Friedrich Wildgans (5 June 1913 in Vienna – 7 November 1965 in

Mödling Mödling () is the capital of the Austrian Mödling (district), district of the same name located approximately 14 km south of Vienna. Mödling lies in Lower Austria's industrial zone (Industrieviertel). The Mödlingbach, a brook which rises ...

) was an Austrian composer and

clarinettist This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet. Classical clarinetists * Laver Bariu * Ernest Ačkun * Luís Afonso * Cristiano Alves * Michel Arrignon * Dimitri Ashkenazy * Kinan Azmeh * Alexander Bader * Carl Baermann ...

Life

Wildgans was born into the family of the well-known poet and Burgtheater director

Anton Wildgans Anton Wildgans (17 April 1881 – 3 May 1932) was an Austrian poet and playwright. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Life Born in Vienna, Wildgans studied law at the University of Vienna, from 1900 ...

(1881-1932) and his wife Lilly, ''née'' Würzl.Barbara Boisits: Friedrich Wildgans, in: Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit, Claudia Maurer Zenck, Peter Petersen, Sophie Fetthauer (eds.), Hamburg: Universität Hamburg, 2015 (https://www.lexm.uni-hamburg. de/object/lexm_lexmperson_00003718). In 1915, the family moved to Mödling. He first learned violin from Gottfried Feist and piano from

Paul Weingarten Paul Weingarten, Ph.D. (20 April 1886, in City of Brünn, Margravial Moravia, Imp.&R. Austria – 11 April 1948, in Vienna, Second Republic of Austria) was a Moravia-born pianist and music teacher. He studied Music History at the University o ...

, later learning the clarinet from

Viktor Polatschek Viktor Polatschek (29 January 1889 – 27 July 1948) was an Austrian clarinetist and clarinet teacher. He was principal clarinetist with the Vienna State Opera/the Vienna Philharmonics and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Life Vienna Born in C ...

, which was to become his main instrument. From the age of twelve he received lessons in

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

and composition with

Joseph Marx Joseph Rupert Rudolf Marx (11 May 1882 – 3 September 1964) was an Austrian composer, teacher and critic. Life and career Marx was born in Graz and pursued studies in philosophy, art history, German studies, and music at Graz University, earni ...

.Barbara Boisits, Art. "Wildgans, Ehepaar", in: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon online, accessed 18 March 2021 (https://www.musiklexikon.ac.at/ml/musik_W/Wildgans_Ehepaar.xml). From 1934 to 1935 he was in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

Teacher at the

Mozarteum Mozarteum University Salzburg (German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the “Mozarteum” moniker in Salzburg municipality; the International Moz ...

. From 1936 to 1940, he worked as principal clarinettist in the stage orchestra of the Vienna State Theatres. Wildgans supported the conservative resistance group around Roman Karl Scholz, was therefore arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

on 25 October 1940 and remained in pre-trial detention until 24 February 1942. On 7 December 1943, he was sentenced by the People's Court to 15 months imprisonment, which was credited to him as served. After his release from prison, he found no professional employment in the public service until the end of the war and temporarily sought his livelihood as an assistant accountant. After the liberation of Vienna in April 1945, he worked as a teacher at the Austrian Academy of Music, which he had to leave again at the beginning of the 1946/47 academic year. It was not until 1955 that he received a permanent position there again. From 1946 to 1950 Wildgans, who had been a member of the

KPÖ The Communist Party of Austria (german: Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, KPÖ) is a communist party in Austria. Established in 1918 as the Communist Party of German-Austria (KPDÖ), it is one of the world's oldest communist parties. The KPÖ ...

since April 1945 (until his resignation or expulsion in July 1950), worked as a music officer in the Cultural Office of the City of Vienna under

Viktor Matejka Viktor Matejka (4 December 1901 – 2 April 1993) was a Viennese politician and writer. He spent most of the Hitler years as a detainee at one of two concentration camps. In the summer of 1943 inmates at Dachau presented a satirical focusing o ...

. Since its re-establishment in April 1945 he was executive vice-president and from 1948 to 1961 president of the . He was music critic of the ' (1945-1948) published by the Soviet occupation forces and of the intellectual journal ''Österreichisches Tagebuch'' (1946-1948) published by the KPÖ and wrote numerous contributions for the ''

Österreichische Musikzeitschrift The ''Österreichische Musikzeitschrift'' (ÖMZ, Austrian music magazine) was a monthly music magazine published in Vienna, Austria, by Verlag Musikzeit. It was established in 1945 by the Austrian cultural politician and music critic . It appear ...

''. He also wrote a book on

Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...

, which only appeared posthumously. From 21 September to 4 October 1953, Wildgans acted as a juror at the Concours international d'execution musicale Geneve. He was unable to perform as a performer after 1954 due to illness. From 1955, he taught again at the

University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university located in Vienna, established in 1817. With a student body of over three thousa ...

, received the title of professor in 1957 and was last active there as librarian.Barbara Boisits:
Wildgans, Friedrich.
' In ''

Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon The ''Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon'Oesterreichisch'' with ''Oe'' is the spelling of the print and online output. is a five-volume music encyclopedia founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Commission for Music Research. It was officiall ...

.'' Online-Ausgabe, Wien 2002 ff., ; Druckausgabe: Band 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2006, . Wildgans died at the age of 52 and was buried at Mödling Cemetery. Wildgans' works bear the influence of

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

and the Groupe

Les Six "Les Six" () is a name given to a group of six composers, five of them French and one Swiss, who lived and worked in Montparnasse. The name, inspired by Mily Balakirev's '' The Five'', originates in two 1920 articles by critic Henri Collet in '' ...

.Leo Brauneiss
biography
in ''Friedrich Wildgans. Werke.'' Doblinger Verlag, Vienna 2002, He composed a musical work for clarinet, two

concerti A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...

and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

works as well as a concerto for trumpet, string orchestra and percussion (op. 29, 1935), a sonata for piano (1929) and art songs. The premiere of his ''Eucharistic Hymns'' at the Vienna Konzerthaus on 14 June 1954 provoked one of the last great Austrian concert scandals, triggered by the outrage over this "popular cantata", which some found inappropriate, combining sacred texts with syncopated rhythms.

Work

* Symphonic works and chamber music * Clarinet concertos, piano works * Choral works and motets * ''Missa minima'' for soprano, clarinet, violin and violoncello, 1932/1954 * The Dictator', operetta (lost), 1933 * ''The Tree of Knowledge'', opera after Franz Theodor Csokor (unfinished), 1935 * ''The Mystic Trumpeter'', cantata for high voice, trumpet and piano after

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among t ...

, 1946 * Film and stage music * ''The development of music in Austria in the 20th century'', technical paper, 1950 * ''Anton Webern, A Study'', Tübingen: Rainer Wunderlich Publishers 1967 * Publication of four Beethoven works (3 duos clarinet/bassoon, trio oboes/English horn) in Doblinger's series ''Diletto Musicale''.

References

External links

Wildgans-Biografie und Werkverzeichnis
(PDF; 837 kB) bei Doblinger * * �

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wildgans, Friedrich 20th-century Austrian composers 20th-century Austrian male musicians Austrian classical clarinetists 20th-century classical composers Austrian opera composers Austrian operetta composers Austrian film score composers Male film score composers 1913 births 1965 deaths Musicians from Vienna

Life

Work

References

Further reading

External links