Austrian Composers' Association

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Logo of the ÖKB

The Austrian Composers' Association (ÖKB) was founded in 1913 and is the oldest interest group for Austrian composers . After an eventful history and temporary dissolution (1938, re-establishment in 1947), it has been divided into the working groups for serious music and light music for a long time . Today's applied music and new forms of music such as crossover or modern jazz relativize this structure, but it is still retained for practical reasons.

The ÖKB currently has around 500 members, about the same number from serious and popular music. Four of the nine Austrian federal states have set up regional sections of the composers' union.

All Austrian composers, musicians, music educators or musicologists who are interested in contemporary music can become full members , regardless of the genre or style of music.

prehistory

The constituent assembly of the “Austrian Composers Club” on June 14, 1913 aimed not only at a loose association of artists, but also at combative actions to assert the most important concerns of the composer. The AKM - the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers , founded at the end of 1897 - which is still responsible for the financial processing of copyrights , was not specific enough for the composer. The AKM's “Mittheilungen”, which have appeared in loose succession since 1899, did little to contribute to artistic contacts, which in 1905 prompted the composer Johann Peter Gotthard (Pázdirek) to apply for the establishment of a club “in which the Members of all curia could come together to get closer to one another, to exchange ideas, to have the opportunity to perform their works ... or to have them performed by guests who have brought them ... “This way one can also recognize talents, maturing thoughts in poetic and musical performance and facilitate contacts with music publishers. The management of the AKM asked all members to comment on this suggestion, but despite the fact that Gotthard was well known, the response was too little.

Foundation of the composers' association

In March 1913 the idea was taken up again, but not in the broad sense of Gotthard, but only for the composers. Kapellmeister Wilhelm August Jurek (1870–1934) applied at a meeting of the AKM composers 'curia that a composers' association should be founded "to promote common interests", which was met with great approval. On June 14th, the constituent assembly of the “Austrian Composers Club” took place in Philipp Silber's apartment in Vienna IX. Many prominent people were elected to the board: As President Eduard Kremser (1838–1914, AKM Vice President and Choir Master of the Vienna Men's Choir ); The court ball music director Carl Michael Ziehrer (board member of the AKM) and Philipp Silber, member of the AKM arbitration tribunal, became vice-presidents . The secretaries were Elias Samet (AKM Reparation and Orchestra Conductors Commission) and Robert Sturm, the first treasurer of the club's initiator, Wilhelm August Jurek. Further board members were Wilhelm Bednarz, Ludwig Gruber, Andre Hummer, Ludwig Prechtl, Joseph Roscher, Silvester Schieder and the auditors Franz Chorherr, Richard Fronz and Heinrich Herlinger; of them Bednarz, Hummer, Chorherr and Herlinger were already members of various AKM commissions.

The 2nd General Assembly of the “Composers Club” also elected Franz Paul Fiebrich , Theobald Kretschmann and Josef Teutscher, and the 3rd General Assembly elected the operetta composer Heinrich Reinhardt to succeed Eduard Kremser, who died in 1914. Bernhard Kaempfner and Viktor Keldorfer joined the board, and the club's headquarters were moved to Vienna IV, Schönbrunner Strasse 1. However, there are hardly any reports about the following period because of the beginning chaos of the war. In the 4th general assembly (1916) Franz Lehár replaced Philipp Silber as vice-president, Edmund Eysler , Johann Wilhelm Ganglberger and Richard Hunyaczek joined the board. An extraordinary general assembly six days later decided to rename the association the “Austrian Composers Association”. A year later, the latter had 170 "really exercising" members and has now moved its headquarters to the center of the metropolis in Vienna I, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring 2. New board members were Karl Haupt and Rudolf Glickh.

Further development

Not much is known of the first post-war years, but a noticeable upswing soon followed. When the chairman Heinrich Reinhardt and also the 1st vice-president Carl Michael Ziehrer died in 1922 , Charles Weinberger followed as president and military bandmaster Anton Mader as secretary. The 6th General Assembly at the end of 1925 determined that the aftermath of the war meant that the Composers' Union could not develop the kind of activity that was "absolutely necessary in the interests of all Austrian composers of a serious and cheerful direction". Measures were discussed in detail in order to “better shape the lot of those who receive little ideal and even less material recognition for their intellectual work”. Hofrat Rudolf Sieczyński (member of the board of directors of AKM) was elected as president, Elias Samet and Johann Wilhelm Ganglberger as vice-presidents , Bernhard Kaempfner as secretary and Anton Mader as treasurer. Other board members were the Kapellmeister Wilhelm Bednarz, Vinzenz Prax and Silvester Schieder as well as the composers Franz Paul Fiebrich, Karl Maria Jäger, Wilhelm August Jurek, Ludwig Prechtl, Ludwig Rochlitzer and Josef Roscher. They rented a room in the Austrian Musicians' Association (Vienna VI, Garbergasse 5), published club news in the "Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft der Authors, Composers und Musikverleger ", which appeared again regularly from 1926 and also became an official organ of the ÖKB, and recruited many new members . A request to the general management of RAVAG suggested permanent contacts regarding the program design. The composers 'association wanted to "broadcast ' Austrian composers 'evenings' with works by living composers from time to time as federal events in a closed program " - and it was successful. The radio company agreed to host such evenings, the programs of which Sieczyński was supposed to put together in agreement with RAVAG music director Max Ast.

The first broadcast evening on February 13, 1926 brought works by Drescher , Karl Gruber, Franz Paul Fiebrich , Ludwig Prechtl , Wilhelm August Jurek , Theodor Franz Schild , Josef Roscher , Rudolf Kronegger , Rudolf Sieczyński , Ernst Arnold and under the title “Wiener Weisen” Max Limbeck-Lilienau , the second evening “Chansons and Cabaret Songs ” on February 23, brought compositions by Ralph Benatzky , Willy Engel-Berger , Isy Geiger, Béla Laszky and Robert Stolz . Further broadcasts followed, but without concerts of “serious” music, because RAVAG anyway “broadcasts such works in its own closed evenings or in concerts” and often takes into account suggestions from the ÖKB in this regard.

The general assembly of October 28, 1926 brought internal restructuring, new board members (Max Baron Limbeck-Lilienau and Franz Neubacher) and a "Propaganda Committee of the ÖKB". Its chairman, Hofrat Richard Glück , immediately wrote to RAVAG to resume the composer's evenings and to give more consideration to contemporary Austrian music on the radio, referring to the educational mandate of a broadcasting company. It was also demanded that the Propaganda Committee be given “the influence on the selection of the participating artists, which is desirable to ensure a flawless interpretation,” and asked to meet with the music director as soon as possible. For the radio concerts they even wanted to found their own orchestra (“French line-up”) and asked all members who could master string, brass, wooden or percussion instruments or the piano to contact Kapellmeister Richard Grünfeld .

This letter was also a great success. The monthly broadcast one evening was promised, the program of which was put together by the propaganda committee of the ÖKB. After a “popular concert” in March 1927, there was the first evening of “ serious music ” in April with works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold , Egon Wellesz , Josef Rinaldini, Franz Neubacher and Carl Lafite. But organizational difficulties caused RAVAG to “refrain from broadcasting independent concerts”. The ÖKB should collect or sift through works by its members and send them to RAVAG for inclusion in various programs. The ÖKB agreed if this would ensure that a larger number of submitted compositions could be broadcast than before. The contract partners founded a " music commission " to which well-known composers belonged: Alban Berg , Hans Gál , Johann Wilhelm Ganglberger, Paul von Klenau , Carl Lafite , Ludwig Rochlitzer and Silvester Schieder, among others . Skeptical members were assured that the Propaganda Committee would keep records of whether, when and how the submitted works would be broadcast.

President

Footnotes

  1. ↑ From the 1990s to 2010, similar advances had little echo on the ORF broadcaster Ö3
  2. ^ Austrian Composers Association: Presidents and Honorary Members. In: komponistenbund.at. Retrieved July 21, 2020 .

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