Jo Knümann
Josef Bernhard Knümann (born February 11, 1895 in Gelsenkirchen ; † December 25, 1952 ) was a German pianist and composer of popular music .
Life
After taking piano and violin lessons in the music school of his father Bernard Knümann, he performed publicly under the artist name "Wilhelmy" at the age of 9 and undertook his first concert tours abroad at the age of 11. In 1909 he came to the Cologne University of Music and studied piano with Carl Friedberg and composition with Ewald Strässer . In 1913 he moved to the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin , where he played a successful concert on October 2nd with the Blüthner Orchestra under the direction of Edmund von Strauss .
This was followed by a lively concert activity at home and abroad, including before the English King George V. From 1924 he concentrated on the field of light music. With his "Orchestra without Notes" he played in the leading coffee houses of the time such as the Café Vaterland in Berlin, the Café Wien am Ring in Cologne , the Hamburg Alsterpavillon , the Grand Hotel in The Hague , the Café Winke’s in Amsterdam and others. a. In 1935 he took over the musicians and the repertoire of the orchestra of the Jewish musician Michael Schugalté, who emigrated to Belgium . In his compositions, mainly written for salon orchestras , he, like Schugalté, liked to fall back on folk music from different countries and gave the pieces appropriate titles such as "Hungarian", "Russian", "Romanian", "Scottish", "Arabic" and the like. a. From 1942 onwards, the pieces were published by Ries & Erler music publisher in Berlin, recorded by record companies such as Electrola , Odeon , Columbia and Deutsche Grammophon and broadcast on the radio.
Towards the end of the Second World War , Knümann was evacuated to Quedlinburg . In 1949 he went to West Germany. There he continued to work as an entertainment musician and took care of the printing of his pieces before he died in 1952 at the age of 57.
The musical legacy of Knümann is in the German Composers Archive in HELLERAU - European Center for the Arts Dresden .
Works
- Outsider (The Baked Chicken) Berlin 1942
- I have a love in a distant country , Berlin 1943
- Hungarian , Berlin 1943
- Vögleins Sehnsuchtslied , Berlin 1944
- Miner's life , Berlin 1950
- Sounds on the Rhine , Berlin 1950
- Arabic , Berlin 1950
- Czardas I. , Berlin 1950
- Czardas II. , Berlin 1951
- Italian Serenade , Recklinghausen 1951
- Russian , Berlin 1951
- Romanian , Berlin 1951
- Balkans , Berlin 1952
- Scottish , Berlin 1954
- Slavic, Berlin 1955
- Erotic Suite (Suite of Love) , Recklinghausen 1958
- Between two rivers , Berlin 1961
Sources and web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Knümann, Jo |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Knümann, Josef Bernhard (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German pianist and composer of popular music |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 11, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gelsenkirchen |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 25, 1952 |