Josef Wagnes

Photo of the young Josef Wagnes.

Josef Wagnes (born October 4, 1891 in Voitsberg , † December 16, 1979 in Graz ) was an Austrian composer , cellist and teacher. He belonged to the same, widely branched family of musicians as his uncle Eduard Wagnes .

Portrait of Josef Wagnes in later years.

While Josef Wagnes was known and appreciated as a bookkeeping teacher at the Graz Commercial Academy and, at the same time, as a chamber musician and soloist, he kept his compositions close to his family and some of them entirely to himself. Probably the only piece he composed that was performed publicly during his lifetime is the Christmas carol "Christlied", which he wrote together with his wife Elfriede Wagner.

Only in 2013 were there public performances of his works in connection with a research project at the Art University Graz , including from his cycle of songs by the Styrian-Slovenian poet Ernst Goll .

The works by Josef Wagnes include songs based on poems by Bruno Ertler , Eduard Mörike , Max Geißler and Paula von Preradovic , a wind quartet and several piano fantasies. The autographs of Wagnes' compositions are on permanent loan from the family in the archive of the Graz University of Art .

Web links

• Europeana local contains information on the scores by Wagnes in the archives of the Art University.