Gerhard von Keussler

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Gerhard von Keußler (born July 5, 1874 in Alt-Schwanenburg , Livonia ; † August 21, 1949 in Niederwartha near Dresden ) was a German composer , conductor and music writer.

Life

Gerhard von Keußler came from a Baltic German pastor family and received his first music lessons at home. Since his father was called to Saint Petersburg in 1885 , he completed his education at the local Petri School and then worked as a private tutor. 1894 began Keussler in Tartu first botanical study before it moved a successful concert of his own songs in 1899 to operate the music profession professional. In 1900 he therefore enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory , where he studied composition with Carl Reinecke , counterpoint with Salomon Jadassohn and cello with Julius Klengel . At the same time, he studied art history at the University of Leipzig , which he completed in 1902 with a doctoral thesis on The Limits of Aesthetics . In the same year he broke off his music studies because of discrepancies. In 1903 Keussler moved to Dresden .

At the beginning of 1906 Keußler was appointed choirmaster of the German Singing Association in Prague , which he remained until 1918. During this time he also directed the concerts of the music association and gave lectures on music-historical and music-aesthetic topics. In 1904 Keussler became a member of the Freemasons , whose principles soon had a significant influence on his world of thought. He was a member of the Prague lodge "Hiram zu den drei Sternen", to which he later dedicated the vocal symphonic work The Great Alliance .

From 1918 to 1922 Keußler worked as a conductor at the Sing-Akademie and at times at the Philharmonic Concerts in Hamburg . Afterwards he was only active as a guest conductor and song accompanist and moved to Stuttgart . In the 1920s Keussler was very committed to social security for musicians. In 1926 his followers in Stuttgart and Prague founded a "Gerhard von Keussler Society" to help the composer's music to spread widely.

In 1932 Keussler went to Australia, where in the following three years he made great contributions to improving the musical life. In 1934 he was appointed music director at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne . The composer processed his time in Australia in the symphonic works Xenion and Australia , neither of which were premiered in Australia.

When Keussler returned to Germany at the end of 1935, he was confronted with National Socialism . He refused both to join the Reichsschrifttumskammer and to comply with the request to expel Jewish members from the "Keussler Society". In 1939, the composer himself dissolved the society. Incidentally, Keussler remained largely unaffected by Nazi cultural policy, as the Reichsmusikkammer- President Peter Raabe, who was a friend of his , took him under protection. In 1936 Raabe also arranged for him to lead a master class for composition at the Prussian Academy of the Arts , which Keussler held until 1945.

At the end of the 1930s, Keussler planned to return to Australia, but this was prevented by the outbreak of World War II . In 1939 he was excluded from the Reichsmusikkammer and banned from performing, but there were isolated concerts of Keussler's compositions again towards the end of the war.

In 1941 the composer moved to Niederwartha in Saxony and lived there in the house of his younger sister Lisbeth von Keussler (1879–1972), a painter. Here Gerhard von Keußler spent the last years of his life in seclusion.

Artistic creation

Keussler's musical output consists mainly of vocal works, for which he wrote the poems himself. Large-scale oratorios and operas , which the composer described as "symphonic dramas", dominate here. The texts of the works deal mainly with philosophical topics. Two extensive, one-movement symphonies stand out among the instrumental works . Keussler's music, which is often strongly contrapuntal, is characterized as “filled with a deep seriousness that lies beyond the musical and effective” (Helmut Scheunchen). In the MGG (1st edition) Erwin Kroll Keußler names a "lonely high-altitude hiker with poetry" as well as "a special phenomenon within the last German late romanticism" and brings his work stylistically close to Felix Draeseke , Hans Pfitzner , Richard Wetz and Heinrich Kaminski .

Gerhard von Keussler's works were rarely performed after his death, which is probably due to the fact that most of the compositions require a large cast and the composer's tonal language is generally considered to be difficult to access. In addition, only some of the works have appeared in print, mostly in a limited edition.

Keussler published numerous essays on music in newspapers. He showed a keen interest in earlier epochs in music history and arranged numerous pieces by old masters, e. B. Palestrinas . He was also the first to advocate playing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem without Franz Xaver Süssmayr . He pleaded for the unfinished work to be supplemented with parts from other Mozartian mass compositions.

Keussler's extensive estate, which in addition to musical works also contains writings on music and philosophy as well as poems, is kept in the Goethe and Schiller Archive in Weimar .

Edited by Denis Lomtev, Keussler's previously unpublished orchestral works have been published by Laurentius-Musikverlag since 2020.

Works (selection)

Operas

(Libretti: Gerhard von Keußler)

  • Changes , symphonic drama in 7 images (partial performances: Coburg 1904, Dresden 1905; not performed as a whole)
  • Prisons , symphonic drama in 3 parts (Premiere: Prague April 22, 1914)
  • Die Geisselfahrt , symphonic drama in 2 parts ( Premiere : Hamburg September 17, 1923)
  • The Brother , symphonic drama in 3 acts (libretto completed, music only sketched incoherently)

Oratorios

  • Jesus from Nazareth , biblical oratorio (text: Bible, G. v. Keußler; premiere: Prague June 2, 1917)
  • The Mother , an Oratorio of Mary (Text: Bible, G. v. Keußler; Premiere: Hamburg November 25, 1919)
  • Zebaoth , biblical oratorio (text: Bibel, G. v. Keußler; premiere: Frankfurt am Main June 13, 1924)
  • In the early days , a folk oratorio based on old German songs (premiere: Heidelberg February 26, 1926)

Songs

(Texts: Gerhard von Keußler)

  • Im Zeitwandel , 6 chants with orchestra (individual songs later divided into other cycles)
  • To the harvest , cycle for voice and orchestra
  • Chants based on their own poems for voice ( tenor or alto ) and piano:
    • Book 1: On the Road , 6 Songs (1903)
    • Book 2: Rhapsody , 7 songs (1903)
    • Volume 3: From the diary , 6 sketches (1902–1905)
    • Book 4: From Atonement , 6 scenes (1903, 1913)
    • Book 5: The Companion , monodramatic cycle, 6 chants (19 ??)
    • Book 6: The great alliance , 3 chants (1912, later expanded into symphonic poetry)
    • Volume 7: The Song of Love (1913)
    • Booklet 8: The Old Stove (1914)
    • Volume 9: Echoes , 4 songs (1917)
    • Book 10: To Solitude , song from the symphonic drama "Wandlungen" (1901)

Symphonies and symphonic poems

(Texts of the vocal symphonic works: Gerhard von Keußler)

  • June night by the sea , symphonic poem (19 ??, probably not performed)
  • Resurrection and Last Judgment , symphonic fresco for recitation and orchestra (1904)
  • Oriental Fantasy for Orchestra (1909)
  • Death , symphonic poem for soprano, male choir and orchestra (before 1911, not performed)
  • Symphony in A major (1916, reworking of Der Tod , only 1st and 4th movements preserved, earlier version under the title "Todesvisionen")
  • To death , melodramatic symphony for recitation and orchestra (1922)
  • Symphony in D minor (1925)
  • The great alliance , symphonic poem for alto and orchestra (1928, original version 1912 as song cycle)
  • Symphony in C major (1929)
  • Die Burg , symphonic poem for alto, boys' choir and orchestra (1929)
  • Asma , symphonic poem for alto and orchestra (1931)
  • Xenion , symphonic scene for children's choir and orchestra (1933, not performed)
  • Prelude solemne for organ and orchestra (1934)
  • Australia , symphonic fantasy (1935, also under the title "Vom neue Sein")

literature

  • Egon Siemens: Gerhard von Keussler. Musical works and poems, arrangements , unpublished typescript 1957 (location: Library of the HfM Weimar ).
  • Manuel coronation: The oratorios of Gerhard von Keussler (1874-1949). Music with "Ethos" , Mainz 2010.
  • Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon , revised and expanded new edition of the edition from 1932, Munich 2003, 951 pages, ISBN 3-7766-2161-3
  • Helmut Scheunchen: Lexicon of German Baltic Music. Harro von Hirschheydt publishing house, Wedemark-Elze 2002. ISBN 3-7777-0730-9 . Pp. 126-130.
  • Carola L. Gottzmann / Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . 3 volumes; Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 . Volume 2, pp. 661-662.
  • Ferdinand Pfohl, review of the world premiere of the “Geißelfahrt”, Musikwelt, Hamburg, 1922/3, p. 139 f.
  • Ferdinand Pfohl, Gerhard von Keußler's “Zebaoth”, Musikwelt, Hamburg, 1925, pp. 39–41

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Keussler, Gerhard von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, conductor and music writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Old Schwanenburg , Livonia
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1949
Place of death Niederwartha near Dresden