabner (12 May 1886 – 3 July 1969) was an Austrian composer and music teacher. Career Grabner was born in Graz. He studied law at the University of Graz graduating in 1909. In parallel, he studied music with Leopold Suchsland until 1910. He also played the viola for a while in the Grazer Theatherorchester. He then studied at the Leipzig Conservatory with Max Reger and Hans Sitt. In 1912, he worked as assistant to Reger in the Meininger Theater. In 1913, he became teacher of music theory at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg. He served in the Austrian Army during World War I. From 1919 to 1924, he was teacher of theory and composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim. He also taught at the Music Academy in Heidelberg. He was then teacher of composition at the Leipzig Conservatory, where his students included Hugo Distler, Artur Immisch, Hilding Hallnäs, Heinrich Feischner, and Miklós Rózsa. From 1930, he was music director of the University. From 1938 to 1946, he taught at the Berlin Musikhochschule. He was retired in June 1946 due to his SA membership and the Nazi-composition “Fackelträger”, Lieder des neuen Reiches. He composed one opera, Die Richt

Hieronymus Payer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hieronymus Prayer (13 February 1787 in Vienna-Meidling – 17 August 1845 in Vienna-Meidling) was an Austrian composer and st. Life and career Hieronymus (Jérome) Payer was the son of a teacher. As a 10-year-old he earned his living as a backup musician and was then hired as an assistant teacher of his father’s. In 1806 he became a conductor in the so-called Meidlinger Summer Theatre, for which he even wrote some small Singspiels. Later he moved to the Innere Stadt of Vienna and performed in the Redoutensaal and Theater an der Wien successfully. He was active as a teacher, including of Leopoldine Blahetka. Payer introduced in 1821 in Vienna for the first time the Physharmonica in a public concert. Three years later he became a conductor in Amsterdam (at the Hoogduitse Schouwburg) and in 1825, in Paris. In 1832 he returned to Vienna as conductor for a short time in the Theater in der Josefstadt. As a pianist he had been compared by his contemporaries with Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ignaz Moscheles and Ferdinand Ries. Works (selection) 6 masses and other sacred works, 10 operas and operettas, including; * Der wilde Jäger, Meidling 1806 or 26. July 1807 * L’arbre creux, Meidling 1808 * Der

Hugo Kauder

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hugo Kauder (9 June 188822 July 1972) was an Austrian-Jewish composer, music theorist, and teacher. He composed in a relatively traditional, Brahmsian contrapuntal–harmonic manner with substantial modal mixture. Kauder sought a synthesis of sound and word in his vocal music and was attentive to texts, praising the word painting of Schoenberg’s Op. 15 Stefan George settings. He was close to Rudolph Pannwitz, who wrote aphorisms and was influenced by George and Friedrich Nietzsche. He wrote over 300 works. A society (2002) and performance competition (2003) were founded in his name. Biography Kauder was born in Tovačov. His father Ignaz was Oberlehrer (principal) of the local German language primary school. The local violin teacher gave the boy Kauder lessons. This was his only formal training in music. In 1905, Kauder moved to Vienna to study engineering. He often skipped school with to study scores in the Imperial Court Library. Several volumes of Guido Adler’s Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, a compendium of music including that of the Franco-Flemish School, especially interested him. He cited Josquin des Prez as a “teacher”. From 1911 to 1917, Kauder played violin in the Wie

Hugo Wolf

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hugo Philipp Jacob Wolf (; ; 13 March 1860 – 22 February 1903) was an Austrian composer, particularly noted for his art songs, or Lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, somewhat related to that of the Second Viennese School in concision but diverging greatly in technique. Though he had several bursts of extraordinary productivity, particularly in 1888 and 1889, depression frequently interrupted his creative periods, and his last composition was written in 1898, before he suffered a mental collapse caused by syphilis. Life Early life (1860–1887) Hugo Wolf was born in Windischgrätz in the Duchy of Styria (now Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia), then a part of the Austrian Empire. His baptismal entry records him as Hugo Philip. Jacob. Wolf, the son of Filip Wolf and Katharina (née Nußbaumer) Wolf. Herbert von Karajan was related to him on his maternal side. He spent most of his life in Vienna, becoming a representative of a “New German” trend in Lieder, a trend which followed from the expressive, chromatic and dramatic musical innovations of Richard Wagner. A child prodigy, Wolf was taught piano and violin by his father begi

Ignaz Assmayer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ignaz Assmayer (11 February 1790 – 31 August 1862) was an Austrian composer of liturgical music. An organist at St. Peter’s Abbey in Salzburg, he lived in Vienna from 1815, and was in 1846 the conductor of the Court Orchestra. Assmayer was a friend of Franz Schubert. Life Assmayer was born at Salzburg. He studied under Andreas Brunmayr and Michael Haydn, and later, when he went to Vienna, he received further instruction from Joseph Leopold Eybler. In 1808 he was organist at St. Peter’s in Salzburg, and here he wrote his oratorio “Die Sündfluth” (The Deluge) and his cantata “Worte der Weihe”. Some time after his move to Vienna, in 1815, he became choirmaster at the Schotten Kirche, and in 1825 was appointed imperial organist. After having served eight years as vice-choirmaster, he received in 1846 the appointment of second choir-master to the Court, as successor to Joseph Weigl. He died in Vienna. Works His principal oratorios, , , and , were repeatedly performed by the , of which he was conductor for fifteen years. He also wrote fifteen masses, two requiems, a Te Deum, and various smaller church pieces. Of these, two oratorios, one mass, the requiems, and the Te Deum, and furthermo

Ignaz Brüll

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ignaz Brüll (7 November 1846 – 17 September 1907) was a pianist and composer from Austria-Hungary. Born in Moravia, he lived and worked in Vienna. His operatic compositions included Das goldene Kreuz (The Golden Cross), which became a repertory work for several decades after its first production in 1875, but eventually fell into neglect after being banned by the Nazis because of Brüll’s Jewish origins. He also wrote a small corpus of finely crafted works for the concert hall and recitals. Brüll’s compositional style was lively but unabashedly conservative, in the vein of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Brüll was also highly regarded as a sensitive concert pianist. Johannes Brahms regularly wanted Brüll to be his partner in private performances of four-hand piano duet arrangements of his latest works. Indeed, Brüll was a prominent member of Brahms’s circle of musical and literary friends, many of whom he and his wife frequently entertained. In recent years, Brüll’s concert music has been revived on CD, and well-received recordings are available of his piano concertos, among other non-vocal works. In 1872 he was appointed professor at the Horak Institute in Vienna. His parents were prosper

Ignaz Moscheles

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 1794 10 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later in Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in the Conservatory. Life Early life and career Moscheles was born 1794 in Prague, Bohemia, the son of Klara Popper (Lieben) and Joachim Moises Moscheles. He was from an affluent German-speaking Jewish merchant family. His first name was originally Isaac. His father played the guitar and was keen for one of his children to become a musician. Initially his hopes fixed on Ignaz’s sister, but when she demurred, her piano lessons were transferred to her brother. Ignaz developed an early passion for the (then revolutionary) piano music of Beethoven, which the Mozartean Bedřich Diviš Weber, his teacher at the Prague Conservatory, attempted to curb, urging him to focus on Bach, Mozart and Muzio Clementi. After his father’s early death, Moscheles settled in Vienna in 1808. His abilities were such that he was able to study in the city under Albrechtsberger for counterpoint and theory and Salieri for composition. At this time he changed his first name from “I

Ignaz von Mosel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ignaz (Franz) von Mosel (1 April 1772 – 8 April 1844) was an Austrian court official, composer and music writer. Life Born in Vienna, Mosel entered the royal Bancal-Staatsbuchhaltung (State Bank Bookkeepers) in 1797, later joining the Obersthofmeisteramt and finally the royal Hofrath. He became the first ‘kustos’ of the court library. In 1812 he was the first conductor in Vienna to use a baton, whilst conducting a memorial concert with . He conducted and organized the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde’s music festivals (set up by Andreas Streicher) from 1812 to 1816, including the Handel concerts at the Winterreitschule, which ultimately led to the foundation of the society and its choir, which developed into the Wiener Singverein. On 18 July 1818 he was raised to the nobility and from 1820 he served as vice-director of the court theatre, though he had little influence on the Hofoper after Domenico Barbaja took it over. From 1821 he was vice-director of the Hofbibliothek and from 1829 its director. He also bore the title of ‘hofrat’ or court councilor. Influence An influential figure in the musical life of Vormärz-era Vienna, he was a friend of the Schubert Circle. He composed mainly v

Ignaz von Seyfried

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ignaz Xaver Ritter von Seyfried (15 August 1776 – 27 August 1841) was an Austrian musician, conductor and composer. He was born and died in Vienna. According to a statement in his handwritten memoirs he was a pupil of both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger. He edited Albrechtsberger’s complete written works after his death, published by Tobias Haslinger. His own pupils included Franz von Suppé, Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, Antonio Casimir Cartellieri, Joseph Fischhof and Eduard Marxsen who would later teach Johannes Brahms. As conductor In his youth Seyfried served as the assistant conductor for Emanuel Schikaneder’s opera troupe at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, becoming musical director in 1797 and serving (in its new building, the Theater an der Wien) until 1826. His memoirs offer accounts of the first production, under Schikaneder’s auspices, of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, as well as a curious anecdote concerning the composer’s death a few weeks later; see Death of Mozart. In 1805, Seyfried conducted the première of the original version of Beethoven’s Fidelio. Seyfried’s memoirs also include some striking tales about Beethoven, and the information he prov

Igo Hofstetter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Igo Hofstetter (1 June 1926, in Linz – 2 March 2002, in Linz) was an Austrian operetta composer. He became known primarily for his operettas Roulette der Herzen and Schach dem Boss and his upscale entertainment and brass music. His compositions are characterized by their distinctive rhythms. Career He studied composition with Fritz Heinrich Klein and conducted with Louis Leschetitzky at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz. In addition to his composing activities, he was a music teacher until his retirement in 1986. He was a board member of the International Operetta Company and Federal Council in Brucknerbund. For many years he worked as a sound engineer and a freelancer of the ORF. The Upper Austrian Brass Band Association chose the incidental music from the operetta “Roulette der Herzen” (Arrangement for wind orchestra by Josef Hartl) in the 1995/96 season in the series of compulsory pieces level C. The main part of his work was in the field of operetta, the upscale entertainment music and brass bands. His operettas “Roulette der Herzen”, “Alles spricht von Charpillon” and “Schach dem Boss” were translated in several foreign languages and were in various theatres for several ye

Imre Széchényi

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Count Emmerich “Imre” Széchényi of Sárvár-Felsővidék (15 February 1825 – 11 March 1898), was a Hungarian nobleman and landowner, and Austro-Hungarian diplomat and politician. He was Austrian ambassador in Berlin during the government of Bismarck. He signed for the Austrian emperor Bismarck’s Alliance of the Three Emperors 1873, and represented Austria at the Berlin Conference on the Congo 1884. Early life Széchényi was born on 15 February 1825 in Vienna into a prominent Hungarian noble family. He was the son of Count Ludwig “Lajos” Maria Aloys Széchenyi (1781–1855) and, his second wife, Austrian Countess Francisca (née von Wurmbrand-Stuppach) Széchenyi (1797–1873). The Széchényi family were one of the oldest and wealthiest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His maternal grandparents were Count Heinrich von Wurmbrand-Stuppach and Baroness Josefa von Ledebur-Wicheln. His father was the eldest son of Countess Julia Festetics de Tolna and Count Ferenc Széchényi, founder of the Hungarian National Library (today named the National Széchényi Library) and the National Museum in Budapest. His paternal uncle was Count István Széchenyi, the Hungarian Minister of Public Works and Transport who is

Iván Erőd

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Iván Erőd ( ; 2 January 1936 – 24 June 2019; sometimes spelled Eröd) Kirill Petrenko, Nayden Todorov and Judit Varga. Life Erőd’s brother and grandparents were murdered at Auschwitz in 1944. He fled Hungary after the events of 1956. His chamber music includes three string quartets, Opp. 18, 26 and 78, two string sextets, Opp. 45 and 68, and Bukolika for chamber ensemble, Op. 64 (1994), on Hungarian rural life. his second trio Op. 42 in 1982; he wrote a trio for clarinet, violin and piano Op. 59 – commissioned by the Verdehr Trio – in 1991, as well as a piano quartet Op. 54 in 1987; the two sonatas for violin and piano Op. 14 (1970) and Op. 74 (2000) are among the most popular of his works. He composed lieder, such as Canti di Ungaretti (1988) Some of his vocal works are more serious, such as the Vier Gesänge, Op. 44 (1983), the song cycle Schwarzerde (Black Soil) for baritone and orchestra, Op. 49 (1984/85), and the cantata Vox Lucis (Voice of the Light), Op. 56 (1988/89). * 2006: Honorary member of the (Austrian Composers Association) Further reading * , “Eröd, Iván”. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians online. External links * * Iván Eröd (in German) Steirischer Tonkü

Ivan Zajc

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ivan von Zajc (also , ; ; August 3, 1832 – December 16, 1914), was a Croatian composer, conductor, director, and teacher who dominated Croatia’s musical culture for over forty years. Through his artistic and institutional reform efforts, he is credited with its revitalization and refinement, paving the way for new Croatian musical achievements in the 20th century. He is often called the Croatian Verdi. Life Childhood years Ivan Dragutin Stjepan Zajc was born in Fiume, Austrian Empire (modern-day Rijeka, Croatia). His family migrated from Pressburg, Kingdom of Hungary (now Bratislava, Slovakia); his father, Johann Zaytz (Jan Nepomuk Zajitz), was of Czech descent, and his mother, Anna Bodensteiner was of German descent. His musical talent was evident very early on in his life, as he began to study the piano and violin at the age of five, performed in public by the age of six, and even began to compose his own music by the age of twelve. Nevertheless, despite his early musical success, his military bandmaster father was opposed to the idea of a career in music and wanted him to study law instead following the completion of his secondary education. In the end, Zajc’s professors prevail

Ivana Lang

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ivana Lang (15 November 1912 – 2 January 1982) was a Croatian composer, pianist and piano teacher. She was born in Zagreb, Croatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire). She completed piano studies in 1937 at the Music Academy in Zagreb. Ivana Lang composed orchestral works (concert for piano and orchestra), chamber music, an opera (“The Captain of Kastav”, ) and two ballets, “False Knight” () and “Dance of the Ghosts” (). Works (selection) *Agnus Dei for soprano and chamber ensemble Op 15 (1942) *Melodramas for voice and piano, Op 21 (1942) *Grotesque, for symphony orchestra Op 11 (1942) *Concerto for piano and orchestra Op 22 (1944) *The Silent Shadows, ballet in 3 acts Op 52 (1959) *To a Nameless One, four-song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano Op 75 (1970) *Four Bagatelles for piano Op 59 (1962) *Four Bagatelles for harp and strings Op 86 (1974) *Four Compositions for piano Op 50 (1961) *The Black Olive, song cycle of five songs for dramatic soprano and piano Op 49 (1959) *Two Songs by Domjanić for voice and piano Op 17 (1942) *Two Istrian Songs from Pazin for female choir and piano Op 39 (1952) *The Dance of the Black People, ballet act with piano accompaniment Op 36 (1950) See also *Musi

Jacques Bittner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jacob Büttner, widely known by the French version of his name Jacques Bittner, (floruit 1680s) was a lutenist and composer of Austro-Bohemian origin. He published 170 pieces for lute in Nuremberg in 1682 and 1683. Little is known about his life, although his music continues to be played and recorded in modern times. The German lutenist and conductor Konrad Junghänel recorded many of his works in 1984. The 18th century lutenist Ernst Gottlieb Baron described Bittner briefly (although with some inaccuracies) in his 1727 Untersuchung des Instruments der Lauten. According to Baron, Bittner’s music was composed “according to the latest and most galant method of playing the lute at that time.” A second collection of Bittner’s music was published in Nuremberg in 1683 under the German title, Galantheste Methode die Laute zu traktieren. References Sources *Annala, Hannu and Mätlik, Heiki (2007). Handbook of Guitar and Lute Composers. Mel Bay Publications. *Farstad, Per Kjetil (2000). German galant lute music in the 18th century. University of Gothenburg, Dept. of Musicology. *Poulton, Diana (1976). “Lute Facsimiles”, Early Music, Vol. 4, No. 3 (July 1976), pp. 329 and 331 Further reading *B

Jacques de Menasce

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jacques de Menasce (August 19, 1905 – January 28, 1960) was a composer, pianist, and critic of Austrian, and later American, nationality. Jacques de Menasce was born in Bad Ischl, then in the German-speaking part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, into a Jewish family with roots in Egypt where they had amassed considerable wealth as merchants and bankers and played prominent roles in the Jewish community that centred in Alexandria. This was also the family from which sprang the Catholic writer Jean de Menasce, who was a first cousin of the composer’s father, Henri de Menasce. As a boy Jacques de Menasce’s portrait was painted by Oskar Kokoschka. He studied at the Vienna Music Academy as a young man under teachers who included Joseph Marx, Paul Pisk, and Emil von Sauer, and he was also much encouraged by Alban Berg, at whose instigation he composed his first piano concerto. His compositions include two piano concertos, the Sonata for Viola and Piano (championed by Lillian Fuchs), Hebrew Melodies for Violin and Piano, and the song cycles Quatre Chansons, Outrenuit, and Pour une Princesse. There exist a few recordings of his works. The first, on Vanguard Classics, contains performances o

Jakob Dont

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jakob Dont (March 2, 1815 – November 17, 1888) was an Austrian violinist, composer, and teacher. He was born and died in Vienna. His father Valentin Dont was a noted cellist. Jakob was a student of Josef Böhm (1795–1876) and of Georg Hellmesberger (1800–1873). At the age of sixteen, he became a member of the Hofburgtheater orchestra and in 1834 entered service at the Vienna Hofkapelle. During this time Dont appeared frequently as a soloist. Despite his success, he decided against a career as a soloist. In 1853 he became a professor at the Pädagogisches Institut in Vienna. From 1871, Dont was employed at the Wiener Konservatorium. He would eventually leave this post as the use of his own instructional compositions was forbidden. Dont’s compositions are mainly limited to innovative teaching material. His 24 Etudes and Caprices Gradus ad parnassum Op. 35 and the 24 Exercises Preparatory to the Studies of R. Kreutzer and P. Rode Op. 37 are considered some of the most important technical studies for the violin. Among his students was Leopold Auer. Selected works ;Concertante * 3 Caprices de concert for violin and orchestra, Op. 40 (1858) * Morceau de concert in D minor for violin and or

Jan Kalivoda

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jan Křtitel Václav Kalivoda (Johann Baptist Wenzel Kalliwoda in German; February 21, 1801 – December 3, 1866) was a composer, conductor and violinist of Bohemian birth. Life Kalivoda was born in Prague in 1801 and as early as 1811 started studying violin and composition at the Prague Conservatory. He made his debut as a violinist at the age of 14. Upon completion of his studies he became a member of the Prague Opera Orchestra. His diploma from the Conservatory read “Excellent player solo or in an orchestra…shows great talent in composition.” More prosperous tours as a violinist, for instance to Linz and Munich, followed. Kalivoda lived what appears to have been a stable, hardworking musical life. For more than 40 years, from 1822 to 1865, he held the post of conductor at the court of Prince Karl Egon II of Fürstenberg and his successor in Donaueschingen (where the Danube begins in the Black Forest). His duties there included not only the writing of and care for the music of the court and church, but also the management and conducting of a choir, and annual musical journeys for education. These manifold responsibilities may have foreshortened his life. In any case, he went into re

Jan Křtitel Kuchař

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jan Křtitel Kuchař (; 5 March 1751 – 18 February 1829) was a Czech organist, mandolinist, harpsichordist, music composer, operatic conductor and teacher. Life and career Kuchař was born on 5 March 1751 in Choteč, Bohemia, Holy Roman Empire. Soon after his birth, Kuchař’s parents moved to Mlázovice, where he lived out his childhood. He achieved basic music knowledge in Vrchlabí with the organist Alex Thám. Later he studied at the Jesuits seminary in Hradec Králové and Jičín. He was a student of the organist Josef Seger in Prague. He wrote piano excerpts from both operas, as well as from the opera Così fan tutte. In addition, he composed recitatives for an Italian version of The Magic Flute. In 1790, Kuchař left the church after being nominated as organist of the Strahov Monastery, in the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, on 1 September. He accepted the offer and played organ at the Strahov Monastery. He continued to teach mandolin, organ and the theory of music. He also began to perform stand-alone concerts and his reputation soon spread, for in 1791 he was appointed conductor of the opera, Prague, and he officiated there for many years, during which time several of his o

Ján Levoslav Bella

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ján Levoslav Bella (German Johann Leopold Bella; 4 September 1843 – 25 May 1936) was a Slovak composer, conductor and music teacher, who wrote in the spirit of the Nationalist Romantic movement of the 19th century. Life Bella was born in Liptovský Mikuláš (Liptau-Sankt-Nikolaus), Austrian Empire (now Slovakia), and raised in a Roman Catholic family. He studied at the college in Levoča and a seminary in Banská Bystrica before taking a degree at Vienna University. Bella was ordained a priest in 1866. From 1869 to 1881 he was town director of music at Kremnica. He left the priesthood in 1881 and converted to Protestantism, becoming director of music in Hermannstadt/Nagyszeben, now Sibiu in modern Romania, (at that time Kingdom of Hungary) where he remained until 1921. From 1921 to 1928 he lived in retirement in Vienna, moving to Bratislava in 1928, where he died in 1936. Music Bella began to compose whilst studying in Levoča. At this time his output was largely small-scale, such as church music, folk-song arrangements and some chamber music. In 1873 however, visiting Vienna and Prague, he heard for the first time the music of, amongst others, Robert Schumann, Richard Wagner and Bedřic

Jan Václav Voříšek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jan Václav Hugo Voříšek (; ; 11 May 1791 – 19 November 1825) was a Czech composer, pianist and organist. Life Voříšek was born in the town of Vamberk, Bohemia, where his father was schoolmaster, choirmaster and organist. As a child prodigy, he started to perform publicly in Bohemian towns at the age of nine. His father taught him music, encouraged his playing the piano and helped him get a scholarship to attend the University of Prague, where he studied philosophy. He also had lessons in piano and composition from Václav Tomášek. He found it impossible to obtain sufficient work as a musician in Prague and in 1813, at the age of 22, moved to Vienna to study law, hoping to meet Beethoven. In Vienna Voříšek was able to greatly improve his piano technique under Johann Nepomuk Hummel, but once more failed to gain full-time employment as a musician. Although Voříšek was enthralled by the classical style of Mozart, he was more intrigued by the incipient romanticism of Beethoven. In 1814, as he was starting to compose, he did indeed meet Beethoven in Vienna. He also met other leading musicians there, including the composers Louis Spohr, Ignaz Moscheles, Hummel, and especially Franz Schuber

Jenő Takács

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jenő Takács (; 25 September 1902 – 14 November 2005) was a Hungarian composer and pianist. Life and work Born in Cinfalva on 25 September 1902, he studied at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Joseph Marx in composition and Paul Weingarten in piano until 1926 at the University of Vienna counterpoint with Hans Gál and musicology with Guido Adler. Since 1920, he had already undertaken tours through Germany, Hungary and Yugoslavia. In 1926 he made acquaintance with Béla Bartók; from which a lively contact arose until Bartók’s emigration to the United States in 1940. He was a professor of piano at the conservatory of Cairo, Egypt from 1927 to 1932, where he made Arab and Egyptian Music the subject of his research. He knew Egon Wellesz, Curt Sachs, Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Paul Hindemith. In the years 1932 to 1934 he was a professor of piano and composition at the University of the Philippines, Conservatory of Music. He gave concerts in Japan, China and Hong Kong. Due to a new professorship in piano at the conservatory in Cairo in 1938, he made his first trip to the United States. In 1939, he moved to Sopron in Hungary, however the German authorities made his

Johann Baptist Krall

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Baptist Krall (1803–4 May 1883) was an Austrian composer, conductor, music editor/arranger, and member of the board of directors of the Wiener Singverein of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Early life He was a pupil of the organist and composer :de:Joseph Preindl (1756-1823), who succeeded Johann Albrechtsberger as Domkapellmeister at St Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna in 1809; Krall was also a pupil of Preindl’s successor Ignaz von Seyfried. An Offertory of Krall’s was sung in Vienna in 1825. Krall was a torchbearer (Fackelträger) aged c.23 in Beethoven’s funeral procession on 29 March 1826, in which his teacher von Seyfried held one of the cords attached to the pall covering Beethoven’s coffin. Concerts at the Piarist church In early 1845, Krall was the chorus director of the Music Society of the Piarist Church, Vienna (‘Piaristenkirche Musikverein’). The church (finished 1758) dedicated to Maria Treu (Faithful Maria) has a long-standing musical tradition because of its excellent acoustics: the Piarists, the oldest Catholic educational order, had commissioned Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli, first performed there in 1796. A church musical society (‘Musikverein’) was first est

Johann Baptist Novak

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Baptist Novak (, 1756 – January 29, 1833) was a Slovene composer. Life Novak was born in Ljubljana, at that time part of the Holy Roman Empire, 1756. He died in Ljubljana on January 29, 1833. Due to the quality of his music, the theatrical play approached opera in character. Along with some cantatas, this is one of Novak’s more prominent musical works, most of which have been lost. In 2007, Novak’s “Birthday Cantata” ( ‘Cantata for a Mother’s Birthday or Namesday’) was performed for the first time in Ljubljana. It is not known when it was written. It is preserved in the archives of the in Trieste. This cantata—written for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass accompanied by a small orchestra (flute, string quartet, and double bass) to a German text by an unknown author that celebrates maternal love—was written by Novak for the celebration of the birthday of a lady in some noble or wealthy bourgeois house. Notes References

Johann Baptist Wanhal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Baptist Wanhal (12 May 1739 – 20 August 1813) was a Czech composer of the Classical period. He was born in Nechanice, Bohemia, and died in Vienna. His music was well respected by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. He was an accomplished instrumentalist as well; a proficient organist, he also played the violin and cello. Name Wanhal and at least one of his publishers used the spelling Waṅhal, the dot being an archaic form of the modern háček. Other attested variants include Wanhall, Vanhal and Van Hall. The modern Czech form Jan Křtitel Vaňhal was introduced in the 20th century. Biography Birth and youth in Bohemia: 1739–1760/61 Wanhal was born in Nechanice, Bohemia, into serfdom in a Czech peasant family. He received his first musical training from his family and local musicians, the organist Anton Erban being one of his most prized mentors, and excelled at violin and organ at an early age. From these humble beginnings, he was able to earn a living as a village organist and choirmaster. He was also taught German from an early age, as this was required for someone wishing to make a career in music within the Habsburg empire. Journe

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (3 February 1736 – 7 March 1809) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist, widely regarded as one of the leading figures in counterpoint and composition theory during the Classical period. He was a prolific composer of church music, orchestral works, and keyboard pieces, though he is best remembered for his influence as a teacher. Albrechtsberger was a mentor to several important composers, most notably Ludwig van Beethoven, whom he instructed in counterpoint and fugue. His theoretical writings and pedagogical methods had a lasting impact on 19th-century composition, and his treatises on harmony and counterpoint remain highly regarded. He was also a friend of Haydn and Mozart. In addition to his teaching contributions, Albrechtsberger held several prestigious positions, including Kapellmeister of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. He was a composer though his works are little performed today. Biography Albrechtsberger was born at Klosterneuburg, near Vienna. He originally studied music at Melk Abbey and philosophy at a Benedictine seminary in Vienna, and became one of the most learned and skillful contrapuntists of his age. Albrechtsberger

Johann Kaspar Mertz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Joseph Kaspar Mertz (17 August 1806 – 14 October 1856) was an Austrian guitarist and composer. Biography Caspar Joseph Mertz (baptised Casparus Josephus Mertz) was born in Pressburg (now Bratislava, Slovakia), then the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and part of the Austrian Empire. He never used his full name when performing or on his publications, preferring only the initials “J. K.”. The name “Johann Kaspar” first appeared in the German guitar journal “Der Guitarrefreund” in 1901 and since that time has been incorrectly repeated. In 1900 J. M. Miller used the name “Joseph K. Mertz” for his publication of three previously unpublished manuscripts of Mertz in Three Compositions For Guitar. He was active in Vienna (c. 1840 – 1856), which had been home to various prominent figures of the guitar, including Anton Diabelli, Mauro Giuliani, Wenceslaus Matiegka and Simon Molitor. As virtuoso, he established a solid reputation as a performer. He toured Moravia, Poland, and Russia, and gave performances in Berlin and Dresden. In 1846 Mertz nearly died of an overdose of strychnine that had been prescribed to him as a treatment for neuralgia. Over the following year he was nursed back to he

Johann Nepomuk David

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Nepomuk David (30 November 1895 – 22 December 1977) was an Austrian composer. Life and career David was born in Eferding. He was a choirboy in the monastery of Sankt Florian and studied at an episcopal teacher training college in Linz, 1912–1915, after which he became a school teacher. He studied briefly (1921–22) at both the Musikhochschule (where was a composition student of Joseph Marx) and the university of Vienna (where he studied with Guido Adler). He returned to Linz in 1922, where he acted as musical director of the Linz “Kunststelle” until 1924. From January 1925 until the autumn of 1934 he was a teacher at a local catholic school, founded and directed a Bach choir, and was organist at a Protestant church at Wels. He then became professor of composition and theory at the Musikhochschule in Leipzig (November 1934 – January 1945). From 1945 to 1947 he was professor of music at the Mozarteum, Salzburg, and finally, from 1948 to 1963, professor of theory and counterpoint (practically: composition) at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart. At Stuttgart, he also directed the Bruckner choir (1949–52), the academy’s chamber orchestra (1950–53). David wrote a number of orchestral

Johann Nepomuk Fuchs (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Nepomuk Fuchs (5 May 1842 – 5 October 1899) Johann studied musical theory in Vienna with the prominent theorist and composer Simon Sechter, with whom Schubert had planned to study. In 1864, he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Bratislava Opera. He also conducted opera outside Bratislava, in Brno, Kassel, Cologne, Hamburg, and Leipzig, before moving to the Vienna Court Opera in 1880. In 1888, Fuchs joined the faculty of the Vienna Conservatory, Other notable students included composers Edmund Eysler, Leo Fall and Rubin Goldmark, and the theorist and composer Heinrich Schenker. In 1893, Fuchs succeeded Joseph Hellmesberger Sr. as director of the conservatory. Further recognition followed in 1894, when he was appointed Vice Hofkapellmeister for his services at the Vienna Court Opera. He helped prepare the first edition of the entire Schubert canon, the Schubert-Gesamtausgabe published by Breitkopf & Härtel, editing the works for the theatre, as well as some of the orchestral scores. He died at Bad Vöslau in Lower Austria on 5 October 1899. References External links * (including some of his editions of works by Schubert and Gluck)

Johann Sigismund Kusser

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Sigismund Kusser or Cousser (baptized 13 February 1660 – before 17 November 1727) was a composer born in the Kingdom of Hungary who was active in Germany, France, and Ireland. Life The son of Johann Kusser, a Protestant cantor in Pressburg (then in the Kingdom of Hungary), Johann Sigismund and his parents moved to Stuttgart in 1674 because of religious persecution. Two years later he went to spend six years in Paris and the Palace of Versailles. There he met the French court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully and learned from him how to compose in the French style. Kusser was then employed at the princely courts in Baden-Baden and Ansbach, before taking a trip to Germany in October 1683. In 1690 he became the first Kapellmeister of the in Braunschweig. In the following years, he married Hedwig Melusine von Damm, daughter of a local Ratsherr. Their daughter Auguste Elisabeth married the Braunschweig historian . During his time there, Kusser wrote eight operas, enriching the Italian-influenced repertoire. Disagreements in 1694 with the librettist and court poet Friedrich Christian Bressand led Kusser to move to the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg. He then left Hamburg at the end of 16

Johann Sonnleitner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Sonnleitner (born 1941) is an Austrian music educator and expert as interpreter of early music on historical keyboard instruments. He is an organist, a harpsichordist and music historian. Life and career Born in Trofaiach, Sonnleitner studied organ at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Alois Forer, harpsichord with Eta Harich-Schneider and school music as well as history and pedagogy at the University of Vienna. He completed his education by attending master classes with Gustav Leonhardt, Anton Heiller, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Marie-Claire Alain, Cor Kee among others. He also is an international concert musician as soloist, chamber music partner and song accompanist. He began teaching improvisation and score playing at the Vienna Musikhochschule and continued with a six-year assistant to Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Mozarteum Salzburg. In 1979, he came to the Zurich University of the Arts as a teacher for historical keyboard instruments. From 1983 to 2003, he taught regularly at the teaching and research institute Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. For more than two decades, Sonnleitner led the master classes for keyboard instruments within the Innsbrucker

Johann Strauss I

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Baptist Strauss I (; ; 14 March 1804 – 25 September 1849), also known as Johann Strauss Sr., the Elder or the Father (), was an Austrian composer of the Romantic Period. He was famous for his light music, namely waltzes, polkas, and galops, which he popularized alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons—Johann, Josef and Eduard—to carry on his musical dynasty. He is best known for his composition of the Radetzky March (named after Joseph Radetzky von Radetz). Life and work Johann Strauss was born in Leopoldstadt (now in Vienna). Strauss’s parents, Franz Borgias Strauss (10 October 1764 – 5 April 1816) and Barbara Dollmann (3 December 1770 – 28 August 1811), were innkeepers (). He was born a Roman Catholic. Strauss had a Jewish grandfather, Johann Michael Strauss (1720–1800), who converted to Catholicism. Strauss’ mother died of ‘creeping fever’ when he was seven and five years later his father drowned, possibly as a result of suicide, in the Danube river. Strauss’ guardian, the tailor Anton Müller, placed him as an apprentice to the bookbinder, Johann Lichtscheidl; Strauss took lessons in the violin and viola in addition to fulfilling his apprentic

Johann Strauss II

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Baptist Strauss II (; ; 25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas, as well as a violinist. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, marches and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as “The Waltz King”, as he played a major role in popularizing the waltz in the 19th century. Some of Johann Strauss’s most famous works include “The Blue Danube”, “Kaiser-Walzer” (Emperor Waltz), “Tales from the Vienna Woods”, “Frühlingsstimmen” (Voices of Spring), and the “Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka”. Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the best known. Strauss was the son of Johann Strauss I and his first wife Maria Anna Streim. The two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, also became composers of light music, although they were never as well known as their brother. Early life Strauss was born into a Catholic family in St Ulrich near Vienna (now a part of Neubau), Austria, on 25 October 1825, to the composer Johann Strauss I and his first wife, Maria Anna Streim. His

Johann Strauss III

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Maria Eduard Strauss III (; ; 16 February 18669 January 1939) was an Austrian composer whose father was Eduard Strauss, whose uncles were Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss, and whose grandfather was Johann Strauss I. Born in Vienna, he was unofficially entrusted with the task of upholding his family’s tradition after the dissolution of the Strauss Orchestra by his father in 1901. His talents were not fully realized during his lifetime as musical tastes had changed in the Silver Age with more popular composers such as Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus dominating the Viennese musical scene with their operettas, although his uncle, Johann Strauss II, supervised his development as a musician, a fact disputed by Eduard Strauss. Despite Strauss’ keen interest in composing, he was better remembered as a conductor. His only stage work, the three-act operetta Katze und Maus, composed in 1898, premiered in Vienna on 23 December 1898, at the Theater an der Wien. Its public reaction bordered on utter dislike, and music critics called for the distraught composer to reassess himself and to appear under a pseudonym, in order not to tarnish the name of his famous relatives. He salvaged the mus

Johanna Doderer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johanna Doderer (born 18 September 1969 in Bregenz) is an Austrian composer. Biography Doderer was born in 1969 in Bregenz, Austria. She is the great-niece of the Austrian novelist Heimito von Doderer and a great-granddaughter of the architect Carl Wilhelm von Doderer. Doderer learned her trade in Graz with Beat Furrer (composition), then later in Vienna with Klaus Peter Sattler (film and media composition) and Erich Urbanner (composition). Her current work ranges broadly from chamber music to orchestral work and to opera. In the immediate future she intends to concentrate her work in the field of opera. An important aspect of her artistic career is her frequent collaborations with musicians such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Sylvia Khittl-Muhr, Marlis Petersen and Edua Zadory, and with the conductor Ulf Schirmer. Her work was performed at the Embassy of Austria, Washington, D.C. by violinist Édua Zádory and the Momenta Quartet. In December 2012 the University of Arts Graz (Austria) devoted an entire day to performances of Johanna Doderer’s works. Prizes and residencies *Composer in Residence 2004/2005, Wiener Concertverein *SKE Publicity Preis 2004 *Österreichisches Staatsstipendium

Johanna Müller-Hermann

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johanna Müller-Hermann (15 January 1868 – 19 April 1941) was an Austrian composer and pedagogue. Life Johanna Hermann began to receive music lessons at an early age, together with her two siblings. This was in keeping with the middle-class ideal of education; her father was a section head in the Austrian Ministry of Culture and Education in Vienna, and thus belonged to the upper echelons of the civil service. In accordance with the circumstances of the time, however, she was unable to pursue her musical ambitions; instead she graduated from a teacher training college and taught for several years at a public education school in Vienna. When she married Otto Müller-Martini, a transport expert, in 1893, she was no longer required to work and continued her musical studies. This was followed by piano and violin lessons, and instruction in music theory. She studied under Guido Adler, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Josef Bohuslav Foerster According to Dr. Carola Darwin, “The contribution of women to Vienna’s creative life at this period has been largely forgotten as the result of Nazi ideology, as well as the general destruction of the Second World War… Johanna Müller-Hermann’s works deserve

Johannes Maria Staud

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johannes Maria Staud (born 17 August 1974) is an Austrian composer. His works have been performed internationally by major orchestras, ensembles, and soloists, and he has received several composition prizes. Biography Staud was born on 17 August 1974 in Innsbruck. He studied musicology and philosophy in Vienna before continuing his composition studies with Brian Ferneyhough and Michael Jarrell at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and later with Hanspeter Kyburz at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. He is also a co-founder of the Vienna-based composers’ group Gegenklang. Career Early major works Staud achieved early international recognition with Apeiron (2005), commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic and premiered under Sir Simon Rattle and Segue (2006), for violoncello and orchestra, written for Heinrich Schiff and the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim at the Salzburg Festival. Later career In 2010–2011, Staud served as Capell-Compositeur of the Staatskapelle Dresden. Other significant works of the 2010s include Auf die Stimme der weißen Kreide (Specter I–III) (2015), premiered at Festival Musica in Strasbourg, and the diptych Par ici ! – Par

Jörg Demus

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jörg Wolfgang Demus (2 December 1928 – 16 April 2019) was an Austrian classical pianist who appeared internationally and made many recordings. He was also a composer and a lecturer at music academies. In composition and playing, he focused on chamber music and lieder. He played with singers such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as a piano duo with Paul Badura-Skoda, and with string players such as Josef Suk and Antonio Janigro. Demus was instrumental in bringing the historic fortepiano to concert podiums. He was a member of the Legion of Honour, among many awards. He is regarded as one of the leading Austrian pianists of the immediate post-World War II era. Early life and education Demus was born in St. Pölten; his father was the art historian Otto Demus, and his mother was a concert violinist. His playing of Bach’s works showed their structure as well as melodic lines. He favoured Schumann’s music, revealing a high degree of playful levity besides romantic expressiveness. His playing of Debussy’s music stands out in Klangsinn, a sense for a colourful impressionist sound world. He recorded several of his own compositions with cellist Maria Kliegel, including P

Josef Bohuslav Foerster

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josef Bohuslav Foerster (30 December 1859 – 29 May 1951) was a Czech composer and musicologist. He is often referred to as J. B. Foerster, and his surname is sometimes spelled Förster. Life Foerster was born in Prague. His ancestors were of Bohemian German ethnicity, but had assimilated into the Czech community. The family normally lived in Prague and was musical. His father, a composer also named Josef Foerster, taught at the Conservatory. (His father’s students included Franz Lehár. ) His brother was artist Viktor Foerster. Josef was educated accordingly, and duly studied there. He also showed an early interest in the theatre, and thought of becoming an actor. He taught music; one of his early students was composer and Stuttgart court pianist Anna Sick. From 1884 Foerster worked as a critic, and he would prove to be a writer of distinction. In 1893 he married the leading Czech soprano Berta Lautererová (Bertha Lauterer) in Hamburg, during ten years making his living there as a critic, and she was engaged at the Hamburg Staatsoper. In 1901 he became a teacher at the Hamburg Conservatory. In 1903 Berta went to sing at the Vienna Hofoper, and so Josef moved there with her, continuin

Josef Fiala

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josef Fiala (; 3 February 1748 – 31 July 1816) was a Czech composer, oboist, viola da gamba virtuoso, cellist and pedagogue of the Classical period. Life He was born in Lochovice in Bohemia and began his musical career there as an oboist in the service of Countess Valpruga Netolická. The countess supported his studies of oboe with Jan Šťastný in Prague. He also studied violoncello and viola da gamba with František Josef Werner. In 1774, he left to Bavaria to play the oboe in the orchestra of Count Ernst Kraft von Oettingen-Wallerstein. In 1777 he moved to Munich to serve in the court orchestra of Elector Maximilian Joseph. Here he married Josefina Procházková, a daughter of his colleague from the orchestra, horn player Matyáš Procházka. That year in Munich, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart befriended Fiala and was greatly impressed by his compositions. After the death of the Elector in 1778 Mozart helped him secure a position in Salzburg. From 1778 to 1785, Fiala lived in Mozart’s birth house at Getreidegasse No. 9 in Salzburg. He was an oboist for archbishop Hieronymus von Colloredo’s orchestra and played violin and violoncello in Salzburger Landestheater. In 1785 Fiala moved to Vienna, wh

Josef Labor

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josef Paul Labor (29 June 184226 April 1924) was an Austrian pianist, organist, and composer of the late Romantic era. Labor was an influential music teacher. As a friend of some key figures in Vienna, his importance was enhanced. Biography Labor was born in the town of Hořovice in Bohemia to Josef Labor, an administrator of ironworks, and his wife Josefa Wallner, who came from a family of doctors. Both his parents came from Viennese families. His father belonged to the circle of Schubert-Friends and had been in his younger years a composer himself. At the age of three, he was left blind due to contracting smallpox. He attended the Institute for the Blind in Vienna and the Konservatorium der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music) where he studied composition with Simon Sechter (teacher of Bruckner), and piano with (student of and Czerny). He toured Europe as a pianist and, in the process, formed lasting friendships with King George V of Hanover, who was also blind, and with Joseph Joachim, whom he met at Hanover. George named him Royal Chamber Pianist in 1865. In 1866, Labor followed the king’s exile and settled in Vienna, where he became a

Josef Maria Horváth

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josef Maria Horváth (born József Mária Horváth; 20 December 1931 – 21 October 2019) was an Austrian composer of Hungarian descent, who wrote contemporary classical music. A Professor at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, he left his concert pianist and conductor career in 1964 to focus on composition. Horváth was among the most important 20th-century composers active in Salzburg. Life Josef Maria Horváth was born on 20 December 1931 as József Mária Horváth in Pécs, Hungary. At the Jesuit School of his hometown he learned to play the organ. After high school he studied piano (receiving his diploma in 1956), music composition, and conducting at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. Horváth emigrated to Austria in 1956 to study at the Mozarteum University Salzburg in Salzburg. His studies lasted until 1959 with a focus on piano, composition and electronic music under Cesar Bresgen and Kurt Leimer. After his 1959 graduation, Horváth led a career within Austria and abroad as a pianist, conductor and sometimes organist, described by his later publisher as a “successful concert career” . He often performed his own compositions. Based in Salzburg, in 1964 Horváth left a career as a pianist to con

Josef Matthias Hauer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josef Matthias Hauer (March 19, 1883 – September 22, 1959) was an Austrian composer and music theorist. He is best known for developing, independent of and a year or two before Arnold Schoenberg, a method for composing with all 12 notes of the chromatic scale. Hauer was also an important early theorist of twelve-tone music and composition. Hauer believed that “the influence of the material world” interfered with “rais ing music to its highest, most spiritual level”, and disapproved of expression of “ideas, programmes or feelings” in art, instead favoring “spiritual, supersensual music composed according to impersonal rules”. Many of his compositions reflect this in their direct, often athematic, ‘cerebral’ approach. Hauer’s music is diverse, however, and not all of it embraces this aesthetic position. Life Hauer was born in Wiener Neustadt and died in Vienna. He had an early musical training in cello, choral conducting, and organ, and claimed to have been self-taught in theory and composition. This interpretation seems largely drawn from Hauer’s theoretical writing of the early to mid-1920s in which he outlines these techniques. But a closer look at Hauer’s compositional output rev

Josef Pischna

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josef Pischna (; 15 June 1826 – 19 October 1896) was a Czech pianist and composer. Josef Pischna was born in near Příbram and studied oboe at the Prague Conservatory from 1840 to 1846. He worked for thirty-five years as a pianist and piano teacher in Moscow. References

Josef Slavík

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josef Slavík (26 March 1806 – 30 May 1833) was a Czech violin virtuoso and composer. He was expected by Viennese musical critics to become Paganini’s successor after composing a supposedly unplayable Concerto in F-sharp minor and teaching himself to play Paganini’s “La Campanella” after a single hearing. Career The first son of Barbora (born Krásová) and Antonín Slavík, teacher and musician, who started to teach Josef violin in the age of four. Later on, he was a student of violin by Friedrich Wilhelm Pixis and music theory and composition by Friedrich Dionys Weber at the Prague Conservatory. Before leaving Prague, Slavík played his final concert. He went to Vienna in 1825 and became enjoyed critical success. He was then a young man of nineteen, but already technically superior to other violinists that had been heard in the Austrian capital. The celebrated Mayseder called him a “second Lipinski”. Frédéric Chopin who heard Slavík on several occasions described his skills as: “With the exception of Paganini, I have never heard a player like him. Ninety-six staccatos in one bow! It is almost incredible! He plays like a second Paganini, but a rejuvenated one, who will perhaps in time s

Josef Strauss

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josef Luckhardt Strauss (20 August 1827 – 22 July 1870) was an Austrian composer. Early life He was born in Mariahilf (now Vienna), the son of Johann Strauss I and Maria Anna Streim, and brother of Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss. His father wanted him to choose a career in the Austrian Habsburg military. He studied music with Franz Dolleschal and learned to play the violin with Franz Anton Ries. He received training as an engineer, and worked for the city of Vienna as an engineer and designer. He designed a horse-drawn revolving brush street-sweeping vehicle and published two textbooks on mathematical subjects. Family orchestra He joined the family orchestra, along with his brothers, Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss in the 1850s. His first published work was called “Die Ersten und Letzten” (The First and the Last). When Johann became seriously ill in 1853 Josef led the orchestra for a while. The waltz-loving Viennese were appreciative of his early compositions so he decided to continue in the family tradition of composing dance music. He was known as ‘Pepi’ by his family and close friends, and Johann once said of him: “Pepi is the more gifted of us two; I am merely the mo

Josef Suk (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josef Suk (4 January 1874 – 29 May 1935) was a Czech composer, violinist, and Olympic silver medalist. He studied under Antonín Dvořák, whose daughter he married. Biography From a young age, Josef Suk (born in Křečovice, Bohemia) was deeply involved and well trained in music. He learned organ, violin, and piano from his father, Josef Suk Sr., and was trained further in violin by the Czech violinist Antonín Bennewitz. His theory studies were conducted with several other composers including Josef Bohuslav Foerster, , and . He later focused his writing on chamber works under the teachings of Hanuš Wihan. Despite extensive musical training, his musical skill was often said to be largely inherited. Though he continued his lessons with Wihan another year after the completion of his schooling, Suk’s greatest inspiration came from another of his teachers, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. Known as one of Dvořák’s favorite pupils, Suk also became personally close to his mentor. Underlying this was Dvořák’s respect for Suk, reflected in Suk’s 1898 marriage to Dvořák’s daughter, Otilie, marking some of the happiest times in the composer’s life and music. However, the last portion of Suk’s life w

Josef Venantius von Wöss

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josef Venantius von Wöss (13 June 1863 – 22 October 1943) was a Viennese church musician, composer, teacher of harmony and music publishing lector. He is known for piano transcriptions of large-scale works by Gustav Mahler for Universal Edition. Life and career Wöss was born in Cattaro, Kingdom of Dalmatia (now Montenegro), External links *

Josef Wagner (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josef Franz Wagner (20 March 1856 – 5 June 1908) was an Austrian military bandmaster and composer. He is sometimes referred to as “The Austrian March King”. Hailing from Vienna, which remained a key location in his life, Wagner joined a military band early on following his education. Between 1874 and 1899, Wagner would remain a member of the military band of different infantry regiments of the Austro-Hungarian army, becoming a successful bandmaster from 1878 to his death. Among his most famous work is Unter dem Doppeladler (Under the Double Eagle). Wagner died in 1908 following an accumulation of debt. Early life and education Josef Franz Wagner was born on 20 March 1856 in Vienna, Austrian Empire, to Josef Wagner, a doctor, and Maria Anna Wagner (née Oberthanner). Wagner (the doctor) had migrated to Vienna from Bohemia, while Anna had migrated from Moravia. Their son completed his primary education in Henriette Kumenecker’s singing school in Vienna, and his secondary education at the Stiftsgymnasium in Seitenstetten between 1869 and 1873. As a boy, Wagner excelled as a soprano in a church choir. After completing his secondary education, he was privately taught at the Austro-Hungar

Josefine Winter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josefine Winter (since 1914 Winter Edle von Wigmar; born 21 December 1873 in Vienna; died 20 January 1943 in the Theresienstadt ghetto) was an Austrian painter, composer and writer. Life Josefine, or Josephine, was born in Vienna, the daughter of Rudolf Auspitz (1837-1906) and Helene Lieben (1838-1896). In 1879, her mother fell ill with depression and was put in the Préfargier psychiatric hospital near Neuchâtel. The children were placed in the care of a governess, Marie Heidenhain from Dresden, who became the father’s new wife after the mother’s death in 1896 Josefine was educated by private tutors, but as a girl was not allowed to study. Like her mother, she began to paint. Her teachers were Emanuel Stöckler and Ludwig Michalek. Although both parents were patrons of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, they did not notice her musical talent. She received only the piano lessons customary at the time for children from “good homes.” Through visits to performances of the Vienna Court Opera, Josefine became enthusiastic about Georges Bizet’s Carmen and began to play the melodies she heard on the piano. The pianist Lili Michalek became her first teacher before she became a stud

Joseph Czerny

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Joseph Czerny (17 June 1785, Hořovice – 7 January 1842, Vienna) was a pianist, composer, music publisher, and piano teacher from the Austrian Empire. He was not related to Carl Czerny. Among his compositions is Variation No. 5 from Part II of Diabelli’s Vaterländischer Künstlerverein and about 60 other works consisting of fantasias, rondos, other variations, etc., which he published. Fétis was also critical of him: “Joseph’s talent on the piano was less than mediocre; his compositions are not of a much higher order.” Apparently, Joseph only started composing after Carl gave fame to the name “Czerny”, and he understood that he could capitalize on this coincidence. It was doubted that Joseph had ever composed anything, and that he instead had his works done by young artists whom he paid to obtain permission to put his name on their productions. But this suspicion eventually proved untrue, for the piano pieces bearing Joseph Czerny’s name were already forgotten by about 1867. In the last years of his life, he had adopted the profession of bookseller-publisher. References

Joseph Friedrich Hummel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Joseph Friedrich Hummel (14 August 1841 – 29 August 1919) was an Austrian choral conductor, composer and music teacher. Father of musicologist Walter Hummel, he was a musician and promoter of the works of Wagner, Bruckner and Richard Strauss. The Josef-Friedrich-Hummel-Straße, a street in Salzburg located in close proximity to the main building of the Mozarteum, was named after him. Biography Born in Innsbruck, Hummel studied music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München under Franz Lachner and worked as theater kapellmeister in Innsbruck, Aachen, Troppau and Vienna, as well as conductor of the Brünn City Theatre from 1876 to 1879. He became director of the Mozarteum Orchestra and head of the newly established music school International Mozarteum Foundation from 1880 to 1908. There, he played with the orchestra that he founded, the women’s choir and led the Salzburger Liedertafel (amateur male choir) from 1882 until 1912, organizing several major choral festivals in Salzburg, and thus gaining the reputation as a fine Mozart conductor. Hummel died in Salzburg in 1919 at the age of 78. Works Hummel wrote the opera Der Vampyr (1862), two concertos for clarinet and orchestra, c

Joseph Lanner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Joseph Lanner (12 April 1801 – 14 April 1843) was an Austrian dance music composer and dance orchestra conductor. He is best remembered as one of the earliest Viennese composers to reform the waltz from a simple peasant dance to something that even the highest society could enjoy, either as an accompaniment to the dance, or for the music’s own sake. He was just as famous as his friend and musical rival Johann Strauss I, who was better known outside of Austria in their day because of his concert tours abroad, in particular to France and England. Lanner had a lesser-known son, August Lanner, who was just as musically gifted and prodigious as his father, but whose budding career was cut short by his early death at age 20. His daughter Katharina became a well-known international ballet dancer, settling in London where she became an influential choreographer and teacher. Biography Lanner was born in St. Ulrich in Vienna (today the district of Neubau). Largely self-taught on the violin, he joined a small string orchestra of Michael Pamer at about the same time as Johann Strauss I did, although he decided to venture into the music business himself and partnered with Karl and Johann Drahan

Joseph Maria Wolfram

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Joseph Maria Wolfram (21 July 1789 – 30 September 1839) was a German-Czech politician and amateur composer who wrote operas which were performed with success. Biography Wolfram was born on 21 July 1789 in Dobřany in Bohemia. He first studied philosophy at the Karls-Universität in Prague, but also harmony with Leopold Koželuch. References

Joseph Marx

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Joseph Rupert Rudolf Marx (11 May 1882 – 3 September 1964) was an Austrian composer, teacher and critic. He is best known for his 150 lieder, most accompanied by piano, with some scored for orchestra. Life and career Marx was born in Graz and pursued studies in philosophy, art history, German studies, and music at Graz University, earning several degrees including a doctorate in 1909. His thesis was an expansion of a 1907 scholarly study of tonality, in which he coined the term “atonality”. He began composing seriously in 1908 and over the next four years he produced around 120 songs. In 1914 he joined the faculty of the Vienna Music Academy, later becoming the institution’s director in 1922. When the school was reorganized as the Hochschule für Musik in 1924 he was appointed to the position of rector, holding that post for three years. Some of his notable students include Johann Nepomuk David, Richard Flury, Ivana Lang, Alois Melichar, Hisatada Otaka, Florica Racovitză-Flondor, Lucijan Marija Škerjanc, Paul Ulanowsky, Ludovit Rajter, Georg Tintner, Jenő Takács, Kurt Schwertsik, and Clara Wildschut. From 1931 to 1938 he was music critic for the Neues Wiener Journal and following Wo

Joseph Schubert (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Joseph Schubert (20 December 1754 – 28 July 1837) was a German composer, violinist, and violist. Schubert was born in Varnsdorf, Bohemia (now Czech Republic) to a musical family. He received his early musical education from his father, who was a cantor, and then in Prague. In 1778, he moved to Berlin to study the violin with Paul Kohn, director of the royal orchestra there. In 1779, Schubert obtained a position as violinist in the court of Heinrich Friedrich, the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. In 1788, he accepted a post as violist in the court orchestra of Dresden, where he remained until his death in 1837. Schubert gained recognition as a versatile composer, cited in the 1812 edition of Ernst Ludwig Gerber’s lexicon of composers. His œuvre includes 15 masses, 4 operas, 17 sonatas, and 49 concertos for solo instruments. The Saxon State Library in Dresden holds the manuscripts of three viola concertos attributed to him. Published works *Concerto for Viola and Orchestra in C major (Schott Music, ed. Karlheinz Schultz-Hauser) External links * biography (in German) * References

Joseph von Blumenthal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Joseph von Blumenthal, also known as Joseph de Blumenthal (1 November 1782 – 9 May 1850 ), was an Austrian violinist and violist, influential pedagogue and composer. Biography Joseph von Blumenthal was born in Brussels, the son of Baron Joseph von Blumenthal and Baroness Maria Therese, née Malabreck. His father, who had a job with the Austrian government, took the family to Prague during the Brabant Revolution (1789–1790). The young Blumenthal and his two brothers, Casimir and Léopold, learned to play the violin and studied composition with Abbé Vogler. When Vogler went to Vienna in 1803 to produce his opera Samori, he recommended his students to the director of the Theater an der Wien, and on his testimony, they were accepted into the theatre orchestra, Joseph on viola, his siblings on violin. During the first two decades of the nineteenth century, Joseph von Blumenthal wrote a great deal of dramatic music, of which a part was attributed to his brothers. His brother Casimir von Blumenthal (1787–1849) went on to become music director in Zurich, and Léopold von Blumenthal (born 1790) was a musician employed by a nobleman in Hungary. Both published compositions for violin and various

Joseph Weigl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Joseph Weigl (28 March 1766 – 3 February 1846) was an Austrian composer and conductor. Life Wiegl was born in Eisenstadt, Austrian Empire. The son of Joseph Franz Weigl (1740–1820), the principal cellist in the orchestra of the Esterházy family, he studied music under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. He became Kapellmeister at the court theatre in Vienna in 1792, and from 1827 to 1838, was vice-Kapellmeister of the court. Weigl composed a number of operas, both Italian and German and in various genres, although most of his late works are pieces of sacred music. His best known work was the opera Die Schweizerfamilie (1809). He also set Emanuel Schikaneder’s libretto Vestas Feuer (1805), after his close friend Ludwig van Beethoven had composed a single scene and then abandoned it. Weigl died in Vienna in 1846. His younger brother Thaddäus Weigl was a composer and music publisher. Operas (first performed in Vienna, unless otherwise noted) * Die unnütze Vorsicht oder Die betrogene Arglist, puppet opera in one act, (1783) * Il pazzo per forza, opera in two acts (1788) * La caffettiera bizzarra, komische Oper in three acts (1790) * Der Strazzensa

Josip Runjanin

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Josip Runjanin (8 December 1821 – 20 January 1878), born Josif Runjanin (), was an Austrian career military officer, politician and composer of Serb origin best known for composing the melody of the Croatian national anthem, Lijepa naša domovino (“Our Beautiful Homeland”), in 1846. Runjanin received his education in Vinkovci and later in Sremski Karlovci. As a young man, he served in the Imperial Austrian Army as a cadet in the town of Glina, along the Military Frontier with the Ottoman Empire. While serving in Glina, Runjanin attained the rank of captain and became proficient in playing the piano. He is known to have composed only a handful of works, most famously the musical accompaniment to Antun Mihanović’s patriotic poem Horvatska domovina (“Croatian Homeland”). The piece, under the title Lijepa naša domovino, was selected by popular acclaim as the anthem of the Croatian people at an economic exhibition in Zagreb in 1891. One of its stanzas was eventually integrated into the national anthem of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and the piece later served as the national anthem of several Croatian polities, including that of modern-day Croatia. A veteran of the Second a

Julie von Webenau

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Julie von Webenau (; October 16, 1813 – July 2, 1887) was a German-Austrian composer. Life von Webenau was born to the government council member Ludwig Cajetan Baroni-Cavalcabò (1765-1847) and the amateur singer Josephine Baroni-Cavalcabò (1788-1860) in Lemberg, Austrian Empire (modern-day Lviv, Ukraine). She had a sister, Laura, and a brother, Adolf. In Lemberg, she was a student of Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, of whom her mother had a close relationship with. Under Mozart’s tutelage, she published her first songs under her maiden name. In July 1842, she married Johann Alois Ritter von Britto, a Brazilian Legation Secretary, in the St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. The couple had two daughters and a son. von Britto died in 1877, after which von Webenau lived with her sister, Laura. Her granddaughter was the composer Vilma von Webenau. Music * op. 1 - Variation for piano (May 1830) * op. 2 - Caprice for piano No. 1 * op. 3 - Piano Sonata in E flat major, published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig, 1830 * op. 4 - Fantasy in C minor for piano * op.5 - Introduction et Rondeau for piano (December 1830) * op. 6 - Die Grabesrose for bass, baritone or alto (“You Grabesrose rooted well”), p

Julius Bittner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Julius Bittner (born Vienna, 9 April 1874; died Vienna, 9 January 1939) was an Austrian composer. Life The son of a judge, Bittner also initially pursued a career in law. Until 1920 he was a judge in Wolkersdorf im Weinviertel, in Lower Austria. From 1920 to 1922 or 1923 he was an official in the Austrian Department of Justice. In addition, Julius Bittner became one of the best-known and most performed Austrian opera composers in the first half of the 20th century. Many of his operas deal with Austrian-Alpine themes. He usually wrote his own libretti. After the Second World War, however, as a typical representative of late Romantic opera in the tradition of Richard Wagner, he was gradually forgotten. As a leading member of Vienna’s judiciary and close friend of Gustav Mahler, he assessed Mahler’s estate for probate after his death. He later won the Mahler Prize in 1915. He composed many operas, two symphonies and many songs and was helped and promoted by Mahler and Bruno Walter. He was also a close friend of Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Franz Schmidt. He was for a while editor of the Austrian music journal Der Merker Awards * 1915 Gustav Mahler Prize * 1918 Raimund Prize * 1925 City

Julius Bürger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Julius Burger (Bürger) (11 March 1897 in Vienna – 12 June 1995 in New York City) was an Austrian then American composer, pianist and conductor. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music under Franz Schreker, and was one of the group of Schreker’s pupils - Alois Hába, Jascha Horenstein, Ernst Křenek, Karol Rathaus - who followed Schreker to Berlin when Schreker was appointed Director of the Hochschule für Musik. He had a long association with the Metropolitan Opera, New York first dating from his apprenticeship in 1924–1927, when Bruno Walter recommended him as assistant to Artur Bodanzky. He was an assistant to Otto Klemperer at the Kroll Opera, then following the Nazi ban on Jewish artists in 1933, drifted between Vienna, Brussels and Paris as well as visits to London to work for the BBC as an orchestrater. In February 1938 Bürger and his wife exited a train to Vienna in Paris, and in 1939 they departed permanently for America. His mother and four of his brothers were sent to Auschwitz, his mother being shot by the roadside and the brothers murdered in the camp. Works, editions and recordings * Stille der Nacht, for baritone and orchestra. Scherzo for Strings. Cello Concerto. Vari

Julius Fučík (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Julius Ernst Wilhelm Fučík (, ; 18 July 1872 – 25 September 1916) was a Czech composer and conductor of military bands. He became a prolific composer, with over 400 marches, polkas and waltzes to his name. As most of his works were for military bands, Fučík is sometimes known as the “Bohemian Sousa”. Today, Fučík’s marches are still played as patriotic music in the Czech Republic. His worldwide reputation rests primarily on two works: “Florentiner Marsch”, popular throughout much of Europe and the United States, and the “Entrance of the Gladiators” (Vjezd gladiátorů), which is widely recognised, often under the title “Thunder and Blazes”, as popular entrance music for circus clowns. Early life and education Julius Ernst Wilhelm Fučík was born on 18 July 1872 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary. As a student, he learned how to play the bassoon with Ludwig Milde, the violin with Antonín Bennewitz, and various percussion instruments, later studying composition under Antonín Dvořák. Career In 1891, Fučík joined the 49th Austro-Hungarian Regiment as a military musician. He initially played in Krems by the Danube under Josef Wagner. Three years later, Fučík left the army to take up a pos

Junsang Bahk

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Junsang Bahk (; born 2 June 1937) is a Korean composer, also active in Austria. Biography Bahk studied composition at the Graduate School, Seoul National University, where he received a Master of Music Degree in 1965. An Austrian government stipend enabled him to study composition from 1967 to 1973 at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, with Hanns Jelinek and Alfred Uhl, twelve-tone technique with Jelinek and Erich Urbanner, electronic music and modern music with Friedrich Cerha. He graduated with Distinction in 1973. In 1968 and 1970 he took part in the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, in Karlheinz Stockhausen’s composition studios, and later in György Ligeti’s composition seminar. Subsequently, he studied musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Vienna, where he received a Ph.D. in 1991 with a dissertation titled “Die Auswirkungen der Volksliedforschung auf das kompositorische Schaffen von Béla Bartók”. In 1969 in Seoul, together with Isang Yun, Nam June Paik, and Sukhi Kang, he helped organize the “Biennale for Contemporary Music”, where new Western music was performed for the first time in Korea (Stockhausen, Pierre Boul

Kamilo Mašek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kamilo Mašek (11 July 1831 – 29 June 1859) was a Slovenian music composer of Czech descent. Life Mašek was born on 11 July 1831 in Ljubljana, Austrian Empire, and baptized Camillo Leopold Bernhard Maschek. He was the son of the Czech-born Slovenian composer Gašper Mašek and Czech concert singer Amalie Horný Maschek. Mašek introduced more Romantic influence into Slovenian music. His compositions include various sacred works. He died of tuberculosis in Sankt Stefan ob Stainz on 29 June 1859. Works * Overture to the melodrama Judith (1854), for orchestra * Polkas for wind orchestra * Divertimento for two violas, two cellos and double bass (1854) * Fantasy for piano and melofon * Choral Music: The Lake * Songs, a wreath of songs on texts by France Prešeren References External links *List of Kamilo Mašek works on CPDL

Karin Leitner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Karin Leitner (born 1972) is an Austrian flautist and composer. She has played flute and piccolo with the orchestras of the Vienna State Opera and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Leitner studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Wolfgang Schulz and at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg with Robert Aitken. She tours internationally with solo concerts as well as chamber music concerts. Leitner gives chamber music workshops in Ireland, Northern Ireland, China, Iran, and South Africa. In 2013, she toured South Africa playing the Suite for solo flute, Op. 57, by Egon Wellesz. Virtuosity on flute Leitner has been described by one reviewer as having “mastery of clarity and consistency” and “a strong clear tone through all three octaves of the instrument … flute players … should marvel at her breath control”. and “beautiful tone and sensitive phrasing” (“schönem Ton und einfuhlsamer Phrasierung”). Her “breath control was exemplary, intonation secure, and finger work as agile as anything the composer could have demanded”. Instruments Leitner plays a wooden flute. She also composes music for flute, harp and orchestra. * 2009 Earthmagic (flute, harp and orchestra

Karl Bleyle

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Karl Bleyle (7 May 1880 – 5 June 1969) was an Austrian composer and musician, who also lived and worked in Germany. Life Bleyle was born in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg. In the parental home of the young Karl - his father was the textile manufacturer - music was played diligently and the joy of music was awakened in him at an early age. He received his first music lessons on the violin from the Feldkirch music director Karl Linke, who came from Barthfeld in Hungary and was appointed teacher at the newly established music school in Feldkirch in 1888. Karl moved to Stuttgart with his parents at the age of nine. At the conservatory there, he had his first lessons in music theory and counterpoint with Hugo Wehrle and Samuel de Lange from 1894 to 1897 and from 1897 to 1899 with Edmund Singer. After his military service, he studied music from 1904 to 1907 with Ludwig Thuille in Munich, where he lived as a composer until 1919. Already in his first year of study in Munich Bleyle composed his 1st Symphony in C minor, which was premiered by the Hofkapelle in Stuttgart on 7 December 1905 and was highly praised by the press. On 25 February 1910 the Munich concertmaster Bruno Ahner played his Violin C

Karl Heinz Füssl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Karl Heinz Füssl (21 March 1924 – 4 September 1992) was an Austrian composer and musicologist. Life Born in Gablonz, (Czechoslovakia), Füssl went to study in Berlin and began his training with Konrad Friedrich Noetel (composition), Gerd Otto (piano) and Hugo Distler (choral conducting). After the Second World War, he settled in Vienna and began his studies with Alfred Uhl (composition), Erwin Ratz (musical analysis), and Hans Swarowsky (conducting). Füssl was also active as a music critic and worked as an editor for Universal Edition. On the one hand, he was entrusted with the Urtext editions, and on the other, he was involved in the publication of the works of Haydn, Mozart and Johann Strauss II. On the part of the , Füssl was entrusted with the publication of the . At the World Music Days of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM World Music Days), Epitaph (Variations for Orchestra, world premiere) was performed in Zurich in 1957 and the Concerto Rapsodico in Copenhagen in 1964. Füssl died in Eisenstadt at the age of 68 and was buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery Awards * 1953: Prize at the Composition Competition of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra * 1962: Promoti

Karl Pilß

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Karl Pilß (4 April 1902 – 22 June 1979), alternative spelling Pilss, was an Austrian pianist, conductor, and composer. He also was a painter. Born in Vienna, he studied piano and music theory with Ferdinand Rebay from 1918 to 1922; from 1924 to 1927 composition with Franz Schmidt at the Vienna Academy of Music; from 1925 to 1927 conducting and to become a Kapellmeister with Robert Heger. From 1928 to 1934 he worked as répétiteur at the Wiener Singakademie. In 1932, Clemens Krauss hired him as assistant choir director for Ferdinand Grossmann at the Vienna State Opera. He also taught piano and music theory at the Wiener Volkskonservatorium that Grossman had established. From 1960 to 1968 he taught at the Vienna Academy of Music. He held various positions such as chorus master of the railroad employees choir, worked privately as a répétiteur from 1941 to 1966. He directed various choirs, including the Wiener Singverein. He was also director of studies at the Salzburg Festival from 1934 to 1966, where he had the opportunity to co-operate in productions with conductors such as Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter, Hans Knappertsbusch, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Karl Böhm, and Herbert von Karajan. A

Karl Schiske

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Karl Hubert Rudolf Schiske (12 February 1916 – 16 June 1969) was an Austrian composer and musical composition professor. Life Schiske was born in Győr in what is now western Hungary which was then still part of the Danube Monarchy in 1916. In 1919 the family first moved to Orth an der Donau in Lower Austria and in 1923 to Vienna. He attended the grammar school in the Albertgasse, where he met his lifelong friend and later painter Carl Unger. From 1932 he received composition lessons from Ernst Kanitz, a pupil of Franz Schreker, and in 1939 he passed the final examination in composition at the Vienna University of Music as an external student. In addition, he studied musicology, art history, philosophy and physics at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in 1942 on the use of dissonance in Bruckner’s symphonies. He received his training as a pianist with Roderich Bass and Julius Varga at the Neues Wiener Konservatorium and with Hans Weber at the Vienna Academy of Music. While still a student, the city orchestra of the Wiener Symphoniker and the Steinbauer Quartet performed his early works in the Wiener Musikverein and the Wiener Konzerthaus from 1939 onwards. In 1940 h

Karl Weigl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Karl Ignaz Weigl (6 February 1881 – 11 August 1949) was a Jewish Austrian composer and pianist, who later became a naturalized American citizen in 1943. Biography Weigl was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of a bank official who was also a keen amateur musician. Alexander Zemlinsky took him as a private pupil in 1896. Weigl went to school at the Franz-Joseph-Gymnasium and graduated from there in 1899. After that, he continued his studies at the Vienna Music Academy, where he became a composition pupil of Robert Fuchs, and also enrolled at the University of Vienna, studying musicology under Guido Adler, with Anton Webern as his classmate. At the Vienna Hofoper between 1904 and 1906 he served as a rehearsal conductor for Gustav Mahler. In 1930 he was appointed professor of theory and composition at the University of Vienna, where he succeeded Hans Gal and taught composer Mimi Wagensonner. Weigl often appeared as a soloist and also played four-handed with his wife. He died in New York after a prolonged battle with bone marrow cancer. Weigl’s music, which was admired by Mahler, Schoenberg and Strauss, shows the influence of Brahms, with an emphasis on polyphony. several concertos, cham

Karlheinz Essl Jr.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Karlheinz Essl Jr. (born is an Austrian composer, sound artist, electronic performer, music curator, and composition professor. He is the eldest son of , an entrepreneur and art collector. Biography Essl was born in Vienna. His studies at the University of Music in Vienna included composition under Friedrich Cerha, electroacoustic music under Dieter Kaufmann, and double bass. At the University of Vienna he studied musicology and wrote his doctoral thesis on (1989). Essl’s formative years were marked by an early exposure to classical music theory, as well as an academic engagement with serialism and modern music technologies. His interest in blending traditional musical practices with new technologies led him to the field of electronic music, where he would develop a reputation for innovation and experimentation. From 1992 to 2016, he was the music curator of the in Klosterneuburg, near Vienna. Between 1995 and 2006, he taught algorithmic composition at the Studio for Advanced Music & Media Technology for the Anton Bruckner Private University for Music, Drama, and Dance in Linz, Austria. Music Essl’s work with computers (with emphases on algorithmic composition and generative music)

Karol Lipiński

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Karol Józef Lipiński (30 October 1790 – 16 December 1861) was a Polish music composer and virtuoso violinist active during the partitions of Poland. The Karol Lipiński University of Music in Wrocław, Poland is named after him. Life Lipiński was born in Radzyń Podlaski. His father was Feliks Lipiński (1765–1847), and he had a younger brother of the same name Feliks (1815–1865). In 1810 he became the first violin and two years later the conductor of the opera orchestra at Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine). In 1817 he went to Italy in the hope of hearing Niccolò Paganini. The two met in Milan, met daily to play, and even performed two concerts together in April 1818, which added immensely to Lipiński’s reputation. Paganini dedicated his Burlesque Variations on “La Carnaval de Venise”, Op. 10 for unaccompanied violin to Lipiński. Later, in 1827, Lipiński returned the honour by dedicating his “Three Caprices for Violin” to Paganini. In 1818 on his return to Poland he stopped in Trieste to receive instruction from Dr Mazzurana, a very elderly former pupil of Giuseppe Tartini; Mazzurana was ninety years old, and could no longer play himself, but gave his criticism of Lipiński’s performance of one

Karol Mikuli

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Karol Mikuli, also known as Charles Mikuli ( or Կարոլ Պստիկյան; 22 October 1821 – 21 May 1897), was a Polish pianist, composer, conductor and teacher. His students included Moriz Rosenthal, Raoul Koczalski, Aleksander Michałowski, Ciprian Porumbescu, Jaroslaw Zieliński, Kornelia Parnas and Heinrich Schenker. Biographical notes Mikuli (birth surname Bsdikian) was born on October 22, 1821, in Czernowitz, then part of the Austrian Empire (today Chernivtsi, Ukraine) to a Romanianized Moldavian-Armenian family. He studied under Frédéric Chopin for piano (later becoming his teaching assistant) and Anton Reicha for composition. He toured widely as a concert pianist, becoming Director of the Lviv Conservatory in 1858. He founded his own school there in 1888. He died in Lemberg, then part of Austrian Galicia (today Lviv, Ukraine) and is buried in Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv. Editions Mikuli is most well known as an editor of works by Chopin. Dover Publications publishes reprints of his 1879 editions of Chopin’s piano music, originally published by F. Kistner (Leipzig). He used several verified sources, most of which were written or corrected by Chopin himself. His editions of Chopin’s works w

Kateřina Emingerová

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kateřina Emingerová (13 July 1856 – 9 September 1934) was a Czech composer, pianist and music educator. She was also a prolific music writer and journalist, producing numerous books, essays, reviews and articles on music. Biography Emingerová was born on 13 July 1856 in Prague, the daughter of lawyer Jan Eminger and his wife Julie Emingerová. Kateřina’s sister Helena (1858–1943) became known as a painter and graphic artist. Kateřina completed early studies under František Škroup, Bedřich Smetana, Adolf Čech, František Zdeněk Skuherský, Ludevít Procházka, Vojtěch Hřímalý, Jan Hřímalý, Josef Paleček and Viennese tenor Gustav Walter. She then studied with Josef Jiránek, Karel ze Slavkovských, Ludevít Procházka, and Jindřich Kaan. In Berlin her teacher was Karl-Heinrich Barth at the Hochschule für Musik (1882–1883). She studied composition privately with Zdeněk Fibich and Vítězslav Novák and began composing at the age of thirteen. Emingerová performed her first solo concert at age nineteen in the Konvikt concert hall. In the 1870s Emingerová began composing dances, especially polkas, which were popular at the Prague balls. She also composed for orchestra, chamber ensembles, choir and s

Kathe Volkart-Schlager

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kathe Volkart-Schlager (7 February 1897 – 1976) was an Austrian composer and music educator, and pianist. Volkart-Schlager was born in Vienna and studied at the Stuttgart College of Music (now the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart) with Max Pauer, Wilhelm Kempff, and Joseph Hass. She graduated in 1917 and gave concerts and lectures for teachers, traveling to Sweden, Turkey, and Finland. She married architect Hans Volkart and they had at least three children, one of whom was psychotherapist and author Silvia Volkart Gorres. Volkart-Schlager taught at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart for many years. Volkart-Schlager’s music, much of it made for piano with four hands, was published by Suddeutscher Musikverlag (now Barenreiter). The owner, Willy Muller, was considered daring for publishing Volkart-Schlager’s works during the 1940s since she opposed Nazism. Compositions Chamber music *Cycle (cello and viola) *Singing Windrose (violin and piano) *Sonata in g minor (violin and piano) *Workbook for Young Cellists Piano *20 Piano Pieces for Teachers and Students *26 Piano Pieces for Teachers and Students *Fun Fair (12 pieces) *Old Dances *Pla

Klaus Ager

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Klaus Ager (born 10 May 1946) is an Austrian composer and conductor. Born in Salzburg, Ager studied piano, composition, and conducting at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and musicology at Salzburg University. He continued his studies in composition with Pierre Schaeffer and Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire. From 1975 to 1986 he directed the Österreichische Ensemble für Neue Musik (Austrian Ensemble for New Music). From 1995 to 2000 he was rector of the Mozarteum Hochschule in Salzburg. Beginning in 2000, Ager dedicated himself primarily to working as a guest composer and lecturer in South and North America, and to campaigning throughout Europe for an improved standing for composers. In 2003 he was able to achieve through his mustering of relevant subsidies and innovative articles, that the Arovell-Musikzeitschrift was expanded to a color edition with a circulation of 700 copies per quarter. Since April 2004 he has been president of the . In this office he initiated, amongst other things, the congress “Komponieren im Europa des 21. Jahrhunderts”, which took place from 2 to 5 February 2006 in the Gläsernen Saal of the Wiener Musikverein. From 2006 to 2014, he was chairman of th

Klaus Lang

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Klaus Lang (born 26 April 1971 in Graz) is an Austrian composer, concert organist, improviser, and academic teacher. His opera Die Architektur des Regens (The Architecture of Rain) after the Noh play Shiga by Zeami was premiered at the Munich Biennale in 2008. In 2006, Lang was appointed Professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz. In 2010 he was awarded the Andrzej-Dobrowolski-Preis of the Steiermark. He was commissioned by Katharina Wagner to write an opera, The Vanished Wedding, to be premiered at Bayreuth, although not at the Festspielhaus and not part of the Bayreuth Festival. It is claimed to be the first world premiere at Bayreuth since the premiere of Wagner’s Parsifal in 1882. The Vanished Wedding was premiered at the Reichshof, a disused Bayreuth cinema, on 23 July 2018, the day before the start of the 2018 Bayreuth Festival. References External links * *Klaus Lang - recordings on Kairos *Klaus Lang - Wendy Network *Klaus Lang - bandcamp *Klaus Lang - music austria

Kurt Rapf

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kurt Johann Rapf (15 February 1922 – 9 March 2007) was an Austrian composer, conductor and organist. Life Born in Vienna, Rapf studied conducting, organ, harpsichord, piano and musical composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. After his studies he was engaged as assistant to Hans Knappertsbusch at the Zurich Opera House during the 1948/1949 season. From 1949 to 1953 he was professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Subsequently, he was music director of the city of Innsbruck until 1960 and thus also principal conductor of the . From 1960 Rapf worked as a freelance conductor, organist, composer and piano accompanist. In 1968 he took over a class “Repertoire Studies” for singers and instrumentalists at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Rapf founded the “Collegium Musicum Wien” which he directed until 1956. In 1986 he founded a chamber orchestra, the “Wiener Sinfonietta”. From 1970 he was until 1987 head of the music department in the Cultural Office of the City of Vienna and from 1970 until 1983 president of the . As a conductor he made numerous tours abroad. As a composer

Kurt Roger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kurt George Roger (3 May 1895 – 4 August 1966) was an Austrian–American composer. Roger was born in Austria on 3 May 1895 to Viennese parents and studied in Vienna with Guido Adler, and in class with Arnold Schoenberg - though not following Schoenberg’s 12-tone system. He taught at the Vienna Conservatoire from 1923 to 1938 and his works were receiving high-profile performances (including the premiere of his String Quintet No.1 by the Rosé String Quartet) until the Nazi Anschluss forced his emigration to the United States via London. He became an American citizen in 1945 and held teaching positions in New York and Washington DC, lecturing at several universities and giving radio talks, notably on Bruckner and Mahler. His music has received many notable performances including those by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Rafael Kubelik, the Rochester Philharmonic under Erich Leinsdorf, the New York Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Northern Orchestra under Sir Charles Groves and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Jac van Steen. From 1948 onwards Roger was invited back to Austria on lecture tours, whose

Kurt Schwertsik

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kurt Schwertsik (born 25 June 1935) is an Austrian composer, also a hornist and academic teacher. He is known for creating the Third Viennese School and spreading contemporary classical music. Life Schwertsik was born in Vienna. A pupil of Joseph Marx and Karl Schiske at the Academy of Music, he later studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne and Darmstadt. In 1958 he founded the ensemble die reihe with fellow composer and conductor Friedrich Cerha (famous for finishing the opera Lulu, by Alban Berg) and later, in 1968, the ensemble “MOB art & tone ART” with Otto Matthäus Zykan and Heinz Karl Gruber. He served as hornist of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (from 1968) while teaching Composition at the Konservatorium Wien (from 1979). Between 1989 and 2004 he was Professor of Composition at the Vienna Musikhochschule (Academy of Music, when he was studying there, now called University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna). His works are characterised by his particular exploration of tonality and his musical irony and humour. He received the Grand Austrian State Prize (1992), the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (1997) and numerous other awards. Kurt Schwertsik is President o

Kurt Sonnenfeld (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Kurt Sonnenfeld (Vienna, 24 February 1921 – Milan, 22 March 1997) was an Austrian Jewish musician and composer. During World War II, he was interned in Fascist camps established in Italy under the regime of Benito Mussolini. Life Early life Kurt Sonnenfeld was born in Vienna on 24 February 1921, during the city’s peak of cultural, artistic, and musical prominence. From an early age, his musical talent was recognized by his father, Leopold Sonnenfeld, a prominent Jewish actor-musician active in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century. He began formal musical studies at the Vienna Conservatory and later trained under renowned Viennese operetta composer Edmund Eysler (1874–1949), studying piano, harmony, composition, and counterpoint. Persecution and emigration In July 1939, amid rising antisemitic persecution following the Anschluss, Sonnenfeld’s parents sent him to Milan. They hoped to secure his eventual emigration to the United States through the legal mechanism of an affidavit, though these efforts proved unsuccessful. Internment at Ferramonti In February 1941, Kurt Sonnenfeld was arrested in Milan and imprisoned at San Vittore prison. Following Italy’s entry into World War II in

Leo Ascher

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Leo Ascher (17 August 1880 – 25 February 1942) was an Austrian composer of operettas, popular songs and film scores. Biography Ascher was born in Vienna. His father, Moritz Ascher, was a local umbrella manufacturer. Leo wrote his first composition, a waltz, at the age of 13 in 1893. He studied law at the University of Vienna, where he received his doctorate in 1904. He also attended the Vienna Conservatory from 1898 and studied composition under Robert Fuchs and Franz Schmidt. He married Luise Frankl and they had one daughter, the writer Franzi Ascher-Nash, who was born in Vienna on 28 November 1910 and died in Millersville, Pennsylvania, on 1 September 1991. Ascher was briefly arrested during the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938; once released, he left Austria forever. Via France and England he emigrated to the US, where he lived from December 1939 until his death in New York City in 1942. His artistic estate is kept at the Leo Ascher Centre of Operetta Music at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, which also provides the Leo Ascher Music Award of up to $1000 to undergraduates. The (Ascher Lane) in Vienna Hitzing is named after him. Career Ascher began his career as a composer wit

Leo Fall

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Leopold Fall (2 February 187316 September 1925) was an Austrian Kapellmeister and composer of operettas. Life Born in Olmütz, Leo (or Leopold) Fall was taught by his father Moritz Fall (1848–1922), a bandmaster and composer, who settled in Berlin. The younger Fall studied at the Vienna Conservatory before rejoining his father in Berlin. His teachers in Vienna were Robert Fuchs and Johann Nepomuk Fuchs. In 1895, he began a new career as an operetta conductor in Hamburg and started to compose. From 1904 onwards, he devoted himself to composition. While less successful than his contemporary Franz Lehár, he was nevertheless capable of producing melodious and well-orchestrated work. After working in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne, he settled in Vienna in 1906, where he died. He is buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery. His brothers and Richard were also composers; both were murdered in the Nazi concentration camps. His best-known operettas in the English-speaking world are The Dollar Princess and Madame Pompadour, which had successful runs in London and New York and remained in the repertory in Germany and Austria throughout the 20th century. (1912; Princess Caprice in London) is reported

Leonhard von Call

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Leonhard von Call (19 March 1767 – 19 February 1815), sometimes referred to as “Leonhard de Call”, was an Austrian composer and virtuoso on the mandolin and guitar. During his lifetime he focused less on performing and more upon teaching and writing music for others to play. Life He was born in Eppan an der Weinstraße, South Tyrol. Although his village is in northern Italy today, it was part of the Tyrol in the Holy Roman Empire when he was growing up. Following World War I the area became part of Italy in 1919. After participating in the War of the First Coalition, which ran 1792 to 1797, he was awarded the Order Pour le Mérite, and became a civil servant at the Imperial Kammerzahlamt (Imperial Chamber Payments Office). At age 40, he married Maria Wilhelmina Brabee, who was 18 years his junior. They had five children. He died in Vienna. In 2006, the music school in his hometown was named after him. Career in music Von Call had grown up studying music, practicing with mandolin, guitar and flute, and in 1801, he commenced a professional career in Vienna teaching mandolin and guitar. He wrote for these instruments during this time, and Germans appreciated the flowing melodies combine

Leopold Auer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Leopold von Auer (; June 7, 1845 – July 15, 1930) was a Hungarian violinist, academic, conductor, composer, and instructor. Many of his students went on to become prominent concert performers and teachers. Early life and career Auer was born in Veszprém, Hungary, 7 June 1845, to a poor Jewish household of painters. He first studied violin with a local concertmaster. He later wrote that the violin was a “logical instrument” for any (musically inclined) Hungarian boy to take up because it “didn’t cost much.” At the age of 8 Auer continued his violin studies with , who also came from Veszprém, at the Budapest Conservatory. Kohne was concertmaster of the orchestra of the National Opera. A performance by Auer as soloist in the Mendelssohn violin concerto attracted the interest of some wealthy music lovers, who gave him a scholarship to go to Vienna for further study. He lived at the home of his teacher, Jakob Dont. Auer wrote that it was Dont who taught him the foundation for his violin technique. out of poverty. An audition with Henri Vieuxtemps in Graz was a failure, partly because Vieuxtemps’ wife thought so. A visit to Paris proved equally unsuccessful. Auer decided to seek the advice

Leopold Brauneiss

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Leopold Brauneiss, (b. 1961) is an Austrian composer, musicologist and teacher, based in Vienna. He studied at the University of Vienna (musicology) and the University of Music and Performing Arts (music education, piano, composition with Heinz Kratochwil) and received his doctorate in music in 1988. “The main field of his musicological research is the so called Tintinnabuli Style of Arvo Pärt, whom he has known personally for over 20 years. The style’s characteristic aesthetics of reduction as well as the simple yet strict structural of its composition techniques has influenced his music to a great extent. He tries, however, to enrich it by adding chromatic or even dodecaphonic elements within the tonal frame.” His works have been performed by artists such as Gidon Kremer, ensembles like Kremerata baltica and orchestras like Tonkuenstlerorchester Niederoesterreich and have been presented at prestiguos festivals like Wien modern. He received commissions from Österreichische Kammerysmphoniker and Orgelfestival Lockenhaus. Publications *Tintinnabuli: An Introduction, in: Enzo Restagno / Leopold Brauneiss / Saale Kareda / Arvo Pärt, Arvo Pärt in Conversation (transl. by Robert Crow):

Leopold Spinner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Leopold Spinner (26 April 1906 – 12 August 1980) was an Austrian-born, British-domiciled composer and editor. Biography Spinner was born of Austrian parentage in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine, Lwów, Poland during the interwar period). From 1926 to 1930 he studied composition in Vienna with Paul Amadeus Pisk and afterwards began to attract international attention with works which were performed at the ISCM Festivals or awarded prizes. From 1947 he worked as a music-copyist and arranger for Boosey & Hawkes, In 1958 he succeeded Erwin Stein as editor at Boosey & Hawkes, later becoming Chief Editor. He remained with Boosey & Hawkes until his retirement in 1975. His skills and exactitude were highly praised by Stravinsky. Compositions From 1926 to his death in London in 1980 Spinner steadily and painstakingly built up an individual body of work, Michael Graubart has championed Spinner’s music in articles and performances. In 1982 he conducted the first performances of two works from 1971 in London: The Wind Sonata, Op. 23 and the Two Songs, Op. 24 for soprano and six instruments. Malcolm Hayes highlighted the unusual scoring of the Wind Sonata (D clarinet, oboe, horn and bassoon), and its

Leopoldine Blahetka

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Marie Leopoldine Blahetka (16 November 1809 – 17 January 1885) was an Austrian pianist and composer. Life Leopoldine Blahetka was born in Guntramsdorf near Vienna, the child of George and Barbara Joseph Blahetka Sophia, née Traeg. Her father was a history and mathematics teacher and had good relations with Ludwig van Beethoven, and her mother a physharmonica teacher and performer. Her maternal grandfather was the Viennese composer Andreas Traeg. At the age of 9, Leopoldine Blahetka made her first public appearances, and the Viennese press described her as a “child prodigy”. At the age of 11 she created her first compositions, which she also performed regularly as part of her concerts. The family moved to Vienna and George Blahetka took a job with the Traeg music publishing house. Leopoldine took piano lessons from her mother and made her debut as a pianist in 1818. Afterwards, she studied with Joseph Czerny, Hieronymus Payer, Eduard Freiherr von Lannoy, Joachim Hoffmann, Catherina Cibbini-Kozeluch, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Ignaz Moscheles, and later composition with Simon Sechter. In 1821 Blahetka began touring Europe, accompanied by her mother, and continued to tour for about twenty

Leoš Janáček

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1854–1872: Early life and family#

Leoš Janáček, son of schoolmaster Jiří Janacek and Amálie Janáčková (née Grulichová), was born in Hukvaldy, Moravia (then part of the Austrian Empire) on 3 July 1854. He was born with six surviving siblings, and baptised as Leo Eugen. He was a gifted child in a family of limited means, and showed an early musical talent in choral singing. His father wanted him to follow the family tradition and become a teacher, but he deferred to Janáček’s obvious musical abilities. In 1865, young Janáček enrolled as a ward of the foundation of the St Thomas’s Abbey, Brno, where he took part in choral singing under Pavel Křížkovský and occasionally played the organ. One of his classmates, František Neumann, later described Janáček as an “excellent pianist, who played Beethoven symphonies perfectly in a piano duet with a classmate, under Křížkovský’s supervision”. Křížkovský found him a problematic and wayward student but recommended his entry to the Prague Organ School. Janáček later remembered Křížkovský as a great conductor and teacher.

Lera Auerbach

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lera Auerbach (, born Valeria Lvovna Averbakh, ; October 21, 1973) is a Soviet-born Austrian-American classical composer, conductor and concert pianist. Early life and education Auerbach was born to a Jewish family in Chelyabinsk, a city in the Ural Mountains. Her mother was a piano teacher, many of whose ancestors had also been musicians. She also studied comparative literature at Columbia University and earned a piano diploma at the Hochschule für Musik Hannover. Performances Auerbach made her Carnegie Hall debut in May 2002, performing her own Suite for Violin, Piano and Orchestra with violinist Gidon Kremer conducting the Kremerata Baltica. She has appeared as solo pianist at such venues as the Great Concert Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Tokyo Opera City, Lincoln Center, Herkulessaal, Oslo konserthus, Chicago’s Theodore Thomas Orchestra Hall and the Kennedy Center. Compositions Auerbach’s compositions have been commissioned and performed by a wide array of artists, orchestras, choirs and ballet companies including Gidon Kremer, the Kremerata Baltica, David Finckel, Wu Han, Vadim Gluzman, the Tokyo, Kuss, Parker and Petersen String Quartets, the SWR and NDR symphony orchestra

Lili Hutterstrasser-Scheidl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lili Hutterstrasser-Scheidl (October 7, 1882 - April 22, 1942) was an Austrian composer and member of the Nazi party, known by the pseudonym Lio Hans. Her opera Maria von Magdala was performed at the Vienna Volksoper on December 22, 1919, and was the only musical stage work by a female composer to be performed in Austria in the 20th century until Olga Neuwirth’s Bählamms Fest in 1999. Life and career Lili Hutterstrasser-Scheidl grew up in an upper-middle-class environment. In 1909 she married the general staff Doctor Hans Scheidl. In 1912 their daughter Amelia Christiane was born and in 1917 their second daughter Eleonore. Her house in the Viennese Cottage district () became a meeting place for the Viennese theater and music scene. From 1905 her works, most of which were composed in the late Romantic style, were performed under the pseudonym Lio Hans in the Bösendorfer-Saal and in the , amongst others. The contemporary critic Max Springer found it understandable that the composer had chosen a male pseudonym in view of prejudice against women at the time. The socio musicologist Ursula Simek suggests that Hutterstrasser-Scheidl was able to create a surprise effect when appearing at t

Lojze Bratuž

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lojze Bratuž (February 17, 1902 – February 16, 1937) was a Slovene choirmaster and composer from Gorizia who was killed by Italian Fascist squads. He is regarded as a martyr of the anti-Fascist struggle of the Slovene population in the Slovene Littoral region during Italian rule. Biography Bratuž was born in a Slovene-speaking family in the town of Gorizia, then the center of the Austro-Hungarian County of Gorizia and Gradisca. He was educated in the town’s Slovene schools and chose a career in music. After the Slovene Littoral and the adjacent regions of Inner Carniola were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy under the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920, Bratuž remained loyal to his Slovene origins and resisted the forced Italianization of the region, which was populated by a Slovene majority. Initially, he taught singing and was a choirmaster in the village of Šmartno in the Gorizia Hills north of Gorizia, and later in a small seminary in Gorizia. In 1929, he was imprisoned for a short time by the Fascist authorities due to his Slovene patriotism. In 1930, he was appointed coordinator of church choirs in the Gorizia region by the archbishop of Gorizia, Frančišek Borgia Sedej. He led the only

Loris Tjeknavorian

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Loris Haykasi Tjeknavorian (; ; born 13 October 1937) is an Iranian Armenian composer and conductor. He has appeared internationally as a conductor, serving as the principal conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra from 1989 to 1998 and later from 1999 to 2000. As a composer Tjeknavorian has written 6 operas, 5 symphonies, choral works, chamber music, ballet music, piano and vocal works, concerti for piano, violin, guitar, cello and pipa, as well as music for documentary and feature films. Among his best known works are the opera Rostam and Sohrab, based on the story of Rostam and Sohrab from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, and the ballet Simorgh. After study at the Vienna Music Academy, with Carl Orff at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the University of Michigan, he taught at the Tehran Conservatory. While based in the United Kingdom 1975 to 1985, he was a frequent conductor with various London orchestras and appeared internationally with orchestras in Iran, Israel, Japan, the Soviet Union and the United States. His early compositions evoke the work of Aram Khachaturian, while his oeuvre as a whole is heavily influenced by Armenian folk and sacred music. Tjeknavorian’s early life was suc

Ludwig Minkus

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ludwig Minkus (), also known as Léon Fyodorovich Minkus (23 March 1826 – 7 December 1917), was an Austrian composer of ballet music, a violinist and teacher of music. Minkus is noted for the music he composed during his career in St. Petersburg, Russia. Beginning in 1871 Minkus served in the official post of Composer of Ballet Music to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, a position he held until it was abolished upon his retirement in 1886. During his long career in St. Petersburg, Minkus composed for the original works and revivals staged by the ballet masters Arthur Saint-Léon and Marius Petipa. Among the composer’s most celebrated compositions is his score for La source (1866; composed jointly with Léo Delibes), Don Quixote (1869); and La Bayadère (1877). Minkus composed many pieces for older works. The most well-known of Minkus’s additional music is the Grand Pas classique and Mazurka des enfants composed for Petipa’s 1881 revival of Paquita. Early life Ludwig Minkus was born Aloysius Bernhard Philipp Minkus on 23 March 1826, in the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire. His father, Theodor Johann Minkus, was born in 1795 in Groß-Meseritsch, Mora

Ludwig Rottenberg

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ludwig Rottenberg (11 October 1865 – 6 May 1932) was an Austrian/German composer and conductor. Biography Rottenberg came from a German-speaking Jewish family in Czernowitz, the then-capital of Bukovina, which was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy at the time. He studied music in his birthplace, and later at the Vienna Conservatory. He conducted an amateur orchestra and worked as a Lieder accompanist during his studies. He started his professional conducting career at the Brno opera house. In 1892 he succeeded Felix Dessoff as Erster Kapellmeister at the Frankfurt Opera. He was recommended for the position by Johannes Brahms and Hans von Bülow, being preferred to two other famous applicants, Richard Strauss and Felix Mottl. He held this position until 1926. During his tenure he worked with six different artistic directors, and helped establish the Frankfurt Opera as one of the leading opera houses of its time. Numerous contemporary operas were staged there during this period, among others the world premiere performances of Der ferne Klang (1912), Die Gezeichneten (1918) and Der Schatzgräber (1920) by Franz Schreker. Other important performances, partly German premieres, inclu

Ludwig van Beethoven

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early life and education#

Beethoven was the grandson of Ludwig van Beethoven, a musician from the city of Mechelen in Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium), who moved to Bonn at the age of 21. Ludwig was employed as a bass singer at the court of Clemens August, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, eventually rising to become, in 1761, Kapellmeister (music director) and hence a preeminent musician in Bonn. The portrait he commissioned of himself toward the end of his life remained displayed in his grandson’s rooms as a talisman of his musical heritage. Ludwig had two sons, the younger of whom, Johann, worked as a tenor in the same musical establishment and gave keyboard and violin lessons to supplement his income. Johann married Maria Magdalena Keverich in 1767; she was the daughter of Heinrich Keverich (1701–1751), who was head chef at the court of Johann IX Philipp von Walderdorff, Archbishop of Trier. Beethoven was born of this marriage in Bonn, at what is now the Beethoven House Museum, Bonngasse 20. There is no authentic record of the date of his birth; but the registry of his baptism, in the Catholic Parish of St. Remigius on 17 December 1770, survives, and the custom in the region at the time was to carry out baptism within 24 hours of birth. There is a consensus (with which Beethoven himself agreed) that his birth date was 16 December, but there is no documented proof of this. Of the seven children born to Johann van Beethoven, only Ludwig, the second-born, and two younger brothers survived infancy. Kaspar Anton Karl (generally known as Karl) was born on 8 April 1774, and Nikolaus Johann, who was generally known as Johann, the youngest, was born on 2 October 1776. Johann was Beethoven’s first music teacher. He later had other local teachers, including the court organist Gilles van den Eeden (d. 1782), , a family friend, who provided keyboard tuition, Franz Rovantini, a relative who instructed him in playing the violin and viola, and court concertmaster Franz Anton Ries, who instructed Beethoven on the violin. His tuition began in his fifth year. The regime was harsh and intensive, often reducing him to tears. With the involvement of Pfeiffer, who was an insomniac, there were irregular late-night sessions with the young Beethoven dragged from his bed to the keyboard. Beethoven’s musical talent became obvious at a young age. Aware of Leopold Mozart’s successes in this area with his son Wolfgang and daughter Nannerl, Johann attempted to promote his son as a child prodigy, claiming that Ludwig was six (he was seven) on the posters for his first public performance in March 1778. Beethoven’s musical abilities far exceeded his mathematical capabilities. As a student at the Tirocinium, Beethoven learned how to add numbers but he could neither divide nor multiply. Throughout Beethoven’s life, he instead used addition as a means of simulating multiplication (thus adding up a column of sixteen sevens, rather than multiplying 16 × 7).

Lukas Ligeti

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lukas Ligeti (born in Vienna, Austria, 13 June 1965) is an Austrian composer and percussionist. His work incorporates elements of jazz, contemporary classical and various world musics, especially African traditional and popular music styles. Biography Ligeti is of Hungarian ancestry (although he never learned to speak the Hungarian language fluently, since his parents spoke Hungarian to one another but spoke German to him while he was growing up) and is the son of the noted composer György Ligeti (1923–2006). He was born without citizenship, due to being the child of Jewish parents who had fled from Hungary. He attended the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, where he studied composition with Erich Urbanner, Kurt Schwertsik, Heinrich Gattermeyer, and Dieter Kaufmann; as well as jazz drums with Fritz Ozmec, earning a Diploma (with “unanimous distinction”) in 1993 and an M.A. (with highest grade) in 1997. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2020. Ligeti has done numerous cross-cultural collaborations and exchanges with non-Western musicians, experimenting with both ancient African traditional instruments and modern

Luna Alcalay

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Luna Alcalay (21 October 1928 – 9 October 2012) was a Croatian-born Austrian pianist, music educator and composer, described as “one of the most internationally renowned Austrian composers.” Biography Alcalay was born in Zagreb, Croatia, to a Jewish family. She studied piano under Bruno Seidlhofer and composition under Alfred Uhl at the Vienna Academy of Music and received a scholarship in 1958 to continue her studies in Rome. She attended the Darmstadt Summer Course. After completing her studies, Alcalay returned to Vienna, where she became a professor of piano at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts. She died in 2012, at the age of 83, in Vienna. Composition prizes * Darmstadt 1963 and 1964 * Gaudeamus Competition 1967 * Berlin 1972 * International ISCM competition Italy 1973 * ORF Steiermark 1973 * “Preis der Stadt Wien” 1992 Works Selected works include: * Apostroph (violin solo) * Apostrophen (violoncello solo) * Gyroskop for viola solo (1998) * un sogno à tre for flute, viola and harp (1990) * relatif à la sonorité (string trio) * Touches (two pianos) * conversations à trois (woodwind trio) * L’intérieur des pensées (string quartet) * Applications (for sixteen strings) *

Manu Delago

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Manu Delago (born 31 July 1984) is an Austrian musician and composer. Biography Delago was born in Innsbruck, Tyrol, and took music lessons as a child in accordion and piano. As a teenager he mainly played drums for various rock bands. In 2003 he picked up the Hang, which gradually turned into one of his main musical instruments. After graduating from the Mozarteum, Innsbruck, in classical percussion, Delago moved to London and studied jazz drums at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, beginning his focus on the Swiss instrument, Hang. Later he studied composition at the Trinity College of Music in London. After completing his studies, he worked as a composer, ensemble leader and musician. Since 2007 he has performed internationally including at the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Barbican in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Sydney Opera House and Fuji Rock Festival in Japan. Career Between 2000 and 2007 Delago was working as live and studio drummer for various Austrian bands such as HotchPotch, Zabine, Michael Tschuggnall, Nadine Beiler, Bluatschink and more. In 2006, after playing together in different bands, Delago and Christoph Pepe Auer founded the first Han

Marcel Rubin

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Marcel Rubin (7 July 1905 – 12 May 1995) was an Austrian composer. Born in Vienna, where he studied with Richard Robert and Franz Schmidt, he later emigrated to Paris, where he pursued further studies with Darius Milhaud. After living in Mexico City for a while, he returned to Vienna after the end of World War II. Among the works he composed there are ten symphonies and the opera Kleider machen Leute (1969). Honours and awards * 1959: State Prize for Music * 1961 and 1965: Award from the Theodor-Körner Foundation * 1964: Title of Professor * 1969: City of Vienna Prize for Music * 1970: Grand Austrian State Prize for Music * 1974: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class * 1979: Honorary Member of the Austrian Society for Contemporary Music * 1980: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art * 1985: Honorary Member of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna * 1986: Gold Medal of Vienna Selected compositions Stage works *Die Stadt, ballet (1933, rev. 1980) *Kleider machen Leute, opera (1969) *Der Schneider im Himmel, fairy tale in music (1981) Cantatas & oratorios *Die Albigenser (1961) *O ihr Menschen. Ein Heiligenstädter Psalm (1977) *Auferstehung (1986) *Licht über Da

Marcel Tyberg

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Marcel Tyberg (27 January 1893, in Vienna – 31 December 1944, in Auschwitz-Birkenau) was an Austrian composer, conductor and organist. His music is late-Romantic in style. Biography and career Marcel Tyberg was born into a musical family in Vienna. His father, Marcell Tyberg (Sr.), was a well-known violinist, while his mother, Wanda Paltinger Tybergova, was a pianist in the school of Theodor Leschetizky, and a colleague of Artur Schnabel. Although little is known about his musical education, it is assumed that Tyberg had some formal training in orchestration, counterpoint and harmony outside the family home. Tyberg’s father was on good terms with the renowned violinist Jan Kubelik and the two families frequented one another. Marcel dedicated lieder to Jan’s two daughters and, despite a twenty-year age gap, cultivated a lifelong friendship with their young brother, the conductor Rafael Kubelik. Tyberg also became friendly with the Italian violinist and conductor, Rodolfo Lipizer. Tyberg’s Piano Sonata No. 1 (1920) and his Symphony No. 1 (1924) both date from his time in Vienna. In 1927, following the death of his father, Tyberg moved with his mother to the town of Abbazia (Opatija),

Maria Anna Stubenberg

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maria Anna von Stubenberg, aka Maria Anna von Buttlar-Stubenberg (August 9, 1821 – December 1, 1912) was an Austrian-born composer who used Hungarian and Romani folk tunes in her compositions. Biography Maria Anna Herrin und Gräfin Treusch von Buttlar-Brandenfels was born in Graz, Austria, to Gustav Adolf Josef Christian Felix Herr und Graf von Stubenberg and Maria Franciszka Freiin von Staudach. She married Johann Remekhazy von Gurahoncz on February 15, 1840, and Friedrich Graf von Zichy de Zich und Vásonykeö on February 22, 1848. Her married names were 1stly Remekhazy von Gurahoncz, 2ndly von Zichy de Zich und Vásonykeö and 3rdly Treusch von Buttlar-Brandenfels. Works Stubenberg lived in the Hungarian parts of the Austrian Empire as a child, and used Hungarian and Romani folk tunes in her compositions for voice, piano, and zither. using texts from folksongs and writers such as Eugen Graf Aichelburg, Rudolph Baumbach, William Bosworth, Friedrich Ferdinand, Graf von Beust, Emanuel von Geibel, Heinrich Heine, and Nikolaus Lenau. Her music was published by Josef Eberle and Wiener Musik Verlagshaus (later F. Roerich & Co.). Selected works include: *In mein gar zu dunkles Leben, op. 63 (T

Maria Bach

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Emilie Marie Baroness von Bach (1896–1978) was an Austrian pianist, violinist, composer and artist. Early life and family Maria Bach was born in Vienna, Austria, on 11 March 1896. Her parents were Robert Bonaventura Michael Wenzel von Bach and Eleonore Josepha Maria Theresia Auguste Bach. In 1897, she moved with her family to the castle, Leesdorf, in Baden, Austria. Bach’s father, Robert, was an attorney, painter, and violinist. Her mother, Elenore, was both a singer and composer who performed under the conductors Gustav Mahler and Johannes Brahms. Maria had two older sisters, Theresa and Katharina, and a younger sister, named Henriette. Theresa wrote poetry that was put to Bach’s music. Katharina married into a highly aristocratic family. Henriette was a solo cellist. Marie took piano lessons at the Musikschule Grimm in Baden and at the age of fourteen began violin lessons. Early music Maria Bach began private piano lessons at the age of five with a faculty member at the Grimm School of Music. She would later take lessons with Paul De Conne in 1912. At the same time, she also began violin lessons with Jaroslav Suchy of the Vienna Opera. On Sundays Maria and Henriette were allowed

Maria Hofer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maria Hofer (1894–1977) was a renowned organist, pianist and composer. The daughter of an accomplished female singer, she was born in Amstetten, Lower Austria. Already as a child she was learning the organ, and within a few years was permitted to participate in church services as organist. Maria Hofer’s later musical education took place at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where she studied piano teaching. She also began an organ study, but soon resigned because she did not get along with her teacher. According to Maria Hofer’s Curriculum Vitae written in 1966/1967 and other auto/biographical documents her tutors included Franz Schmidt, Hermann Graedener, Ernst Ludwig, and Richard Stöhr. Her ability to improvise at the organ was fostered by the organist of St. Stephan’s Cathedral, Victor Boschetti; she began to compose in earnest during the First World War. One of Maria Hofer’s non-performing roles was to advise the Viennese publishing-house Universal Edition about organ works; she herself described the post as important for her musical development, since it brought her into contact with many prominent artistic figures, including Maurice Ravel, Alexander Zemli

Maria Theresia von Paradis

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maria Theresia Paradis (May 15, 1759 – February 1, 1824) was an Austrian musician and composer who lost her sight at an early age, and for whom her close friend Mozart may have written his Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat major. She was also in contact with Salieri, Haydn, and Gluck. Early life Maria Theresia Paradis was the daughter of Joseph Anton Paradis, Imperial Secretary of Commerce and Court Councilor to the Empress Maria Theresa, for whom she was named. The Empress, however, was not her godmother, as was often believed. Between the ages of 2 and 5 she lost her eyesight. She received a broad education in the musical arts from: * (music theory and composition) * Leopold Kozeluch (piano) * Vincenzo Righini (singing) * Antonio Salieri (singing and composition) * Abbé Vogler (music theory and composition). By all accounts, Paradis had an excellent memory and exceptionally accurate hearing, as she was widely reported to have learned over sixty concertos by heart, as well as a large repertoire of solo and religious works. In 1773 she was commissioned to perform an organ concerto by Antonio Salieri which survives but without its second movement. By 1775, Paradis was performing as a

Marianna Martines

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Marianna Martines, also Marianne von Martinez (4 May 1744 – 13 December 1812), was an Austrian composer, pianist, and singer of the Classical period, based in Vienna. Early life Marianna Martines’s paternal grandfather was a Spanish soldier who had settled in Naples. Her father, Nicolo Martines, grew up there and for a time pursued a career as a soldier. He later changed careers, serving in Vienna as Maestro di Camera (major-domo) at the papal nuncio; that is, the Pope’s embassy to the Austrian Empire. For service to the Empire, Marianna’s brother Joseph in 1774 acquired a patent of nobility, hence the “von” in the family surname. In his youth in Italy, Nicolo had befriended the poet Pietro Trapassi, who wrote under the name Metastasio. The latter had risen in eminence, to the point that in 1730 he was called to Vienna to serve as the Poet Laureate of the Empire. Metastasio resided with the Martines family for the entire rest of his life (from about 1734 to 1782). His presence would prove crucial to Marianne’s career. The Martines family lived in an apartment in a large building on the Michaelerplatz in Vienna, “a stately building still standing in the Kohlmarkt”, the so-called “Al

Marij Kogoj

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Marij Julij Kogoj (Trieste, 20 September 1892 – Ljubljana, 25 February 1956) was a Slovenian composer and writer of Italian birth. He is noted for his expressionist music, including the opera (Black Masks), work that was well received in 1920s Slovenia amid a flowering of avant-garde artistic, cultural, and political movements. As a young man, he studied with Franz Schreker and then Arnold Schoenberg. In 1932, schizophrenia ended his career prematurely. His music and milieu is receiving renewed attention in the 21st century, but he remains little known internationally. Biography and music Kogoj was born an orphan in Trieste, where he was misidentified as his deceased brother Marij (27 April 1895 – 31 January 1896). In 1910, he began composing as a self-taught musician while at school in Gorizia (1907–1914). He studied counterpoint and composition with Franz Schreker at the Vienna Music Academy (1914–1917) and then continued his studies with Arnold Schoenberg at Eugenie Schwarzwald’s school (1918). In 1919, he married Marija Podlogar. Among the Slovenian avant-garde, Kogoj was an especially prominent figure between 1919 and 1922. He performed his own music as part of the September 1

Marjan Kozina

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Marjan Kozina (4 June 1907 – 19 June 1966) was a Slovene composer. He is considered one of the most important Slovene composers of the 20th century. His best known works include a symphony, composed in stages through the late 1940s; the opera Equinox, completed in 1943; two ballets from the early 1950s, and the music for the film On Our Own Land (Na svoji zemlji), which he later arranged into a suite for orchestra. Life Kozina was born to a musical family in Novo Mesto, then part of Austria-Hungary. In Ljubljana, Kozina began studying philosophy and mathematics and in the same time also piano and violin, but later completely turned to the study of music. He graduated from composition in Vienna in 1930, and completed the studies of conducting and composition also in Prague. After his return from Prague he worked for a short time (1932–34) at Ljubljana and Maribor Opera, and then worked at Maribor Music Society (). From 1940 until 1943 and from 1945 until 1947, he worked as a music teacher at the Academy of Music in Belgrade. In World War II, his house was bombed in an air raid and his wife imprisoned by the Gestapo. In September 1943, after the capitulation of Italy, he joined the S

Mary Dickenson-Auner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mary Dickenson-Auner (24 October 1880 – 25 May 1965) was an Irish violinist, composer, and music teacher. She wrote symphonies, oratorios, operas, and chamber works, with some of her early works appearing under the pseudonym Frank Donnell. During her career as a professional violinist, she performed the world premiere of Béla Bartók’s Violin Sonata No. 1 and also worked with Arnold Schoenberg. Early life and education Mary Frances Dorothea Dickenson was born in Dublin, Ireland, to a well-connected Irish family. Her mother was Mary Frances MacDonnell, the daughter of Hercules Henry Graves MacDonnell, a rector of Trinity College and cofounder of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. * Dreyfus, Kay, Margarethe Engelhardt-Krajanek, and Barbara Bold: Die Geige war ihr Leben. Drei Geigerinnen im Portrait (Strasshof: Vier Viertel Verlag, 2000), pp. 99–231.

Mathilde Kralik

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mathilde Aloisia Kralik von Meyrswalden (3 December 1857, in Linz – 8 March 1944) was an Austrian composer. Biography Mathilde Kralik was the daughter of Bohemian glass industrialist Wilhelm Kralik von Meyrswalden (1807–1877) from Eleonorenhain. After the death of his first wife Anna Maria Pinhak (1814–1850), he married Louise Lobmeyr (1832–1905) on 28 May 1851. Mathilde was the fourth of five children from his second marriage to Louise née Lobmeyr. Her brother was Richard Kralik von Meyrswalden, the poet philosopher, historian and arts administrator. Kralik was born in Linz, and her first compositions were lyrical poems and hymns based on her brother’s works. The family regularly had music in the house, as her father William played the violin and her mother Louise played piano. In this way the musically gifted children not only learned the milieu of classical chamber music, but also string orchestra furnished music of the time by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Early on the parents recognized the musical gifts of their daughter, and the financial circumstances of her father allowed Mathilde the best music teachers of her time. Kralik took piano lessons from her mother, and later was

Matthäus Stegmayer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Matthäus Stegmayer (also Matthias; 29 April 1771 – 10 May 1820) was an Austrian composer, musician, music publisher, librettist and actor. Life and career Born in Vienna, Stegmayer was the son of a master tailor and citizen of Vienna and. His sons were Karl Stegmayer (1800–1862; conductor, and the author of several montanistic half-timbering and stage plays), Ferdinand Stegmayer (1801–1863; choirmaster) and Wilhelm Stegmayer (born 1805; a child actor and later a military officer). Stegmayer was a member of the Wiener Sängerknaben in the Dominican Church, Vienna and attended the Akademische Gymnasium from 1783 to 1789, but following his inclination he joined the acting society of Johann Christian Kunz and in 1790 the troupe of Christof Ludwig Seipp in Bratislava, with whom he travelled the Austrian provinces. From 1792, he started to compose incidental music for the stage with Seipp, his first work being the music for August von Kotzebue’s Singspiel Der Eremit von Formentara. In the same year, he was engaged at the Theater in der Josefstadt as a young lover. From 1796, he worked at Emanuel Schikaneder’s Theater auf der Wieden as a composer, comic actor and playwright. From 1801, he

Max Brod

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Max Brod (; 27 May 1884 – 20 December 1968) was an Israeli author, music critic, composer, and journalist, born as a German-speaking Czech. He is notable for promoting the work of writer Franz Kafka and composer Leoš Janáček. Although he was a prolific writer in his own right, he is best remembered as the friend and biographer of Franz Kafka. Kafka named Brod as his literary executor, instructing Brod to burn his unpublished work upon his death. Brod refused and had Kafka’s works published instead. In 1939, as the Nazis occupied Prague, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine, taking with him a suitcase of Kafka’s papers, many of them unpublished notes, diaries, and sketches. Biography Max Brod was born in Prague in Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic). At the age of four, Brod was diagnosed with a severe spinal curvature and spent a year in corrective harness; despite this he would be a hunchback his entire life. He would later pass stewardship of the Kafka materials in his possession to Esther in his will. Another close companion was Felix Weltsch. Their friendship lasted 75 years, from the elementary school of the Piarists in Prague to Weltsch’s death in 1964. He incre

Max Deutsch

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Max Deutsch (17 November 1892 – 22 November 1982) was an Austrian-French composer, conductor, and academic teacher. He studied with Arnold Schoenberg and was his assistant. Teaching at the Sorbonne and the École Normale de Musique de Paris, he influenced notable students such as Philippe Capdenat, Donald Harris, György Kurtág, Philippe Manoury, and Jeannine Richer. Career Born in Vienna, Deutsch was a pupil of and assistant to Arnold Schoenberg. He studied under him in Vienna before the First World War, and followed Schoenberg as his assistant to Amsterdam in 1921. Deutsch was a fellow and taught at UNESCO and at the Sorbonne (Paris IV) from 1970 to 1971, and finally, from 1972 to the École Normale de Musique de Paris. He died in Paris. After the Second World War, he devoted himself mainly to teaching music, chiefly following the principles of Schönberg. In Paris, among his hundreds of students, there were composers: Jorge Arriagada, , Colette Bailly, Sylvano Bussotti, Philippe Capdenat, Gérard Condé, Rudi Martinus van Dijk, Ahmed Essyad, Jacqueline Fontyn, Sylvia Hallett, Donald Harris, Félix Ibarrondo, Oswaldo González, György Kurtág, Philippe Manoury, , Luis de Pablo, Yves-Marie

Max Ettinger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Max Ettinger (27 December 1874 – 19 July 1951) was an Austrian-German-Swiss composer and conductor. Life Born in Lemberg, Ettinger was the grandson of the Chief Rabbi of Lemberg and the son of the landowner Herz Ettinger. His mother, Ernestine Landau, gave him his first musical education. He was taught by tutors on his parents’ estate and took his school-leaving examination at the old German-Polish grammar school in Lemberg. In Berlin, he tried to get accepted at the Hochschule für Musik, but was not admitted. He received private lessons there in 1899 from Heinrich von Herzogenberg and Heinrich van Eyken in harmony and composition. From 1900 to 1903, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, Viktor Gluth and Ludwig Thuille, with the latter privately until 1905. In 1906, he worked as a bandmaster in Saarbrücken and in 1910 in Lübeck, but he gave up this job because of health reasons. From 1911, he lived again in Munich as a composer, where he married Josephine Krisack in 1913. In the 1920s, Ettinger was very successful as a composer, his literary operas were performed in Nuremberg, Hamburg, Munich, Kiel and Leipzig. He also worked aga

Maximilian Joseph Leidesdorf

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maximilian Joseph Leidesdorf (5 July 1787 – 27 September 1840) was an Austrian pianist, composer and music publisher. Life Leidesdorf was born in Vienna, and studied under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Antonio Salieri and Emanuel Aloys Förster. He became a highly regarded pianist and teacher of the piano in Vienna. In 1822 he joined the music publishing firm of Ignaz Sauer 1759–1833), which had existed since 1798 as the publishers Zu den Sieben Schwestern. Sauer withdrew from the business in 1827, and the company was eventually taken over by Diabelli in 1835. Leidesdorf was a friend of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert; Sauer & Leidesdorf published works by them, also works of Carl Maria von Weber and piano reductions of operas by Gioachino Rossini. He went in 1828 to Florence, where, after a performance of his oratorio Esther, he was appointed court pianist by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and taught at the local conservatory. He died in Florence in 1840. He was the father of the psychiatrist Maximilian Leidesdorf. Works Leidesdorf composed orchestral and chamber music, three masses, a cantata St Cecilia, an oratorio Esther, other choral pieces, songs, and piano music, includin

Maximilian Stadler

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maximilian Johann Karl Dominik Stadler, Abbé Stadler, born August 1748, in Melk – 8 November 1833, in Vienna), was an Austrian composer, musicologist and pianist. In 1766, he entered the Benedictine Monastery in Melk Abbey, where he served as Benedictine monk, and then Prior from 1784 to 1786. In 1786, he was Abbot of the Monastery of Lilienfeld, and from 1789 in Kremsmünster Monastery. From 1791, he lived in Linz and from 1796 in Vienna, where he settled the estate of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and was in charge of the Imperial Music Archive. From 1803, he worked as a parish priest of Großkrut in Lower Austria, until he retired in 1816 to Vienna to devote himself to music. Stadler was among the most prominent personalities of Viennese musical life at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. He befriended Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert and wrote numerous essays on Mozart, as well as completed some of Mozart’s unfinished works. He worked on an unfinished Materialen zur Geschichte der Musik unter den österreichischen Regenten (Materials on the History of Music under the Austrian Regency), regarded as the first history of music in Austria. Most of his works

Michael Gielen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Andreas Gielen (20 July 19278 March 2019) was an Austrian conductor and composer known for promoting contemporary music in opera and concert. Principally active in Europe, his performances are characterized by precision and vivacity, aiding his ability to interpret the complex contemporary music he specialized in. He first worked in Buenos Aires, where he lived with his family between 1938 and 1950. In Europe, he first worked in Vienna and then in Sweden as the Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Royal Swedish Opera. He conducted notable world premieres such as György Ligeti’s Requièm, Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Carré, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s opera Die Soldaten and his Requiem für einen jungen Dichter. He directed the Oper Frankfurt from 1977 to 1987, installing more contemporary operas, winning stage directors such as Hans Neuenfels and Ruth Berghaus, and reviving operas such as Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten. During his era, the company became one of the leading operas. Gielen was also principal conductor of the National Orchestra of Belgium (1969–1973), the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1980–1986) and the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra (1986–1999). As a composer

Michael Haydn

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Johann Michael Haydn (; 14 September 1737 – 10 August 1806) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period and the younger brother of Joseph Haydn. Life Michael Haydn was born in 1737 in the Austrian village of Rohrau, near the Hungarian border. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who also served as “Marktrichter”, an office akin to village mayor. Haydn’s mother Maria, Koller, had previously worked as a cook in the palace of Count Harrach, the presiding aristocrat of Rohrau. Mathias was an enthusiastic folk musician, who during the journeyman period of his career had taught himself to play the harp, and he also made sure that his children learned to sing. Michael went to Vienna at the age of eight, his early professional career path being paved by his older brother Joseph, whose skillful singing had landed him a position as a boy soprano in the St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna choir under the direction of Georg Reutter, as were Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Franz Joseph Aumann, both composers with whom Haydn later traded manuscripts. By Michael’s 12th birthday he was earning extra money as a substitute organist at the cathedral and had, reportedly, performed preludes an

Michael Hebenstreit

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Hebenstreit (ca 1812 – after 1875) was an Austrian Kapellmeister and composer for stage music. Life Almost nothing has been handed down about Hebenstreit’s life, only a few scores have survived. He was a successor to Adolf Müller senior as Kapellmeister as well as in the field of stage music and often worked together with Johann Nestroy. His place of activity was the Leopoldstädter Theater, which, after being demolished and rebuilt under director Carl Carl, was renamed the Carltheater in December 1847, where he worked until his death in 1875. After the premiere of on 17 November 1849, the Österreichische Courier of 20 November 1849 (No 276, ) wrote rather derogatory about Hebenstreit’s music, it would be “mildly marked - mediocre”. Hebenstreit was the discoverer and promoter of the opera singer Etelka Gerster (1855–1920). Since he taught her from 1874 to 1875 at the former Vienna Conservatory, his year of death must be after 1875. Compositions (as far as handed down) For Johann Nestroy * (1843) * (1847); for the opening of the newly built Carltheater * (1848) * (1848) * (1848) * (1849) * (1849) * (1849) * (1849) * (1850) * (1850) For other authors * Josef Kilian Schickh: **

Michael Krasznay-Krausz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Krasznay-Krausz (also known as Michael Krausz; Hungarian: Krasznai Krausz Mihály; 11 April 1897 – 3 November 1940) was a Hungarian–Austrian composer. He was born in Pancsova, Austria-Hungary (present-day Pančevo, Serbia), and died in Budapest. Life Krasznay-Krausz was born into a Jewish family; his father owned a gramophone factory. He began composing at the age of 13. He studied counterpoint and composition at the Budapest Academy of Music under Victor von Herzfeld, as one of his first students, and also studied with Zoltán Kodály. In 1919, his opera Mariká premiered at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest. He subsequently moved to Vienna, where he initially focused on symphonic and operatic works before turning to operetta in 1923. His first operetta, Bajazzos Abenteuer (Bajazzo’s Adventures), premiered on 22 December 1923 at the Johann Strauss Theatre in Vienna. Another operetta, A Woman with Style, starring Fritzi Massary, was a major success in Berlin in 1927. In the early 1930s, Krasznay-Krausz moved to Berlin, where his works continued to be staged until he was forced to leave in 1933. In May 1934, he was accused of plagiarism by Paul Abraham in connection with his

Mimi Wagensonner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Maria Wagensonner-Schipper (13 March 1897 – 21 August 1970), best known as Mimi Wagensonner, was an Austrian composer and poet. Wagensonner was born in Aussig an der Elbe in what is now the Czech Republic to Franz Schipper and Maria Stangl Schipper. She had one brother and one sister. The family moved to Vienna during her childhood. She married Josef Wagensonner in 1923. She had one son (Diether) and one stepson (Hermann). Wagensonner studied piano with A. Subak and Mannheimer; harmony with Richard Stohr; and composition with Karl Weigl at the New Vienna Conservatory. She also studied and taught at the Music Academy in Vienna (today known as the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna). Her other publications included: Music for voice or piano *Adagio *Andante *Before NIght *Singing Sheets for Music Education (1969) Poetry *Die Katz von Ravenna (The Cat of Ravenna) References

Nico Dostal

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nico Dostal (full name: Nikolaus Josef Michael Dostal) (27 November 1895 – 27 October 1981) was an Austrian composer who later specialised in operetta and film music. Life Dostal was born in Korneuburg, Lower Austria, and was the nephew of composer Hermann Dostal. He initially studied law at the University of Vienna, but turned to studying music at the Academy for Church Music in Klosterneuburg, and made a name for himself when his Great Mass in D major premiered in Linz in 1913. After participating in World War I, Dostal worked as the theatre Kapellmeister in Innsbruck, St. Pölten, Vienna, Chernivtsi and Salzburg, before moving to Berlin in 1924, where he turned his hand to secular music. He worked in music publishing and as a freelance arranger for Oscar Straus, Franz Lehár and Robert Stolz, among others. Whilst working as a Kapellmeister and composer, Dostal wrote the music for the film The Emperor’s Waltz (1933) and enjoyed great success with his first operetta Clivia. This was followed by Die Vielgeliebte (1934) (The Much-Loved), Die ungarische Hochzeit (1939) (The Hungarian Wedding), and numerous pieces of film music. In 1946 Dostal moved to Vienna, then in 1954 to Salzburg,

Olga Neuwirth

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olga Neuwirth (; born 4 August 1968) is an Austrian contemporary classical composer, visual artist and author. She is famed especially for her operas and music theater works, many of which have treated sociopolitical themes. She has emphasized an open-ended, interdisciplinary approach in her work, collaborating frequently with Elfriede Jelinek, exploiting live electronics, and incorporating video. In her opera Lost Highway, she adapted David Lynch’s surrealist film with the same name. She has also written music for historic and contemporary films. Luigi Nono inspired her both musically and politically. Biography Youth Neuwirth was born in Graz, the daughter of Griseldis Neuwirth and pianist Harald Neuwirth. She is the niece of Gösta Neuwirth and the sister of sculptor Flora Neuwirth. As a child at the age of seven, Neuwirth began lessons on the trumpet but was forced to abandon her original plans to study trumpet after an accident that left her with a jaw injury. Studies and formative experiences As a high school student, Neuwirth took part in composition workshops with Hans Werner Henze and Gerd Kühr. The then-17-year-old composer named her first commissioned composition Die gelbe

Oscar Straus (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Oscar Nathan Straus (6 March 1870 – 11 January 1954) was a Viennese composer of operettas, film scores, and songs. He also wrote about 500 cabaret songs, chamber music, and orchestral and choral works. His original name was actually Strauss, but for professional purposes he deliberately omitted the final ’s’. He wished not to be associated with the musical Strauss family of Vienna. However, he did follow the advice of Johann Strauss II in 1898 about abandoning the prospective lure of writing waltzes for the more lucrative business of writing for the theatre. The son of a Jewish family, he studied music in Berlin under Max Bruch, and became an orchestral conductor, working at the Überbrettl cabaret. He went back to Vienna and began writing operettas, becoming a serious rival to Franz Lehár. When Lehár’s popular The Merry Widow premiered in 1905, Straus was said to have remarked “Das kann ich auch!” (I can also do that!). In 1939, after the Anschluss, he fled to Paris, where he received the honour of a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur. In 1940 he fled via Portugal to the United States, where he settled in Hollywood. After the war he returned to Europe, and settled at Bad Ischl, wher

Othmar Steinbauer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Othmar Steinbauer (6 November 1895 – 5 September 1962) was an Austrian composer and music theorist. He progressed developments in twelve-tone composition (). His own teachers included Joseph Marx, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg and Josef Matthias Hauer. Life Othmar Steinbauer was born in Vienna. His father was a bank employee, originally from Styria. Steinbauer attended teacher training college on the northwest side of Vienna. On passing his exams here he volunteered for military service in 1915. propounded by Othmar Spann, of whose teachings Steinbauer was an enthusiastic adherent between 1925 and 1930. In February 1928 Steinbauer set up a chamber orchestra, the “Wiener Kammer Konzert Vereinigung” which performed successfully under his direction for the next three years in Germany and Austria. Hauer was able to instruct Steinbauer on the basis of his Divertimento for smnall orchestra Op.61 which he dedicated to him. and said to be particularly suitable for making music in the home. From 1952 Steinbauer taught the violin at the Vienna Music Academy (today the University for the Music and Presentational Arts). Between 1959 and his retirement in 1961 he also provided special courses

Otto Zykan

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Otto Matthäus Zykan (29 April 1935, Vienna – 25 May 2006, Sachsendorf, Burgschleinitz-Kühnring) was an Austrian composer and pianist. Education The son of composer Otto Zykan (1902–1989), Otto M Zykan received his first piano lessons from his father, and from 1940 he was taught by his paternal grandmother, who had been a student of Theodor Leschetizky. He joined the Vienna Boys Choir and studied at the Vienna Music Academy where his teachers included Karl Schiske (composition), Bruno Seidlhofer and Josef Dichler (piano). He also attended the Darmstadt summer courses (1958, 1964–1966), winning the Kranichstein Music Prize of the international piano competition on his first visit. Music theatre In 1967, working with H.K. Gruber and Kurt Schwertsik, Zykan co-founded the Salonkonzerte Group and associated ensembles such as MOB art & tone ART (sometimes termed the ‘Third Viennese School’) to further his ideas about ‘instrumental theatre’, music that aimed for closer links between performance, music and language. These ’total art productions’, influenced by Dadaism and analogous to the music theatre productions of Mauricio Kagel, were often composed in the form of sketch-like drafts. Dep

Patricia Jünger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Patricia Jünger (born 6 August 1951) is a Swiss-Austrian multi-media artist, conductor, sound director and composer. Jünger studied at the Vienna Music Academy, and worked first as a pianist and organist before becoming a composer and conductor. Jünger has won a number of awards, among them the Theodor Körner Prize for Composition, the Vienna Cultural Foundation Prize, scholarships from the Viennese Alban Berg Foundation and Basel’s Paul Sacher Foundation, and was the first woman composer to win the Karl Sczuka Prize from SWF Baden-Baden, which she was awarded in 1986, for the radio play ‘Sehr geehrter Herr - ein Requiem’. Biography Jünger was born during an airplane trip from Dublin to Vienna, at a stop in Frankfurt am Main, and has Swiss and Austrian citizenship. Her parents were a jazz singer and a pianist. She completed her studies in 1977 and then worked first as a pianist and organist. She later became a full-time composer, with her own studio, and a conductor. When she was awarded the Karl Sczuka Prize from SWF Baden-Baden in 1986, for the radio play ‘Sehr geehrter Herr - ein Requiem’, she was the first woman composer to receive the prize. Selected recordings Jünger’s works

Paul Angerer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Paul Angerer (16 May 1927 – 26 July 2017 ) was an Austrian violist, conductor, composer and radio presenter. Life Angerer studied music theory and composition with Friedrich Reidinger and Alfred Uhl, and conducting with Hans Swarowsky. He performed in the viola section of Wiener Symphoniker, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande early in his career, and was viola soloist with the Wiener Symphoniker from 1953 to 1957. Angerer then began to conduct the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the orchestras in Bonn and Ulm. From 1967 to 1972, he was principal conductor of the Salzburg Opera Theater (Salzburger Landestheater) and led the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester from 1971 to 1982. In 1982, Angerer began conducting the Concilium Musicum Wien and held a teaching position at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna from 1982 to 1992. Angerer was awarded the Austrian State Prize for Music in 1953 for his Musik für Viola allein and in 2001, he received the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class. Paul Angerer’s compositional style is influenced by that of Paul Hindemith. His works are published by Verlag Doblinger, Universal Edition, C. Hasli

Paul Gallister

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Paul Gallister (born September 5, 1984 in Vienna) is an Austrian composer and music producer. He attended the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he received a Master of Arts in Media Composition. Projects Gallister is a producer and composer for the Viennese band Wanda, as well as for Nino aus Wien, Playing Savage, Ansa Sauermann and PauT. He co-orchestrated and programmed the winning song of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, Rise Like a Phoenix sung by Conchita Wurst and arranged multiple episodes of the TV series Dancing Stars and Die große Chance. He also orchestrated several songs for the Swiss band Eluveitie’s album Helvetios. Gallister wrote the title song for the TV series :de:/Das Glück dieser Erde, a show seen throughout Europe. He has written music for films and documentaries, including Putin’s Games by Israeli director Alexander Gentelev, which received the German Television Award 2014 for Best Documentary, Dominik Hartl’s short film Spitzendeckchen, and for Hartl’s film Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies. With Matthias Weber, he won the award for Best Film Music at the 2015 Biarritz Film Festival for Weber’s film “Beautiful Girl.” In 2017, he won the Au

Paul Walter Fürst

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Paul Walter Fürst (25 April 1926 – 28 February 2013) was an Austrian musician and composer. He was also president of the (AKM) since 1998 and for many years managing director and president of the Österreichischen Interpretengesellschaft (OESTIG). Furthermore, Fürst was solo violist with the Tonkünstler Orchestra (1952–1954), with the Munich Philharmonic (1954–1961) and from 1961 to 1990 he played in the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. From 1962, he also performed with the Vienna Philharmonic. Life Fürst was born in Vienna, the son of the lawyer Rudolf Fürst and his wife Anna. In his childhood, he first learned the violin and piano, played in the children’s orchestra and took part in various competitions. Fürst attended the Musisches Gymnasium Frankfurt, where he completed his training in tuba, trombone, score playing and in rhythm and ear training. He also participated in the school choir. He made his first contacts with composing through the director of the grammar school, Kurt Thomas, who taught him the first compositional basics. His acquaintance with Hugo Distler and his works awakened in him the definite desire to compose. Fürst returned to Vienna in 1945 and studied there a yea

Paul Wranitzky

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Paul Wranitzky (; 30 December 1756 – 29 September 1808) was a Moravian classical composer. His half brother, Antonín, was also a composer. Life Wranitzky was born in Neureisch (Nová Říše) in Moravia, today Czech Republic. He studied at the Faculty of Theology of University of Olomouc and later a theological seminary in Vienna. At age 20, like so many other Czech composers of that period, he moved to Vienna to seek out opportunities within the Austrian imperial capital. From 1790, he conducted both royal theater orchestras. He was highly respected by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven; the latter two preferred him as conductor of their new works (e.g., Beethoven’s First Symphony in 1800). Wranitzky was a prolific composer. His output comprises ten operas, 44 symphonies, at least 56 string quartets (some sources give a number as high as 73) and a large amount of other orchestral and chamber music. His opera, Oberon – The Fairy King from 1789 was a favorite in this genre and inspired Emanuel Schikaneder to write the libretto of The Magic Flute for Mozart in 1791; in the mid-1790s, Goethe sought to collaborate with Wranitzky on a sequel to the Mozart opera. Today, Wranitzky is attributed as b

Pavel Singer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pavel Singer (Павел Зингер, born September 29, 1962, in Pyatigorsk, USSR) is an Austrian composer, pianist and arrangeur. Biography Pavel (name at birth Paul) Singer was born in Pyatigorsk, to a Russian-German family. In 1987 Pavel Singer graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory and in 1992 he obtained a postgraduate diploma in musical composition studying under Tikhon Khrennikov’s class and Nikolai Rakov’s class and Concert Pianist (Rudolf Kerer’s class, professor M. S. Petukhov). In 1981-87 he made many concert tours throughout the Soviet Union as piano soloist and with various ensembles. In 1988-1990 he worked as a pianist, harpsichord player with the Amadeus Moscow Chamber Orchestra. In 1990-1992 he worked as an arranger for the “Slava Rossii” (Glory of Russia) Ensemble at the State Central Concert Hall “Rossiya”. In 1990 he participated in the “International Workshop of Composers” in Amsterdam and attended master classes given by Ton de Leeuw, Theo Loevendie and Dimitar Hristov. In 1992-1993 he undertook an Internship at the Vienna Higher School of Music (now the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna), studying composition under Professor Erich Urbanne

Pavel Šivic

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pavel Šivic (born February 2, 1908, in Radovljica, Slovenia — died May 31, 1995, in Ljubljana ) was a Slovenian composer, concert pianist, and music educator. Šivic wrote the libretto to this opera himself, which is based on the 1967 play of the same name by Andrej Hieng. He was also active as concert pianist and accompanist in Ljubljana; contributing greatly to the music life of that city. He was given the Prešeren Award in 1965. Partial list of works *Oj, ta prešmentana ljubezen Oh, that Cursed Love (operetta in 3 Acts, libretto by M. Simončič); 29 April 1931 *Dogodek v mestu Gogi An Event in the Town of Goga (ballet), 1967 *Cortesova vrnitev The Return of Cortés , 1971 (opera in 3 Acts, libretto by Šivic, after A. Hieng); 20 March 1974 *Svitanje The Daybreak (opera in 1 Act, libretto by Šivic, after B. Šömen); 10 May 1979 *Samorog The Unicorn (opera in 3 Acts, libretto by Šivic, after G. Strniša), 1981 *Kaznovana radovednost Curiosity Punished (Children’s opera in 1 Act, libretto by Šivic and V. Rudolph); 9 February 1988 *Hiša iz kart (opera), 1989 References

Peter Hänsel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Peter Hänsel (born 29 November 1770 in Leppe, Silesia Province; d. 18 September 1831 in Vienna) was a German-Austrian violinist and classical composer of almost exclusively chamber music. He has been recently viewed not only as the principal representative of the true quartet school of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but also the composer responsible for incorporating French and Polish influences into the Viennese classical style, thus serving as mediator between Germany, France and Poland. Like his contemporary Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), he was one of Haydn’s composition pupils during the 1790s. He died in Vienna shortly before his 61st birthday. Life and works After a musical apprenticeship with his uncle in 1787 in Warsaw, Hänsel traveled to Russia and joined the orchestra of Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin in St. Petersburg, which at the time was under the direction of master Giuseppe Sarti. In 1788 he returned to Warsaw after the completion of his contract. In the spring of 1791 he was concert master at the court of Princess Izabela Lubomirska in Vienna, where he was employed from 1796 with a fixed annual salary. Hänsel took lessons with Joseph Haydn in

Peter Kreuder

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Peter Paul Kreuder (18 August 1905 – 28 June 1981) was a German-Austrian pianist, composer and conductor. Life Kreuder was born in Aachen, the son of a Kammersänger. He enrolled as a piano student at the Cologne Conservatory in 1910, where he performed his first concert one year later, and at music academies in Munich, Berlin and Hamburg. After World War I he worked as a composer of musical performances at the Hamburg Kammerspiele theatre, at the Munich Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz, as well as of several Kabarett and revue productions. In the meantime he continued his studies, taking his exams at the Munich Academy of Music in 1924. In 1925 he was employed as Kapellmeister at the Deutsches Theater München, and conducted theatre ensembles, first in Munich and then in Berlin, where he worked with Max Reinhardt. In 1930 he met with Friedrich Hollaender, whom he assisted arranging the musical score of Josef von Sternberg’s film The Blue Angel starring Marlene Dietrich. During the 1930s and 40s he became one of the most sought-after German musical film composers; his credits run to some 150 movies. Several songs, performed by stars like Zarah Leander or Marika Rökk, are popular and cov

Peter Paul Fuchs

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Peter Paul Fuchs (October 30, 1916 – March 26, 2007) was an Austrian-born conductor and composer, best known for his conducting appointments with American orchestras and for his teaching. He was also a prolific composer although little of his music survives in performance. His writings include two influential music text books. Early life Fuchs was born on October 30, 1916, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, son of Dr. Adolf Fuchs, a well known heart specialist, and Marianne Ruzicka, a piano teacher. His grandfather was Alois Ruzicka, a prominent Viennese lawyer, originally from the same hometown as Gustav Mahler, and who had encouraged Mahler’s father to further young Gustav’s musical studies. After his academic studies in the “gymnasium”, he graduated in 1935 from the Vienna Academy of Music where his mentors were Felix Weingartner and Joseph Krips in conducting, and Karl Weigl in composition. In 1936 Fuchs was engaged as conductor and repetiteur for the German Theater in Brno, Czechoslovakia. The volatile politics of the period and the imminent Nazi invasion meant he was forced to leave Brno. Without a valid passport or job he spent two years living in exile in Switzerland and Italy unt

Peter Planyavsky

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Peter Planyavsky (born 9 May 1947) is an Austrian organist and composer. He attended the Schottengymnasium. After graduating from the Vienna Academy of Music in 1966 he spent a year in an organ workshop, and has been instrumental in organ-building projects, notably the construction of the Rieger organ in the Great Hall of the Wiener Musikverein. In 1968 he was appointed organist in the Upper Austrian Stift Schlägl, and the following year organist at Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral. From 1983 until 1990 Planyavsky was their director of music, with overall responsibility for church music at the cathedral. Planyavsky has recorded all the organ works of composers such as Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn, and has conducted not only the great works of sacred music but neglected organ concertos such as those by Alfredo Casella and Aaron Copland. He has also composed sacred music for organ, choir, and orchestra, and is known for parodies in the style of Bach, Haydn and Mozart, as P.P. Bach, J.P. Haydn and W.A.P. Mozart. Career Born in Vienna, the son of Alfred Planyavsky, he attended the Schotten gymnasium. At the Vienna Academy of Music, he studied organ, composition and improvisati

Peter Zauner (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Peter Zauner (1 December 1886 – 26 June 1973) was an Austrian farmer, Kapellmeister, composer, church musician and music teacher. In his Austrian homeland he is primarily remembered as the composer of the anthem of the Burgenland state, “Mein Heimatvolk, mein Heimatland”. Life Zauner was born in Pöttsching, Burgenland, as the son of a winegrower, master shoemaker and musician who was a member of the Carl Michael Ziehrer musical ensemble, where he rose to play the lead violin. His son Peter received his first violin lessons at the age of five. During his military service in Vienna, beginning in 1903, he received further music lessons and joined the military music corps of the Infantry Regiment 71 in Trenčín and worked from 1908 as a conductor in Pöttsching and Wiener Neustadt. During the First World War he served as a combat medic at the rank of a sergeant. Upon his return to his home town Pöttsching he took over his family farm and from 1919 to 1948 he served as music teacher in the rural areas of the Mattersburg and Eisenstadt districts. He established his Z-Banda and quickly became a role model for many concert bands of the Burgenland. He and his band had already been renown thro

Ralph Benatzky

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ralph Benatzky (5 June 1884 – 16 October 1957) was a Czech-Austrian composer. He composed operas and operettas, such as Casanova (1928), Die drei Musketiere (1929), The White Horse Inn (1930) and Meine Schwester und ich (1930). Life He was born Rudolf Josef František (Rudolph Josef Franz) Benatzky on 5 June 1884 in Moravské Budějovice, Moravia, Austria-Hungary. He was born to a Czech mother and ethnically German father, who taught at a German school. From 1899, he studied at a real school in Litoměřice, but was soon expelled. He continued his studies in Vienna. He graduated from German studies at the University of Vienna and received a doctorate in music at the German Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. He was a pupil of Antonín Dvořák. His first job after his studies was as a conductor and kapellmeister in Munich, and in the following years he worked in several small cabarets, for which he wrote songs, lyrics and smaller operettas. In 1914, he became the director of the Rideamus cabaret in Vienna. In 1913, his first full-length operetta Der lachende Dreibund premiered in Berlin, but it was not until the operetta Liebe im Schnee, which premiered in Vienna in 1916, that he achie

Ralph Erwin

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ralph Erwin (31 October 1896 – 15 May 1943), originally Erwin Vogl, was the Austrian-born French composer of a number of film scores. Career Erwin Vogl was born in Bielitz, in the part of Silesia which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He served in the Austrian Army during the First World War. After the war, Erwin established himself as a leading German songwriter. He had a great success with I Kiss Your Hand, Madame (), which featured in the film of the same title of 1929. The song became the signature tune of Richard Tauber. It was prominently used in the 1933 film Baby Face and Bing Crosby also later sang an English version, in The Emperor Waltz (1948) Erwin was a Jew and, following the Nazi rise to power in 1933, he went into exile in France. There, he continued to work on film scores. Erwin was still in the country during Nazi Occupation of France and was eventually arrested. He died in the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp. Selected filmography * I Kiss Your Hand, Madame (1929) * Le Roi des resquilleurs (1930) * The Little Escapade (1931) * Checkmate (1931) * When Love Is Over (1931) * Amourous Adventure (1932) * The Importance of Being Earnest (1932) * Madame Mak

René Clemencic

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

René Clemencic (27 February 1928 – 8 March 2022) was an Austrian composer, conductor, harpsichordist, clavichordist and recorder player. Biography Born in Vienna, Austria, Clemencic was educated at the Vienna University and studied further in France, the Netherlands and West Germany. He was director of the Capella Musica Antiqua and of the Drama Musicum in Vienna. In 1958 he founded Musica Antiqua (known after 1959 as Ensemble Musica Antiqua) to perform early music on period instruments. Later, in 1968, he founded the Clemencic Consort. Clemencic died on 8 March 2022, at the age of 94. Compositions * Meraviglia 1969 * Molière Film music for the film by Ariane Mnouchkine (1978) * Missa Mundi mass in Latin, for five voices and orchestra (1981) * Unus Mundus (1986) * Drachenkampf ballet (1987) * Kabbala Oratorio in Hebrew (1992) * Der Berg chamber opera (1993) * Apokalypsis Oratorio on the Greek text of the Revelation of John (1996) * Stabat Mater - (2001) * Monduntergang - Operelle for sirene Operntheater (2007) * Nachts unter der steinernen Brücke - chamber opera for sirene Operntheater (2009) * Harun und Dschafar - chamber opera for sirene Operntheater (2011) * Gilgamesch - Oratori

René Staar

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

René Staar (born 30 May 1951) is an Austrian composer, violinist and conductor. Life Born in Graz, Staar composed his first pieces as a child. He attended the Östermalms Musikskole Stockholm in 1962-1963 and studied music theory with Walter Wasservogel. This was followed by violin studies with Franz Samohyl and, from 1965, studies in harmony and counterpoint at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In 1968, Staar completed guest studies at the Sibelius Academy with Anja Ignatius (violin) and Izumi Tateno (piano). In Helsinki he also made his debut as a violinist and pianist. In Vienna he continued his training with Alfred Uhl (composition), Erich Urbanner (twelve-tone music) and Francesco Valdambrini (Neue Musik) and began conducting studies with Hans Swarowsky and Karl Österreicher in 1972. From 1977, he took master classes with Nathan Milstein in Zurich and completed postgraduate studies with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati in 1981, receiving further impulses from Leonard Bernstein. From 1974, Staar was assistant to his teacher Franz Samohyl. In 1979, he founded the Trio des Trois Mondes, which existed until 1981. As a violinist he performed with the Vienna Symphony Orches

Richard Dünser

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Dünser (born 1 May 1959) is an Austrian composer of stage works, orchestral music and chamber music, among others. Life Born in Bregenz, Dünser studied composition after his Matura first at the of his hometown and later at the Vienna Academy of Music with Francis Burt. From 1985 to 1987, he studied composition with Hans Werner Henze at the Hochschule für Musik Köln, and in 1987 he was a composition fellow there. He was for a summer composition scholar in Tanglewood, U.S. From 1987, he taught composition at the Innsbruck department of the Mozarteum University Salzburg as well as at the Vorarlberg State Conservatory, and in 1991 he was appointed professor of music theory at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, where he has also led a composition class since 2004. Dünser was composer in residence of the Wiener Konzertverein (the chamber orchestra of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra) and, with Christian Roscheck, co-initiator of the concert series of the same name at the Wiener Musikverein (Brahmssaal). His most important works, which have been interpreted by international ensembles, conductors and soloists, include the orchestral piece Der Wanderer (commissioned by t

Richard Fall

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Fall (3 April 1882 – January 1945) was an Austrian composer and conductor of Jewish descent. One of his most famous compositions is the popular Was machst du mit dem Knie lieber Hans. Life Born in Jevíčko, Österreich-Ungarn, Fall grew up in a family of musicians. His two brothers Leo and Siegfried as well as his father were also composers and conductors. Fall worked as operettas conductor in Berlin and Vienna and as film composer in Hollywood. After the Anschluss (1938), he fled National Socialism to France. On 20 November 1943 he was deported from the Drancy internment camp to the KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he died early in January 1945, before the liberation of the concentration camp. Works Stage plays *Goldreifchen. Fairy tale in 3 acts. Libretto: and Mia Ewers. UA 1909 Vienna *Das Damenparadies. Operetta in one act. Libretto: Julius Brammer and Alfred Grünwald. UA 1911 Vienna *Wiener Fratz. Operetta in one act. Libretto: Ernst Klein and . UA 1912 Vienna *Arms and the Girl. Operetta in 2 scenes, Libretto: Austen Hurgon. UA 1912 London *Leute vom Stand. Operetta in one act. Libretto: Robert Bodanzky and Fritz Grünbaum. UA 1913 Vienna *Der Weltenbummler. Operetta in one

Richard Genée

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Franz Friedrich Richard Genée (7 February 1823 – 15 June 1895) was a Prussian-born Austrian librettist, playwright, and composer. Life Genée was born in Danzig. He died in Baden bei Wien. Works He is most famous for the libretto of Die Fledermaus, Johann Strauss II’s most famous operetta. He co-wrote the libretto without having met top-billed librettist Karl Haffner, who constructed the new story based on a play by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, which was considered too shocking to perform outside Paris. Genée, however, wrote the operetta’s actual text and drew nothing from Haffner beyond the names of the characters. One of his best-known works was the libretto of Carl Millöcker’s operetta Der Bettelstudent, which he co-wrote with Friedrich Zell (the pseudonym of Camillo Walzel). He also wrote the libretto to Ella Adayevskaya’s 1877 opera Zarya. In 1857, he was conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra Mainz. Librettos and plays * Polyphen oder Ein Abenteuer auf Martinique (1856) * Der Geiger aus Tirol (1857) * Der Liebesring um (1860) * Ein Trauerspiel (1860) * Ein Narrentraum (1861) * Die Generalprobe (1862) * Die Herren von der Livrée (1862) * Die Talismänner (1863) * Rosita (1

Richard Heuberger

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Franz Joseph Heuberger (18 June 1850 in Graz, Austria – 28 October 1914 in Vienna, Austria) was an Austrian composer of operas and operettas, a music critic, and teacher. Heuberger was born in Graz, the son of a bandage manufacturer. He initially studied engineering, but gave it up in 1876, and turned to music. He studied at the Graz Conservatory (where he studied with Robert Fuchs), and later transferred to Vienna, where he eventually became the chorus master of the Wiener Akademischer Gesangverein, conductor of the Wiener Singakademie, director of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein (Vienna Men’s Choral Association), and a teacher at the Konservatorium der Stadt Wien. Although Heuberger wrote many operas, ballets, choral works, and songs, he is best known today for his operetta Der Opernball, composed in 1898. He taught at the Vienna Conservatory from 1902. Among his pupils was Clemens Krauss. Selected works Operettas *Der Opernball (1898) *Ihre Excellenz (1899), revised as Eine entzückende Frau *Der Sechsuhrzug (1900) *Das Baby (1902) *Der Fürst von Düsterstein (1909) *Don Quixote (1910) Operas *Abenteuer einer Neujahrsnacht (1886) *Manuel Venegas (1889), revised as Mirjam, o

Richard Sahla

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Sahla (17 September 1855 in Graz – 30 April 1931 in Bückeburg) was a concert violinist, conductor and composer. Biography Richard Sahla grew up in his hometown Graz, where he quickly acquired a reputation as child prodigy. He excelled on the violin and the piano. Aged 13 he started studying the violin as a pupil of Ferdinand David at the Conservatory in Leipzig, University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, today the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig. He finished as one of the most outstanding students of this world-famous institution. He played his debut concert aged eighteen at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig to rapturous applause for his “technically mature and musically exhilarating play”. His friend Wilhelm Kienzl describes Sahla’s next steps in his autobiography. Both had studied composition under Wilhelm Mayer (also known as W. A. Rémy), whose students included the composers Ferruccio Busoni, Josef Gauby, Richard Heuberger, Emil von Reznicek and Felix Weingartner. Having received his diploma at the Conservatory in Leipzig, the Mecca of violinists, the eighteen-year-old Sahla embarked on an impressive career as violin virtuoso. He quickly gai

Richard Stöhr

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Franz Stöhr (; 11 June 1874 – 11 December 1967) was an Austrian composer and music educator. In 1900 Stöhr studied composition with Robert Fuchs at the Vienna Conservatory working as a répétiteur and choral instructor. Between 1903 and 1938, Stöhr taught music theory, including harmony, counterpoint, and form at the conservatory. He became a professor at the same institution in 1915. His students there included prominent conductors, composers, and performers such as Herbert von Karajan, Rudolf Serkin, Erich Leinsdorf, and Samuel Barber, among others. During the Anschluss of Austria in 1938, he was dismissed from the Vienna Conservatory due to his Jewish heritage. He went to the United States the following year and began teaching at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His students there included Leonard Bernstein and Eugene Bossart. He died in Montpelier on 11 December 1967 at the age of 93. Early life and education Stöhr was born as Richard Stern in Vienna in 1874 to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Hungary. His father, Samuel Stern, was a professor of medicine at the University of Vienna. His mother, Mathilde, was a member of the Porges family; her brother—

Richard Wagner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early years#

Richard Wagner was born on 22 May 1813 to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, then part of the Confederation of the Rhine. His family lived at No 3, the Brühl (The House of the Red and White Lions) in Leipzig’s Jewish quarter. He was baptised at St. Thomas Church. He was the ninth, and youngest, child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine Wagner, the daughter of a baker. Wagner’s father Carl died of typhoid fever six months after Richard’s birth. Afterwards, his mother Johanna lived with Carl’s friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married, although no documentation of this has been found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyer’s residence in Dresden. Until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father. Geyer’s love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel. In late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzel’s school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a proper scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyer’s death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, the boarding school of the Dresdner Kreuzchor, at the expense of Geyer’s brother. At the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright. His first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (the standard listing of Wagner’s works) as WWV 1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was strongly influenced by Shakespeare and Goethe. Wagner was determined to set it to music and persuaded his family to allow him music lessons. By 1827, the family had returned to Leipzig. Wagner’s first lessons in harmony were taken during 1828–1831 with . In January 1828 he first heard Beethoven’s 7th Symphony and then, in March, the same composer’s 9th Symphony, both at the Gewandhaus. Beethoven became a major inspiration, and Wagner wrote a piano transcription of the 9th Symphony. He was also greatly impressed by a performance of Mozart’s Requiem. Wagner’s early piano sonatas and his first attempts at orchestral overtures date from this period. In 1829 he saw a performance by dramatic soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, who became his ideal of the fusion of drama and music in opera. In Mein Leben Wagner wrote, “When I look back across my entire life I find no event to place beside this in the impression it produced on me,” and claimed that the “profoundly human and ecstatic performance of this incomparable artist” kindled in him an “almost demonic fire”. In 1831, Wagner enrolled at the Leipzig University, where he became a member of the Saxon student fraternity. He took composition lessons with the Thomaskantor Theodor Weinlig. Weinlig was so impressed with Wagner’s musical ability that he refused any payment for his lessons. He arranged for his pupil’s Piano Sonata in B-flat major (which was consequently dedicated to him) to be published as Wagner’s Op. 1. A year later, Wagner composed his Symphony in C major, a Beethovenesque work performed in Prague in 1832 and at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1833. He then began to work on an opera, Die Hochzeit (The Wedding), which he never completed.

Robert Fischhof

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Robert Fischhof (31 October 1856 – 31 March 1918 ) was a pianist, composer, and professor at the Vienna Music Conservatoire. Biography Robert Fischhof was born in Vienna to Julius Fischhof, a successful Austrian banker, and Louise Fischhof (née Strakosch), who had been trained as a pianist by Clara Schumann, the famous performer and wife of composer Robert Schumann. The Fischhof home in Vienna was a well-known center for celebrated musicians, composers and singers arriving from all over the world. Fischhof had musical uncles: his father was the youngest brother of Joseph Fischhof, who became Professor of Piano at the Vienna Conservatoire in 1833; and his mother’s brother was Maurice Strakosch, also an excellent pianist, who later became a vocal instructor and international impresario working with the soprano Adelina Patti. Fischhof started his piano studies at the age of five under the supervision of his mother. Later, at the Conservatoire of Vienna, he was taught piano technique by Anton Door and composition by Anton Bruckner and Franz Krenn. After completing his courses at the Conservatoire, he continued his piano studies with Theodor Leschetitzky and Franz Liszt. Fischhof made h

Robert Fuchs (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Robert Fuchs (15 February 1847 – 19 February 1927) was an Austrian composer and music teacher. As Professor of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, Fuchs taught many notable composers, while he was himself a highly regarded composer in his lifetime. Biography He was born in Frauental an der Laßnitz, Styria, Austria in 1847. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory with Felix Otto Dessoff and Joseph Hellmesberger among others. He eventually secured a teaching position there and was appointed Professor of music theory in 1875. He retained the position until 1912. He died in Vienna in 1927. He was the youngest brother of Johann Nepomuk Fuchs, The reason his compositions did not become better known was largely that he did little to promote them, living a quiet life in Vienna and refusing to arrange concerts, even when the opportunities arose. He certainly had his admirers, among them Brahms, who almost never praised the works of other composers. But with regard to Fuchs, Brahms wrote, “Fuchs is a splendid musician, everything is so fine and so skillful, so charmingly invented, that one is always pleased.” Famous contemporary conductors, including Arthur Nikisch, Felix Weingartner and

Robert Schollum

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Robert Schollum (22 August 1913 – 30 September 1987) was an Austrian composer, conductor, music educator, music critic, musicographer and academic scholar. He was president of the for several years in the 1960s and 1980s. Life and career Education Born in Vienna, Schollum studied composition with Joseph Marx, music theory with Egon Lustgarten and organ and piano with Carl Lafite at the Neues Wiener Konservatorium and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He taught as assistant to Anton Maria Klafsky at the New Vienna Conservatory and gave piano lessons at the Conservatory for Folk Music. National Socialism In 1932, Schollum joined the Hitler Youth, later also the SA. From 1933, he performed as a conductor. From 1939 to 1945, he did military service with the Wehrmacht, and after being wounded, he served as a purser on the Russian Front. In addition, he worked as a pianist, conductor and choir director for the Hitler Youth and was a district commissioner of the Reich Chamber of Music for music education. After the airstrike of his Vienna flat in 1944, he moved to Ottensheim near Linz. Career after the Second World War From 1945, Schollum was choirmaster at the Old Cathe

Robert Scholz (pianist)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Robert Scholz (; 16 October 1902 – 11 October 1986) was an Austrian-born American pianist, conductor, composer and teacher. He achieved fame as a pianist, especially in Austria during the Twenties and Thirties in a piano duo with his brother Heinz Scholz with whom he also published the first authoritative collection of Mozart’s works for piano. After emigrating to the United States in 1938 he became a well-known conductor and founder of the American Chamber Orchestra in New York. In 1963 the US State Department invited him to teach in Taiwan as part of a scholarly exchange program. Here he achieved lasting fame as a conductor and especially as the founding father of Taiwan’s piano tradition. Most influential piano professors in Taiwan today can trace their roots back to his teachings. He died in Taipei in 1986. Life Genealogy Robert Scholz was born in Steyr, Austria, on 16 October 1902. His father, Karl Scholz, was a store manager, his mother, Johanna Mayr, a soprano who met and corresponded with Anton Bruckner. His elder brother, the pianist Heinz Scholz (1897-1988), was president of the Mozarteum Salzburg in 1964. Some genealogical research of the Scholz family from 1750 until th

Robert Winterberg

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Robert Anton Winterberg (27 February 1884 – 22 June 1930) was an Austrian composer, conductor, pianist, and theatre director. He is best known as a composer of German-language operettas, most of which he created during the 1910s and 1920s. Two of his operettas were adapted into English for Broadway: Die Dame in Rot (1911, Vienna) as The Lady in Red (1919, Lyric Theatre) and Die schöne Schwedin (1915, Vienna) as The Girl from Brazil (1916, 44th Street Theatre). Winterberg studied music privately with Gustav Mahler, Robert Fuchs, and Hermann Graedener. At the age of 15, he produced his first music compositions which included a piano sonata, a string quartet, and several art songs. A few years later, the first public concert of his music was given at Ehrbar Saal (English: Ehrbar Hall) inside the Palais Ehrbar by baritone Joseph Schwartz and soprano Olga von Türk-Rohn with Winterberg as pianist. In 1906, Türk-Rohn and Winterberg were invited to Peleș Castle in Sinaia by Elisabeth of Romania where they gave a concert of Winterberg’s music for the queen. Well received, the work enjoyed popularity both in Germany and abroad. American playwright Anne Caldwell adapted it into an English lan

Rudi Gfaller

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Rudi Gfaller (10 November 1882 – 11 February 1972) was an Austrian operetta composer and singer. Born in Vienna, he began his career as an actor and singer and appeared in various provincial theatres in Germany. In 1906, he composed the first of his twelve operettas. Gfaller was married to the operetta singer Therese Wiet and often appeared with her in Leipzig where the couple were based for most of their careers. In 1943 he retired to their house in Bad Ischl where he died at the age of 89. Life and career Gfaller was born in Vienna, the son of a restaurant proprietor. He began acting in children’s roles at the Carltheater in the suburbs of Vienna and then attended the Dorr’sche Theatre and Music School. As an adult he worked as an actor and tenor singer in musical theatre and operetta in various provincial theatres in Germany and in what is now the Czech Republic, including Rudolstadt, Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, Magdeburg, and Stralsund. In 1906, he composed his first operetta, Der Frühlingsonkel which premiered at the municipal theatre in Stralsund. He then relocated to Leipzig where he continued his career as an operetta singer. It was there that he met his future wife, the soprano

Rudolf Braun (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Rudolf Braun (21 October 186930 December 1925) was an Austrian pianist and composer who was born congenitally blind. He was born and died in Vienna. Very little is recorded of Braun’s early life. He was educated at the School for the Blind. He earned his living nearly exclusively from music and at the age of 12, he gave a performance as a pianist at a concert of the Vienna Men’s Choral Society. On 3 March 1896 he gave a concert of his own compositions. Gustav Mahler premiered Braun’s Marionettentreuse at the Vienna Court Opera on 17 October 1906, to excellent reviews. In 1925 the title of Professor was bestowed on him. In 1923 Arnold Schoenberg used his influence to obtain financial assistance for some struggling composers, including Braun, Alban Berg, Anton Webern and Josef Matthias Hauer. Braun wrote seven works for the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein, including a Piano Concerto in A minor for the Left Hand. This concerto was written in 1924 and was first performed on 12 December 1927, almost two years after his death, with Wittgenstein as soloist and Julius Lehnert conducting. The Concerto in A minor is the only concerto Braun wrote and is unique in the fact that the cadenza

Rudolf Jettel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Rudolf Jettel (21 March 1903 – 23 November 1981) was an Austrian composer, clarinettist and academic teacher. Life and career Born in Vienna, Favoriten district, Jettel trained as an instrument maker and studied clarinet and composition at the then University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, among others with Viktor Polatschek (1889–1948). Jettel was solo clarinettist of the Vienna Philharmonic until 1968 and held a teaching position at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna from 1957 to 1977. His students included the later solo clarinettists of the Vienna Philharmonic and university professors Peter Schmidl and Horst Hajek, as well as the later solo clarinettist of the Vienna Symphony and the Berlin Philharmonic and university professor Alois Brandhofer. He was intensively engaged in the construction and development of woodwind instruments. He composed various chamber music, such as string quartets, wind quintets and sonatas. In particular, his fundamental pedagogical works for clarinet and saxophone are recognised in the professional world. Furthermore, he also wrote works for plucked instruments such as mandolins. Jettel died in Vienna at the age of 78. Composit

Sergei Bortkiewicz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sergei Eduardovich Bortkiewicz ( – 25 October 1952) was a Romantic composer and pianist. He moved to Vienna in 1922 and became a naturalized Austrian citizen in 1926. Life Early life and origins Sergei Eduardovich Bortkiewicz was born in Kharkov in the Russian Empire (present-day Kharkiv, Ukraine), on 28 February 1877 to parents Edward and Zofia () Bortkiewicz, who were Polish nobility. He spent most of his childhood on the family estate of Artiomovka, near Kharkov. Bortkiewicz received his musical training from Anatoly Lyadov and Karel van Ark at the Imperial Conservatory of Music in Saint Petersburg. In 1900, he left Saint Petersburg and travelled to Leipzig, where he became a student of Alfred Reisenauer and Salomon Jadassohn, both pupils of Franz Liszt. In July 1902, Bortkiewicz completed his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory and was awarded the Schumann Prize on graduation. On his return to the Russian Empire in 1904, he married Elisabeth Geraklitowa, a friend of his sister, and then returned to Germany, where he settled in Berlin. It was there that he started to compose seriously. From 1904 until 1914, Bortkiewicz continued to live in Berlin but spent his summers visiting h

Shih (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Shih (born 29 November 1950 in Taipei, Taiwan) is a naturalized Austrian composer. Shih has been living and working in Vienna since 1974. In Europe Shih forgoes his full Chinese name due to experience with incorrect writing and pronunciation. However, in Taiwan he is still known by his full name Shih Chieh (Chinese 施捷). Early life and education Shih was born on 29 November 1950 in Taipei, Taiwan. Shih studied composition and harp at the Vienna University for Music and Performing Arts, graduating in 1983. Career He has been living and working in Vienna since 1974 as a freelance composer, teacher, and artistic director of the Pacific Youth Orchestra Vienna, founded in 2002. He has been awarded special merits for regularly presenting contemporary Austrian music in China. His own works – chamber music, ballet, lied, orchestra works, opera and oratorio – have been performed in many European und Asian countries, as well as in the United States, and regularly appear both on TV and radio (ORF, ARD, MDR, RAI etc.). Shih’s international breakthrough came with his opera „Vatermord“ (“Death of a Father”), first performed in Dresden in 1994 and followed by performances at Leipzig Oper and in Nu

Sigismond Thalberg

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sigismond Thalberg (8 January 1812 – 27 April 1871) was an Austrian composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. Family Thalberg was born in Pâquis near Geneva on 8 January 1812. Thalberg asserted that he was the illegitimate son of Moritz, Prince of Dietrichstein and Maria Julia Bydeskuty von Ipp, from a Hungarian family of lower nobility. In 1820, Julia married Baron Alexander Ludwig (from an ennobled Jewish Viennese family ). According to Thalberg’s birth certificate, he was the son of Joseph Thalberg and Fortunée Stein, both from Frankfurt-am-Main. Early life Little is known about Thalberg’s childhood and early youth. It is possible that his mother had brought him to Vienna at the age of 10 (the same year in which the 10-year-old Franz Liszt arrived there with his parents). According to Thalberg’s own account, he attended the first performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on 7 May 1824, in the Kärntnerthortheater. There is no evidence as to Thalberg’s early teachers. Baroness von Wetzlar, his putative mother, who, according to Wurzbach, was occupied with his education during his childhood and early youth, was a brilliant amateur pianist. It m

Sigismund von Neukomm

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sigismund Neukomm or Sigismund Ritter von Neukomm after ennoblement as a knight (10 July 1778 – 3 April 1858) was an Austrian composer, conductor and pianist. He was a transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic periods of music. In 1814 Neukomm was responsible for erecting a tombstone to the memory of Haydn over his first grave in the Hundsturm cemetery in Vienna. The inscription included a puzzle canon composed by Neukomm himself. He was in regular contact with the composer in the last months of his life, visiting him every day between mid-November 1808 and February 1809. In 1816 he travelled to Rio de Janeiro with the Duke of Luxemburg and stayed there as court music director to John VI of Portugal until the revolution forced his return to Lisbon in 1821. He maintained his connection to Talleyrand until 1826 and then embarked on an extended trip to Italy, visiting Genoa, Florence, Rome, Naples, Bologna, Venice and Milan. In England his Symphony in E♭ was put on by the Philharmonic Society (on March 21, 1831) and his oratorios gained popularity. Mount Sinai received repeated performances in London, Worcester, Derby and elsewhere, and David was composed especially for t

Simon Sechter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Simon Sechter (11 October 1788 – 10 September 1867) was an Austrian music theorist, composer, conductor, and organist. He is best known as a strict music teacher, whose many students included Anton Bruckner, Sigismond Thalberg, and Henri Vieuxtemps. In 1851, he was professor of composition at the Vienna Conservatory; after Sechter’s death, his student Bruckner would succeed him and continue teaching his approach to harmony and counterpoint. A highly prolific composer, his total output numbers more than 8000 compositions, particularly since he sought to write a fugue every day. compiled and adapted Sechter’s Die richtige Folge der Grundharmonien as The Correct Order of Fundamental Harmonies: A Treatise on Fundamental Basses, and their Inversions and Substitutes (Wm. A. Pond, 1871; G. Schirmer, 1898). Biography Sechter was born in Friedberg (Frymburk), Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire, and moved to Vienna in 1804, succeeding Jan Václav Voříšek as court organist there in 1824. In 1810 he began teaching piano and voice at an academy for blind students. In 1828 the ailing Franz Schubert had one counterpoint lesson with him. In 1851 Sechter was appointed professor of composition

Sydir Vorobkevych

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sydir Ivanovych Vorobkevych (, ; 17 May 183631 September 1903), was a Ukrainian composer, writer, Eastern Orthodox priest, teacher, and artist. During his career he was the editor of the Austrian newspaper . Early life and education Sydir Ivanovych Vorobkevych was born on 17 May 1836 (O.S.) in Chernivtsi (now in western Ukraine). Vorobkevych’s mother, Elizabeta Corlătean, was an ethnic Romanian, being the daughter of the Protopope of Câmpulung Moldovenesc. Sydir’s paternal great-grandfather, Skalsky Mlaka de Orobko, ran away from Lithuania, and his grandfather changed his name from Orobko to Vorobkevych. He later used part of the former name as part of one of his pen-names, Danilo Mlaka. His mother died in 1840, and his father Ivan worked in the Chernivtsi Lyceum as a professor of religion and philosophy. After father died in 1845. the 9-year-old Sydir, along with his brother Hryhoriy, were left as orphans. They were then brought up by their grandfather, Mykhailo Vorobkevych, the Protopope of Kitsman. In his family the young boy learned Ukrainian folklore and history. He enrolled in the Chernivtsi Lyceum and later the Theology Seminary in Chernivtsi, graduating in 1861. After his t

Thaddäus Weigl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thaddäus Weigl (8 April 1776 – 10 February 1844) was an Austrian composer and music publisher. Life He was born in Vienna, son of Joseph Franz Weigl, a cellist in the Vienna Court Theatre, and younger brother of the composer Joseph Weigl. He studied music with Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, who had taught his brother. He went on to study philosophy and law, and meanwhile pursued his interest in composing. A cantata dedicated to his philosophy teacher Franz Samuel Karpe was performed, and he was encouraged by its success. A comic opera Die Marionettenbude oder der Jahrmarkt zu Grünwalde, and an opera Idoli, were staged in the Theater in der Leopoldstadt, and were well received. In 1795 Peter von Braun, manager of the Court Theatre, founded the theatre’s music publishing firm Hoftheater-Musikverlag, and he entrusted Weigl with the work of making piano transcriptions of the operas and ballets that were performed at the theatre. In 1796 Weigl made extensive business trips for von Braun, to advertise the publishing house. He was afterwards appointed Court Theatre Composer, and subsequently wrote many ballets. He also organized the theatre’s archives, which had been in a state of disorder

Theodor W. Adorno

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Theodor W. Adorno (; ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, cultural, and music critic. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose work has come to be associated with thinkers such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse, for whom the works of Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and G. W. F. Hegel were essential to a critique of modern society. As a critic of both fascism and what he called the culture industry, his writings—such as Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), Minima Moralia (1951), and Negative Dialectics (1966)—strongly influenced the European New Left. In an intellectual climate shaped by existentialism and logical positivism, Adorno developed a dialectical conception of history and philosophy that challenged the foundations of both, anticipating the divide that would later emerge between the analytic and continental traditions. As a classically trained musician, Adorno studied composition with Alban Berg of the Second Viennese School, influenced by his early admiration for the music of Arnold Schoenberg. Adorno’s commitment to avant-garde music formed t

Thomas Daniel Schlee

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas Daniel Schlee (26 October 1957 – 10 November 2025) was an Austrian composer, arts administrator and organist. He directed the Brucknerhaus in Linz and was artistic director of the Brucknerfest from 1990 to 1998. He was vice general manager of the Beethovenfest in Bonn from 1999 to 2003, and general manager of the Carinthischer Sommer from 2004 to 2015. Life and career Schlee was born in Vienna on 26 October 1957, External links * * * “Thomas Daniel Schlee wird 60” , takte magazine, February 2017 *

Thomas Pernes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas Pernes (25 February 1956 – 26 February 2018) was an Austrian avant-garde composer and performance artist who lived and worked in Vienna. He studied piano with Bruno Seidlhofer and composition with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati. The start of his career in contemporary music was marked by the première of the 1st string quartet at Wiener Konzerthaus in 1976. Already in the early 1980s he had widened the narrow sphere of interest of the classical avant-garde. At a time when the term crossover was not yet known he worked with elements of folk music and jazz just as he used electronics to enlarge the possibilities of composition. In the 90s he started developing his own form of music theatre, known as Klangtheater: “When Thomas Pernes speaks about sound theater as representation or reproduction of reality, one should think not only superficially of the everyday elements such as sound, fragments of conversation, thought, and quotation that are built into the montage. It is rather and above all the unity that arises paradoxically from disparate and divergent elements and their individual motions that corresponds in its dialectical structure to reality. As Hegel says about reality and tru

Václav Emanuel Horák

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Václav (Wenzel) Emanuel Horák (1 January 1800 – 3 September 1871) was a Czech composer and liturgical musician. Life Horák was born on 1 January 1800 in Lobeč, Bohemia. From 1813, he attended the Prague Gymnasium while working as a choir boy and later on as a choralist at St. Nicholas’s Church in the Malá Strana quarter. At Prague University he first read philosophy, later switching to law. The musical training from Václav Tomášek he wished for, was out of his financial reach. Only later did he become a pupil of Friedrich Dionys Weber’s and Jan August Vitásek’s. He started as an organist at Prague’s Church of the Holy Trinity around 1830, starting as a teacher at Prague Organ School shortly afterwards. In 1833 he was appointed organist at the Church of Our Lady in front of Týn, choir director at Our Lady of the Snows Franciscan church in 1837, and Regens chori at St. Adalbert’s Church in 1853. From 1859, he returned to Our Lady Before Týn, having accepted an appointment as Liturgical musician and director there. In his lifetime, he was made an honorary member of many musical associations and academies, e.g. the Salzburg Mozarteum. He died on 3 September 1871 in Prague. Style Stylis

Václav Tomášek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek (; 17 April 17743 April 1850) was an Austrian-Bohemian, by other accounts a Czech composer and music teacher. He was known as the Musical Pope of Prague. In the words of Kenneth Delong, “Highly opinionated, often sarcastic and projecting a sense of his own importance, Tomášek’s memoirs also reveal him to be deeply concerned about all things artistic and intellectual: a man of courage and idealism, unflinching in his pursuit of truth in music and in life.” Life As a pianist, he was an autodidact, becoming one of the most important piano teachers of Prague for a century. Tomášek studied violin and singing with Wolf. Until 1824 he worked as a piano teacher in aristocratic families. Afterwards he created a considerable school of music; among its most well-known pupils were Jan Voříšek, Alexander Dreyschock, Johann Friedrich Kittl and Eduard Hanslick. Tomášek made the acquaintance of Beethoven, and also of Goethe, whose poems he set. He maintained correspondence with the Polish pianist and composer Maria Agata Szymanowska. His autobiography was published in German, as well as in a Czech translation. He lived at number 15 Tomášská Street in Prague. The building

Vally Weigl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vally Weigl (11 September 1894 – 25 December 1982) was an Austrian-American composer and music therapist. Biography Valerie Weigl (née Pick) was born in Vienna, Austria. She was the first daughter of a Jewish couple, lawyer Josef Pick (1849, Náchod – 1926, Vienna) and his wife Charlotte “Lotte”, née Rubinstein (1871, Galați – 1939, Vienna). Her younger sister was an Austrian economist, women’s rights activist, journalist and politician Käthe Leichter. Vally took piano lessons in childhood and studied musicology at Vienna University. She studied piano under Richard Robert, composition under Karl Weigl and musicology under Guido Adler. Vally married Karl Weigl in 1921, and after the National Socialists took power in Austria in 1938, the couple emigrated with their son to the U.S. with assistance from the Quaker Society of Friends. In New York, Weigl worked as a music teacher and composer, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts allowed her to compose and record Nature’s Moods, New England Suite, and four song cycles. After receiving a master’s degree at Columbia University, she also worked as a music therapist and became chief medical therapist at New York Medical Colleg

Vatroslav Lisinski

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vatroslav Lisinski (, 8 July 1819 – 31 May 1854) was a Croatian composer. Biography Lisinski was born Ignatius Fuchs to a German Jewish family. He would later change his name to Vatroslav Lisinski, which is a Croatian calque of his original name. For a time he worked as a clerk at the Tabula Banalis in Zagreb. Lisinski composed the first Croatian opera, Love and Malice (1846), which he wrote at the urging of Alberto Ognjen Štriga, and Porin (1851) as well as numerous works for orchestra, choir and soloists. He was also one of the founders of Illyrism, a movement that advocated the importance of Croatian and more generally South Slavic cultural heritage, as a reaction to Magyarisation during the Austro-Hungarian rule. Lisinski died in Zagreb on 31 May 1854 and was buried at the Mirogoj Cemetery. Legacy In 1944, Oktavijan Miletić directed a movie about him, Lisinski (film). The Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall was named after him in 1973. The international train EN 498/499 connecting Zagreb and Munich is named Lisinski, after the composer. References

Victor Urbancic

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dr. Victor Urbancic or Viktor Ernest Johann von Urbantschitsch (9 August 1903 – 4 April 1958) was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and music scholar from Vienna. During his twenty-year exile in Iceland, from 1938 until his death, he made significant contributions to Iceland’s musical culture. Biography Urbancic was born in Vienna and began his musical studies there, studying piano, and later composition with Joseph Marx and conducting with Clemens Krauss and others at the Vienna Conservatory of Music. He also completed a doctorate in musicology at the University of Vienna under Guido Adler, with a dissertation on sonata form in the works of Johannes Brahms. His early career was spent at the Stadttheater Mainz, and he had already obtained a position at the Conservatory there, which was led by his old friend and colleague Hans Gál, when the Nazis took power in 1933 and he was forced to leave Germany. Although Urbancic was born and raised in the Catholic faith, his wife, Melitta, came from a Jewish family. He eventually found a new job at the Graz Conservatory, where he was teacher and director of the opera studio, as well as lecturing in musicology at the University of Graz.

Viktor Ullmann

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Viktor Ullmann (1 January 1898 – 18 October 1944) was a Silesia-born Austrian composer, conductor and pianist. Biography Viktor Ullmann was born on 1 January 1898 in Cieszyn (Teschen), which belonged then to Austrian Silesia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Both his parents were from families of Jewish descent, but had converted to Catholicism before Viktor’s birth. As an assimilated Jew, his father, Maximilian, was able to pursue a career as a professional officer in the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In World War I he was promoted to colonel and ennobled. One writer has described Ullmann’s milieu in these terms: “Like such other assimilated German-speaking Czech Jews as Kafka and Mahler, Ullmann lived a life of multiple estrangements, cut off from Czech nationalism, German anti-Semitism and Jewish orthodoxy”. Beginning in 1909 Viktor attended a grammar school (Gymnasium) in Vienna. His musical talents and inclinations soon gave him access to Arnold Schoenberg and his circle of pupils. Upon finishing school, he volunteered for military service. After deployment on the Italian Front at Isonzo, he was granted study leave, which he used to start studying law at Vienna University

Vincenc Mašek

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vincenc Václav Mašek (sometimes called Vincent Maschek or Vincenzo Maschek; 5 April 1755 – 15 November 1831) was a Czech composer of classical music, pianist and virtuoso of the glass harmonica. Mašek composed two Czech operas, symphonies, piano concertos, chamber music, masses, propers, cantatas, piano sonatas, works for the glass harmonica, and songs. Life Mašek was born on 5 April 1755 in Zvíkovec, Kingdom of Bohemia. He was introduced to music by his father, , and later studied composition and fortepiano with František Xaver Dušek, and harmony and counterpoint with Josef Seger in Prague. Under the name Vincenc Mašek, he then toured Germany as a pianist, performing in Berlin, Dresden, Halle, Leipzig, and Hamburg, as well as in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1794, Mašek became Kapellmeister at St. Nicholas Church in Prague-Malá Strana, a position he held until his death in 1831. His brother , his sons Albín and Gašpar Mašek, and his grandchildren Friederike Proch Benesch and Heinrich Proch were also composers. Works Vincenc Mašek composed two operas, lieder, masses, cantatas, piano concertos, piano sonatas, works for glass harmonica, chamber music and symphonies. References Further read

Vincent Bueno

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vincent Mendoza Bueno (born 10 December 1985) is an Austrian singer of Filipino descent. On 12 January 2008, he became the winner of the ORF programme, Musical! Die Show (Musical! The Show), an Austrian television musical contest. He also served as a support act for Filipino singer Sarah Geronimo’s concert in Vienna. On 18 January 2008, Bueno told the Philippine media of his plans to debut in the Philippines. He then made his first performance in Philippine Television on ASAP XV on 29 August 2010. He also signed a contract under Star Records, an ABS-CBN Entertainment Group Company, to pursue his music career in the Philippines. He was supposed to represent Austria at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands with the song, “Alive”. However, on 18 March 2020, the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, he represented the country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song “Amen”, however it did not qualify for the final. Career Early education Bueno started dancing at the age of 4. He later graduated in music and performing arts at the Vienna Conservatory of Music. Bueno is also a composer of R&B music, having taken special courses in ac

Walter Arlen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Walter Arlen (; July 31, 1920 – September 2, 2023) was an Austrian and American composer, focused on songs for voice and piano. Just after completing school, he fled the Nazi regime in Vienna for the United States, where he worked as a music critic for the Los Angeles Times, and a professor of music at the Loyola Marymount University. He was recognised as a composer late in life. Life and career Walter Aptowitzer was born in Vienna on July 31, 1920, to a middle-class Jewish family. His parents ran Warenhaus Dichter, a department store founded by his grandfather in 1890. At age five, his grandfather took him to musicologist Otto Erich Deutsch, who discovered that he had perfect pitch, and recommended that he take piano lessons. His father was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp Arlen worked as a journalist and music critic for the Los Angeles Times, first as an assistant to Albert Goldberg who was music critic from 1952 to 1980. It gave him first-hand experience of the musical life of the city. He founded the music department at Loyola University Chicago in 1969, and was emerited in 1990. Arlen established friendships with numerous other German and Austrian émigrées, including Str

Walter Jurmann

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Walter Jurmann (October 12, 1903 – June 17, 1971) was an Austrian-born composer of popular music renowned for his versatility who, after immigrating to the United States, specialized in film scores and soundtracks. Biography Born in Vienna, Jurmann received a classical education, taking his Matura exams in 1921. For some time he studied medicine but in 1924, after working as a lounge pianist in a posh hotel in the Semmering area of Lower Austria, abandoned his studies altogether in order to pursue a career in music. He moved to Berlin and soon became successful with tunes such as “Du bist nicht die Erste”. Probably his most famous 1920s song is “Veronika, der Lenz ist da”, popularized by the all-male a cappella ensemble, the Comedian Harmonists. With the arrival of sound movies Jurmann also began writing film music, starting with Ihre Majestät, die Liebe (Her Majesty, Love) (1930). Jurman’s melodies were so charming and easy to remember that a contemporary paper reported that cinemagoers were humming the new tunes already on the morning following the release of a new film. In 1933, after the Nazis had come to power, Jurmann left Berlin for Paris, France, where he continued writing

Walter Mair

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Walter Christian Mair (born 17 December 1978) is an Austrian-born composer. Biography Mair has created scores for feature films, television drama, commercials, and narrative-driven interactive entertainment such as computer games. Mair studied in Austria, earning a degree in music composition for orchestra from the University of Vienna and a major in music composition for motion pictures from Salzburg University. He composed music for the Universal Pictures documentary feature Ronaldo, directed by Anthony Wonke. In 2016, Mair scored the music for Toby Tobias’ thriller Blood Orange starring Ben Lamb and Iggy Pop. In television, he has written music for BBC 1’s Cuffs and E4’s teen drama mini-series Glue. He has also written music for Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto video games, Sony’s sci-fi franchise Killzone, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction and The Creative Assembly’s Total War series. Mair writes in a wide range of styles, from large orchestral symphonic scores with choir down to smaller ensembles and also intersperses electronics and hybrid or bespoke sounds with live solo instruments. Mair has written the music and created sound design for numerous commercials for television

Walter Rabl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Walter Rabl (30 November 1873 in Vienna – 11 July 1940 in Klopein, Klopeiner See/Carinthia) was a Viennese composer, conductor, and teacher of vocal music. Largely forgotten today, Rabl left only a small number of works, all of them early ones, from the twilight of the Romantic era. At the age of 30 he stopped composing entirely and devoted himself to conducting and vocal coaching the rest of his life. Life Walter Rabl was born in Vienna and as a child became an excellent pianist. He attended the Institut Le Rosey, a boarding school in Rolle, Switzerland. He went to Salzburg and there studied music theory and composition with J. F. Hummel, director of the Mozarteum. He graduated with honours from the Kaiserlich und Königlich Staatsgymnasium (Royal and Imperial State School) in Salzburg in 1892. Rabl returned to Vienna to study with Karel Navrátil (1867 - 1936) and then enrolled in the doctoral program at the German University in Prague as a student of the musicologist Guido Adler. At 25, he completed his doctorate and soon after accepted a position at the Royal Opera of Dresden as coach and chorus master. Beginning in 1903 Rabl conducted throughout Germany and championed works by p

Wenzel Müller

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wenzel Müller (26 September 1767 – 3 August 1835) was an Austrian composer and conductor. He is regarded as the most prolific opera composer of all time with his 166 operas. Life and career Müller was born in Markt Türnau, in Moravia. He studied with Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf and performed as a theatre musician in his youth. In 1786 he became Kapellmeister at the Theater in der Leopoldstadt in Leopoldstadt, Vienna. After several years at the German theatre in Prague from 1807 until 1813, he returned to Leopoldstadt, where he worked until 1830. Under his leadership, the theatre became one of the most important venues in Viennese musical life. He died in Baden bei Wien. He was a popular and prolific composer, producing more than 250 works. Although he wrote several popular stage works (mostly Singspiele), his art songs are his enduring legacy. Often possessing witty music and lyrics or expressing a great deal of tenderness, Müller’s songs were immensely popular, and some of the works he wrote with Ferdinand Raimund remain in the Viennese repertory. His opera provided the theme for Beethoven’s “Kakadu Variations” for piano trio, Opus 121a. He is said to have composed what has been

Werner Pirchner

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Werner Pirchner (13 February 1940 – 10 August 2001) was an Austrian composer and jazz musician. Life He was born in Hall in Tirol, and had his musical start playing jazz. In 1963 he played vibraphone in the Oscar-Klein-Quartett. The last 15 years of his life he worked as a composer only. In 1973, his first tape was published. In 1974, he composed the music for the film Der Untergang des Alpenlandes. In 1975, Bert Breit invited him to compose the film music about Tyrol, for which he composed the “Streichquartett für Bläserquintett”, PWV 15. In Austria Pirchner was well-known, since he composed the “Sounddesign” for the ORF-culture radio Ö1 in 1994. In 1995, he composed the music for Hofmannsthals Jedermann at the Salzburger Festspiele. He died in Innsbruck. Compositions Film and incidental music * 24 Deka Jazz-Lieder – for Henry Maternas „Face of Europe“. Musik zu 6 Filmen, op. 1 (1966) * Brechreiz für großes Orchester – und ca. 10 andere Filmmusiken, op. 2 (1967–1970) References External links *

Wilhelm Grosz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wilhelm Grosz (11 August 1894 – 10 December 1939), sometimes credited as Hugh Williams, was an Austrian composer, pianist, and conductor, who from 1934, worked in the UK, before moving to the USA in 1938. Grosz composed both classical concert works and (from exile) internationally successful popular songs. Life Wilhelm Grosz was born in Vienna to a wealthy Jewish family. He studied music with Richard Robert (piano), Franz Schreker (composition) and Guido Adler (musicology). In 1921 he was appointed conductor of the Mannheim Opera, but returned to Vienna in 1922, where he worked as a pianist and composer. From 1927, he was the artistic manager of the Ultraphone Gramophone Company (Deutsche Ultraphon AG) in Berlin, where he was involved with more popular music forms. In 1933, he became conductor of the Kammerspiele Theater in Vienna. Forced to flee his native land because of the Nazi takeover, Grosz resettled in England in 1934. Finding little interest there for his avant garde musical style, he instead applied his talents to setting the lyrics of popular songs, some of which became international successes. Most of his most popular titles were written with lyricist Jimmy Kennedy: “Ha

Wilhelm Kienzl

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wilhelm Kienzl (17 January 1857 – 3 October 1941) However, during the Nazi era there were calls for boycotting his music due to his part Jewish ancestry In 1936 he was placed in the black list of the RS Berlin. Kienzl’s first love was opera, then vocal music, and it was in these two genres that he made his name. For a while he was considered, along with Hugo Wolf, one of the finest composers of Lieder (art songs) since Schubert. His most famous work, Der Evangelimann, best known for its aria Selig sind, die Verfolgung leiden (Blessed are the persecuted), continues to be revived occasionally. It is a folk opera which has been compared to Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and contains elements of verismo. After Humperdinck and Siegfried Wagner, the composers of fairy-tale operas, Kienzl is the most important opera composer of the romantic post-Wagner era. However, Kienzl’s strengths actually lie in the depiction of everyday scenes. In his last years, his ample corpus of songs achieved prominence, though it has largely been neglected since then. Despite the fact that opera came first in his life, Kienzl by no means ignored instrumental music. He wrote three string quartets and a piano

Wilhelm Mayer (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wilhelm Mayer (10 June 183122 January 1898) was an Austro-Bohemian composer who published his works under the name W. A. Rémy. He was also a noted teacher, whose pupils included Ferruccio Busoni and Felix Weingartner. His name sometimes appears as Wilhelm Mayer-Rémy. His overture to Eugène Sue’s drama Jean Cavalier was written when he was 17, but his parents required him to enter the legal profession. He graduated as a doctor of law in 1856, when he was 25. He then occupied various posts in the Austro-Hungarian civil service. Mayer focused on the music of Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach, but greatly disliked Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner. Through his former pupil Wilhelm Kienzl’s intercession with Ferruccio Busoni’s father, Mayer taught Busoni that “the widest possible culture makes the artist”, a motto Busoni wrote on his 430-page treatise on composition he had written out in longhand during his studies with Mayer and later transmitted to his own pupils. Richard Heuberger, Emil von Reznicek, Richard Sahla, Marie Baumayer Josef Gauby and Friedrich von Hausegger. * Sardanapalus, overture * Helena, symphonic poem * Phantasiestuck, orchestra (given at the Vienna Philharmonic con

Witold Silewicz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Witold Silewicz (18 May 1921 in Rajsko, Poland – 26 January 2007 in Vienna) was a Polish-Austrian composer and Double bass player, probably best known for his instrumental arrangement of the Happy Birthday to You tune for Woodwind Quintet. Biography He was born in Rajsko nr. Oświęcim, on the estate of his maternal grandparents, the youngest of three children of Warsaw architect, Zdzisław Silewicz and his wife Stefania née Zwilling. While still a child he was infected with Tuberculosis which affected his bones. As a result, he spent much time in treatment in sanatoria as was prescribed at the time, missing out on school. The illness left him lame in one leg for the rest of his life. When he was eight years old he lost his father who had died on a trip to Nice in 1930. In spite of his early trials, a striking musical talent became discernible. Through family connections on his mother’s side, and at great risk after the outbreak of World War II, he was able to move to Vienna, then annexed to the Third Reich. In 1943 he was accepted by the Vienna Music Academy where he studied composition with Joseph Marx, conducting with Joseph Krips and Hans Swarowsky, a pupil of Richard Strauss. He

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The sources#

Modern scholars rely on various source materials in writing Mozart’s biography. First, there are about 1500 pages of family letters, often vivid and entertaining, mostly written when travel separated Mozart from his kin. There are also early biographies, written with input from Mozart’s sister Nannerl, his wife Constanze, and others who knew him well. Old documents, such as newspaper stories and government records, have been located in libraries and archives, annotated, and published. Lastly, the composer’s surviving manuscripts shed light on the history and dating of his compositions: there are sketches, drafts, dated autographs of completed works, and Mozart’s personal catalog. Mozart biographers all work from these same sources, but they often disagree on crucial points. The disagreements arise in part from the need to judge how much to believe a source who had strong motivation to diverge from the truth. A source once widely used but now judged untruthful is the publisher Friedrich Rochlitz, who sought to increase posthumous sales of Mozart’s works by publishing false, vivid stories about him. A trend across time, noted in , is for biographers to be less credulous (e.g., in believing Rochlitz), less sentimental, and more sensitive to information about Mozart’s own society and times.