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Ernst Krenek

 

(born Aug. 23, 1900, Vienna, Austria — died Dec. 23, 1991, Palm Springs, Calif., U.S.) Austrian-born U.S. composer. He studied composition from age 16 with Franz Schreker (1878 – 1934) and first gained attention with his atonal Second Symphony (1923). After a brief Neoclassical phase, he reestablished his radical credentials with the jazz-influenced satiric opera Johnny Strikes up the Band! (1926), which created a sensation. Intrigued by Arnold Schoenberg's 12-tone method (see serialism), he devised his own version — which involved "rotation" of the set's order — for the opera Karl V (1933), the first 12-tone opera. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1937 and taught at several institutions, but his large body of work remained more highly esteemed in Europe.

For more information on Ernst Krenek, visit Britannica.com.

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Music Encyclopedia: Ernst Krenek
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(b Vienna, 23 Aug 1900; d Palm Springs, ca, 22 Dec 1991). American composer of Austrian origin. He studied in Vienna and Berlin with Schreker, who was an influence on his early works (Symphonies nos. 1-3, 1921-2). After a visit to Paris, he began to emulate Stravinsky's neo-classicism, producing an eclectic style out of which, with the addition of mild jazz elements, he wrote his opera Jonny spielt auf (1926), a spectacular success in its day. He followed it up with more jazz operas, including Leben des Orest (1930), and then assimilated 12-note serialism in his most ambitious opera, Karl V (1938). In 1938 he moved to the USA, where he taught and continued to compose prolifically, his later works including further operas: Pallas Athene weint (1955), Der goldene Bock (1964), Sardakai (1970). Nearly all his music since Karl V is serial, several works of the 1950s and 1960s being abstract speculations in the technique. In scope and style his music embraces almost all the major trends, displayed in a highly accomplished technique.

works:
Dramatic music

  • Jonny spielt auf (1926)
  • Leben des Orest (1930)
  • Karl V (1938)
  • Pallas Athene weint (1955)
  • Der goldene Bock (1964)
  • Sardakai (1970)
  • c 14 other operas
  • ballets
  • incidental music
Choral music
  • Lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae (1942)
  • other Catholic church music
Orchestral music
  • 5 syms. (1921, 1922, 1922, 1947, 1949)
  • 4 pf concs. (1923, 1937, 1946, 1950)
  • Quaestio temporis (1959)
  • Horizon Circled (1967)
Vocal music
  • c 20 songs, 1 v, pf
  • c 17 others, incl. Sestina (1957)
Chamber music
  • 8 str qts (1921, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1930, 1937, 1944, 1981)
  • other pieces
Piano music
  • c 25 pieces incl. 6 sonatas (1919, 1928, 1943, 1948, 1950, 1951)
Ballets, incidental music, tape music

Biography: Ernst Krenek
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Prolific Austrian-American composer Ernst Krenek (1900-1991) experimented widely with styles and techniques of composition, including atonality, neoclassicism, the twelve-tone system, serialism, and electronic music.

Ernst Krenek was born on August 23, 1900, in Vienna, Austria, to Czech parents. His musical instruction began when he was six years old, and in 1916 he studied with the famous opera composer Franz Schreker - first at the Academy of Music in Vienna and later at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. By his early twenties, Krenek was composing distinctive works of his own, such as the opera Die Zwingburg (text by Franz Werfel).

In 1923 Krenek was invited by a patron of contemporary music to spend two years in Switzerland, where he produced two more operas, Der Sprung über den Schatten and Orpheus und Eurydike. However, his greatest operatic success, Jonny spielt auf (Johnny Strikes Up the Band!), came in 1927. This opera about a black jazz musician is rarely staged today, but was originally received with great enthusiasm and performed worldwide.

In 1928, after three years as an assistant at opera houses in Kassel and Wiesbaden, in Germany, Krenek returned to Vienna. His hopes for artistic success in his native city were shattered in 1934, when the performance of his twelve-tone opera Karl V at the Vienna State Opera was canceled for political reasons. Four years later he emigrated to the United States.

Citizenship and Work

Krenek taught composition at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, from 1939 to 1942 and at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, from 1942 to 1947. He became an American citizen in 1945 and settled in California.

An intensely productive composer, Krenek's list of compositions included 195 opus numbers by 1965. He became increasingly interested in serial composition as well as in electronic techniques. Some works including these elements are Spiritus Intelligentiae, Sanctus (1956), for voices and electronic sounds; Sestina (1957), for soprano, violin, guitar, flute, clarinet, trumpet, and percussion; Ausgerechnet und verspielt, a television opera (1959); and Quintina (1965), for soprano, six instruments, and audio tape. A more conservative work is the Deutsche Messe (1968), which displays Krenek's willingness to use any style that serves his needs of the moment.

In addition to several books and the operas Pallas Athena Weeps (1955) and Sardakai (1969), Krenek composed the oratorio Opus sine nomine, his final work, which was performed in Vienna in 1990. He died in Palm Springs, California, on December 23, 1991.

Further Reading

Available in English is Krenek's Music Here and Now (1939).There is no adequate biography of Krenek in English. His manuscript autobiography, now at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., may not be read, by his own request, until 15 years after his death. For background see Wilbur Lee Ogdon, Series and Structure (1956).

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Ernst Křenek
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Křenek, Ernst (krĕ'nĕk, Czech kerzhĕ'nĕk), 1900-1991, Austrian-American composer, b. Vienna. to Czech parents. He studied in Vienna and Berlin, and in the early 1920s he composed chamber music, a violin concerto (1924), and two operas, in a neoclassical style. In 1925 he became conductor at the opera house in Kassel. His jazz opera Johnny Strikes Up (1926), was extremely successful and has been translated into many languages. He returned to Vienna in 1928, and after a brief period of neo-Romanticism, during which he wrote the opera Leben des Orest (1930) and a Schubertian song cycle, he gradually adopted the twelve-tone technique (see serial music) originated by Arnold Schoenberg. His opera Karl V (1933) is entirely in the twelve-tone system. In 1937, Křenek moved to the United States, where became a citizen (1945). There he taught and composed chamber, orchestral, and choral music and wrote the operas Tarquin (1940) and Sardakai (1969) and the chamber opera Dark Waters (1950). He composed Eleven Transparencies (1956) for orchestra and electronic music. Křenek was also known as lecturer, pianist, and the author of Studies in Counterpoint (1940), Self-Analysis (1950), excerpts from an unpublished autobiography, and Exploring Music (tr. 1966).
Artist: Ernst Krenek
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Ernst Krenek
  • Period: Modern (1910-1949)
  • Country: USA
  • Born: August 23, 1900 in Vienna, Austria
  • Died: December 23, 1991 in Palm Springs, CA
  • Genres: Choral Music, Concerto, Keyboard Music, Miscellaneous Music, Opera, Orchestral Music, Symphony

Biography

A study of Viennese-born composer Ernst Krenek's prodigious output is rather like a study of twentieth century music in microcosm. Krenek moved with ease through the various aesthetic and stylistic changes that marked that turbulent century, taking what he considered the best features of each and fusing them into a new language all his own. Born in August of 1900, Krenek began musical training at the age of 6, and later studied privately with Franz Schreker in Vienna before enrolling for formal training with the same at the Berlin Conservatory in 1920.

Krenek's music of the early 1920s (including the Symphony No. 1 from 1921 and the first two string quartets) is chromatically charged and rather angst-ridden; however, a 1924 trip to France, during which he was exposed to the more utilitarian, entertaining aspects of Parisian music (and Stravinsky's neo-Classicism in particular) encouraged him to explore a more accessible style. In 1927 the opera Jonny spielt auf, which fuses jazz idioms to Krenek's own brand of tonality, made Krenek a household name; the work was such a popular success that it eventually received performances in over a hundred cities in eighteen different languages.

From 1925 to 1927 Krenek lived in Kassel and Wiesbaden, serving as assistant manager of those city's operas. After returning to Vienna in 1928 Krenek began questioning his own musical aesthetic, and, upon meeting Alban Berg and Anton Webern, made a serious study of the Second Vienesse School's 12-tone techniques. By 1931, when he began composing the opera Karl V (in celebration of the unifying virtues of Catholicism, as opposed to the degeneration of Germanic society in the 1930s), Krenek was convinced of the merits of serial composition; the opera stands as his first thoroughly dodecaphonic work. Nazi officials were not oblivious to the political subtext of the opera, and the planned 1934 Vienna premiere of the work was canceled by the authorities. Krenek visited the United States in 1937, and when Hitler invaded Poland, Krenek was expelled from Austria and moved across the Atlantic permanently.

Krenek divided the remainder of his life between active composition (he remained prolific until his death in 1991) and teaching duties (first at Vassar College in New York, and later at Hamline University in Minneapolis and as guest professor/lecturer at many other American institutions). Krenek was an American citizen from 1945 on.

In the 1950s and 1960s Krenek began to explore electronic composition (e.g. Spiritus intelligentiae Sanctus for voices and electronic sounds in 1956), and also aleatoric (chance) music (e.g., the 1957 work Sestina). During the last decades of his life Krenek scrupulously avoided all compositional "trends" and "systems," choosing instead to rely on his own musical wits.

In 1992, one year after his death, Krenek's remains were transferred to the city of Vienna, where in later years he had come to be honored as befits a musician of his stature. ~ Blair Johnston, All Music Guide
Wikipedia: Ernst Krenek
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Ernst Krenek (August 23, 1900 – December 22, 1991) was an Austrian and—from 1945—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).

Contents

Life

Krenek was born in Vienna as the son of a Czech soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army. Throughout his life, however, he insisted that his name be written Krenek rather than his father's Křenek, and that it should be pronounced as a German word. 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, wife of the late Gustav Mahler, and her daughter, Anna, whom he married in March 1924. That marriage ended in divorce before its first anniversary.

Jonny spielt auf, the title page of the 1926 vocal score (1st edition)

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 getting financial assistance from her Swiss patron Werner Reinhart at a time when there was hyper-inflation in Germany. In gratitude, Krenek dedicated the concerto to Moodie, and she premiered it on 5 January 1925, in Dessau. Krenek’s divorce from Anna Mahler became final a few days after the premiere. Krenek did not attend the premiere, but he did have an affair with Moodie, which has been described as "short-lived and complicated". He never managed to hear her play the concerto, but he did "immortalize some aspects of her personality in the character of Anita in his opera Jonny spielt auf". In 1924, Krenek also dedicated his Sonata for Solo Violin, Op. 33 to Alma Moodie[1], and his Kleine Suite, Op. 28 (1924) to Reinhart.[2]

His journalism was banned and his music was targeted in Germany by the Nazi Party beginning in 1933. On March 6, one day after elections in which the Nazis gained control of the Reichstag, Krenek's incidental music to Goethe's Triumph der Empfindsamkeit was withdrawn in Mannheim, and eventually pressure was brought to bear on the Vienna State Opera, which cancelled the commissioned premiere of Karl V. The jazz imitations of Jonny spielt auf were included in the 1938 Degenerate art exhibition in Munich. Nonetheless, despite protests by conservatives and the fledgling Nazi party, that work was a great success in Krenek's lifetime, playing all over Europe and becoming so popular that even a brand of cigarettes, still on the market today in Austria, was named "Jonny".[3]

In 1938 Krenek moved to the United States of America, where he taught music at various universities, including Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota from 1942-1947. He became an American citizen in 1945. His students included George Perle, Robert Erickson, Halim El-Dabh, Will Ogdon, Thomas Nee, and Richard Maxfield. He died in Palm Springs, California.

Completions of other composers' unfinished works

After meeting Krenek in 1922, Alma Mahler asked him to complete her late husband's Symphony No. 10. Krenek assisted in editing the first and third movements but went no further. More fruitful was Krenek's response to an approximately contemporary request from his pianist and composer friend Eduard Erdmann, who wished to add Schubert's Reliquie piano sonata to his repertoire, for completions of that work's fragmentary third and fourth movements. Krenek's completion, dated to 1921 in some sources[4] but to 1922 in his own memory[5], later found other champions in Webster Aitkin in the concert hall[6] and Ray Lev[5] and Friedrich Wührer[7] on records.

In his notes to the Lev recording, dated July 1947, Krenek offered insights into the challenges of completing another composer's works in general and the Schubert sonata in particular.

Completing the unfinished work of a great master is a very delicate task. In my opinion it can honestly be undertaken only if the original fragment contains all of the main ideas of the unfinished work. In such a case a respectful craftsman may attempt, after an absorbing study of the master's style, to elaborate on those ideas in a way which to the best of his knowledge might have been the way of the master himself. The work in question will probably have analogies among other, completed works of the master, and careful investigation of his methods in similar situations will indicate possible solutions of the problems posed by the unfinished work. Even then the artist who goes about the ticklish task will feel slightly uneasy, knowing from his own experience as a composer that the creative mind does not always follow its own precedents. He is more consicous of the fact that unpredictability is one of the most jealously guarded prerogatives of genius. … However, scruples of this kind may be set aside once we are certain that the author of the fragment has put forth the essential thematic material that was expected to go into the work. If this is not the case, I feel that no one, not even the greatest genius, should dare to complete the fragments left by another genius."

As an example, Krenek explains that a careful student of Rembrandt's style might be able to complete a painting lacking one or two corners but could never supply two entirely missing paintings from a four-painting series; such an attempt would result only in "more or less successful fakes." Turning to a musical example, Krenek, evidently unaware of the surviving sketch of a third movement, avers that Schubert's own "Unfinished" Symphony "was left by its creator with only two of its four movements written; of the other two there is no trace. It would be possible to write two or more movements to the symphony in the manner of Schubert, but it would not be Schubert."

Musical style

Krenek's music encompassed a variety of styles and reflects many of the principal musical influences of the 20th century.

  • His early work is in a late-Romantic idiom, showing the influence of his teacher Franz Schreker.
  • Around 1920 he turned to atonality, under the influence of Ernst Kurth's textbook, Lineare Kontrapunkt, and the tenets of Busoni, Schnabel, Erdmann, and Scherchen, amongst others.[8]
  • A visit to Paris, during which he became familiar with the work of Igor Stravinsky (Pulcinella was especially influential) and Les Six, led him to adopt a neo-classical style around 1924.[8]
  • Shortly afterward, he turned to neoromanticism and incorporated jazz influences into his opera Jonny spielt auf (Jonny Strikes Up, 1926) and one-act opera Schwergewicht (1928). Other neoromantic works of this period were modeled on music of Franz Schubert, a prime example being Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen (1929).[9]
  • Krenek abandoned the neoromantic style in the late 1920s to embrace Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique,[8] the method exclusively employed in Krenek's opera Karl V (1931-33) and most of his later pieces.[10] His most uncompromising use of the twelve-tone technique was in his Sixth String Quartet (1936) and his Piano Variations (1937).[11] In the Lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae (1941–42) Krenek combined twelve-tone writing with techniques of modal counterpoint of the Middle Ages.[12]
  • In 1955 he was invited to work in the electronic music studio at WDR in Cologne, and this experience motivated him to develop a serial idiom.[13]
  • Beginning around 1960 he added to his serial vocabulary some principles of aleatoric music, in works such as Horizon Circled (1967), From Three Make Seven (1960–61), and Fibonacci-Mobile (1964).[14]
  • In his later years his compositional style became more relaxed, though he continued to use elements of both twelve-tone and serial techniques.[13]

Works

Operas

See List of operas by Krenek.

Ballets

  • Mammon op. 37 (1925)
  • Der vertauschte Cupido op. 38 (1925)
  • Eight Column Line op. 85 (1939)

Vocal Music

Choral
  • Die Jahreszeiten (Hölderlin), op. 35 (1925)
  • Kantate von der Vergänglichkeit des Irdischen, op. 72 (1932)
  • Lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae, op. 93 (1941–2)
  • Santa Fe Timetable, op. 102 (1945)
  • Missa duodecim tonorum, op. 165, mixed choir and organ (1957–8)
  • O Holy Ghost, op. 186A (1964)
  • Three Madrigals, SSA a cappella (1960)
Solo vocal

With piano unless otherwise indicated:

  • Lieder, op. 19 on texts by Otfried Krzyzanowski and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
  • O Lacrymosa op. 48 (1926); text written for Krenek by Rilke, also orch. ver. op. 48a
  • Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen (text by the composer), op. 62 (1929)
  • The Ballad of the Railroads op. 78 (1944, text by the composer)
  • Sestina (text by the composer), op.161, soprano and 8 instruments (1957)

Orchestral

Symphonies
  • Symphony no. 1, op. 7 (1921)
  • Symphony no. 2, op. 12 (1922)
  • Symphony no. 3, op. 16 (1922)
  • Symphony for winds and percussion, op. 34 (1924-25)
  • Little Symphony op. 58 (1928)
  • Symphony no. 4, op. 113 (1947)
  • Symphony no. 5, op. 119 (1949)
  • Symphony "Pallas Athene", op. 137 (1954)
Concertos and concertante works
  • Violin concerto no. 1, op. 29
  • Little concerto for harpsichord, organ and chamber orchestra, op. 88
  • Concerto for violin, piano and small orchestra, op. 124
  • Concerto for harp and chamber orchestra, op. 126
  • Violoncello concerto no. 1, op. 133
  • Violin concerto no. 2, op. 140
  • Capriccio for cello and orchestra, op. 145
  • Violoncello concerto no. 2, op. 236
  • Four piano concertos
  • Organ concertos including concerto op. 230 for organ and string orchestra, op. 235 with full orchestra

Chamber works

  • Monologue for clarinet solo (1956)
  • Serenade for clarinet and string trio, op. 4
  • Sonata for viola solo, op. 92 no. 3 (1942)
  • Sonata for viola and piano, op. 117 (1948)
  • Sonata no. 1 for violin solo, op. 33
  • Sonata no. 2 for violin solo, op. 115
  • Sonata no. 1 in F-sharp minor for violin and piano, op. 3
  • Sonata no. 2 for violin and piano, op. 99
  • String quartet no. 1, op. 6
  • String quartet no. 2, op. 8
  • String quartet no. 3, op. 20
  • String quartet no. 4, op. 24
  • String quartet no. 5, op. 65 in E-flat
  • String quartet no. 6, op. 78
  • String quartet no. 7, op. 96
  • String quartet no. 8, op. 233
  • String trio, op. 118
  • String trio Parvula Corona Musicalis: ad honorem Johannis Sebastiani Bach, op. 122
  • String trio in 12 Stations, op. 237
  • Suite for cello solo, op. 84
  • Suite for guitar, op. 164

Piano

  • Sonata no. 1, op. 2 in E-flat (1919)
  • Sonata no. 2, op. 59
  • Sonata no. 3, op. 92, no. 4 *
  • Sonata no. 4, op. 114
  • Sonata no. 5, op. 121
  • Sonata no. 6, op. 128
  • Sonata no. 7, op. 240

Electronic music

  • Spiritus Intelligentiae, Sanctus, op. 152, two solo voices and tape (1956)
  • San Fernando Sequence, op. 185 (1963)
  • Exercises of a Late Hour, op. 200 (1967)
  • Orga-Nastro, op. 212, organ and tape (1971)
  • They Knew What They Wanted, op. 227, narrator, oboe, piano, percussion and tape (1977)

*The rest of op. 92 contains works for other instrumental combinations, including solo viola and solo organ.

Bibliography

  • Bischof, Günter, and Anton Pelinka (eds.) (2003). The Americanization/Westernization of Austria. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 076580803X
  • Bowles, Garrett H. (comp.) (1989). Ernst Krenek: A Bio-bibliography. New York and London: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313252505
  • Bowles, Garrett H. (2001). "Krenek, Ernst". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.
  • Dreyfus, Kay (2003). "Alma Moodie and the Landscape of Giftedness". Australasian Music Research 7:1–14. (Subscription access)
  • Křenek, Ernst (1943). "New Developments of the Twelve-Tone Technique". The Music Review 4, no. 2 (May): 81–97.
  • Krenek, Ernst (1964). "A Composer's Influences". Perspectives of New Music 3, no. 1 (Autumn-Winter): 36-41
  • Lawson, Colin (1995). The Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521470668 (cloth) ISBN 0521476682 (pbk)
  • Lev, Ray (1947). Album notes for Franz Schubert — Piano Sonata no. 15 in C Major (Unfinished); Allegretto in C Minor. Ray Lev, piano (78 RPM). [N.p.]: Concert Hall Society, Release B3.
  • Ogdon, Will, and Ernst Krenek. 1972. "Conversation with Ernst Krenek". Perspectives of New Music 10, no. 2 (Spring-Summer): 102–10.
  • Purkis, Charlotte (1992a). "Karl V". The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie, 4 vols. London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 0-333-73432-7.
  • Tregear, Peter John (2001). "Musical style and political allegory in Krenek's Karl V". Cambridge Opera Journal, 13, 55-80.
  • Stewart, John L. (1991). Ernst Krenek: the Man and His Music. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0520070143
  • Taylor-Jay, Claire (2004). The Artist Operas of Pfitzner, Krenek and Hindemith: Politics and the Ideology of the Artist. Aldershot, Hants, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate. ISBN 0754605787
  • Wührer, Friedrich (ca. 1955). Album notes for Franz Schubert Piano Sonatas vol. 3 (LP). Vox VBX 11.

Sources

References

  1. ^ Dreyfus 2005,[page needed].
  2. ^ Lawson 1995, 102.
  3. ^ Bischof and Pelinka 2003, 109.
  4. ^ Biographical page at Music Information Center Austria
  5. ^ a b Lev 1947.
  6. ^ Bandoneon Recordings Webster Aitkin page (in Chinese)
  7. ^ Wührer ca. 1955.
  8. ^ a b c Krenek 1964, 37.
  9. ^ Krenek 1964, 37–38.
  10. ^ Purkis 1992a.
  11. ^ Krenek 1964, 39.
  12. ^ Křenek 1943, 90–93.
  13. ^ a b Garrett 2001.
  14. ^ Garrett 2001; Ogdon 1972, 106.

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