Alfred Keller (composer)

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Alfred Keller (born January 5, 1907 in Rorschach , Switzerland ; † June 14, 1987 there ) was a Swiss composer .

Life

After graduating from the St. Gallen Cantonal School, Alfred Keller studied composition with Volkmar Andreae , piano with Carl Baldegger and counterpoint with Paul Müller-Zurich at the Zurich Conservatory from 1925 to 1927 .

In 1926 he got to know the music of the Second Viennese School for the first time at a concert that Anton Webern conducted and played the bass drum in the cellar . From 1927 to 1930 he was a master student of Arnold Schönberg at the Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin . During this time, Keller's works were premiered for the first time. At an academy concert in June 1929 a. a. a piano sonata influenced by Schönberg's twelve-tone technique . The critic Heinz Pringsheim thereupon declared Keller to be “perhaps the strongest talent in this group”. Keller also worked as a répétiteur under Alexander Zemlinsky and Otto Klemperer in performances of the Schönberg operas Expectation and The Happy Hand .

Keller completed his studies in Berlin in the summer of 1930, and Schoenberg's testimony praised him “in addition to (Keller's) very considerable talent for composition” as well as his “excellent moral attitude”.

In July 1930, Keller returned to Rorschach and initially worked as a private piano, singing and theory teacher. From 1931 he worked as a conductor of church and workers' choirs in St. Gallen and directed choir and orchestral concerts. In 1937 he moved to St. Gallen. There, in 1939, he met the composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann , who was one of the representatives of inner emigration in Nazi Germany and whose music of Mourning was premiered in St. Gallen in 1940.

When the Second World War broke out , Keller was drafted into the Swiss army as a conscript. After the war he worked as a choir director again at times. From 1946 he taught piano at the Rorschach teacher training college , and in 1954 he moved back there. In 1958 he was appointed professor and taught until his retirement in 1972. In lectures and publications, he introduced the music of the 20th century to a wider audience. A lasting friendship developed with the Swiss composer Erich Schmid of the same age , who, like Keller, had attended Schönberg's master class in Berlin. In 1987 Keller died in Rorschach.

style

Alfred Keller was described by Peter Gradenwitz as “Schönberg's silent pupil”, also in view of the fact that after his return to Switzerland, Keller led a rather withdrawn, inconspicuous life, primarily as a teacher and conductor. As a composer, Keller left mainly choral works and songs, but also orchestral, chamber and piano music as well as works for solo woodwinds. The spectrum ranged from expressive works of the modern era to tonal pieces for everyday choral work.

In his early years his compositions showed clear influences from Schönberg and Webern. In time as choirmaster from 1931 he was also involved in the competing twelve- tropical doctrine of Josef Matthias Hauer . Further atonal compositions were created, which Keller later destroyed. From then on, tonal choral works predominated, often in the sense of utility music also suitable for laypeople . From the 1950s he experimented again with elements of twelve-tone technique, for example in the piano piece Epitaph for Arnold Schönberg (1956) and in the orchestral work Variations on a Theme by Arnold Schönberg (1962). In the later years, Keller increasingly developed his own, independent, sometimes playful, virtuoso and original style, especially in the songs, piano and solo wind pieces.

Awards

  • 1954: St. Gallen recognition award
  • 1977: First culture award of the city of Rorschach, "in recognition of the great services rendered to contemporary music" on his 70th birthday
  • 1980/81: Commissioned by the Pro Helvetia Foundation for the orchestral work Ossia

literature

  • Peter Gradenwitz: Alfred Keller - Schoenberg's silent pupil . In: Arnold Schönberg and his master students. Berlin 1925–1933 . Zsolnay, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-552-04899-5 , p. 233-246 .
  • Norbert Graf: We too “maybe never performed during our lifetime”? Swiss in the master classes for composition by Ferruccio Busoni and Arnold Schönberg . In: Chris Walton , Antonio Baldassarre (Ed.): Music in Exile. Switzerland and abroad 1918–1945 . Peter Lang, Bern 2005, ISBN 3-03910-492-6 ( full text in the Google book search [accessed April 24, 2020]).
  • Walter Labhart: Music from Silence. References to the composer Alfred Keller . Löpfe-Benz, Rorschach 1983, OCLC 603093667 (104 pages).
  • Dino Larese : Alfred Keller. A life sketch . Amriswiler Bücherei, Amriswil 1969, OCLC 715272759 (31 pages).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Peter Gradenwitz : Alfred Keller - Schoenberg's silent pupil . In: Arnold Schönberg and his master students. Berlin 1925–1933 . Zsolnay, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-552-04899-5 , p. 233-246 .
  2. ↑ a b Beat A. Föllmi:  Keller, Alfred. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 9 (Himmel - Kelz). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2003, ISBN 3-7618-1119-5  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  3. ↑ Christoph Keller:  Keller, Alfred. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  4. ↑ Norbert Graf: We too, «Perhaps never performed during our lifetime»? Swiss in the master classes for composition by Ferruccio Busoni and Arnold Schönberg . In: Chris Walton, Antonio Baldassarre (Ed.): Music in Exile. Switzerland and abroad 1918–1945 . Peter Lang, Bern 2005, ISBN 3-03910-492-6 ( full text in the Google book search [accessed April 24, 2020]).
  5. ↑ a b c d e Keller, Alfred. In: musinfo.ch. Retrieved April 24, 2020 .
  6. ↑ double existence. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . June 10, 2008, accessed April 25, 2020 .
  7. ↑ St. Gallen Recognition Award - List of the award winners
personal data
SURNAME Keller, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Rorschach
DATE OF DEATH June 14, 1987
Place of death Rorschach