Otto Chmel

Otto Chmel (born August 30, 1885 in Gröbming ; † September 1, 1964 in Eberbach ) was an Austro- German music critic and music teacher .

Life

Chmel studied Classical Philology at the University of Graz and at the same time at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz . In 1909 he received his doctorate . From 1913 he worked as a répétiteur at the Graz Opera , from 1914 as Kapellmeister at the Deutsches Theater in Prague . Here he completed musicological studies with Heinrich Rietsch and became editor-in-chief of the magazine of the music education association .

In 1918 Chmel was offered a position as a teacher of piano and music theory at the Kaiserslautern Conservatory. At the same time he worked as a choir director, pianist and critic for the Palatinate People's Newspaper . In 1922 he went to Mannheim , where he initially worked as a répétiteur at the National Theater and from 1924 took over the management of the opera school. In the 1930s he taught as a lecturer in piano and music theory at the Music Education Seminar at the City University of Music and Theater . In 1928 Chmel resumed his work as a music critic in Mannheim until 1937 when the National Socialist Reich Chamber of Culture banned him from practicing his profession. From 1945 he first reviewed for the Neue Mannheimer Zeitung , from 1946 to 1955 for the resulting Mannheimer Morgen . After that, he mostly published articles in specialist journals.

Archival material

• Letters from Otto Chmel are in the archive of the Leipzig music publisher CF Peters in the Leipzig State Archives .

Fonts

• Investigations into Poseidon . Dissertation, University of Graz, 1909 (handwritten).

literature

• Roland Würtz: Chmel, Otto , in: Friedrich Blume (Ed.): The music in history and present , 1st edition, vol. 15 (supplement) 1973, col. 1463–1464.