Hans Koessler

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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

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hammer blow from János: Hans Koessler. In: Nyugat. 1926/12.
  2. ^ 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