Walter Braunfels
Encyclopedia
Walter Braunfels (ˈvaltɐ ˈbʁaʊnfɛls; 19 December 1882 – 19 March 1954) was a German
composer
, pianist
, and music educator.
(Levi 2001). He continued his piano
studies in Frankfurt at the Hoch Conservatory
with James Kwast
.
Braunfels studied law and economics at the university in Munich
until after a performance of Richard Wagner
's Tristan und Isolde
he decided on music. He went to Vienna in 1902 to study with the pianist and teacher Theodor Leschetizky. He then returned to Munich to study composition
with Felix Mottl
and Ludwig Thuille
. In February 1918 he was wounded at the front and in June 1918 on his return to Frankfurt converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, composing his Te Deum of 1920–21 "not as music for musicians but as a personal expression of faith."
He achieved early success with the melodious opera Die Vögel (The Birds, 1920), such that Adolf Hitler
, not realising that Braunfels was half-Jewish, in 1923 invited Braunfels to write an anthem for the Nazi Party, which Braunfels "indignantly turned down".
Braunfels performed as a professional pianist for many years. In 1949 he played Beethoven's Diabelli Variations
on a radio broadcast. At his farewell concert as pianist on 19 January 1952, he played Bach's D major Toccata, Beethoven's piano sonata no. 32
op. 111 and the arrangement of the Organ Fantasy and Fugue in G minor by Liszt.
Braunfels was invited by Konrad Adenauer
, then mayor of Cologne, to serve as the first director (and founder together with Hermann Abendroth
) of the Cologne Academy of Music
(Hochschule für Musik Köln) from 1925 to 1933, and again from 1945 to 1950. (Levi 2001; Warrack and West 1992,) With the rise of the Nazis to power he was dismissed, and listed as being half-Jewish in the Nazi list of musicians composing what the regime called degenerate music
. He retired from public life during the Hitler years but continued to compose. The war passed peacefully for Braunfels and his wife, though his three sons were conscripted into the Wehrmacht. After World War II
, he returned to public life and on 12 October 1945 again became director, and in 1948 president, of the Cologne Academy of Music and further enhanced his reputation as a music educator with high ideals.
, based on the play The Birds
by Aristophanes
, was recorded by Decca in 1996 and has been successfully revived (for example, by the Los Angeles Opera
in 2009).
Braunfels's music is in the German classical-romantic
tradition. His Phantastische Erscheinungen eines Themas von Hector Berlioz is a giant set of variations. "Structurally the work has something in common with Strauss
' Don Quixote—on LSD," noted David Hurwitz of ClassicsToday. "The orchestral technique also is quite similar, recognizably German school, with luscious writing for violins and horns, occasional outbursts of extreme virtuosity all around, and a discerning but minimal use of additional percussion" (Hurwitz 2005).
Braunfels composed music in a number of different genres, not only operas, but also songs, choral works and orchestral, chamber and piano pieces. His works include:
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...
, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, and music educator.
Life
Walter Braunfels was born in Frankfurt am Main. His first music teacher was his mother, the great-niece of the composer Louis SpohrLouis Spohr
Louis Spohr was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Born Ludewig Spohr, he is usually known by the French form of his name. Described by Dorothy Mayer as "The Forgotten Master", Spohr was once as famous as Beethoven. As a violinist, his virtuoso playing was admired by Queen Victoria...
(Levi 2001). He continued his piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
studies in Frankfurt at the Hoch Conservatory
Hoch Conservatory
Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium - Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on September 22, 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for music and the arts was established for all age groups. ...
with James Kwast
James Kwast
James Kwast was a Dutch-German pianist and renowned teacher of many other notable pianists. He was also a minor composer and editor.-Biography:Jacob James Kwast was born in Nijkerk, Netherlands, in 1852...
.
Braunfels studied law and economics at the university in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
until after a performance of Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
he decided on music. He went to Vienna in 1902 to study with the pianist and teacher Theodor Leschetizky. He then returned to Munich to study composition
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
with Felix Mottl
Felix Mottl
Felix Josef von Mottl was an Austrian conductor and composer. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant conductors of his day. He composed three operas, of which Agnes Bernauer was the most successful, as well as a string quartet and numerous songs and other music...
and Ludwig Thuille
Ludwig Thuille
Ludwig Thuille was a German composer and teacher, numbered for a while among the leading operatic composers of the 'Munich School', whose most famous representative was Richard Strauss.-Biography:...
. In February 1918 he was wounded at the front and in June 1918 on his return to Frankfurt converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, composing his Te Deum of 1920–21 "not as music for musicians but as a personal expression of faith."
He achieved early success with the melodious opera Die Vögel (The Birds, 1920), such that Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, not realising that Braunfels was half-Jewish, in 1923 invited Braunfels to write an anthem for the Nazi Party, which Braunfels "indignantly turned down".
Braunfels performed as a professional pianist for many years. In 1949 he played Beethoven's Diabelli Variations
Diabelli Variations
The 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, Op. 120, commonly known as the Diabelli Variations, is a set of variations for the piano written between 1819 and 1823 by Ludwig van Beethoven on a waltz composed by Anton Diabelli...
on a radio broadcast. At his farewell concert as pianist on 19 January 1952, he played Bach's D major Toccata, Beethoven's piano sonata no. 32
Piano Sonata No. 32 (Beethoven)
The Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111, is the last of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas. Along with Beethoven's 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli, op. 120 and his two collections of bagatelles—Opus 119 and Opus 126 —this was one of Beethoven's last compositions for piano. The...
op. 111 and the arrangement of the Organ Fantasy and Fugue in G minor by Liszt.
Braunfels was invited by Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
, then mayor of Cologne, to serve as the first director (and founder together with Hermann Abendroth
Hermann Abendroth
Hermann Paul Maximilian Abendroth was a German conductor.-Early life:Abendroth was born on 19 January 1883, at Frankfurt, Germany, belonging to a family which had already produced other artistic figures of divers disciplines...
) of the Cologne Academy of Music
Hochschule für Musik Köln
The Cologne University of Music is a music college in Cologne, and Germany's largest academy of music.-History:The academy was founded by Ferdinand Hiller in 1850 as Conservatorium der Musik in Coeln...
(Hochschule für Musik Köln) from 1925 to 1933, and again from 1945 to 1950. (Levi 2001; Warrack and West 1992,) With the rise of the Nazis to power he was dismissed, and listed as being half-Jewish in the Nazi list of musicians composing what the regime called degenerate music
Degenerate music
Degenerate music was a label applied in the 1930s by the Nazi government in Germany to certain forms of music that it considered to be harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concern for degenerate music was a part of its larger and more well-known campaign against degenerate art...
. He retired from public life during the Hitler years but continued to compose. The war passed peacefully for Braunfels and his wife, though his three sons were conscripted into the Wehrmacht. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he returned to public life and on 12 October 1945 again became director, and in 1948 president, of the Cologne Academy of Music and further enhanced his reputation as a music educator with high ideals.
Music
Walter Braunfels was well-known as a composer between the two World Wars but fell into oblivion after his death. There is now something of a renaissance of interest in his works. His opera Die VögelDie Vögel (opera)
Die Vögel , Op. 30 is an opera in a prologue and two acts by Walter Braunfels. The libretto, written by the composer, is a free adaptation of Aristophanes' comedy The Birds which was performed at the Dionysos Theatre in Athens in 414 BC....
, based on the play The Birds
The Birds (play)
The Birds is a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BCE at the City Dionysia where it won second prize. It has been acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy remarkable for its mimicry of birds and for the gaiety of its songs...
by Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
, was recorded by Decca in 1996 and has been successfully revived (for example, by the Los Angeles Opera
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...
in 2009).
Braunfels's music is in the German classical-romantic
Romantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
tradition. His Phantastische Erscheinungen eines Themas von Hector Berlioz is a giant set of variations. "Structurally the work has something in common with Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
' Don Quixote—on LSD," noted David Hurwitz of ClassicsToday. "The orchestral technique also is quite similar, recognizably German school, with luscious writing for violins and horns, occasional outbursts of extreme virtuosity all around, and a discerning but minimal use of additional percussion" (Hurwitz 2005).
Braunfels composed music in a number of different genres, not only operas, but also songs, choral works and orchestral, chamber and piano pieces. His works include:
Operas
- Prinzessin BrambillaPrinzessin BrambillaPrinzessin Brambilla , Op. 12b is an opera in a prologue and five scenes by Walter Braunfels. The libretto, written by the composer, is based on the novella of the same name by E.T.A. Hoffmann published in 1820.-Composition history:...
(after E. T. A. Hoffmann) (1909) - Ulenspiegel (1913)
- Die VögelDie Vögel (opera)Die Vögel , Op. 30 is an opera in a prologue and two acts by Walter Braunfels. The libretto, written by the composer, is a free adaptation of Aristophanes' comedy The Birds which was performed at the Dionysos Theatre in Athens in 414 BC....
(after AristophanesAristophanesAristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
) (1920) - Don Gil von den grünen Hosen (1924)
- Der gläserne Berg (1929)
- Galathea (1929)
- Verkündigung (after Paul ClaudelPaul ClaudelPaul Claudel was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel. He was most famous for his verse dramas, which often convey his devout Catholicism.-Life:...
) (composed 1933-5, premièred NWDR Television 1948) - Der Traum ein Leben (1937)
- Szenen aus dem Leben der heiligen JohannaSzenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen JohannaSzenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna is an opera in three acts by Walter Braunfels to a libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
(1939-1943, premièred StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
2001) - Tanzspiel Der Zauberlehrling after Goethe composed as a Ballade for television (1954)
Oratorios
- Offenbarung Johannis - Revelation of John (1919)
- Spiel von der Auferstehung - Resurrection play (1954)
Selected other works
- Serenade, Op. 20 (1910)
- Phantastiche Erscheinungen eines Themas von Hector Berlioz (Fantastic Appearances of a Theme by Hector Berlioz), Op. 25 (1914–17)
- Organ Concerto, Op. 38 (1927)
- Schottische Fantasie for Viola and Orchestra, Op. 47 (1933)
- Music (Sinfonia Concertante) for Violin Solo, Viola Solo, 2 Horns and String Orchestra, Op. 68 (1948)
External links
- Walter Braunfels English-language page at SWF website.
- Classical Composers Database
- Walter Braunfels short biography by Michael Custodis
- Silenced Voice, Heard Again