Wolfgang Fortner

Wolfgang Fortner (born October 12 1907 in Leipzig – September 5 1987 in Heidelberg) was a German composer, composition teacher and conductor.

Life

From his parents - both singers - Fortner very early on had intense contact with music. In 1927 he began his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory (organ, composition) and at University, (philosophy, music history, and German studies). Still during his study some of his early compositions were officially performed . In Berlin he encountered Arnold Schoenberg and wrote his Leipzig professional degree thesis on the Kammermusik set of Paul Hindemith.

In 1931 he closed his studies with the State Exam for a high teaching office, after he accepted a lectureship in music theory at the Evangelischen Kirchenmusikalischen Institut Heidelberg. There followed attacks on his music as Cultural Bolshevism. In 1935 and 1936 Fortner created the Heidelberg Chamber Orchestra, with which he supported New Music and undertook expanded concert journeys for "armed forces support", from Scandinavia to Holland to Greece. In the same year he also took over the directorship of the orchestra of the Hitler Youth of Heidelberg, a string orchestra, formed from juvenile laymen, whose directorship changed in 1939 again. 1940 he was drafted into the army as a medical soldier. In 1941 he joined the Nazi Party; in the same year he published the "Heidelberg Song Book for Soldiers" (without contributions of his own.)

After the end of the war, Fortner underwent Denazification due to the Bandwagon effect and was found not affected by professional disqualification. Fortner moved to the Heidelberg Kohlhof and there a group of very young students formed around him, who showed interest in the modern music of 1933. In 1948 he joined the circle of the Darmstadt courses of new music, and taught within their framework. In 1954 he became a professor for composition, then from 1957 up to his retirement in 1973 taught in Freiburg. In 1964 he took up the leadership of the Musica Viva concerts after the death of Karl Amadeus Hartmann.

Prizes

• 1948 Schreker-Prize Berlin.
• 1953 Louis Spohr Prize Brunswick.
• 1955 Bearer of the "Great Prize of Art-Music" of from North-Rhine/Westphalia.
• 1955 Member of the Academy of the Beautiful Arts of Berlin.
• 1956 Member of the Bavarian Academy if the Beautiful Arts of Munich.
• 1957 President of the German section of the ISCM (from 1971).
• 1960 Bach-Prize of the State of Hamburg.
• 1975 President of the Dramatists' Union.
• 1977 Reinhold Schneider Prize of Freiburg.
• 1977 Grand Medal of Service of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1977 Honorary Doctorate of the Universities of Heidelburg and Freiburg.

Among his students there are for example the composers Günther Becker, Arthur Dangel, Friedhelm Döhl, Hans Ulrich Engelmann, Diego H. Feinstein, Peter Förtig, Volkmar Fritsche, Hans Werner Henze, Milko Kelemen, Rudolf Kelterborn, Karl Michael Komma, Arghyris Kounadis, Ton de Kruyf, Uwe Lohrmann, Wolfgang Ludewig, Bruce MacCrombie, Roland Moser, Diether de la Motte, Nam June Paik, Graciela Paraskevaídis, Robert HP Platz, Rolf Riehm, Wolfgang Rihm, Griffith Rose, Mauricio Rosenmann, Dieter Schönbach, Manfred Stahnke, Henk Stam, Peter Westergaard, Hans Zender, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Heinz Werner Zimmermann, the conductors Thomas Baldner and Arturo Tamayo and the translator Hans Wollschläger. Nor did the closest circle of his pupils count themselves - from their own disclosure - his friends, though Komponisten Giselher Klebe and Aribert Reimann, even if this on various occasions has in reference books been claimed.

Selected works

Operas

• Bluthochzeit. Lyric Tragedy in 2 Acts/7 Pictures, Libretto by the Composer after the Drama Bodas se sangre by Federico García Lorca (1957)
• Corinna. Opera buffa in one Act after a Comedy by Gérard de Nerval (1958)
• In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa. Opera after Federico García Lorca (1962)
• Elisabeth Tudor. Opera in three Acts after a Libretto by Matthias Braun (1972)
• That time. Scenic Cantata after Samuel Beckett (1977)

Ballets

• Die weiße Rose. Ballet after Oscar Wilde (1950)
• 'Die Witwe von Ephesus. Pantomime after a scenario of Petronius
• Carmen (Bizet Collagen). Music for a ballet by John Cranko (1971)

Selected Works

• String quartet no. 1 (published 1930) [1]
• Concerto for organ and strings (published 1932) [2]
• Sonatina for piano (1935) [3]
• Concerto for string orchestra (1935?) ^[1]
• Sinfonia concertante (published 1937) [4]
• String quartet no. 2 (published 1938) [5]
• Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (published 1943) [6]
• Sonata for violin and piano (1945) [7]
• Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1947)
• Sonata for flute and piano (1947) ([8])
• Symphony 1947 (1947)
• String quartet no. 3 (1948) ^[2]
• Phantasie über die Tonfolge BACH for Orchestra (1950)
• Concerto for Cello and orchestra (1951) [[9]]
• The Creation (Die Schōpfung) for middle voice and orchestra (1954). Recorded by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (with the Sinfonie Orchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt.)
• Impromptus for large Orchestra 1957 ^[3]
• Die Pfingstgeschichte nach Lukas, Evangelist-scoring for Tenor solo, six-part choir, 11 instruments and organ (1963)
• Triplum for 3 Klaviere and Orchestra (1965/6) [10]
• Prismen for Flute, Oboe, Harp, Percussion and Orchestra (1967)
• Marginalien. Dem Andenken eines guten Hundes. For Orchestra (1969)
• Zyklus for Cello and Chamber Orchestra without strings (1970)
• Machaut-Ballden for Singer and Orchestra (1974)
• String Quartet no. 4 (1975) ^[4]
• Triptychon for Orchestra (1977)
• Two string trios (1951, 1983 [11])
• Piano trio (1978)

Literature on Fortner

• (German)Lindlar, Heinrich (1960). Wolfgang Fortner; eine Monographie. Werkanalysen, Aufsätze, Reden, Offene Briefe, 1950-1959. Rodenkirchen/Rhein, P.J. Tonger. OCLC 1999810. 
• (German)Weber, Brigitta (1995). Wolfgang Fortner und seine Opernkompositionen. Mainz : Schott. ISBN 3-7957-0308-5. 
• (German)Borio, Gianmario; Danuser, Hermann (1997). Zenit der Moderne : die Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt 1946-1966 : Geschichte und Dokumentation in vier Bänden. Freiburg im Breisgau : Rombach. ISBN 3-7930-9138-4. 
• (German)Schipperges, Thomas (1995). "Musik unterm Hakenkreuz – Heidelberg 1933-45". Verführt und verraten : Jugend im Nationalsozialismus : Bruchstücke aus der Region : Kurpfäsisches Museum der Stadt Heidelberg, 8. Mai bis 16. Juli 1995, Heidelberg : Kurpfälzisches Museum Stadt Heidelberg. OCLC 36220656. 
• (German) Stephan, Rudolf; Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt. (1996). Von Kranichstein zur Gegenwart – 50 Jahre Darmstädter Ferienkurse. Stuttgart: Daco Verlag. ISBN 3871350281. 
• (German) Uwe Lohrmann: Wolfgang Fortner. In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Heft 10, 1982
• (German) Roth, Matthias (2005). "War Wolfgang Fortner ein Nazi?". Jahrbuch Musik in Baden-Württemberg. ISBN 3-89912-082-5. 
• (German) Roth, Matthias (2006). "Der Komponist Wolfgang Fortner und sein ,Kohlhof Club'". Die Insel im Wald - 300 Jahre Heidelberger Kohlhof. ISBN 3-935992-23-8. 

External links

1. ^ Vinton, John (Sep. 1973). "For Jan LaRue: The Concerto for Orchestra". Notes, 2nd Ser. 30 (1): 17. The Music Library Association. Retrieved on 2007-06-22. 
2. ^ von Lewinski, Wolf-Eberhard; Donald Mintz (Jan. 1965). "The Variety of Trends in Modern German Music". Musical Quarterly 51 (1): 167. The Oxford University Press. Retrieved on 2007-06-22. 
3. ^ Powell, Mel (1960). "Review of the Impromptus for Orchestra". Notes 17 (3): 482. the Music Library Association. ISSN 00274380. Retrieved on 2007-01-10. 
4. ^ Oppelt, Robert (1979). "Review of the String Quartet No. 4". Notes 35 (4): 984. the Music Library Association. ISSN 00274380. Retrieved on 2007-01-10. 

• Wolfgang Fortner in the German National Library catalogue

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