Rudi Stephan

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Rudi Stephan

Rudolf Stephan (born July 29, 1887 in Worms , † September 29, 1915 near Tarnopol , Galicia , Austria-Hungary ) was a German composer .

Life

Memorial plaque for Rudi Stephan at Schwanthalerstraße 106 in Munich

Stephan was considered one of the great hopes of his generation as a composer. He grew up in Worms as the son of a well-to-do family of lawyers , his father was the lawyer and politician Karl Stephan . His grandfather comes from Hessloch in the Rhine-Hesse region . He studied composition with Bernhard Sekles at Dr. Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt a. M. and with Rudolf Louis in Munich . Rudi Stephan lived in Munich until 1914, where he presented his first compositions in 1911. He fell at the age of 28 in the First World War near Welykyj Chodatschkiw (pol. Chodaczków Wielki), west of Tarnopol .

Memorial plaque for Rudi Stephan at the house where he was born, today's Adler pharmacy in Worms

Due to his early death, he was only able to complete a few works. But even during his lifetime he was regarded as one of the most talented German composers of his generation. He first drew attention to himself on January 16, 1911 at a concert in the Munich Tonhalle , made possible by an extensive financial grant from his father. In 1915 his most important and greatest work was published, the opera The First People . At that time, Stephan was already a recognized composer whose works were published by Schott-Verlag . His music stands on the threshold between late romantic and modern and includes both tonal tradition ( Richard Wagner ) as well as impressionistic sounds and free tonal developments, as can be found in the early Schönberg . Only what the Schott music publisher has published in print has survived of his work; his estate was destroyed in flames after a bombing raid on Worms in February 1945.

Rudi Stephan made an important contribution to the style change that took place in music around 1910 - not in a finely honed, restrained form, but in a revolutionary way: heterogeneous, original, ingenious. His music did not seek philosophical or other extra-musical meaning, nor did it seek programmatic effect; it aimed at tension, expression, color, at music itself - hence the “neutral” designation of his works: “Music for. . . ». Although it shows many influences and some of them very directly, it is by no means epigonal .

Works

Orchestral works

  • (first) music for orchestra (1910)
  • Music for orchestra (1912)
  • Music for violin and orchestra (1911, rev. 1913)

Piano and chamber music

  • For harmonium (August 1907)
  • Grotesque for violin and piano (1911)
  • Music for seven string instruments (1911)

Opera

Singing voice and orchestra

Songs

  • Forest silence (1905)
  • Forest Afternoon (1906)
  • For the death of a young woman (1906)
  • Midnight (1907)
  • Memento vivere (1907)
  • Up de eensame Hallig for low voice and piano (1914)
  • Two serious chants for baritone and piano:
    • In the evening (1914)
    • Memento vivere (1913; earlier version see above)
  • 6 poems for voice and piano from the song cycle “I want to sing you a song of songs” . (1913–1914, ed. 1921)
  • 7 songs for voice and piano (1913–1914, published 1936)

memory

In order to keep the memories of Rudi Stephan alive, the "Altsprachliche Gymnasium" (today: Ernst Ludwig School ), where he went to school, was renamed " Rudi Stephan Gymnasium ". Ulmenstrasse , west of the city center, was renamed “Rudi-Stephan-Allee” in honor of Stephan.

literature

  • Juliane Brand: Composers in Bavaria . Volume 2: Rudi Stephan . Schneider, Tutzing 1983. ISBN 3-7952-0386-4 , pp. 125f.
  • Alfred Machner: Rudi Stephans Werk , Diss.Phil. 1943 (Breslau)
  • Hartwig Lehr: "Music for ..." Studies on the work of Rudi Stephans . Kuhn, Berlin 1996. ISBN 3-928864-47-5

Web links

Commons : Rudi Stephan  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ There are contradicting information about the circumstances of his death: he died as an observer from sniper fire or he left cover in a fit of madness.
  2. ↑ NCO, Reserve Infantry Regiment 222, 2nd Company; Prussian loss list No. 360 of October 22, 1915, p. 9529 / German loss list .
  3. ↑ State Capital Munich, Culture Department (ed.): KulturGeschichtsPfad8 . Munich 2014, p. 52 .
  4. ↑ was recorded for the first time on CD by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in March 2005 and performed in a concert on May 18, 2009 in the Philharmonie in Berlin by the German Symphony Orchestra under Ingo Metzmacher; on the creation of the work see also archived copy ( Memento of the original from 23. September 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musikmph.de
  5. ↑ Jörg Koch: Worms a hundred years ago . Sutton , Erfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-95400-020-3 , p. 93 f .
personal data
SURNAME Stephan, Rudi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stephan, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Worms
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 1915
Place of death near Tarnopol , Austria-Hungary