Werner Egk
Encyclopedia
Werner Egk born Werner Joseph Mayer, was a German composer
.
n town of Auchsesheim, today part of Donauwörth
, Germany. His family, of Catholic peasant stock, moved to Augsburg
when Egk was six. He studied at a Benedictine
Gymnasium (academic high school) and entered the municipal conservatory
. Egk demonstrated talents as a composer, graphic artist, and writer, and he moved first to Frankfurt to improve his piano talents and then, in 1921, to Munich. There, working as a theater composer and playing in the pit
, he married Elizabeth Karl, a violinist. He derived his pen name
"Egk" from his wife initials: Elisabeth, geborne Karl (Elisabeth, née
Karl). His only son, Titus, was born in 1924.
Egk moved to Berlin in 1928, meeting composers Arnold Schoenberg
and Hanns Eisler
. He intended to become a cinema composer and accompanied silent films. When radio broadcasting became available to the public, Egk immediately realised its importance as a mass medium and developed opera
s and radio plays. He was introduced to Hans Fleisch, an important radio executive (also Paul Hindemith
's brother-in-law and a Jew), by composer Kurt Weill
. He received his first commission for broadcasting from Fleisch's company.
He returned to Munich in 1929 to work for the local radio station and settled in Lochham, a suburb. He became associated with musicians Fritz Büchtger, Karl Marx
, and especially, Carl Orff
, whom he had met in 1921. His music of the period shows a debt to the compositional style of Igor Stravinsky
. He also became friends with new-music conductor Hermann Scherchen
and the owners of the music publisher, Schott Music
in Mainz. His career as a composer took off with the premiere of his radio opera, Columbus, in July 1933 (staged in April 1934).
, Professor of German studies at York University
labels Egk "The Enigmatic Opportunist" in his portrait of Eight German Composers of the Nazi Era, and by far the most extensive evaluation of the composer's wartime connections in English (Kater, 30). As a German of Catholic heritage, Egk was in no danger of falling in disfavor with the regime's racial policies; rather, the professional hardships for Jewish and others created opportunities. Egk's contact with Scherchen soon lapsed, and the composer developed a complicated relationship as well as a professional rivalry with Orff, whose works ultimately found more lasting success.
Initially, Munich cultural administrators had doubts about the compatibility of Egk's Stravinskian style with a Nazi audience, and he encountered difficulty with Munich's representative for Alfred Rosenberg
's Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur (Militant League for German Culture
), Paul Ehlers. He also faced criticism from Ludwig Schrott, another functionary of Rosenberg and a supporter of thoroughly Nazi composer Hans Pfitzner
.
In 1935, he premiered his first opera Die Zaubergeige (The Magic Violin) in Frankfurt am Main. The work channeled Bavarian folksong and a diatonic
idiom far less modernist
than the more angular Columbus. This matched Nazi artistic guidelines prescribing folk elements as being close to the people. Swiss composer Heinrich Sutermeister
saw the stylistic change as "opportunistic." The success of the work led to a commission for ballet music related to the 1936 Summer Olympics
(for which he received a gold medal in the Art Competition
) and his appointment as conductor of the Berlin State Opera
– a position he held until 1941. Egk's protector in Berlin was Heinz Tietjen
, director of the Prussian state theaters and artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival
.
November 1938 saw the première of his opera Peer Gynt based on Henrik Ibsen
's play
. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels
wrote in his diary on 1 February 1939: "I am very enthusiastic and so is the Führer. A new discovery for the both of us". Oddly enough, Egk had returned to his more Stravinskian style in the work. More conservative critics found elements in the plot threatening Nazi ideals of martial grandeur, and they found difficulties with reworking of the Nordic plot. One possible interpretation of the event was due to an argument Hitler was having with his lieutenant Göring, who had warned Hitler not to go to the opera, "because none of your favorite singers were in it." It has been credibly suggested Hitler and Goebbels decided to "like" the opera as a "taunt" to Göring for having the audacity to tell Hitler what he could and could not see (Kater 10 and accompanying footnotes, also an oral history from Viennese composer Gottfried von Einem
, Vienna, Nov. 30, 1994).
As the thirties wore on, Egk was asked or perhaps commanded to make official pronouncements about German music, and he received a large commission (never fulfilled) for a large scale opera on Nazi themes. His next major work was the ballet Joan von Zarissa in 1940. In the following decade, it was common to pair the work with Orff's Carmina Burana
. In general, Egk's music found much more success in Berlin, and Orff had lost to Egk in the prize surrounding the Olympic games composition. Unlike Egk, who enjoyed regular income from his artistic directorship, Orff was also self-employed and much impoverished. This exposed Egk to attack from Orff's partisans, though Egk and his wife continued to see Orff socially. These rivalries impinged on the credibility of witnesses in Egk's trial after the war.
Egk never joined the Nazi party and was exonerated in denazification
tribunals held in 1947, but the trials were fraught with inaccuracies including accounts of involvement with the Austrian resistance movement that were highly dubious. Among Egk's defenders were ottfried von Einem and composer Boris Blacher. Initially his Nazi affiliations were held against him, though only briefly. There are various interpretations regarding the extent of his collaboration:
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle (Kater, 22).
since 1950; he was also the first German president of the CISAC
. In 1954 he became conductor of the Bavarian State Opera
with a 20 year contract.
His later years saw a constant string of premieres at major European festivals, beginning with Irische Legende in 1955, conducted by George Szell
and featuring Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
. His opera Die Verlobung in San Domingo opened the National Theatre Munich in 1963 and features a libretto
by Heinrich von Kleist
, pleading for racial tolerance. His late works, however, were almost exclusively instrumental. Exceptional among them are works for winds, including the Divertissement for Ten Wind Instruments (1974) and the Five Pieces for Wind Quintet (1975).
Egk died on 10 July 1983 in Inning am Ammersee.
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...
.
Early career
He was born in the SwabiaSwabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
n town of Auchsesheim, today part of Donauwörth
Donauwörth
Donauwörth is a city in the German State of Bavaria , in the region of Swabia . It is said to have been founded by two fisherman where the Danube and Wörnitz rivers meet...
, Germany. His family, of Catholic peasant stock, moved to Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
when Egk was six. He studied at a Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
Gymnasium (academic high school) and entered the municipal conservatory
Music school
The term music school refers to an educational institution specialized in the study, training and research of music.Different terms refer to this concept such as school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department or conservatory.Music instruction can be provided...
. Egk demonstrated talents as a composer, graphic artist, and writer, and he moved first to Frankfurt to improve his piano talents and then, in 1921, to Munich. There, working as a theater composer and playing in the pit
Orchestra pit
An orchestra pit is the area in a theater in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music or in cases when incidental music is required...
, he married Elizabeth Karl, a violinist. He derived his pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
"Egk" from his wife initials: Elisabeth, geborne Karl (Elisabeth, née
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Karl). His only son, Titus, was born in 1924.
Egk moved to Berlin in 1928, meeting composers Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
and Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler
Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...
. He intended to become a cinema composer and accompanied silent films. When radio broadcasting became available to the public, Egk immediately realised its importance as a mass medium and developed 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 radio plays. He was introduced to Hans Fleisch, an important radio executive (also Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
's brother-in-law and a Jew), by composer Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
. He received his first commission for broadcasting from Fleisch's company.
He returned to Munich in 1929 to work for the local radio station and settled in Lochham, a suburb. He became associated with musicians Fritz Büchtger, Karl Marx
Karl Marx (composer)
Karl Marx was a German composer, conductor, and educator.Marx was born in Munich. He first studied natural sciences but, after having met Carl Orff, decided to make music his career, and studied musical composition with Orff, Siegmund von Hausegger, and Anton Beer-Waldbrunn among others...
, and especially, Carl Orff
Carl Orff
Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...
, whom he had met in 1921. His music of the period shows a debt to the compositional style of Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
. He also became friends with new-music conductor Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor.-Life:Scherchen was originally a violist and played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens...
and the owners of the music publisher, Schott Music
Schott Music
Schott Music is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe and is currently the second oldest music publishing house. The company headquarters of Schott Music was founded by Bernhard Schott in Mainz, Germany in 1770.Established in...
in Mainz. His career as a composer took off with the premiere of his radio opera, Columbus, in July 1933 (staged in April 1934).
Nazi era
Any composer working in Germany at the time had to deal with the Nazi regime coming to power in 1933. Michael H. KaterMichael H. Kater
Michael Hans Kater is a Canadian-based historian, academic and author of several books on Nazi Germany.He moved to Canada as a teenager where he first studied at St. Michael's college before eventually going onto the University of Toronto where he earned his BA degree in 1959 and then his MA in...
, Professor of German studies at York University
York University
York University is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, Ontario's second-largest graduate school, and Canada's leading interdisciplinary university....
labels Egk "The Enigmatic Opportunist" in his portrait of Eight German Composers of the Nazi Era, and by far the most extensive evaluation of the composer's wartime connections in English (Kater, 30). As a German of Catholic heritage, Egk was in no danger of falling in disfavor with the regime's racial policies; rather, the professional hardships for Jewish and others created opportunities. Egk's contact with Scherchen soon lapsed, and the composer developed a complicated relationship as well as a professional rivalry with Orff, whose works ultimately found more lasting success.
Initially, Munich cultural administrators had doubts about the compatibility of Egk's Stravinskian style with a Nazi audience, and he encountered difficulty with Munich's representative for Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Rosenberg
' was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government...
's Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur (Militant League for German Culture
Militant League for German Culture
The Militant League for German Culture [German: Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur ], was a nationalist-minded anti-Semtic political society during the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era...
), Paul Ehlers. He also faced criticism from Ludwig Schrott, another functionary of Rosenberg and a supporter of thoroughly Nazi composer Hans Pfitzner
Hans Pfitzner
Hans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his...
.
In 1935, he premiered his first opera Die Zaubergeige (The Magic Violin) in Frankfurt am Main. The work channeled Bavarian folksong and a diatonic
Diatonic and chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony...
idiom far less modernist
Modernism (music)
Modernism in music is characterized by a desire for or belief in progress and science, surrealism, anti-romanticism, political advocacy, general intellectualism, and/or a breaking with the past or common practice.- Defining musical modernism :...
than the more angular Columbus. This matched Nazi artistic guidelines prescribing folk elements as being close to the people. Swiss composer Heinrich Sutermeister
Heinrich Sutermeister
Heinrich Sutermeister was a Swiss opera composer.-Life and career:During the early 1930s he was a student at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich where Carl Orff was his teacher and Orff remained a powerful influence on his music. Returning to Switzerland in the mid 1930s, he devoted his life to...
saw the stylistic change as "opportunistic." The success of the work led to a commission for ballet music related to the 1936 Summer Olympics
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
(for which he received a gold medal in the Art Competition
Art competitions at the 1936 Summer Olympics
Art competitions were held as part of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Medals were awarded in five categories , for works inspired by sport-related themes....
) and his appointment as conductor of the Berlin State Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
– a position he held until 1941. Egk's protector in Berlin was Heinz Tietjen
Heinz Tietjen
Heinz Tietjen was a German conductor and music producer born in Tangier, Morocco.- Biography :At age twenty-three, he held the position of producer at the Opera House in Trier and was appointed its director in 1907, holding the dual roles until 1922...
, director of the Prussian state theaters and artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented...
.
November 1938 saw the première of his opera Peer Gynt based on Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's play
Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...
. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
wrote in his diary on 1 February 1939: "I am very enthusiastic and so is the Führer. A new discovery for the both of us". Oddly enough, Egk had returned to his more Stravinskian style in the work. More conservative critics found elements in the plot threatening Nazi ideals of martial grandeur, and they found difficulties with reworking of the Nordic plot. One possible interpretation of the event was due to an argument Hitler was having with his lieutenant Göring, who had warned Hitler not to go to the opera, "because none of your favorite singers were in it." It has been credibly suggested Hitler and Goebbels decided to "like" the opera as a "taunt" to Göring for having the audacity to tell Hitler what he could and could not see (Kater 10 and accompanying footnotes, also an oral history from Viennese composer Gottfried von Einem
Gottfried von Einem
Gottfried von Einem 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:...
, Vienna, Nov. 30, 1994).
As the thirties wore on, Egk was asked or perhaps commanded to make official pronouncements about German music, and he received a large commission (never fulfilled) for a large scale opera on Nazi themes. His next major work was the ballet Joan von Zarissa in 1940. In the following decade, it was common to pair the work with Orff's Carmina Burana
Carmina Burana (Orff)
Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1935 and 1936. It is based on 24 of the poems found in the medieval collection Carmina Burana...
. In general, Egk's music found much more success in Berlin, and Orff had lost to Egk in the prize surrounding the Olympic games composition. Unlike Egk, who enjoyed regular income from his artistic directorship, Orff was also self-employed and much impoverished. This exposed Egk to attack from Orff's partisans, though Egk and his wife continued to see Orff socially. These rivalries impinged on the credibility of witnesses in Egk's trial after the war.
Egk never joined the Nazi party and was exonerated in denazification
Denazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
tribunals held in 1947, but the trials were fraught with inaccuracies including accounts of involvement with the Austrian resistance movement that were highly dubious. Among Egk's defenders were ottfried von Einem and composer Boris Blacher. Initially his Nazi affiliations were held against him, though only briefly. There are various interpretations regarding the extent of his collaboration:
- Egk was never a Nazi, or
- Egk was never interested in unfair advantage for himself, or
- Egk was barely tolerated by the regime; or,
- Egk was an official musician of the Third Reich, who identified himself and his music with the ideals of the Nazis.
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle (Kater, 22).
Post-war
His major career began after the war. In Germany, Egk has been dubbed "Komponist des Wiederaufbaus" ("composer of the reconstruction", which followed World War II). Besides being a conductor and composer, he was head of the Berlin Musikhochschule (1950–1952) and important figure of the GEMAGesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte
Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte is a performance rights organization from Germany. It is the only such institution in Germany and a member of BIEM and CISAC...
since 1950; he was also the first German president of the CISAC
Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d´Auteurs et Compositeurs
Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d´Auteurs et Compositeurs , founded in 1926, is a performance rights organisation, which coordinates the protection of its member creators' rights.As of June 2010, CISAC numbers 229 authors’ societies from 121 countries and indirectly represents more than...
. In 1954 he became conductor of the Bavarian State Opera
Bavarian State Opera
The Bavarian State Opera is an opera company based in Munich, Germany.Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.- History:The opera company which was founded under Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653...
with a 20 year contract.
His later years saw a constant string of premieres at major European festivals, beginning with Irische Legende in 1955, conducted by George Szell
George Szell
George Szell , originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer...
and featuring Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is a retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous lieder performers of the post-war period and "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century"...
. His opera Die Verlobung in San Domingo opened the National Theatre Munich in 1963 and features a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Heinrich von Kleist
Heinrich von Kleist
Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist was a poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer. The Kleist Prize, a prestigious prize for German literature, is named after him.- Life :...
, pleading for racial tolerance. His late works, however, were almost exclusively instrumental. Exceptional among them are works for winds, including the Divertissement for Ten Wind Instruments (1974) and the Five Pieces for Wind Quintet (1975).
Egk died on 10 July 1983 in Inning am Ammersee.
Operas
- Columbus. Radio Opera (1933) Revised (1942)
- Die Zaubergeige (after Count Franz PocciCount Franz PocciCount Franz Graf von Pocci was a significant official in the court of King Ludwig the First of Bavaria. However, he is best known as the founding Director of the Munich Marionette Theatre, shadow puppeteer and author of countless puppet plays and childrens' stories.Pocci, in collaboration with...
, libretto by Ludwig Strecker) (1935; Revised 1954) - Peer Gynt after Henrik IbsenHenrik IbsenHenrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
(1938) - Circe after Pedro Calderón de la BarcaPedro Calderón de la BarcaPedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño usually referred as Pedro Calderón de la Barca , was a dramatist, poet and writer of the Spanish Golden Age. During certain periods of his life he was also a soldier and a Roman Catholic priest...
(1945, Premiered 1948; Reworked as an Opera semibuffa as 17 Tage und 4 Minuten, 1966) - Irische Legende after W. B. Yeats (1955; Revised 1975)
- Der Revisor after Nikolai GogolNikolai GogolNikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
(1957) - Die Verlobung in San Domingo after Heinrich von KleistHeinrich von KleistBernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist was a poet, dramatist, novelist and short story writer. The Kleist Prize, a prestigious prize for German literature, is named after him.- Life :...
(1963)
Ballets
- Joan von Zarissa for narrator, mixed chorus, soprano, baritone, and orchestra (1940)
- two suites for orchestra, the second titled Tryptich.
- 3 chansons (Charles d'Orléans) for 10-part chorus
- Abraxas. Faust-ballet after Heinrich HeineHeinrich HeineChristian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
(1948)- Concert suite
- Die chinesische Nachtigall after Hans Christian AndersenHans Christian AndersenHans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
(1953)- Suite Divertissement for string orchestra
- Casanova in London (1969; Extracts as Englische Suite)
Orchestral works
- Kleine Symphonie (1926)
- Olympische Festmusik (1936; text from Carl DiemCarl DiemCarl Diem was a German sports administrator, and as Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of the Berlin Olympic Games, the chief organizer of the 1936 Olympic Summer Games .He created the tradition of the Olympic torch relay, and was an influential historian of...
) - Orchester-Sonate (1947/48)
- Französische Suite after Jean-Philippe RameauJean-Philippe RameauJean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
(1949; reworked as a ballet 1952) - Allegria (1952; Ballet 1953)
- Variationen über ein karibisches Thema (1959; Ballet Danza, 1960)
- 2. Sonate für Orchester (1969)
- Spiegelzeit (1979)
- Musik für eine verschollene Romanze. Overture (1980)
- Der Revisor. Concert suite for trumpet and string orchestra (1981)
- Die Zaubergeige. Overture arranged for wind ensemble (1981)
- Canzona for cello and orchestra (1982)
- Nachtanz (Opus postumus, Premiered 1985)
Vocal works
- Herrgott noch ein Stück Brot Chorus SSTT (1923)
- Furchtlosigkeit und Wohlwollen. Oratorio for tenor, mixed chorus, and orchestra; (1931; Revised 1959)
- La tentation de Saint Antoine d’après des airs et des vers du 18e siècle for alto, string quartet, and string orchestra (1952; ballet version 1969)
- Nachgefühl. Cantata for soprano and orchestra after KlabundKlabundAlfred Henschke , better known by his pseudonym Klabund, was a German writer.-Life:Klabund, born Alfred Henschke in 1890 in Krossen, was the son of an apothecary. At the age of 16 he came down with tuberculosis, which the doctors initially misdiagnosed as pneumonia...
(1975)
Singspiels (musical plays)
- Die Löwe und die Maus. SingspielSingspielA Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
for children (1931) - Der Fuchs und der Rabe. Singspiel for children (1932)
- Die Historie vom Ritter Don Juan aus Barcelona. After an old folk play (1932)
Film music
- Der Herr vom andern Stern (Film by Heinz RühmannHeinz RühmannHeinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann was a popular German film actor.-Life and work:Rühmann was born in Essen, Westphalia. His role in the 1930 movie Die Drei von der Tankstelle led him to film stardom. He remained highly popular as a comedic actor throughout the 1930s and early 1940s...
, 1948)
Writings
- 1953: Abstrakte Oper Nr. 1 – (LibrettoLibrettoA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
for a work by Boris Blacher) - 1958: Das Zauberbett – Comedy
- 1960: Musik, Wort, Bild – Essays
- 1973: Die Zeit wartet nicht – Autobiography
- Various essays in Melos, Das Orchester, Neue Zeitschrift für MusikNeue Zeitschrift für MusikDie Neue Zeitschrift für Musik was a music magazine published in Leipzig, co-founded by Robert Schumann, his teacher and future father-in law Friedrich Wieck, and his close friend Ludwig Schuncke...
, Österreichische Musikalische Zeitung.