Felix Wolfes

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Felix Wolfes (born September 2, 1892 in Hanover , † March 28, 1971 in Boston ) was a composer , conductor and music teacher .

Life

Biography until 1933

Felix Wolfes came from a Jewish family based in Hanover . His father was the businessman Paul Wolfes († 1938), his mother Grace Wolfes, b. Hamm. He attended schools in Hanover and Berlin. After graduating from high school, he studied with Georg Dohrn in Breslau until 1909 . From 1909 to 1911 he studied piano with Robert Teichmüller and composition with Max Reger at the Leipzig Conservatory . From there he moved to the Strasbourg Conservatory to Hans Pfitzner and Richard Strauss in 1911/12 , to whose closer group of students he soon belonged.

He then worked as Kapellmeister at various theaters, such as the Strasbourg City Theater (1912–1915), the Cologne City Theater (1915/16), the Mannheim Court Theater (1916/17), and the Frankfurt am Main City Theater (1917/18). In 1918 he became the first Kapellmeister at the Elberfeld City Theater. From 1919 to 1923 he held the same position at the Halle City Theater and in 1923/24 at the Wroclaw City Theater . In 1924 he went to the Essen City Theater. He developed an extensive opera repertoire (focus: 19th century). During these years Wolfes also made the piano reductions of Pfitzner's works Das dunkle Reich (1930) and Das Herz (1931), after he had already arranged Die Rose vom Liebesgarten and Palestrina for the piano during his student days . In 1925 he published an arrangement "for the German stage" by Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin . In addition to an obligation in Essen, he taught at the Folkwang School .

From 1931 to the spring of 1933, Wolfes was director of the opera at the Städtische Bühnen in Dortmund. He was released immediately after the National Socialists came to power. On March 18, 1933, the North-West regional director of the Kampfbund for German Culture , Paul Lagemann, demanded from the acting Prussian minister of culture, Bernhard Rust, “the removal of the Jewish opera conductor Wolfes, even if he is close friends with Pfitzner”. This led to dramatic events. Although he had been on leave since March 15 (on this day Pfitzner wrote directly to Hitler asking him to reverse his dismissal), Wolfes was surprisingly asked to conduct the Puccini opera Tosca . However, it was a trap. After he arrived at the theater, the SA surrounded the Dortmund Opera House to get hold of him. This did not succeed because Wolfes - like four other threatened employees - was warned and was able to escape through an emergency exit. In his distress, he found accommodation with the ensemble member Fritz Volkmann (in Marten ) for several weeks . Richard Strauss also supported him by commissioning the piano arrangement for the new opera Arabella . On July 5, 1933, Wolfes appeared at Strauss' personal invitation to its performance in the Dresden Semperoper , regardless of the protest from the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda .

Exile and the post-war period

Wolfes emigrated to Neuilly near Paris via Holland . There - isolated and largely penniless - he worked on a piano version of the opera Die Schweigsame Frau on behalf of Strauss . He stayed in France until 1936. He earned his living with private lessons. Public artistic work was not allowed to him. From February 1936 to November 1937 he worked as a conductor at the Monte Carlo Opera House at the invitation of the director Raoul Gunsbourg .

At the turn of 1937/38 he moved to the United States. Here he found new professional success. From 1938 to 1947 he was "Assistant Conductor" at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He also taught and accompanied individual singers. Wolfes has not directed his own orchestra since 1933. In 1944 he took American citizenship . In 1948 he was appointed professor of composition at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. He taught there and at Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox for two decades.

After the war, Wolfes refused to even visit Germany. He did not accept invitations (which were issued in large numbers). Even being made an honorary member of the Hans Pfitzner Society did not induce him to visit his home country. But he continued to confess to German culture, which is particularly evident in the selection of texts for his compositions.

The composer and conductor Helmut Wolfes (1901–1971) is a brother of Felix Wolfes.

Create

Compositions

Wolfes has emerged as an independent composer with song settings. The seals used include works by Hermann Hesse , Christian Morgenstern , Friedrich Nietzsche and Georg Trakl . Lately there has been a renewed interest in his work, especially in the United States, but also in Germany. A more detailed occupation with work and life is still pending.

Estate / Unpublished Works

The entire estate of Felix Wolfes has been in the Houghton Library at Harvard University since 1978. It comprises a wide range of materials, letters (including from Max Brod , Wilhelm Furtwängler , Alma Mahler-Werfel , Max Reger and Bruno Walter ) and autobiographical documents. Among the latter are five “carbonless books” in which the correspondence from 1932 to 1937 is completely recorded, including the letters to Richard Strauss and the Fürstner publishing house in Berlin.

The manuscripts of numerous previously unpublished song compositions are also in the estate. Their publication is currently being prepared at the Musicological Institute of the University of Mainz (see the biennial report 2007/08, p. 14).

Catalog raisonné

  • Viola R. Dacus: An introduction to the songs of Felix Wolfes with complete chronological catalog (Diss., UMI, Louisiana State Univ.), Ann Arbor, MI (USA) 1995 (VII and 182 pages; available in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München ).

expenditure

  • Thirty-one songs, 1954-59, for voice and piano , undated 1959.
  • Selected songs in 5 volumes: for voice and piano [Vol. 1: High voice / Vol. 2: High voice / Vol. 3: Middle voice / Vol. 4: Middle voice / Vol. 5: Low voice], New York: Mercury Music Corporation, [1960] -1963.
  • 13 songs. Settings of poems by Hermann Hesse for voice and piano . Edited by Richard Aslanian, 2008.

Piano reductions and stage arrangements

  • Hans Pfitzner: The rose from the love garden. Romantic opera in 2 acts, before and after; Music by Hans Pfitzner, poetry by James Grun ; Piano excerpt with text, revised by Felix Wolfes, Leipzig: Max Brockhaus Verlag, undated [approx. 1915].
  • Hans Pfitzner: Palestrina. Musical legend. Complete piano excerpt with text by Felix Wolfes, Berlin: A. Fürstner undated [1916].
  • Peter Tschaikowsky: Eugene Onegin. Lyrical scenes in three acts. Text after Pushkin . Adapted for the German stage by Felix Wolfes, Leipzig 1925.
  • Hans Pfitzner: The dark realm. A choral fantasy with orchestra, organ, soprano and baritone solo using poems by Michelangelo, Goethe, CF Meyer and R. Dehmel. Op. 38. English translation by Rosa Newmarch. Piano reduction by Felix Wolfes, Leipzig: Brockhaus, undated [1930].
  • Hans Pfitzner: The heart. Drama for music in three acts (four pictures) by Hans Mahner Mons. Opus 39. Piano reduction with text by Felix Wolfes, Berlin, Fürstner, 1931.
  • Richard Strauss: Arabella. Lyrical comedy in three acts by Hugo von Hofmannsthal . Music by Richard Strauss. Opus 79. Piano reduction with text by Felix Wolfes, Berlin, Fürstner, 1933 (365 pages).
  • Richard Strauss: The silent woman. Comic opera in three acts. Opus 80. Music by Richard Strauss. Text freely based on Ben Jonson by Stefan Zweig . Piano reduction with text by Felix Wolfes, Berlin: Fürstner o. J. [approx. 1935].

Correspondence

  • Marc A. Weiner: The correspondence between Hans Pfitzner and Felix Wolfes 1933–1948 , in: Memories of Exile - critical reading of the autobiographies after 1933 (Exile research. An international yearbook 2), Munich 1984, 393ff.

Obituaries

  • Hans Rectanus: Immortal Melody. The songs of Felix Wolfes , in: Mitteilungen der Hans Pfitzner-Gesellschaft 28 (1972), 18-22.
  • Rexford Harrower: In Memoriam Felix Wolfes , in: Castrum Peregrini 107-109 (1973), 166ff.

literature

  • Erich H. Müller (Ed.): German Musicians Lexicon . W. Limpert-Verlag, Dresden 1929.
  • Theo Stengel / Herbert Gerigk : Lexicon of Jews in Music. With a list of titles of Jewish works, Berlin: Hahnefeld 1940.
  • Alfred Sendrey: Bibliography of Jewish music , New York 1951 [reprint: New York 1969].
  • Ernst G. Lowenthal: Jews in Prussia. Biographical directory. A representative cross-section. Published by the Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1981, 243.
  • Günther Weiß: Richard Strauss and Felix Wolfes. An unknown facet in the life of Richard Strauss between “Arabella” and “Die Schweigsame Frau”, in: Yearbook of the Bavarian State Opera 1988/1989, Munich 1988, 77-92 (also in: Quaestiones in musica. Festschrift for Franz Krautwurst for the 65th Birthday. Ed. By Friedhelm Brusniak and Horst Leuchtmann , Tutzing 1989, pp. 697–726).
  • Dieter Knippschild: From the urban stages to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The life of the Jewish conductors Felix Wolfes and Martin Piestreich / Rich, in: Heimat Dortmund. Published by the Historical Association for Dortmund and the County of Mark. Volume 4, Dortmund 1994.
  • Dieter Knippschild: Wolfes, Felix , in: Biographies of important Dortmunders. Published by Hans Bohrmann on behalf of the historical association for Dortmund and the Grafschaft Mark eV Volume 2, Essen: Klartext Verlag, 1998, 151-152.
  • David Josephson: The Exile of European Music. Documentation of Immigration in the "New York Times", in: Reinhold Brinkmann / Christoph Wolff (Ed.): Driven into Paradise. The Musical Migration from Nazi Germany to the United States, Berkeley, Calif .: University of California Press, 1999, 92-152, here: 142.
  • Günther Högl: The Dortmund theater during the Nazi era. Synchronization and totalitarian execution at the Dortmund City Theater, in: 100 Years of Theater Dortmund: Review and Outlook. Published by Franz-Peter Kothes, Harenberg: Dortmund, 2004.
  • Silent voices. The expulsion of the Jews from the opera 1933 - 1945. Edited by Hannes Heer , Jürgen Kesting and Peter Schmidt , Hamburg 2006.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945. Volume II / Part 2: L - Z. The Arts, Sciences, and Literature, Munich / New York / London / Paris: KG Saur, 1983, 1260.
  2. ↑ For the relationship to him see Johann Peter Vogel: Pfitzner. Life - Works - Documents, Zurich / Mainz 1999. There, p. 95, there is also a photograph showing Pfitzner among his students Gava, Heinrich Boell , Helmut Coerper, Heinrich Jacobi and Wolfes.
  3. ^ The persecution and murder of the European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933-1945 [VEJ]. Edited on behalf of the Federal Archives. Vol. 1: German Empire 1933-1937. Edited by Wolf Gruner, Munich 2008, 86.
  4. ↑ Printed in Hans Pfitzner: Briefe. Edited by Bernhard Adamy. Two volumes, Tutzing 1991, Volume I, 621-623; see. Michael H. Kater: Hans Pfitzner, in: Ders .: Composers in National Socialism. Eight portraits, Berlin 2004, 193-241. 428-441, here: 211.
  5. ↑ This results from documents in the Dortmund city archive: StdtADO, Collection of Resistance and Persecution in the Public Service, Dossier F. Wolfes; see. Günther Högl: The Dortmund theater during the Nazi era, in: Franz-Peter Kothes (Red.), 100 Years Theater Dortmund: Review and Outlook, Dortmund, Ed. Harenberg 2004, p. 121.
  6. ↑ On the collaboration with Bruno Walter see John Briggs: Requiem for a yellow brick brewery. A history of the Metropolitan Opera, Boston 1969, p. 269.
  7. ↑ See the description given by the soprano Marjorie Lawrence in her autobiography: Interrupted melody. The story of my life , New York 1949, pp. 147-156.
  8. ↑ On the American stations see David Josephson: The Exile of European Music. Documentation of Immigration in the "New York Times", in: Reinhold Brinkmann / Christoph Wolff (Ed.): Driven into Paradise. The Musical Migration from Nazi Germany to the United States, Berkeley, Calif .: University of California Press, 1999, 92-152, here: p. 142 [1] . (Josephson gives other articles in the newspaper that mention Felix Wolfes).
  9. ↑ On Helmut Wolfes cf. the article in the lexicon of persecuted musicians during the Nazi era .
  10. ↑ Helmut Wolfes composed mainly film music. He deserves special credit for the rediscovery and reconstruction of Rossini's opera " Il turco in Italia " (see the report in: Aufbau (New York). Vol. XIV. No. 34 of August 20, 1948, p. 10) .
  11. ↑ Musicological Institute of the University of Mainz, Annual Report 2007/2008, p. 14. ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.0 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Wolfes, Felix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, conductor and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH September 2, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH March 28, 1971
Place of death Boston