Karel Reiner (27 June 1910 – 17 October 1979) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

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 ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, persecuted by

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

as a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

and by

communists Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a so ...

as a formalist, but he was member of communist party to 1968. He was the only classical composer to survive the concentration camp in

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...

Life

He was born in

Žatec Žatec (; german: Saaz) is a town in Louny District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 19,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře river. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monumen ...

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. His father Josef was a kantor in

's synagogue. He studied law, and acquired his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in 1934. In 1929 he also studied composition privately with

Alois Hába Alois Hába (21 June 1893 – 18 November 1973) was a Czech composer, music theorist and teacher. He belongs to the important discoverers in modern classical music, and major composers of microtonal music, especially using the quarter-tone scal ...

and composed ''Fantasia for Quarter - tone piano''. In 1931 he graduated from the Master School of Composition with ''Orchestral suite'', as a student of Josef Suk. Reiner was also a concert pianist who cooperated with Theatre of

Emil František Burian Emil František Burian (11 June 1904 – 9 August 1959) was a Czech poet, journalist, singer, actor, musician, composer, dramatic adviser, playwright and director. He was also active in Communist Party of Czechoslovakia politics. Early life an ...

(1934–38). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

; he was imprisoned in

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...

, first in

(deported on 7 July 1943), he participated in musical activities there, created incidental music for the play Esther, directed by

Norbert Frýd Norbert Frýd (born Norbert Fried) (21 April 1913 – 18 March 1976) was a Czech writer, journalist and diplomat. He is known mainly for his autobiographical novel ''Krabice živých'' (A Box of Lives, 1956), in which he describes his experience ...

. Later, on 28 September 1944, he was deported to

Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, afterwards to Landsberg and finally to Kaufering, a subcamp of the Dachau camp. Following the

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convent ...

and liberation he returned to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, where he reunited with his wife Hana (she also survived the imprisonment in concentration camps). He had problems with gaining his Czech citizenship after the war, even though as an adult he considered himself always as a Czech, not a Jew or German. He began to participate in music life again, but soon after the communist

Victorious February ''Victorious'' (stylized as ''VICTORiOUS'') is an American sitcom created by Dan Schneider that originally aired on Nickelodeon, debuting on March 27, 2010, and concluding on February 2, 2013 after four seasons. The series revolves around asp ...

in 1948 he was accused of formalism. Reiner was member of the

Communist Party of Czechoslovakia The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Czech and Slovak: ''Komunistická strana Československa'', KSČ) was a communist and Marxist–Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992. It was a member of the Cominte ...

since 1948, but he left in 1969. He died in Prague in 1979.

Style

Reiner's musical output was created during fifty years, since 1928/9 to 1979, and was firmly connected with the political situation in Czechoslovakia in the 20th century. His first artistic period was influenced by his teachers and models (

, Josef Suk, Emil František Burian, and

Erwin Schulhoff Erwin Schulhoff ( cs, Ervín Šulhov; 8 June 189418 August 1942) was an Austro-Czech composer and pianist. He was one of the figures in the generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the N ...

), it was part of Czech artistic

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

, and it was later rejected by communists as formalism.Kuna, p. 379 After the critique of the party he was forced to find new, more traditional and conservative ways of composing. This period lasted roughly to 1960. The last period (1960–79) is considered the most artistically valuable. The musical trends in Czechoslovakia were freer in that time and Reiner thus was able to show his expressive musical thinking. He composed almost in all musical categories, created vocal works (songs, choirs), instrumental works (for solo instrument, chamber, symphonic), vocal-instrumental works (cantata, opera), film music, incidental music, composed popular dance songs at the start of his career, and was inspired also by jazz and folk music. He composed for almost all instruments, including

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

, solo drums and for

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

. A re-interpretation of songs from the Květěný kůň cycle and a performance from the Terezín ghetto Staročeská Esther was prepared by Aida Mujačič.

Selected works

*''9 veselých improvizací'' (9 Gladsome Improvisations) for piano (1929) *''5 jazzových studií'' (5 Jazz Studies) for piano (1930) *Suite for large orchestra (1931) *''Koncertantní suita'' (Concertant Suite) for wind instruments and percussion (1947) *Symphony No.1 (1959) *''Symfonická předehra'' (Symphonic Overture) for large orchestra (1963) *Trio for flute, bass clarinet and percussion (1964) *Concerto for bass clarinet, string orchestra and percussion (1965) *''Hudba'' (Music) for 4 clarinets (1965) *''Koncertantní suita'' (Concertant Suite) for large orchestra (1967) *Concertino for bassoon, wind instruments and percussion (1969) *''Repliky'' (Replicas), Trio for flute, viola and harp (1973) *''Allocuzioni per orchestra da camera'' (1975) *''Sloky'' (Verses) for viola and piano (1975) *''Tři symfonické věty'' (3 Symphonic Movements) for orchestra (1978)

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Basic information, references

List of works at the Czech Music Fund

Re-interpretations of Aida Mujačič
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reiner, Karel 1910 births 1979 deaths People from Žatec Czech Jews Czech classical composers Czech male classical composers Czech opera composers Male opera composers 20th-century classical composers Microtonal musicians Jewish classical musicians Theresienstadt Ghetto survivors Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Dachau concentration camp survivors 20th-century Czech male musicians