Wolfgang Fraenkel
Wolfgang Fraenkel (born October 10, 1897 in Berlin , † March 8, 1983 in Los Angeles ) was a German-American composer , conductor , music theorist and lawyer .
Life
Wolfgang Fraenkel received violin lessons at a young age and later studied piano and music theory at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin. He also studied law and was a judge at the Berlin Court of Appeal until April 1933 . After all Jews had been released from public office, Fraenkel relied exclusively on his musical activities as a source of income. In 1936/37 he also conducted performances of Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat .
In November 1938 Fraenkel was imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , but - as his mother had been classified as "Aryan" - was released after one to two months, on condition that he had to leave Germany immediately. In 1939 he moved to Shanghai because there - as the only place in the world - no entry papers or visas were required.
Fraenkel's compositions from this period contain elements of neo-classicism , free atonality and twelve-tone music . His most important works include the opera Der brennende Dornbusch (1926–1928) based on Oskar Kokoschka and the cantata The 82nd Surah of the Koran (1936).
In Shanghai, Wolfgang Fraenkel became a member of the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra in early 1940 , which had been built into a professional ensemble under the direction of Mario Paci since 1919. In the summer of 1941 he also became a teacher of music theory and composition at the city's conservatory , the first music college in China. Today at least 23 Chinese students of Fraenkel are known by name, including leading representatives of their generation such as Ding Shan-de (1911–1995), Sang Tong (* 1923) and Zhang Hao (* 1910).
Like many other exiles from Shanghai, Fraenkel left Shanghai at the beginning of the Chinese civil war and moved to Los Angeles in August 1947. There he also got to know Arnold Schönberg personally and conducted a performance of the Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte op. 41 (1942) in a concert on January 22, 1950 on the occasion of his 75th birthday . On his birthday he also dedicated his music for string quartet (1948/49) to Schönberg .
estate
Wolfgang Fraenkel left 193 works, 19 of which remained unfinished. Much of his work is now owned by the Bavarian National Library in Munich .
literature
- Sheila Melvin and Jindong Cai: Rhapsody in Red. How Western Classical Music Became Chinese . Algora, New York 2004, ISBN 0-87586-179-2
- Ursula Krechel : Shanghai far from where . Btb, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-442-74061-1
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fraenkel, Wolfgang |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-American composer, conductor, music theorist and lawyer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 10, 1897 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 8, 1983 |
| Place of death | los Angeles |