Carlos Enrique Veerhoff (3 June 1926 in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

– 18 February 2011 in Murnau) was an Argentine-born German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

Life and work

Carlos Enrique Veerhoff was born with his twin brother, Wolfgang Otto, as premature infants. Their father could only find a hospital with an incubator two days later, so that the birth date in the birth certificate is 5 June 1926, not the correct date of 3 June. His father, Heinrich Veerhoff, was German and the head of an own company in Buenos Aires. His mother, Karla, was a violinist and the daughter of conductor Karl Panzner and singer Ida Panzner. The Veerhoff family moved back to Germany in 1930 due to a job change by the father. In 1933, the family moved on to South Africa. The countryside and the way of living in Africa had a great impact on the young Carlos Veerhoff, and these impressions found their way into several compositions of his later years. Another experience in South Africa was important for him as well: In 1935, the first South African airline was founded, and the young Carlos got the opportunity to take part at a pleasure flight. Afterwards, he developed an enormous interest in flight engineering, which was only replaced later by music. But Carlos Veerhoff kept his love of natural science his whole life. After the return of the Veerhoff family to Germany in 1935, Carlos started to attend orchestral and chamber music concerts. Also, the music played at home - his father was a good pianist and his mother a professional violinist - contributed to his future interest in classical music. This development culminated in Carlos deciding at the age of 15 to become a composer. At that time, he took his first lesson in composition theory, and in 1942 he became a student at the Musisches Gymnasium in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. After a six-day stint as a soldier in World War II in which he was injured, Carlos Veerhoff continued his composition studies at the

Universität der Künste Berlin The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...

with

Hermann Grabner Hermann Grabner (12 May 1886 – 3 July 1969) was an Austrian composer and music teacher. Career Grabner was born in Graz. He studied law at the University of Graz graduating in 1909. In parallel, he studied music with Leopold Suchsland un ...

and later privately with Kurt Thomas and got piano lessons from

Walter Gieseking Walter Wilhelm Gieseking (5 November 1895 – 26 October 1956) was a French-born German pianist and composer. Gieseking was renowned for his subtle touch, pedaling, and dynamic control—particularly in the music of Debussy and Ravel; he made inte ...

. During an internment in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

in 1946, he studied with

Walter Braunfels Walter Braunfels (; 19 December 1882 – 19 March 1954) was a German composer, pianist, and music educator. Life Walter Braunfels was born in Frankfurt. His first music teacher was his mother, the great-niece of the composer Louis Spohr. He c ...

(composition) and

Günter Wand Günter Wand (7 January 1912, in Elberfeld, Germany – 14 February 2002, in Ulmiz near Bern, Switzerland) was a German orchestra conductor and composer. Wand studied in Wuppertal, Allenstein and Detmold. At the Cologne Conservatory, he was a co ...

(conducting) at the

Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln The Cologne University of Music ( is a music college in Cologne, Germany. Founded in 1850, it is Europe's largest academy of music. History The academy was founded by Ferdinand Hiller in 1850 as ''Conservatorium der Musik in Coeln''. In 1895 Ger ...

. In 1947, Carlos Veerhoff moved to Argentina and taught music theory at the University of

San Miguel de Tucumán San Miguel de Tucumán (; usually called simply Tucumán) is the capital and largest city of Tucumán Province, located in northern Argentina from Buenos Aires. It is the fifth-largest city of Argentina after Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosario an ...

at the Departemento Musical, which was newly founded by

Ernst von Dohnányi Ernst von Dohnányi (Hungarian: ''Dohnányi Ernő'', ; 27 July 1877 – 9 February 1960) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor. He used a German form of his name on most published compositions. Biography Dohnányi was born in Pozsony ...

. He also took conducting lessons from

Hermann Scherchen Hermann Scherchen (21 June 1891 – 12 June 1966) was a German conductor. Life Scherchen was born in Berlin. Originally a violist, he played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens. He conducted in Riga ...

in Buenos Aires during this period. In 1950,

Ferenc Fricsay Ferenc Fricsay (; 9 August 1914 – 20 February 1963) was a Hungarian conductor. From 1960 until his death, he was an Austrian citizen. Biography Fricsay was born in Budapest in 1914 and studied music under Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, E ...

was looking for a composition by an Argentine composer for an upcoming concert in Buenos Aires. From a selection of compositions, he chose the "Musica concertante for chamber orchestra" by Carlos Veerhoff and later conducted the world premiere. Fricsay offered him a position as an assistant to him, so Carlos Veerhoff followed Fricsay to Berlin. But from his point of view, the atmosphere in Germany was anti-artistic, and he returned to Argentina just a year later. In the following decades, Carlos Veerhoff created dozens of compositions, nearly all of which were performed. In many cases, renowned and acclaimed musicians performed the world premieres of his works:

Hans Rosbaud Hans Rosbaud (22 July 1895 – 29 December 1962) was an Austrian conductor, particularly associated with the music of the twentieth century. Biography Rosbaud was born in Graz. As children, he and his brother Paul Rosbaud performed with thei ...

("Mirages"),

Ruggiero Ricci Ruggiero Ricci (24 July 1918 – 5 August 2012) was an American violinist known for performances and recordings of the works of Niccolò Paganini, Paganini. Biography He was born in San Bruno, California, the son of Italian immigrants who first ...

(Violin concerto No. 1),

Bruno Maderna Bruno Maderna (21 April 1920 – 13 November 1973) was an Italian conductor and composer. Life Maderna was born Bruno Grossato in Venice but later decided to take the name of his mother, Caterina Carolina Maderna.Interview with Maderna‘s th ...

("Cantos"), Stanislaw Skrowaczewski ("Gesänge auf dem Wege"), Ladislav Kupkovic ("Gesänge aus Samsara" and Symphony No. 4),

Homero Francesch Homero Francesch (born 6 December 1947, Montevideo, Uruguay) is a Uruguay-born Swiss pianist. Biography Francesch took piano lessons with Santiago Baranda Reyes in Uruguay. In 1967, he was awarded a scholarship by the German Academic Exchange S ...

(Piano concerto No. 1),

Gerhard Oppitz Gerhard Oppitz (born 5 February 1953, Frauenau) is a German classical pianist. He studied with Paul Buck, Hugo Steurer and Wilhelm Kempff. In 1981 he was appointed professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München Thomas Zehetmair Thomas Zehetmair (born 23 November 1961) is an Austrian violinist and conductor. Biography Zehetmair was born in Salzburg, and studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum, where both of his parents taught. His festival debut was at age 16. He was in mas ...

(Violin concerto No. 2) or Peter Sadlo (Percussion concerto No. 2). Despite his success and the performances of his music, Carlos Veerhoff remained a musical outsider:

Carlos Veerhoff remained a composer in the German musical life who did not follow actual composition fashions. He called himself "clique-free" and paid this freedom with the fact that he was never offered a professorship and could not find a renowned publishing house for his compositions. Among the circle of influential German composers and critics he was never accepted as a real avant-gardist, because his advancement of the dodecaphony was unorthodox and beside all contemporary aspects always kept references to tradition.Messmer, Franzpeter (2006): Musikalischer Weltbürger - Der Lebensweg Carlos Heinrich Veerhoffs. In: Komponisten in Bayern. Band 47: Carlos H. Veerhoff. Tutzing: Hans Schneider; S.28

Due to his exclusion from the close music establishment in Germany, Carlos Veerhoff often went back to Argentina. Only from 1970 on did he permanently stay in Germany to his death. From 1988, he lived in Murnau,

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, near

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. His collection of papers is archived at the

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek The Bavarian State Library (german: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, abbreviated BSB, called ''Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis'' before 1919) in Munich is the central " Landesbibliothek", i. e. the state library of the Free State of Bavaria, the bigg ...

Compositions

Orchestral works

* op. 9: Symphony No. 1 "Sinfonica Panta Rhei" (1953/54, WP 14 September 1961) * op. 15: Symphony No. 2 (1958, WP 1958) * op. 22: Symphony No. 3 "Spirales" (1968, revised version 1971, WP 1968) * op. 32: Symphony No. 4 (1972/73, WP 1979) * op. 43: Symphony No. 5 for strings (1975) * op. 70: Symphony No. 6 "Desiderata" for narrator, 3 soloists, choir and orchestra (1985/96, WP: 30. April 1997, Leipzig) * op. 0: Musica concertante, for chamber orchestra (1950, WP 1950) * op. 3: Sinfonische Inventionen, for orchestra (1951, WP 1952) * op. 5: Movimiento Sinfonico, for orchestra (1952, WP 1955) * op. 16: Mirages, for orchestra (1961, WP 1962) * op. 18: Prolog, for orchestra (1956, WP 1966) * op. 20: Gesänge auf dem Wege, for baritone and orchestra (1966, WP 1967) * op. 21: Akróasis, for orchestra (1966, WP 1966) * op. 26: Textur, for string orchestra (1970, WP 1971) * op. 29: Sinotrauc, for orchestra (1972, WP 1972) * op. 30: Torso, for orchestra (1972, WP 1972) * op. 39: Dorefami, for orchestra (1974, WP 1981) * op. 45: Concertino da camera (1978, WP 1979) * op. 59: 5 Bagatellen for wind orchestra (1974)

Concertos

* op. 40: 1. Violin concerto (1976, WP 1977) * op. 44: 1. Piano concerto (1978/79, WP 1979) * op. 46: 1. Percussion concerto (1982, WP 1984) * op. 55: Concerto for 2 violins and orchestra (1983, WP 1984) * op. 63: Concerto for cello, double bass and orchestra (1990, WP 1990) * op. 66: 2. Piano concerto (1989, WP 1990) * op. 67: 2. Percussion concerto (1994, WP 1994) * op. 69: 2. Violin concerto (1992, WP 1993) * op. 72: 3. Piano concerto (2005, WP: 6. February 2009, Munich, Musica Viva)

Chamber music

* op. 1: 1. String quartet (1949, WP 1951) * op. 7: Mosaicos, for piano (1952, WP 1954) * op. 10: Sonant for violin solo (1956, Neufassung 1974, WP 1974) * op. 11: Kaleidoskop, for piano (1953) * op. 14: 1. Wind quintet for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn (1961, WP 1961) * op. 25: Dialogues 1, for saxophone and piano (1966, WP 1966) * op. 27: 2. Wind quintet (1972, WP 1973) * op. 33: 2. String quartet (1972, WP 1974) * op. 37: 1. Brass quintet for 2 trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba (1975, WP 1975) * op. 41: Nonett (1976, WP 1977) * op. 47: Sonata for violin and piano (1982, WP 1983) * op. 48: Divertimento per tre, for violin, double bass and clarinet (1979, WP 1980) * op. 49: Sonant Nr.2 for cello and double bass (1982, WP 1982) * op. 50: Moments Musicaux, for saxophone, accordion and percussion (1982, WP 1982) * op. 52: 2. Brass quintet (1982, WP 1983) * op. 53: Piano sonata (1985, WP 1988) * op. 56: 1. String trio (1983, WP 1987) * op. 58: 7 mal 1, for percussion solo (1987, WP 1987) * op. 60: Ballade for accordion (1986, WP 1986) * op. 61: Corimba for percussion (unfinished) * op. 61: Dialogues 2, for viola and percussion (1986, WP 1987) * op. 62: 2. String trio (1991, WP 1991) * op. 64: Sobre la plata, for vibraphone, glockenspiel and crotales (unfinished) * op. 65: Aphorismen for viola solo (1990, WP 1992) * op. 68: Trio for horn, violin and piano (1992, WP 1992) * op. 71: Sonata for viola and piano (1999, WP 2000)

Vocal music

* o. op.: Songs for high voice (1952, WP 1952) * op. 2: Altdeutsche Lieder, for soprano and piano (1951, WP 1951) * op. 4: Lieder vom Meer, for baritone and piano (1951, WP 1951) * op. 6: Heitere Lieder, for baritone and piano (1951, WP 1952) * op. 19: Cantos for high voice and 7 instruments on poems by

Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hans Magnus Enzensberger (11 November 1929 – 24 November 2022) was a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Elisabeth Ambras, Linda Quilt and Giorgio Pellizzi. Enzensberger was regarde ...

(1965, WP 21. August 1966, Darmstadt) * op. 24: Ut omnes unum sint, for bass and 4 winds (1975, WP 1989) * op. 38: Ringelnatz-Duette, for soprano, alto and piano (1975, WP 1975) * op. 51: Pater Noster, for chorus and orchestra (1985, WP 1988) * op. 54: Alpha-Zeta Burleske for A-cappella-chorus (1986, WP 2002) * op. 57: Allegretto Cabaretto, for voice, piano and percussion

Stage music

* ''Pavane royal'', ballet (1949/50) * ''Targusis'' (Carlos H. Veerhoff), opera, op. 13 (1955–1958), withdrawn * ''El porquerizo del rey'' (Hans Christian Andersen), ballet, op. 12 (1958–1962; WP 1963 Buenos Aires) * ''Tanz des Lebens/Der letzte Gast'' (Fred Schneckenberger), puppet-opera, op. 17 (1962/63; WP 1963 Zürich) * ''Die Goldene Maske'' (Carlos H Veerhoff), opera, op. 23 (1967/68) * ''Es gibt noch Zebrastreifen'' (Edith Sartorius), miniature-opera, op. 28 (1971; WP 1973 Ulm) * ''Die Manipulatoren'' (Carlos H Veerhoff), miniature-opera, op. 31 (1971), unfinished * ''Dualis,'' ballet, op. 42 (1975/76; WP 1976 München) * ''Der Grüne'' (Carlos H. Veerhoff), miniature-opera, op. 34 (1982), unfinished * ''Der Schützling'' (Ephraim Kishon/Carlos H. Veerhoff), opera, op. 56 (1990) * ''Mana'' (Carlos H. Veerhoff), opera, op.73 (2007) * ''Gesänge aus Samsâra'' or ''Gesänge aus Sangsâra'' for soprano, tape, voices and orchestra, radio play, op.36 (1976, WP 6. November 1978, Stuttgart)