Adolf Weidig

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Adolf Weidig (born November 28, 1867 in Hamburg , † September 23, 1931 in Chicago ) was a composer and musician .

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Adolf Weidig was the son of a trombonist who was employed at the Hamburg City Theater . Johannes Jagau, a colleague of his father's, taught him to play the violin. From 1882 he attended the upper class of the conservatory in Hamburg and learned the piano from Julius von Bernuth , the violin from Carl Bargheer and acquired theoretical knowledge from Hugo Riemann . During his studies he played the violin with the Hamburg Philharmonic . On October 9, 1885, he presented his first own composition for an orchestra. In 1886 he wrote a quintet for strings and a year later two movements of a symphony in D major. The pieces were received cautiously and positively.

In 1888 Weidig presented a string quartet and a song. With this he won the first prize of the Mozart Foundation and a four-year scholarship. Weidig moved to Munich and learned violin with Ludwig Abel as well as theory, harmony and composition with Joseph Rheinberger . He then returned to Hamburg and sought a position with the Hamburg Philharmonic, which, however, competed heavily with the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Hans von Bülow , who performed regularly in Hamburg. Weidig therefore went to the USA and became a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and from 1893 participated in chamber music evenings. Weidig's overture Sappho was played there during the World's Fair in 1893 .

In 1893 Weidig received an apprenticeship at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, where he taught violin and theory and composed. From 1907 until his death he held one of two directorships at the institute. In 1909 he made a trip to Germany, during which he conducted the Hamburg Philharmonic in the music hall there . Among other things, Weidig's composition Semiramis was played . In 1923 he wrote the book Harmonic Materials and its uses , which became a standard work in America.

Presumably because of the First World War , Weidig was little known in Germany in the subsequent period. The Hamburg press did not report on Weidig's death in 1931 either.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Weidig, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Composer and musician
DATE OF BIRTH November 28, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH September 23, 1931
Place of death Chicago