Erich Itor Kahn

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Erich Itor Kahn (born July 23, 1905 in Rimbach im Odenwald ; † March 5, 1956 in New York ) was a German musician who, as a Jew and composer of so-called “ degenerate music ” , was driven into exile by the National Socialists . His work is closely related to the Schönberg School and twelve-tone music .

Life

Kahn was born on July 23, 1905 in Rimbach in the Odenwald as the son of a Jewish cantor who came from the Baltic States at the time . His mother was German. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Königstein im Taunus near Frankfurt am Main , where the father took over a cantor position in the local Jewish community. Kahn received piano lessons from his father, who recognized his son's talent very early on. The parents were initially opposed to their son's wish to become a professional musician; Studying in nearby Frankfurt am Main meant arduous, time-consuming journeys with poor transport links. Nevertheless, the son prevailed and began his training at the Hoch Conservatory (piano with Paul Franzen and composition first with Waldemar von Baußnern , later with Bernhard Sekles ) in Frankfurt am Main. Since the family was not well off, this meant that Kahn had to earn his studies by taking piano lessons and making music in the coffee houses. After graduating with honors from the Conservatory in 1928, after a short stay in Würzburg , he found a job at Radio Frankfurt , which enabled him to demonstrate his talent as a concert pianist and with his first compositions.

Through his work in the radio, Kahn came into contact with representatives of contemporary music. Frankfurt was a center of modern musical life; At this point only two important Frankfurt representatives of the new music who were on friendly terms with Kahn, albeit tending in different musical directions: Paul Hindemith and Theodor W. Adorno . Kahn's own compositions were committed to the twelve-tone music of the Schönberg School, although he was never a direct student of Schönberg.

During this extremely fertile time before the National Socialists came to power, the young Kahn made a name for himself as a concert pianist and interpreter of modern music. Adorno, who wrote concert reviews at the time and was supported by Kahn with rehearsals for the music studio in Frankfurt, praises Kahn's precision and familiarity with the aesthetics of the avant-garde . Both met in their reflective attitude towards Schoenberg's doctrine, in that they understood the twelve-tone technique as a revolutionary way of composing, which, however, had to serve to increase the expressive character of modern music. In connection with the uncritical application of the new composition technique, Kahn therefore spoke of the danger of composing “robot music”.

Despite his successes, Kahn had little illusions about the threatening political situation. His wife Frida, who had fled Russia with her Jewish family at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution , encouraged him. The latent anti-Semitism of the time before Hitler was already clearly noticeable in the early reviews that his compositions had provoked in Würzburg and elsewhere . The Hessischer Rundfunk, which had been “harmonized” since the takeover of power on January 31, 1933, banned entry to all Jewish employees from April 1, 1933; Kahn was de facto dismissed, but thanks to Hans Rosbaud , he should continue to receive his salary at least until the end of the year.

Kahn went into exile with his wife Frida (née Rabinowitsch) in France , where he worked unswervingly on his compositions in Paris despite adverse conditions. René Leibowitz was one of his close friends there. Kahn's wife, herself a talented pianist, contributed to the maintenance with piano lessons. After the war began, the Kahns were interned in various camps for 14 months and shared the living conditions of many other exiles, including artists and intellectuals such as Max Ernst and Walter Benjamin . An odyssey began through various French camps in which they hoped to leave for the USA.

Kahn and his wife Frida finally managed to emigrate to the USA via Marseille and Casablanca in 1941 with the help of the refugee committee of the American Varian Fry .

In contrast to many European refugees , Kahn was lucky enough to have a career in the USA. He performed as a piano soloist, then founded the Albeneri Trio with his friends Alexander Schneider, violin, and Benar Heifetz , cello, with whom he successfully appeared on guest tours and in New York, where he had settled, and made record-setting recordings.

However, as a composer he did not make a breakthrough. During a trip to Europe, he received a lot of attention from avant-garde circles in Germany. His compositions were performed primarily through the mediation of his friend, conductor Hans Rosbaud, and others, and were also broadcast on the radio.

In 1955, after a memorable piano recital, Kahn fell seriously ill with a brain tumor , apparently the result of a traffic accident in France, and finally died without having regained consciousness on March 5, 1956 in New York.

It is only recently that people in Germany remember this important representative of new music, whose works were considered "degenerate" by the Nazis. Until her death in New York City in 2002, Kahn's wife Frida endeavored to keep the public's memory of her husband's work. For example, some of his most important works in the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main were made known to a wider audience again in November 2005 in honor of the composer by the Hessischer Rundfunk .

Quote

The following quote illustrates Kahn's music-aesthetic position and his proximity to Adorno's theory:

“I believe that in the midst of a world crisis, art is also subject to this crisis. In an era when there is no stability in the means of expression and style, when everything that is completed seems short-lived, when a final realization, to the extent that it proves to be true, also appears as a dialectical confrontation with the material, as a shock, as a change , as a kind of farewell - in the midst of such a time the composer has only one base: the rights and obligations that result from the inherited historical position of music, together with the spiritual vision of its will to express. The first and decisive question is this: how far can we go without betraying the past, and what must we preserve without betraying the future? "

Works (selection)

Compositions:

  • Suite “Preludes for the Night” (1927) for chamber orchestra
  • Four Pieces On Medieval German Poems : '' Maria went along the sea / I want to go to love Maria / Maria through a 'thorn forest went / Ave Maria, a Ros' ohn alle Dorn' (1930) for soprano and piano
  • Three Bagatelles : '' Moderato (for Erich Schmid) / Adagio-Vivo-Adagio (for René Leibowitz) / Poco allegro (for Beveridge Webster) '' (1935–36) for piano
  • Suite (1937) for viola and piano, arranged as Suite concertante (1937) for violin and orchestra (orchestration completed in 1964 by R. Leibowitz)
  • 8 Inventions (1937) for piano
  • Rapsodie hassidiqe (1938) for mixed choir
  • Trois chansons populaires : '' J'ai repoussé la bonne rive / D'ou vient ou le soleil s'en est allé / Dessus l'herbe '' (1938) for mezzo-soprano and piano (text: J. Leibowitz)
  • Les symphonies bretonnes (1940) for orchestra
  • 2 Psalms (1940/42) for soprano and piano
  • 3 caprices de Paganini (1942) for violin and piano
  • Ciaconna dei tempi di guerra (1943) for piano
  • Nenia Judaeis Qui Hac Aetate Perierunt for violoncello and piano (1940–41) (Kahn wrote this work “in memory of the Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust” after he had managed to escape from an internment camp in France)
  • Actus Tragicus (1946–47) for 10 instruments
  • Short Piano Piece (1951)
  • String Quartet (1953)
  • Vocalise (1954) for mixed choir
  • 4 Nocturnes (1954) for soprano and piano (Text: T. Corbière, JP Worlet, V. Hugo, PB Shelley)
  • Concerto a due (op.posth) for violin and piano

Discography

  • EI Kahn, piano works (pianist: Thomas Günther). CYBELE RECORDS, SACD, 2007
  • EI Kahn, Nenia / String Quartet / Ciaccona (Lucas Fels, Stefan Litwin, Jean Pierre Collot, Leonardo Quartet). telos music records, 2009.

See also

Film about life and work

  • Forgotten Music - The composer Erich Itor Kahn . Production: Hessischer Rundfunk. Director: Karin Alles (1993)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kathrin Massar:  Erich Itor Kahn in the Lexicon of Persecuted Musicians of the Nazi Era (LexM), as of February 8, 2018
  2. ↑ The quote comes from an introduction by Kahn to his "Actus Tragicus". Quoted from Katharina Schmidt, program booklet 2003, Bachchor Stuttgart, concert v. April 18, 2003
personal data
SURNAME Kahn, Erich Itor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German musician
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Rimbach
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1956
Place of death new York