Erwin Lendvai

Erwin Lendvai (also Lendvay , pseudonym in English exile: Devinal , born June 4, 1882 in Budapest , Austria-Hungary , † March 21, 1949 in Epsom ), was a Hungarian composer.

Life

Erwin Loewenfeld, Magyarized Lendvai since 1894 , graduated from secondary school in 1901 and then attended the conservatory, where he studied music theory with Hans Koessler . In 1905 he went to Puccini in Italy, his mother's country of origin, on a scholarship. From 1906 he lived in Germany, initially in Berlin.

From Berlin in 1913 he went to Hellerau near Dresden, where he taught music theory with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze at the Educational Institute for Music and Rhythm . As early as the following year (according to Brusniak) or only after 1919 (according to Gappenach) he returned to Berlin and taught composition at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory until 1920 . He spent the following years with alternating activities in Weimar (from 1920), Jena (1922), Hamburg (from 1923) and San Remo (1925), after which he worked as a conductor of choir associations in Koblenz, Munich, Saarbrücken and Erfurt.

As a Jewish composer in National Socialist Germany threatened with persecution and professional bans, he emigrated in 1933, first to the Saar area under the League of Nations , after the referendum of 1935 on the annexation of the Saarland then to Switzerland and in 1938 finally to England, where he worked under the The pseudonym "Professor Devinal" led a secluded life in Kenninghall (Norwich) and died in Epsom (Surrey) in 1949 as a result of a stroke.

plant

In addition to an opera ( Elga after Gerhart Hauptmann , 1916) and the Festival Music Völker Freiheit (1930), he composed a symphony , Archaic Dances , a Scherzo for orchestra, chamber music , 3 Organ Pieces op.4. His more than 450 choral works, in he is a combination of late medieval a cappella - polyphony sought and contemporary style. He himself considered his bell song “Redeem yourself, unison” (op. 19, no. 16) to be his most successful work .

As editor he published a collection of The Polyphonic Male Choir (1928, 6 volumes) and, together with the later Reichssingleiter Carl Hannemann and Walter Rein, contributed to the publication of the Lobeda Singebuch for male choir (1931/33). As a music writer, he wrote articles a. a. to the socialist monthly bulletins .

Others

Erwin Lendvai is the uncle of the Hungarian composer Kamilló Lendvai .

literature

• Friedhelm Brusniak: Erwin Lendvai (1882–1949), the “bold innovator of the male choir”. In: Primož Kuret (ed.): Glasba v dvajsetih letih 20th stoletja / Music in the twenties of the twentieth century (= 23rd slovenski glasbeni dnevi / 23rd Slovenian Music Days 2008). Ljubljana 2009, pp. 197-206.
• Hans Gappenach: In memoriam Erwin Lendvai . In: Melos 20 (1953), pp. 173-175.
• Hans Gappenach: Erwin Lendvai to remember . In: Der Chor - Zeitschrift für das Chorwesen 3 (1958), p. 48, again in: Otto Rüb: The choral organizations (singing associations) of the middle and lower class in the Frankfurt am Main area from 1800 to the present , Diss. Frankfurt am Main 1964, p. 267 f.
• Gesine Schröder : On the dispute between the male choirs in the twenties: A memory of Erwin Lendvai . In: 4th AIM Gender Conference in Stuttgart-Hohenheim , 2nd – 4th February 2006, (2006), p. 10 ( online , PDF).
• Gesine Schröder: The Decline of Men's Choir in 20th Century Germany. To Homage to Erwin Lendvai . 2013 ( online , PDF).
• Walter Tetzlaff: 2000 short biographies of important German Jews of the 20th century . Askania, Lindhorst 1982, ISBN 3-921730-10-4 .
• Hubert Kolland:  Lendvai, Erwin. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 202 f. ( Digitized version ).