Felix Draeseke

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Felix Draeseke, portrait by Robert Sterl (1907)

Felix August Bernhard Draeseke (born October 7, 1835 in Coburg , † February 26, 1913 in Dresden ) was a German composer . He was one of the most important representatives of the music of his time in German-speaking countries . Starting with the New German School , he developed a late romantic style of composition based on classical ideals . Draeseke also made a name for himself as a music teacher and music writer.

Life

Early years: 1835-1852

Birthplace in Coburg, Markt 9

Felix Draeseke was born on October 7, 1835 in Coburg. He came from respected Protestant families of theologians on both his father's and mother's side: his father, Superintendent Theodor Draeseke (1808–1870), was the son of Bishop Johann Heinrich Bernhard Dräseke , his mother Maria Draeseke nee. Hanstein (1815–1835) the daughter of superintendent Gottfried August Ludwig Hanstein . Maria Draeseke died eight days after Felix was born, so that the child was brought up by his father's three sisters. In 1840 the father married Emilie Bähring (1821–1882). This second marriage had twelve more children. Felix Draeseke spent most of his childhood in Rodach near Coburg .

Although he at the age of five years at a middle ear infection ill that never really healed and damaged his hearing sustainable, the young enthusiastic Draeseke much for the music, learned to play the piano and wrote eight years old when his first piano piece. In 1850 he studied composition with the flautist Caspar Kummer and soon afterwards decided to take up the profession of musician. In April 1852 Draeseke entered the Leipzig Conservatory . For the next three years he studied music theory with Robert Papperitz and Ernst Friedrich Richter , piano with Louis Plaidy and Ignaz Moscheles , composition with Julius Rietz and music history with Franz Brendel .

Under the spell of the New Germans: 1852–1862

At Pentecost 1852, Draeseke was in Weimar and attended a performance of Lohengrin by Richard Wagner led by Franz Liszt . Through this experience Wagner became the great role model for the young music student, who soon set about composing his first opera King Sigurd (based on a model by the poet Emanuel Geibel ). Like Wagner, Draeseke wrote the libretto himself - a practice that he maintained in all of his operas.

In 1853, during a stay in Berlin , Draeseke met the Liszt student and Wagner fanatic Hans von Bülow , later one of the great pianists and conductors of his time, with whom he soon became a close friend. The enthusiasm for the progressive music style of the New German School of Liszt and Wagner quickly waned Draeseke's interest in the Leipzig Conservatory. Most of his teachers were very conservative and were skeptical to hostile to Draeseke's idols. That is why it often happened that he did not even attend the lessons.

“Mr. Draeseke has dispensed himself; I therefore have nothing to say about his progress "

- Ignaz Moscheles

In 1855 Draeseke left the Conservatory disappointed. In the same year Franz Brendel - one of the few conservatory teachers who were close to the New Germans - hired him for one season as a concert critic of his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik . Draeseke took the opportunity to stand up for his ideals with a pointed pen. Brendel also supported the publication of Draeseke's essays on Wagner as well as Liszt's symphonic poems .

In February 1857, Hans von Bülow initiated the first meeting with Liszt in Weimar, who was impressed by the almost completed König Sigurd opera. Draeseke was welcomed into the circle of the revered role model. The friendships with Hans Bronsart von Schellendorf and Peter Cornelius became particularly important to him . Richard Wagner, who was then living in Switzerland as a politically persecuted man , he met personally during a visit in 1859 and witnessed the completion of his Tristan and Isolde . With works such as the ballad Helges Treue (his official op. 1), the cantata Germania to her children based on a text by Heinrich von Kleist and the gigantic tone poem Julius Caesar , Draeseke soon secured the reputation of the “ultra-radical” representative of the New German School. The scandal broke out in August 1861: at the second Weimar Tonkünstler's Meeting, the composer conducted a performance of his Germania march . The composition was mercilessly panned by music critics . Draeseke later recalled:

"Through this play I was portrayed as the horror of mankind throughout Germany, as all the newspapers rushed to condemn the school en bloc, but to identify myself as the particularly dangerous beast."

The New Germans suffered a great defeat. Liszt moved to Rome that same year , Draeseke moved to the French-speaking part of Switzerland, Suisse romande , in 1862 .

Fourteen “lost years”: 1862–1876

Draeseke around 1870 (unknown photographer)

The composer's time in Switzerland was largely uneventful. From 1864 he lived in Lausanne , where he worked as a piano teacher. He left his new home several times, for example in 1865 for a trip to Munich to attend the premiere of Wagner's Tristan . In 1869 a big trip to France , Spain , North Africa and Italy followed .

His artistic productivity was limited during this time: In addition to his most important piano composition, the Sonata op. 6, the symphonic poem Frithiof , the cantata Der Schwur im Rütli and a few smaller works were written in the first years of Switzerland . Draeseke never felt particularly at home in Switzerland. There he was almost isolated from the mainstream of German musical life. He also became increasingly lonely. Since the scandal of 1861, most of his former comrades-in-arms had turned away from him; Hans von Bülow was one of the few to stick with him. Liszt, whose music was still benevolent but increasingly critical of Draeseke, he only visited occasionally. Contact with Richard Wagner was completely lost when he began an affair with Bülow's wife Cosima in 1866 , which Draeseke resented his life. Overall, the composer had a rather bad opinion about this period of his life, which he later referred to as his "lost years".

Nevertheless, one should not underestimate the Swiss time for Draeseke's compositional development, as it brought about a change in his artistic point of view. While he had previously composed rigorously in the New German style and expressed his views in numerous essays, he gradually developed an ever greater skepticism and distance from his early work. The masters of the baroque and Viennese classical music became the most important point of reference for him, and he began to emulate their clear musical language. From now on he sought to unite his advanced harmony and counterpoint, which he had learned from Wagner and Liszt, with traditional-classical ideals:

“As a child of my time and equipped with its means, I wanted to express its content musically, but with pious reference to the great former masters. Their great achievements should be held in high esteem and, alongside them, those of the so-called dreams of the future . I wanted to try to present the music world in a classical form with what new material and new means this had brought us. Of course, this was not to be understood as a slavish replica of the earlier achievements. Their forms should be handled and developed freely, formal new formations should also be attempted, all harmonic, rhythmic and modulatory means should be used. "

As a result, Draeseke turned to traditional genres , although he later composed in typically New German genres such as symphonic poetry and musical drama . In 1872 he completed his first symphony in G major op. 12 (he probably destroyed a youth symphony composed in 1855 himself). The work saw several quite successful performances over the next few years.

Draeseke's new knowledge met with rather cold reactions from the New Germans. After hearing Lacrimosa, Op. 10 (Draeseke later incorporated it into his Requiem, Op. 22) , Liszt is said to have said that the lion had become a rabbit.

In 1876 Draeseke left Switzerland and returned to Germany.

The respected composer: 1876–1906

View of Dresden's old town with the Augustus Bridge around 1900

He had chosen Dresden as his new place of residence . Before moving there in August 1876, he stayed for a while in his hometown of Coburg, where he completed Symphony No. 2 in F major, Op. 25, which was premiered two years later with great success under the direction of Ernst von Schuch took place. He also went to Bayreuth , where he attended the premiere of the Ring des Nibelungen , although without visiting Wagner personally.

During his first years in Dresden, Draeseke received his income from private music students. Only in September 1884 did he get a permanent position at the city's conservatory . As a professor of composition, harmony and counterpoint , who also laid down his teachings in the once widely used textbook The Bound Style , he trained numerous important musicians. His students included Alberto Franchetti , Walter Damrosch , Paul Büttner , Theodor Blumer , Leo Kestenberg and Gustav Grossmann as well as Georg Pittrich . His creative power increased again significantly. The operas Dietrich von Bern (1879, later revised and renamed Herrat ) and Gudrun (1883) as well as the Requiem in B minor op. 22 (1880) were written. The year 1880 was Draeseke's “song year”, because almost half of his work for voice and piano was created during this time.

However, Draeseke put all these compositions in the shade with another work: in 1886, after lengthy work, he completed his Third Symphony in C major, op. 40, which he nicknamed Symphonia Tragica . This extensive, cyclical symphony can be regarded as the most important implementation of his artistic credo in music. After its premiere in 1888, again under Schuch, it became Draeseke's resounding success in German concert halls. Through the Symphonia Tragica , contact with his friend Hans von Bülow could be re-established. Draeseke had broken off dealing with Wagner for him, but from 1872 there were practically no contacts with Bülow, probably because he had meanwhile turned away from Wagner and turned to his antipode Johannes Brahms , who regarded Draeseke as one of his main competitors. Bülow became one of the most important interpreters of Draeseke's new symphony.

Draeseke was able to consolidate his fame as one of the most respected composers of the time in the following years. Contributing to this are works such as the orchestral serenade in D major op.49, the symphonic preludes to Calderón's Das Leben ein Traum op.45 and Kleist's Penthesilea op.50 (all 1888), the Great Mass in F sharp minor op.60 (1891) , the opera Merlin (1905) and numerous chamber music works, among which the third string quartet in C sharp minor op. 66 (1895) and the string quintet in F major op. 77 (1900) deserve special mention.

The chamber music work, in this respect very similar to Franz Schubert's arpeggio sonata , also bears testimony to the composer's keen interest in newly developed instruments. Among them are two sonatas for viola alta and piano that were not published during his lifetime , as well as a string quintet in A major (1897), also published posthumously, in which Draeseke uses a violotta .

In addition to his compositional successes, the aging master also had personal happiness: In May 1894, the 58-year-old married his former student Frida Neuhaus (1859–1942) and had an extremely happy marriage with her. In 1899 he completed his opus Magnum Christ, which he had been working on since 1864 . A mystery in a prelude and three oratorios op. 70–73, with which he created a kind of spiritual counterpart to Wagner's Ring . On the occasion of his 70th birthday in 1905 concerts in honor of Draeseke were held all over Germany.

“Confusion” and the last years: 1906–1913

“In view of the very sad state in which today's music finds itself, we are justified in speaking of confusion. Because the lack of clarity and confusion has risen so much that even many artists can no longer find their way around it. If earlier times saw bitter battles fought by opposing parties, our epoch is frightened by a merciless struggle of all against all, without one being able to discover the artistic reason for this struggle! "

These words open up Draeseke's work The Confusion in Music , which he published on October 4, 1906 in the Neue Musikzeitung . With this "warning call", as he called it, the composer reacted to the musical modernity cultivated by younger colleagues of the time, with which he was severely judged. The points of criticism addressed in the text, among other things , take a stand against veristic - naturalistic tendencies and the associated preference for program music, which Draeseke perceived as too dominant . He also complained that the younger composers placed far too much emphasis on instrumentation and neglected form, melody and rhythm. Draeseke's tenor was that at the time of publication there would no longer be any musical parties firmly convinced of their artistic ideals, which were struggling against each other in their musical creations to ensure that the music would develop properly.

Draeseke still felt himself to be a representative of the progressive New German School of Liszt and Wagner, whose ideas were contrary to those of a "conservative" direction represented by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Johannes Brahms, for example . He evidently missed the fact that this party dispute had only a more or less historical significance for the music scene at the turn of the century. Draeseke must have been all the more confused that since Brahms' death in 1897 he was considered the main representative of conservative German composers by many young colleagues.

With his denunciation of confusion he ultimately only achieved that the criticized saw in him an anti-progressive reactionary and turned away from him. An example may be the reaction of Richard Strauss , whom Draeseke - without mentioning his name, but clearly recognizable - had disciplined in the confusion : Strauss, who at the beginning of his conducting career also advocated the Symphonia Tragica and whose early work clearly influenced Draeseke's shows, put him in a newspaper publication - also without direct naming - in a row with "guild [n] specialists, [...], without creative potency", which "as a firmly established 'reaction party' more and more publicly" dared.

Felix Draeseke's grave on the Tolkewitz urn grove in Dresden

In the last years of his life, Draeseke received numerous institutional honors. In 1898 the Saxon King had given him the title of Privy Councilor, and in 1906 he was appointed Privy Councilor. The Philosophical Faculty of the University of Berlin presented him with an honorary doctorate in 1912 for his services to "restoring the old splendor of German music."

However, these awards could not prevent the reputation of the composer Draeseke, despite his fame as a music educator, peaked after the publication of the confusion in music . Draeseke's hearing disorder had meanwhile progressed to almost complete deafness, which further encouraged the composer's isolation from active musical events and quantitatively restricted his compositional activity.

His last works, characterized by extreme concentration on the essentials, however, demonstrate an unbroken creativity and great ingenuity. These include the Great Mass in A minor, Op. 85 (1909) and the Requiem in E minor (1910), which are composed in the strictly polyphonic a cappella setting and thus, in contrast to the corresponding earlier compositions by Draeseke, entirely on an orchestra renounce, as well as the only twenty-minute Symphonia Comica (1912), the composer's fourth symphony, with which he casts a witty-ironic look at the traditional genre.

In February 1912 Felix Draeseke was able to experience his last great triumph with the first complete performance of the Christ Mystery. In November of the same year he contracted pneumonia and could no longer leave his Dresden apartment. On February 26, 1913, the 77-year-old composer died of a stroke. He was buried in the Tolkewitz urn grove .

reception

The Symphonia tragica, his third symphony, was premiered in 1888 under Ernst von Schuch in Dresden. Draeseke found his own way of style between the giants Brahms and Bruckner.

In the 1920s, the tragica was still considered by many to be one of the most important symphonies of all; leading conductors such as Arthur Nikisch , Fritz Reiner , Hans Pfitzner and Karl Böhm stand up for them.

The Draeseke reception was largely a matter of science. Even if the high status of Draeseke's music was never seriously questioned, the composer never achieved real popularity despite numerous successes during his lifetime. For many, his style, whose main focus is on a strongly contrapuntal condensed processing of the thematic material, appeared to be too complicated and not very catchy. In this respect he is very similar to his younger contemporaries Max Reger and Hans Pfitzner (a great admirer of the Symphonia Tragica, by the way ), who can be described as his musical successors and whose works were also more popular with professionals than with the public.

A prognosis by Hans von Bülow that he made to his friend in 1889 is indicative of the audience's relationship to Draeseke :

“Works like yours can only figurine analegomena in the course of things. Vulgus wants to be delighted, let's say refreshed and such a "low" tendency is all too familiar to you. Your music will always be given the respect it deserves - from experts, but you cannot count on any particular sympathy anywhere. "

In addition, Draeseke himself could not stand up as a practicing musician: his piano playing was not enough for a career as a pianist and he was unable to work as a conductor due to his damaged hearing. He was thus one of the first composers in music history to be completely dependent on the help of interpreters.

After Draeseke's death people began to look after his works with piety, but the First World War , which began in 1914, quickly put an end to it. The number of performers who stood up for his music decreased. Arthur Nikisch , who died in 1922, was one of the last conductors to have Draeseke's symphonies in their permanent repertoire. As early as the 1920s, Draeseke was considered a largely forgotten composer of a bygone era.

This situation began to change from 1933: After they came to power, the National Socialists tried to culturally underpin the claim to superiority of the “Aryan-German race” they had propagated. They used the music of numerous important composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven , Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner . As a Wagner admirer and creator of heroic operas based on Germanic legends in his successor, Draeseke soon came into the focus of Nazi cultural policy . With the blessing of the composer's widow and estate administrator Frida Draeseke, people began to organize "Draeseke festivals" and to use their works ideologically. Erich Roeder (1902–1945) wrote an extensive biography of Draeseke in two volumes with Der Lebens- und Leidensweg eines Deutschen Meister , which is regarded as the standard work on the composer, but falsifies certain facts (for example, the friendship with Hans von Bülow becomes negative reinterpreted) and celebrates the composer in the National Socialist sense as a “most pure German musician” and “ideal of a German artist”, a “new-Germanic musician who penetrates from minor to major”.

This propaganda appropriation severely damaged Draeseke's reputation. Wilhelm Furtwängler , who stated in a letter in 1927:

“For three years I have intended to perform the Draeseke Tragica; This year I had to - reluctantly - put it aside again at the last moment, because other "more current" works (i.e. those that, in contrast to Draeseke, only lead a one-day existence!)

So he did believe in the composer and did not put any Draeseke work on his concert programs in protest. Numerous other interpreters who were hostile to the regime also acted in this way. As a result, after the Second World War , Draeseke became even quieter than before.

In concert guides from the 1950s, one or the other work is mentioned in detail, but the composer's music was hardly performed any more. In order to correct this situation in favor of Draeseke, the International Draeseke Society was founded in Coburg in 1986 , which has since been committed to the systematic dissemination and performance of his compositions. In the concert business you can see the beginnings of a revival of the musical creations of this undoubtedly important musician.

Numerous major works by Draeseke are available as CD recordings. The classical label cpo published the four symphonies from 2000 to 2005, MDG ( Musikproduktion Dabringhaus & Grimm ) the first symphony and the piano concerto op. 36 (E flat major). The CD 'The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 47', published in 2008 by the English classical label Hyperion Records , published his piano concerto op. 36 and made Draeseke a little better known internationally. In 1990 the Bayer label recorded the Mystery of Christ on 5 CDs.

Works (selection)

Operas

  • King Sigurd (1856-1858; WoO 2). Great opera in a prelude and 3 acts. Libretto : Felix Draeseke (based on Emanuel Geibel ). Premiere (partial performance?) 1867 Meiningen
  • Dietrich von Bern (1877; WoO 12). Great opera in 3 sections. Libretto: Felix Draeseke. Premiere 1879?
    • Revised version : Herrat (1885; WoO 13). Great opera 3 acts. Libretto: Felix Draeseke. Premiere 1892 Dresden
  • The Waldschatzhauser (WoO 17; 1882). Folk piece with music (opera). Libretto: Felix Draeseke (based on Wilhelm Hauff ).
  • Gudrun (1884; WoO 14). Great opera in 3 acts. Libretto: Felix Draeseke. Premiere 1884 Hanover
  • Bertran de Born (1894; WoO 22). Great opera in 3 acts. Libretto: Felix Draeseke. WP (overture) 1901 Dresden
  • Fischer and Kalif (1895; WoO 24). Opéra comique with dance in one act. Libretto: Felix Draeseke. Premiere 1905 Prague
  • Merlin (1905; WoO 30). Opera in three acts, libretto: Felix Draeseke (based on Karl Leberecht Immermann , Mythe ). Premiere 1913 Gotha and Coburg

Choral compositions

Spiritual works

  • Advent song (after Fr. Rückert) for solos, choir and orchestra (1871/75)
  • Requiem in B minor op. 22 for solos, choir and orchestra (1883) - Critical Urtext edition 2013, Pfefferkorn Musikverlag Leipzig
  • Salvum fac regem op.55 for mixed choir a cappella (4 parts) (1889)
  • Psalm 93 op.56 for mixed choir a cappella (6, 4 and 8 voices) (1889)
  • Four chants for mixed choir op. 57 (1st offertory “Confitebor tibi” 4th, 2nd gradual “Beati quorum via” 6th, 3rd gradual “O bone Jesu” 5th, 4th gradual “In die angustiae” 4st. ) (1891)
  • Psalm 23 op.59 for women's or children's choir a cappella (3 parts) (1889)
  • Great Mass in F sharp minor, Op. 60 for solos, choir and orchestra (1890)
  • Christ. A mystery in a prelude and three oratorios (1899):
    • Prelude: The Birth of the Lord op.70
    • 1. Oratorio: Christ consecration op 71st
    • 2. Oratorio: Christ the Prophet op.72
    • 3. Oratorio: Death and Victory of the Lord op.73
  • Psalm 57 WoO 31 for baritone, male choir and orchestra (1907)
  • Great Mass in A minor op.85 for mixed choir a cappella (1909)
  • 'Requiem E minor WoO 35 for five voices a cappella (1910)

Secular works

  • Germania to her children WoO 3a, cantata for soprano, male choir and orchestra (after Heinrich von Kleist ; 1859)
  • Der Schwur im Rütli WoO 9, cantata for soprano, male choir and orchestra, text by Draeseke (1869)
  • Easter scene from Goethe's “Faust” op. 39 for baritone solo, choir and orchestra (and harmonium) (1863 / 64–1886 / 87)
  • Columbus op.52, cantata for male choir, soprano solo and orchestra, text by Draeseke (1889)
  • Parzengesang WoO 33 for alto and orchestra (after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ; 1907)

Orchestral works

Chamber music

  • Ballade for violoncello and piano in B minor op.7 (1867)
  • String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 27 (1880)
  • String Quartet No. 2 in E minor, Op. 35 (1886)
  • Clarinet Sonata in B flat major op.38 (1887; also version as violin sonata)
  • Quintet for piano, horn, violin, viola and cello in B flat major op.48 (1888)
  • Cello Sonata in D major op.51 (1890)
  • Sonata for viola alta and piano No. 1 in C minor WoO 21 (1892)
  • String Quartet No. 3 in C sharp minor, Op. 66 (1895)
  • String quintet for 2 violins, viola, violotta and violoncello in A major WoO 25 - Stelzner-Quintet (1897)
  • Scene for violin and piano op.69 (1899)
  • String quintet for 2 violins, viola and 2 violoncellos in F major op.77 (1901)
  • Sonata for viola alta and piano No. 2 in F major WoO 26 (1902)
  • Suite for 2 violins op.86 (1911)
  • Small suite for cor anglais and piano op.87 (1911)

Piano music

  • Fantasy Pieces in Waltz Form, Op. 3, No. 1 in B major, No. 2 in A flat major (1862/63)
  • Deux Valses de Concert op.4, No. 1 Valse-Rhapsodie in E flat minor (1867) No. 2 Valse-Impromptu in D flat major (1868)
  • Two concert waltzes op.5 , No. 1 Valse-Nocturne in E major, No. 2 Valse-Scherzo in c sharp minor (1862/63/67)
  • Sonata quasi fantasia op.6 (1867)
  • Fantasy on Themes from François-Adrien Boïeldieu's The White Lady , op.8 (1866)
  • Petite Histoire op.9 (1869)
  • Mirage. A Ghazel Wreath op.13 (1876/77)
  • Twilight Dreams op. 14 (1876/77)
  • 6 fugues op.15 (1876)
  • What the swallow sang op. 21 (1882/83)
  • Miniatures op.23 (1883)
  • Retrospectives op.43 (1888)
  • Parting Sun (1888)

Songs

Fonts

  • The poet and the composer (1856)
  • Richard Wagner , the composer (1856)
  • Franz Liszt ’s nine symphonic poems (1857)
  • Liszt's Dante Symphony (1860)
  • Peter Cornelius and his bequeathed works (1874)
  • Instructions for artfully modulating (1875)
  • Church music contemporary issues (1883)
  • The doctrine of Harmonia put into funny rhymes (1883)
  • The bound style (1902)
  • The confusion in music. A warning call (1906)
  • Memoirs (recorded by Frida Draeseke between 1908 and 1911; unpublished)

estate

Felix Draeseke's estate is kept in the Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library.

See also

literature

  • Alan Krueck : The Symphonies of Felix Draeseke. A Study in Consideration of Developments in Symphonic Form in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century , Zurich, 1967.
  • Helmut Loos : The sacred music of Felix Draeseke. In: The Dresden church music in the 19th and 20th centuries , ed. by Matthias Herrmann, Laaber 1998, pp. 197-210 ( Musik in Dresden 3), ISBN 3-89007-331-X
  • Helmut Loos u. a. (Ed.): Series of publications by the International Draeseke Society. Gudrun Schröder Verlag, Bonn, 1987-2007.
    • Volume I: Felix Draeseke. Writings 1855–1861
    • Volume II: Draeseke and Liszt - Draeseke's songs
    • Volume III: Felix Draeseke. Chronicle of his life
    • Volume IV: The Confusion in Music. Felix Draeseke's combat pamphlet from 1906 and its consequences
    • Volume V: On the work of Felix Draeseke: instrumental works and sacred music
    • Volume VI: German opera between Wagner and Strauss
    • Volume VII: Felix Draeseke. Music history lectures
  • Erich Roeder: Felix Draeseke. The life and suffering of a German master . 2 volumes, Berlin / Dresden, 1932/37.
  • Erich Roeder: Felix Draeseke as an opponent of the Jews. In: The music. Vol. 28, No. 6, March 1936, pp. 425-427 ( archive.org ).
  • Hermann Stephani:  Draeseke, Felix. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , pp. 97-99 ( digitized version ).
  • Hermann Stephani : Felix Draeseke and his historical mission. In: The music. 28th vol., Issue 1, October 1935, pp. 7-12 ( archive.org ).
  • Friedbert Streller : "... under the influence of the calcifying Dresden air". Nidcodé, Draeseke and Büttner on probation. In: Dresden and advanced music in the 20th century. Part I: 1900-1933 , ed. by Matthias Herrmann and Hanns-Werner Heister, Laaber 1999, pp. 259–266 ( Musik in Dresden 4), ISBN 3-89007-346-8 .
  • Daniel Ortuño-Stühring: Music as a commitment. Christ Oratorios in the 19th Century (= Weimar Liszt Studies 6), Laaber, 2011, pp. 289–366.
  • Matthias Wolfes :  DRAESEKE, Felix August Bernhard. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 20, Bautz, Nordhausen 2002, ISBN 3-88309-091-3 , Sp. 405-411.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Jürgen Banholzer : Harmonics, form, poetic content: investigations into sonatas by Liszt students Reubke, Draeseke and Viole (writings on musicology). Dissertation. Are-Musik-Verlag, Mainz 2013.
  • Gisela Wiemer: Felix Draeseke's masses and Requiem settings. Your position in the genre history of the 19th century. Studies on the vocal style , Burscheid 2019.

Web links

Commons : Felix Draeseke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: work and pdf directories  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reviews in BBC Music Magazine, International Piano Magazine, ClassicalSource.com, Audiophile Audition, USA and others
  2. ↑ jpc.de
  3. ↑ Audio samples (7–9)
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on August 30, 2006 .
personal data
SURNAME Draeseke, Felix
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Draeseke, Felix August Bernhard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH Coburg
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1913
Place of death Dresden