Robert Oboussier

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Robert Oboussier (born July 9, 1900 in Antwerp , Belgium ; died June 9, 1957 in Zurich ) was a Swiss composer and music critic .

Life

Robert Oboussier began his music studies in Heidelberg and Mannheim . From 1920 to 1921 he studied at the Zurich Conservatory with Volkmar Andreae and Carl Vogler, then in Berlin composition with Philipp Jarnach and conducting with Siegfried Ochs and Rudolf Krasselt . From 1922 to 1930 he lived as a composer and music critic in Florence , Munich and Paris , and from 1930 to 1938 in Berlin. His music reviews appeared in the French music magazines Revue musicale , Ménestrel and Revue hebdomadaire as well as in the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , on whose behalf he gave lectures in musicology at the Lessing University in Berlin from 1930 to 1933 . As a composer he first appeared in public in 1923 at the Donaueschingen Chamber Music Performances.

From 1939 he lived in Zurich again. Here he was responsible for the text to commemorate the « Landi 39 », was music advisor for Die Tat for several years , since 1942 head of the newly founded «Zentralarchiv Schweizerischer Tonkunst» and in 1948 became Vice Director of SUISA . From 1954 he was a board member of the Swiss Musicians Association .

Oboussier, who tried to hide his homosexual tendencies, was murdered on June 9, 1957 in Zurich by an 18-year-old prostitute who had escaped from the juvenile detention center in the fortress of Aarburg . This led to repressive measures, including against the homosexual organization Der Kreis . Oboussier was buried in the Manegg cemetery, the grave was lifted in 2001.

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Oboussier's early works show influences from the late Romantic period . In his instrumental works he deals with the twelve-tone technique , in a later creative phase he combines forms of the Baroque with contemporary counterpoint and extended harmony and achieves the most personal expression in his vocal works. His choral compositions based on poems by Eichendorff , Hebbel , Brentano , Claudius , Rilke and Anna de Noailles , as well as a cappella arrangements of old English songs, received the most recognition .

He composed an opera, Amphitryon (based on the comedy of the same name Molières ), symphonic works, chamber music and vocal works, including Antigone for alto and orchestra. His book The Symphonies of Beethoven . Introductions (on behalf of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra ) were given several times. His Berliner Musikchronik 1930–1938 was published in 1969 in Zurich by Martin Hürlimann .

His estate is in the Zurich Central Library .

literature

  • Schweizerischer Tonkünstlerverein (Ed.): 40 Swiss contemporary composers. Amriswil 1956.
  • Chris Walton (ed.), Adolf Brunner : Memories of a Swiss composer from the school of Philipp Jarnach and Franz Schrekers. Zurich 1997.
  • Frank Wohlfahrt : The work of Robert Oboussier. In: Schweizerische Musikzeitung, No. 99 (1959), pp. 308–311.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Prominent deceased of the city of Zurich. Website of the city of Zurich.
  2. ^ Matthias Sträßner: The conductor who did not play along: Leo Borchard 1899-1945.
  3. Oboussier, Robert (1900–1957). Estate in the Zurich Central Library.