Conrad Beck

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Conrad Beck
Beck, Stravinsky , Sacher

Conrad Beck (born June 16, 1901 in Lohn , Canton Schaffhausen , † October 31, 1989 in Basel ) was a Swiss composer .

life and work

The son of a pastor lived in Basel since 1933 and composed several orchestral and choral works, the most famous being Der Tod zu Basel , a piece for choir, solos, speaker and orchestra. Apart from opera, his work encompasses all major genres of instrumental and vocal music. He wrote seven symphonies, seven concertos, chamber music, an oratorio, a lyric cantata, an elegy and the ballet The Great Bear . His stay in Paris from 1924 to 1933 was a crucial stage in his development . This was followed by further training in composition with Jacques Ibert and contacts to Honegger, Nadia Boulanger and Albert Roussel .

Beck's music is characterized by a high degree of seriousness, tenacity and depth of expression, but also transparency and a sense of harmonic proportion.

From 1936 to 1966 he was head of the music department at Radio Basel. He mediated many contacts among Swiss and international musicians and composers and thus promoted cultural exchange .

Short biography

Adolescence
Born near Schaffhausen as the son of pastor Bernhard Beck and the British architect's daughter Lydia Barker, Conrad Beck grew up in Zurich. After graduating from high school, he first studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. After taking private piano lessons with Carl Baldegger and teaching harmony with Paul Müller-Zürich, he decided to pursue a career as a musician. At the Zurich Conservatory he received training from Volkmar Andreae (composition), Reinhold Laquai (counterpoint) and furthermore from Carl Baldegger (piano).

In Paris in
1924 he moved to Paris, where he took private instruction in instrumentation from Jacques Ibert and undertook further studies with the Basel composer Ernst Levy . He also sought advice on compositional issues from Arthur Honegger , Albert Roussel and Nadia Boulanger . He soon belonged to Boulanger's inner circle of friends, the early encouragement he received from there and the lifelong friendships going back to this time played an important role in his further career. Beck also owes important impulses to the Winterthur patron Werner Reinhart . Since 1927 the composer was supervised by Schott in Mainz. With the takeover of the National Socialists and the " Aryanization " of the cultural industry from 1933, this contract was terminated because Beck refused to sign a declaration in which he had to admit to an "Aryan" conception of art. Beck's works were only published by Schott again after 1945.

Relocation to Basel
At the instigation of the Basel conductor and music patron Paul Sacher , whom he had introduced to his friend Bohuslav Martinů , Beck moved to Basel in 1933. With commissions for compositions and performances, Sacher played a key role in Beck's work with the Basler Kammerorchester and the Collegium Musicum Zurich for half a century.

Activity at Radio Basel
From 1936 to 1966 he was head of the music department at Radio Basel. There and on the board of the Basel branch of the IGNM ( International Society for New Music ), he was particularly committed to the dissemination of contemporary music from France. But he also sustainably promoted the work of the younger generation of composers such as Jürg Wyttenbach or Heinz Holliger , whose music and aesthetics were very different from that of his own generation. Since 1963 Conrad Beck lived alternately in Rosey (Franche-Comté) and in Basel.

Work as a juror and expert
After his retirement, Beck carried out numerous jury and expert work. From 1960 to 1980 he was the Conseiller of the Prince Pierre Foundation as a juror at the Monaco Composition Competition. In this function he also took part in the Concours Niccolò Paganini in Genoa (1973) and in music competitions in Oslo, Stockholm and Zurich.

Honors In
1954 Conrad Beck was awarded the composer's prize of the Swiss Tonkünstlerverein and in 1956 the Ludwig Spohr Prize of the city of Braunschweig . He received the art prize of the city of Basel in 1964. Beck was appointed Commandeur de l'ordre du Mérite Culturel by Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1973.

Special services to contemporary music
At Beck's suggestion and mediation, there were numerous world premieres and premieres in the Basel local branch of the IGNM. There came u. a. the last composition by Albert Roussel, the first performance of the string trio op. 58 (1937), written in 1937, the year of his death, especially for a Basel anniversary concert. The younger avant-garde composers of the post-war period were also sustainably encouraged and promoted under Beck's aegis.

Shortly before, Beck had put the French composer in contact with Werner Reinhart, Othmar Schoeck and other Swiss musicians on the occasion of the Swiss premiere of Roussel's “Psalm 80” in Zurich.

Conrad Beck's musical legacy is in the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel.

To Beck's music

In his extensive and diverse oeuvre, which takes into account all the important genres with the exception of opera , an anti-romantic attitude was noticeable early on . It is reflected right up to the end in a notation aimed at clarity and linearity. Polyphonic structures are at the center of Beck's entire musical creation. Voices diverging towards each other or diverging are particularly typical of his subtle counterpoint . The richness of dissonance in his harmony is mainly explained by the voice leading.

A bitter tonal quality characterizes many works that advance into atonal areas, the themes of which are often derived from complex chords. As a result of his close relationship with the French music of the Paris composer group Les Six and the work of his friends in the École de Paris , Beck's music is always characterized by lively rhythm . It contributes significantly to the loosening of the innate Alemannic heavy-bloodedness and an internalization that finds its expression especially in slow movements.

Position in music history

Even though neo-baroque and neoclassical elements alternate in his work, Conrad Beck cannot be assigned to either direction. On the basis of music created in Paris by Stravinsky, Honegger, Roussel, Milhaud and other French composers in the 1920s , Beck developed an independent, predominantly lyrical style of great expressiveness.

In the 1930s Beck formed the Ecole de Paris together with his composer friends Tibor Harsányi (Hungary), Bohuslav Martinů (Czechoslovakia), Marcel Mihalovici (Romania), Alexandre Tansman (Poland) and Alexander Tscherepnin (Russia) , and occasionally also Alexander in their concerts Spitzmüller-Harmersbach (Austria) participated.

The premiere of the 3rd symphony, conducted by Serge Kussewitzki in Boston in 1928, was followed by important work performances a. a. under Ernest Ansermet , Ernest Bour , Hans Münch , Hans Rosbaud , Hermann Scherchen and Walter Straram .

For Paul Sacher's 70th birthday, Conrad Beck composed the three epigrams on the name Sacher, written for solo cello, on behalf of Mstislav Rostropowitsch . The other pieces on the tone sequence eS ACHE Re are by Luciano Berio , Pierre Boulez , Benjamin Britten , Henri Dutilleux , Wolfgang Fortner , Alberto Ginastera , Cristóbal Halffter , Hans Werner Henze , Heinz Holliger, Klaus Huber and Witold Lutosławski .

Catalog of works (selection)

Stage work

The big bear , ballet in five pictures (libretto: Leopold Chaveau ), premiered on January 26, 1938 in Mainz

Orchestral music

3rd symphony, string orchestra (1927)

4th Symphony (Concerto for Orchestra, 1928)

Innominata (1931)

Ostinato (1936)

Small Suite, string orchestra (1946)

Suite (1947)

6th symphony (1950)

Aeneas Silvius Symphony (7th Symphony, 1957)

Sonatina (1957/58)

Hommages, two pieces for large orchestra (1965/66)

Chamber concert for large orchestra (1970/71)

Three Aspects for Chamber Orchestra (1976)

Cercles (1978/79)

Resonances (1983/84)

Concert works

Concertino for piano and orchestra (1927/28)

Concerto for string quartet and orchestra (1932)

Piano Concerto (1932/33)

Concerto, violin and small orchestra (1940)

Concerto for flute and orchestra (1941)

Concerto for viola and orchestra (1949)

Suite concertante, winds, percussion and double bass (1961)

Concertino for oboe and orchestra (1963)

Concerto for clarinet and orchestra (1968)

Mouvements lyriques, violoncello and chamber orchestra (1970)

Concerto for wind quintet and orchestra (1976)

Lights and Shades for 2 horns, percussion and strings (1982)

Chamber music

1st string trio (1925)

Suite for 2 cellos (1925)

Sonatina for violoncello and piano (1925/26)

3rd string quartet (1926)

Sonatina for organ (1927)

Sonatina for violin and piano (1928)

4th string quartet (1934)

Duo for violin and viola (1934/35)

Sonatina for oboe and piano (1941–1953)

2nd string trio (1946)

Choral Sonata for Organ (1950) 2nd Sonata for Violoncello and Piano (1952/53)

Sonatina for flute and piano (1959/60)

Duo for 2 violins (1960)

Nocturne for alto saxophone and piano (1960)

Sonatina for 2 flutes (1968)

Sonata a quattro for violin, flute, oboe and bassoon (1969)

Three epigrams for solo cello (1975)

Sonatina for viola and piano (1976/77)

Trio for flute, oboe and piano (1980)

Centers mobiles, septet for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet and timpani (1981)

Rencontres for string quartet and piano (1981)

Piano music

1st Sonatina (1928)

Piano pieces I (1929)

Piano pieces II (1939)

2nd Sonatina (1941)

Sonatina for two pianos four hands (1955)

3rd Sonatina (1976)

Vocal music

Drei Herbstgesänge (RMRilke), alto and piano (organ) (1926)

Oedipus (R.Morax, H.Weber), cantata (1928)

Lyric Cantata (RMRilke)

Oratorio based on sayings by Angelus Silesius (1933/34)

Chamber cantata based on sonnets by Louize Labé (1937)

"The death of Basel" (Bible, Chronicles), A great Miserere (1950–1952)

"Herbstfeuer" (R.Huch), alto and small orchestra (1956)

"At Solar Eclipse" (A.Stifter), alto and chamber orchestra (1966)

Elegie (Fr.Hölderlin), solo cantata for soprano and orchestra (1973)

"Musical and dramatic works"

"The great bear" (L. Chauveau), ballet in 5 pictures (1935/36)

"St.Jakob an der Birs" (EFKnuchel), memorial game (1943/44)

literature

  • Hanspeter Renggli: Conrad Beck . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 139 f.
  • Edgar Refardt : Historical-Biographical Lexicon of Musicians in Switzerland, Leipzig-Zurich 1928, p. 26
  • Echo. The Journal of the Swiss Abroad, Volume 24, February 1944, No. 2, Bern, special supplement “The Swiss Composers of the Present”, p. 11/12 (Hans Ehinger)
  • Schweizerische Musikzeitung, 84th year 1944, No. 7, July 15, 1944, pp. 281–284 Conrad Beck and his more recent work (Hans Ehinger)
  • Willi Schuh: Swiss Contemporary Music, Zurich 1948, pp. 230–240
  • Schweizerische Musikzeitung, Volume 91, No. 3, March 1, 1951, p. 122 Two new works by Conrad Beck (Hans Ehinger)
  • Musik der Zeit, issue 10. Swiss composers, Bonn, 1955, pp. 28/29
  • 40 Swiss contemporary composers, Amriswil 1956, pp. 21–27 (Peter Mieg)
  • Messages from the Basel Chamber Orchestra No. 96, April 22, 1961, p. 1 Conrad Beck on the occasion of his 60th birthday (Armand Hiebner)
  • Schweizerische Musikzeitung, Volume 101, No. 3, May / June 1961, pp. 6–12 On the compositional style of Conrad Beck (Ernst Mohr)
  • Central archive of Swiss music art, catalog raisonné, Zurich 1961
  • Schweizerische Musikzeitung, Volume 102, No. 2, March / April 1962, p. 105/06 Conrad Beck: Suite concertante (Willi Schuh)
  • Swiss Musicians Encyclopedia / Dictionnaire des Musiciens Suisses, Zurich 1964, pp. 42–44 (Willi Schuh)
  • Österreichische Musikzeitung, 24th year 1969, No. 3, p. 156/58 (Rolf Pfluger)
  • Dino Larese / Willi Schuh: Conrad Beck. A life sketch / The composer and his work. Amriswiler Bücherei, Amriswil 1971
  • Dino Larese: meeting with Swiss composers . Amriswil 1974. pp. 37-42.
  • Conrad Beck. Catalog raisonné (introduction: Armand Hiebner), Mainz 1971
  • NZ conversation. (presumably Nürnberger Zeitung) Conrad Beck: Ein In-sich-Heininbaren, NZ No. 222, 1973
  • Swiss composers of our time. Biographies, catalogs of works with discography, bibliography. Zurich 1975, pp. 28/29 (Walter Labhart)
  • Friedrich Herzfeld : Ullstein Lexicon of Music, 8th edition, Frankfurt am Main 1976, p. 55
  • MGG (Music in Past and Present), Volume 1, pp. 1476/1477 (Hans Ehinger) Kassel 1989
  • Swiss Lexicon 91, Luzern 1991, Volume 1, p. 448 (Walter Labhart)
  • From alphorn call to synthesizer sound. Swiss music from 150 years. Lucerne 1991, p. 99/100 (Walter Labhart)
  • Music manuscripts. Inventories of the Paul Sacher Foundation, No. 13, Conrad Beck, Winterthur 1992
  • Swiss composers of our time. Biographies, catalogs of works with discography and bibliography. Winterthur 1993, pp. 35-37

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Paris (école de) ( French ) Larousse. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Beck, Conrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss composer
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Wages SH
DATE OF DEATH October 31, 1989
Place of death Basel