Karl Bleyle (7 May 1880 – 5 June 1969) was an Austrian composer and musician, who also lived and worked in Germany.

Life

Bleyle was born in Feldkirch,

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label=Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is ...

. In the parental home of the young Karl - his father was the textile manufacturer - music was played diligently and the joy of music was awakened in him at an early age. He received his first music lessons on the violin from the Feldkirch music director Karl Linke, who came from Barthfeld in Hungary and was appointed teacher at the newly established music school in Feldkirch in 1888. Karl moved to Stuttgart with his parents at the age of nine. At the conservatory there, he had his first 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

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

with Hugo Wehrle and Samuel de Lange from 1894 to 1897 and from 1897 to 1899 with

Edmund Singer Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and ...

. After his military service, he studied music from 1904 to 1907 with Ludwig Thuille in Munich, where he lived as a composer until 1919. Already in his first year of study in Munich Bleyle composed his 1st Symphony in C minor, which was premiered by the Hofkapelle in Stuttgart on 7 December 1905 and was highly praised by the press. On 25 February 1910 the Munich concertmaster Bruno Ahner played his Violin Concerto in C major op. 10 at the concert of the Musikalische Akademie. After fruitful compositional years in Cannstatt (1919-1923) and Stuttgart he moved to

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

(Austria), where his first

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

''The Devil's Bridge'', a

Requiem A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

and the ''Trilogy of Passion'' were created. Another station in his life was the National Theatre Weimar, whose musical direction he held for two years. After a short stay in

Bled Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...

he moved back to Stuttgart, where he worked until his death at the age of 89. He never gave up his Austrian citizenship out of solidarity with his native town of Feldkirch.

Compositions

* Sinfonie Nr. 1 in c-Moll (1904/05) * Sinfonie Nr. 2 in F-Dur, op. 6 (1906) * ''Flagellantenzug,'' op. 9 – Sinfonische Dichtung (1907) * Konzert für Violine und Orchester in C-Dur, op. 10 (1908) * ''Gnomentanz'' (1909) * ''Höllenfahrt Christi'' (1910) * ''Chorus mysticus'' (1910) * ''Ein Harfenklang'' (1910) * ''Prometheus'' (1912) * ''Trilogie der Leidschaft'' * ''Requiem'' * ''Der Teufelssteg'' – Oper * ''Der Hochzeiter'' – Oper * Ouvertüre zu Goethes ''Reineke Fuchs'', op. 23 (1914) * Sonate für Violine und Klavier, G-Dur, op. 38 (1923) * Konzert für Violoncello und Orchester in d-Moll, op. 49 (1934) * ''Minnelieder nach Heinrich von Morungen,'' op. 44 (1936) * ''Schneewittchen-Suite,'' op. 50 * ''Bacchanten-Ouverture,'' op 52 (1937) * Sonate für Violine und Klavier in e-Moll, op. 56 (1943)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bleyle, Karl 1880 births 1969 deaths 20th-century classical composers Austrian opera composers German opera composers Male opera composers People from Feldkirch District 20th-century German male musicians