Leo Justinus Kauffmann

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Leo Justinus Kauffmann (born September 20, 1901 in Dammerkirch , Alsace , † September 25, 1944 in Strasbourg ) was an Alsatian composer of late Romanticism and Impressionism . With his stage work “The Pearl Shirt”, which premiered in 1944, he created a new style of modern chamber opera .

Life

Kauffmann comes from a family of musicians from Upper Alsace. His father was the main teacher and organist in Dammerkirch . He received his musical training during his high school in Altkirch and during the First World War in Dijon from the local cathedral music director, among others. After the war he studied at the conservatories in Strasbourg and Cologne.

He got his first job as organist in Dornach and répétiteur at the city ​​theater in Mulhausen . As a master student of Hermann Abendroth and Philipp Jarnach , he wrote his first own compositions here.

After his marriage, he took a job as a teacher at the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne and also worked as a choir and orchestra conductor in Düren . Disparaged by the Nazis as a "Newtoner", he lost his job in 1933, but continued to compose under a pseudonym for the Cologne radio and in 1937 twice won first prizes in radio composition competitions.

In 1940 he was appointed by Fritz Münch as a composition teacher at the Strasbourg Conservatory (today Ecole Nationale de Musique ).

Leo Justinus Kauffmann was killed in an air raid in 1944.

Works

Leo Justinus Kauffmann left about 130 compositions of various genres. His instrumental chamber music is a focal point . But he achieved even more importance with his late work, the opera The story of beautiful Amerl (after Clemens Brentano ) (1943), the chamber opera Das Perlenhemd (1944). and his only symphony from 1942. The important contemporary composer Philipp Jarnach judged his chamber opera Das Perlenhemd : "His second stage work ... is a musical treasure and at the same time the model of a new, valid style of chamber opera".

swell

  • Seydel, Hans-Jacob: Leo Justinus Kauffmann. Life and work of the Alsatian composer . Musica 5, 1951, pp. 186-189.
  • Francis Müller: Leo Justinus Kauffmann In: Music in the past and present vol. 7, col. 754 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Francis Müller: "Leo Justinus Kauffmann" in MGG
personal data
SURNAME Kauffmann, Leo Justinus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Alsatian composer
DATE OF BIRTH September 20, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Dannemarie (Haut-Rhin)
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1944
Place of death Strasbourg