(b Eferding, 30 Nov 1895; d Stuttgart, 22 Dec 1977). Austrian composer. He studied at St Florian, near Linz, and with Marx at the Vienna Academy (1920-23), then worked in Wels as a school teacher, organist and choirmaster (1924-34) before teaching at conservatories in Leipzig (1934-45), Salzburg (1945-8) and Stuttgart (1948-63). His early music is mostly lost or destroyed; that from 1927 to 1957 has connections with Hindemith in its contrapuntal energy, with Distler and Pepping in its renewal of Lutheran traditions (of organ and choral composition) and with Reger. His Das Choralwerk, 21 volumes of organ music (1932-74), is a compendium of polyphonic practice and organ technique from Reger onwards. He also wrote eight symphonies (1936-65) and two violin concertos (1952, 1957). His later works incorporate serial and more modern elements, sometimes derived from Dürer and Goethe. He achieved a masterly, distinctive blending of traditional and modern music thinking. His son Thomas Christian (b 1925) has composed concertos, church and chamber music.

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