Eduard Künneke (27 January 1885 – 27 October 1953) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

s, opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

s and theatre music. He was born in Emmerich. His daughter was the actress and singer Evelyn Künneke.

Künneke studied musicology and literature in Berlin, and was also an advanced student of Max Bruch

Max Bruch

Max Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he...

. He worked as a repetiteur and chorus master at a Berlin operetta theatre, the Neues Operettentheater am Schiffbauerdamm

Theater am Schiffbauerdamm

The Theater am Schiffbauerdamm is a theatre building at the Schiffbauerdamm riverside in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany, opened on November 19, 1892. Since 1954 it is home to the Berliner Ensemble theatre company, founded in 1949 by Helene Weigel and Bertolt Brecht.The original name of the...

, but relinquished his post as chorus master after his opera Robins Ende (1909) was premiered in Mannheim and then received productions at 38 different German opera houses. Künneke later worked under Max Reinhardt

Max Reinhardt (theatre director)

----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...

 and wrote incidental music for Reinhardt’s staging of Part Two of Goethe's Faust

Goethe's Faust

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...

.

Künneke's graceful music is distinguished by its rhythm and striking harmonies. His best-known work is the 1921 operetta Der Vetter aus Dingsda; many of his songs are still familiar today.

In 1926, when his operetta Lady Hamilton was premiered in Breslau (now Wrocław), he formed what would become a long friendship with the conductor Franz Marszalek

Franz Marszalek

Franz Marszalek was a German conductor and composer, who was a leading figure in operetta. He began his studies in Wrocław, and moved to Berlin in 1933. He conducted the Cologne Radio Orchestra from 1949 to 1965, with an emphasis on operetta music...

. Marszalek was a dedicated advocate of Künneke's music, and during his tenure at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk

Westdeutscher Rundfunk

Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...

 in Cologne (1949–65) made numerous recordings of his works (many currently unavailable) with the Cologne Radio Orchestra and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Selected works

• Operas
  • "Robins Ende", 1909
  • "Coeur As" 1913
  • "Nadja", 1931
  • "Walther von der Vogelweide", 1945

• Operettas
  • "Wenn Liebe erwacht", 1920
  • "Der Vetter aus Dingsda (The Cousin from Nowhere)", 1921
  • "Die Ehe im Kreise", 1921
  • "Verliebte Leute", 1922
  • "Lady Hamilton", 1926
  • "Der Tenor der Herzogin", 1930
  • "Glückliche Reise", 1932
  • "Die lockende Flamme", 1933
  • "Die große Sünderin", 1935
  • "Zauberin Lola", 1937
  • "Hochzeit in Samarkand", 1938
  • "Hochzeit mit Erika", 1949

• Orchestral
  • Piano Concerto No. 1 A flat major, op. 36. Recorded on Koch Schwann CD 3-1372-2 (1997) with Tiny Wirtz, piano; Rundfunkorchester Des Sudwestfunks led by Wlodzimierz Kamirski
  • Jazz Suite for Jazz Band and Orchestra, 1929