Hermann Klee (composer)

Hermann Klee (born September 9, 1883 in Rendsburg near Hamburg , † August 20, 1970 in Timișoara ( German  Timişoara ), Socialist Republic of Romania ) was a German composer , conductor and university professor .

Life

Germany

Hermann Klee was born on September 8, 1883 in Rendsburg near Hamburg. His first compositions were already being composed while studying at the Hamburg Conservatory . At the same time (1904) Klee was also the conductor of the Gutenberg Liedertafel in Hamburg-Altona . In addition to songs, he composed music for the Spring Awakening Festival in 1903 , and a year later he appeared as an orchestral conductor and worked on his first operetta arrangements. In 1904 Klee played in the orchestra of the Dresden Philharmonic and in 1905 in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra .

Romania

Beszterce

In 1909 Hermann Klee applied in Beszterce (today Bistrița , German  Bistritz ) in Transylvania for the post of choir master, music teacher and organist. Here he worked until 1919, the year in which he moved to Cluj-Napoca ( German:  Klausenburg ) to become the conductor of the Cluj-Napoca Opera Choir. Klee dealt specifically with the Romanian folk song. He often conducted works by Romanian composers. Already during the Bistritz years he performed compositions by Tiberiu Brediceanu and Gheorghe Dima .

Cluj-Napoca

Tiberiu Brediceanu, an important composer and folklorist from Lugosch , was the director of the Cluj-Napoca opera at the time. His most important works were created in Cluj-Napoca between 1919–1946: the fairy tale opera Făt frumos (premiered in 1924) and Es tagt ( Se face ziua ) (1926). The chants Zarathustra and Venice after Friedrich Nietzsche, the symphonic poem Lancelot , the ballad , the Sinfonietta in C major and the suite Dorfleben , as well as many German and Romanian songs, choirs and piano pieces were written. In 1920 Klee was appointed professor of theory, counterpoint, harmony and composition at the Cluj-Napoca Conservatory .

Timișoara

After the partition of Transylvania through the Vienna arbitration in 1940, when Romania had to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary, the Romanian Opera Cluj-Napoca and with it Klee moved to Timișoara. In 1946 Klee became choir and orchestra director at the newly founded Timișoara State Opera . Under Klee's musical direction, Aida , Cavalleria rusticana , La Bohème , Carmen , Eugen Onegin , Figaros Hochzeit , Rigoletto , Faust , Don Pasquale , Ana Lugojana and Das Dreimäderlhaus were brought to the stage. In Timișoara the vocal-symphonic poem It goes a song in the people and the ballet The Golden Apple . Also in Timișoara, he created the chamber music pieces Aus der Puppenstube (for piano) and Reverie (for harp).

Klee died in Timișoara on August 22, 1970. Most of his works have only survived in manuscripts. Klee's compositional work has not yet been viewed conclusively. His estate is in the Banat Museum in Timișoara as a gift from Klee's widow .

Compositions

Operas

• Fairy tale opera Făt frumos , first performance Cluj-Napoca 1924
• Opera Es tagt (Se face ziua), Cluj-Napoca 1926

Chamber music

• Dreaming for piano, first performed in Budapest 1915
• From the dollhouse (for piano), Timișoara
• Reverie (for harp), Timișoara

Choral music

• Two chants for male voices, first performed in Leipzig in 1912
• Song of the Workers, 1912
• The dance, 1914
• Chants of Zarathustra and Venice , Cluj-Napoca
• Male choir, 1937
• The swallow
• The Cuckoo

Songs

• Six songs for voice and piano, Timișoara 1942

Symphonic music

• Lancelot , Hamburg 1903
• Ballad for large orchestra, 1910
• Sinfonietta in C major, Bistritz 1913
• Life in the Country , 1950
• There's a little song going on among the people , Timișoara 1956
• Ballet The Golden Apple , Timișoara

conductor

• Aida
• Cavalleria rusticana
• Bohemian
• Carmen
• Eugene Onegin
• Figaro's wedding
• Rigoletto
• fist
• Don Pasquale
• Ana Lugojana
• The Dreimäderlhaus

Awards and honors

• Meritul Cultural Cavaler 1st Class (1922)
• Meritul Cultural Cavaler II (1946)
• Artist emerit (Honored Artist)
• Honorary member of the Romanian Composers Association (1968)

literature

• New Banat Newspaper , Timișoara, August 26, 1970
• New Banat Newspaper , Timișoara, October 12, 1978
• Banater Post , Munich, December 1990
• The Donauschwabe , Aalen, 1990
• Rodica Giurgiu: From Hamburg to the Banat: The composer and conductor Hermann Klee (Din Hamburg in Banat: Compozitorul si dirijorul Hermann Klee), lecture

Web links

• Hermann Klee (1883–1970) , Edition Musik Südost, by Franz Metz
• In memory of two musicians in and from Transylvania: Hermann Klee and Otto Eisenburger , Siebenbürgische Zeitung, August 26, 2008, Karl Teutsch