Alois Melichar

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Alois Melichar (born April 18, 1896 in Vienna , † April 9, 1976 in Munich ) was an Austrian composer and conductor .

Life

The son of a band master began his musical career at the age of 12 as a violinist in his father's chapel. He attended a country teacher seminar and studied counterpoint from 1916 to 1920 at the Music Academy in Vienna.

In 1920 he followed his teacher Franz Schreker to Berlin, where he continued his education in composition at the music academy until 1923 . From 1923 he worked as an orchestra conductor, music teacher and choir director in Azerbaijan , Armenia , Turkestan and Georgia .

In 1926 he returned to Berlin and until 1927 he was the music editor of the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . From 1927 to 1933 he was the first conductor and musical director of the Deutsche Grammophon-Gesellschaft and until 1934 permanent conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic . In this double function he made numerous recordings of symphonic works, at the same time he was active as a music critic.

From 1933 he worked as a freelance composer through the mediation of Erich Kleiber , primarily for film. His first film music for the Waltz War about the rivalry between Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss contributed to the success of the film, so that Melichar received numerous other commissions. Among other things, he composed four melodramas in 1938 with the Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli . During the war he did his part in some propaganda films.

After 1945 Melichar tried to disguise his active role in National Socialism and portray himself as a victim. He falsely claimed to have been banned from conducting from 1936. From 1945 to 1949 he was conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony . From 1946 to 1949 he worked as music director of the serious music department of the Viennese radio station Rot-Weiß-Rot . Then he settled in Munich and worked again as a film composer , including for Das doppelte Lottchen after Erich Kästner .

Melichar was first stylistically influenced by Max Reger and Joseph Marx , then he composed piano works, chamber music, orchestral works, songs, choirs and an opera in the spirit of neoclassicism . Among other things, he published Schönberg and the consequences in 1960 , in which he dealt critically with the music of Arnold Schönberg . Otto Dix wrote to a friend in October 1954 about Melichar's book Overcoming Modernism : “You have to read this. Above all I like the wit with which the man slaughters the abstracts through their own utterances. You will laugh yourself to pieces […] The book should be distributed to all drawing teachers and students so that you can finally learn to laugh at this damn nonsense. ”In 1962 , the Austrian music researcher and critic Harald Kaufmann wrote the polemic Alois Melichar und die against Melichar's polemics Causes .

Melichar's son is the actor Rudolf Melichar .

Filmography

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the role of Melichar during National Socialism see: Fred K. Prieberg: Music in the Nazi State . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1982, p. 22 f.
  2. ↑ Otto Dix, Letters. Cologne 2013. p. 642.
  3. ↑ in: Harald Kaufmann: From inside and outside. Writings on music, musical life and aesthetics . Edited by Werner Grünzweig and Gottfried Krieger. Wolke, Hofheim 1993, pp. 86-92.
personal data
SURNAME Melichar, Alois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1976
Place of death Munich