Hans Koessler
Hans Koessler (born January 1, 1853 in Waldeck (today part of Kemnath in the Upper Palatinate ); † May 23, 1926 in Ansbach ; ennobled Hans von Koessler; also Hans Kößler and in Hungary Koessler János ) was a German composer who worked as a university professor worked especially in Budapest .
Life
Koessler studied organ with Joseph Rheinberger from 1874 to 1877 and attended Franz Wüllner's choir class at the Royal Bavarian Music School in Munich . Then he was a teacher of theory and choral singing at the Dresden Conservatory and conductor of the Dresden Liedertafel .
From 1882 to 1908 he taught organ and choir singing at the National Music Academy in Budapest , later he was also professor of composition and also raised to the personal nobility . Among his students were the most important Hungarian composers of the time: Zoltán Kodály , Béla Bartók , Emmerich Kálmán , Ernst von Dohnányi and Leó Weiner ; and other musicians like Fritz Reiner .
After his retirement in 1908, he returned to Germany, but was hired again through the mediation of Kálmán and Dohnányi in order to secure a modest income for him. In an obituary in the literary magazine Nyugat ('West'), 48 students from a period of 43 years as composition teachers in Budapest are listed by name, such as the later university teacher Albert Siklós , the composer Árpád Szendy and the operetta composers Jenő Huszka and Viktor Jacobi , or also the composer Aladár Radó (1882–1914) who died near Belgrade .
Koessler composed over one hundred and thirty works, including an opera , two symphonies , symphonic variations for orchestra, a violin concerto , a mass for female choir and organ, psalm settings and chamber music works. Due to his unsteady way of life, many of his compositions have been lost or may still be in private hands.
A musical influence on his second cousin Max Reger , who was twenty years younger and also grew up in the Upper Palatinate, has not been established.
Bartók as a student with Hans Koessler
Béla Bartók was also a composition student at Koessler, who used to give his lessons in German, which annoyed the nationally conscious and youthful hotspur Bartók, although he wrote his letters to his mother in German himself. Bartók quotes Koessler's admonition in a letter to his mother in 1902: “An adagio must express love. There is no trace of love in this [slow] movement . ”Bartók, on the other hand, does not believe“ that experience has all this influence on the quality of a composition ”. But, there are also similarities between pupil and teacher: “By the way, Koessler does not consider Dohnányis Adagios to be outstanding either. (Neither do I!)"
For Bartók Koessler was too “didactically strict, too traditional and also too professorial and pompous”, and Bartók sought and found his inspiration that same year at the first performance of Richard Strauss ' Also sprach Zarathustra, which was received with general horror in Budapest . In later years, Bartók shared the pride of his Hungarian music colleagues in having been a composition student with Koessler.
Works (selection)
- Ave Maria , for choir (SATB) and string quartet (organ). Sonat-Verlag , Kleinmachnow 2015.
- The 60th Psalm , for choir (SSATBB) a cappella. Sonat-Verlag, Kleinmachnow 2015.
- Nine chants for mixed choir a cappella . Sonat-Verlag, Kleinmachnow 2014.
literature
- Helmut Brenner , Reinhold Kubik : Mahler's people. Friends and companions. Residence, St. Pölten / Salzburg / Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-7017-3322-4 , pp. 114–117.
- Falvy: Koessler, Hans. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 4, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1969, p. 50.
- Uwe Harten : Koessler, Hans von. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7001-3045-7 .
- Wolfgang Rathert : "'Adagio without love'. Thoughts on Bartók's teacher Hans Koessler", in: Musiktheorie Vol. 31 (2016), Issue 4 (special issue "Béla Bartók"), pp. 293-309.
- Gunda Schricker: Hans von Koessler: a composer rediscovered. Ansbach 2012 ( OCLC 826596776 ).
Web links
- Works by and about Hans Koessler in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Hans Koessler in the German Digital Library
- Hans Koessler in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)
- Symphonic Variations for large orchestra: Score, Leipzig 1909 (digital copy)
- Sheet music and audio files by Hans Koessler in the International Music Score Library Project
- Catalog raisonné
- Heike Nasritdinova: Hans Koessler . Entry in the database of the Oberpfälzer Kulturbund (currently not available)
- CV , markt-waldeck.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Hammer blow from János: Hans Koessler. In: Nyugat. 1926/12.
- ^ All according to: Everett Helm: Béla Bartók (= Rowohlt's monographs 50107). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-499-50107-4 , p. 29f.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Koessler, Hans |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Koessler, Hans von; Koessler, János |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German composer |
DATE OF BIRTH | January 1, 1853 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Waldeck , today Kemnath |
DATE OF DEATH | May 23, 1926 |
Place of death | Ansbach |