Leo Spies (4 June 1899 – 1 May 1965) was a Russian-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 ...

and conductor active in the musical and theatrical life of Germany, and especially in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Life and career

Spies was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

to a German diplomat and his wife. He had an older brother

Walter Spies Walter Spies (15 September 1895 – 19 January 1942) was a Russian-born German primitivist painter, composer, musicologist, and curator. In 1923 he moved to Java, Indonesia. He lived in Yogyakarta and then in Ubud, Bali starting from 1927, whe ...

, who became an artist and musicologist, and from 1923 lived in Indonesia (then Dutch who spent most of his career in

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

, and sister Daisy Spies, who became a ballet dancer. He and his siblings were educated in Moscow before the family returned to Germany, where they settled in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

. There Spies trained with Johannes Schreyer and Oskar von Riesemann. He studied at the under Engelbert Humperdinck and Robert Kahn from 1916 to 1917. In his early career Spies worked as a repetiteur in various German theatres and for

Universum Film AG UFA GmbH, shortened to UFA (), is a film and television production company that unites all production activities of the media conglomerate Bertelsmann in Germany. Its name derives from Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft (normally abbreviated as ...

. During the late 1920s, he became involved with

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...

's circle and the workers' choral movement, for which he composed several choral works. He was the ballet conductor of the

Berlin State Opera The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...

from 1928 to 1935 and the from 1935 to 1944, when the country was ruled by the Nazi Party. After the war, Spies served as director of studies and conductor at the from 1947 to 1954.Sadie, Stanley and Latham Alison (1988). "Spies, Leo". ''The Norton/Grove Concise Dictionary of Music'', p. 718. W.W. Norton & Co. During this period of the divided Germany, the opera was located within East Germany (

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

His music

Spies was influenced by Russian

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

and the works of Janáček in his own compositions. He composed in virtually all the classical genres: ballets, concertos, symphonies, chamber music, piano sonatas, lieder, and choral music. His principal ballet works are (1936), (1936), (1937), (1942), ''Pastorale'' (1943), (1944), and ''Don Quijote'' (1944). He also composed

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...

for plays, including the 1946 Berlin production of (the German language adaptation of

Marcel Pagnol Marcel Paul Pagnol (; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie française. Although his work is less fashionable ...

's ). In 1956 Spies was awarded the

National Prize of the German Democratic Republic The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) (german: Nationalpreis der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik) was an award of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, ...

(East Germany).Slonimsky, Nicolas and Kuhn, Laura (2005)
"Spies, Leo"
''

Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians ''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'' is a major reference work in the field of music, originally compiled by Theodore Baker, PhD, and published in 1900 by G. Schirmer, Inc. The ninth edition, the most recent edition, was published in 20 ...

''. Retrieved online via

HighBeam Research HighBeam Research was a paid search engine and full text online archive owned by Gale, a subsidiary of Cengage, for thousands of newspapers, magazines, academic journals, newswires, trade magazines, and encyclopedias in English. It was headquar ...

9 September 2013 . He died in

Ahrenshoop Ahrenshoop is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany on the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula of the Baltic Sea. It used to be a small fishing village, but is today known for its tourism and as a holid ...

shortly before his 65th birthday and is buried in the

Dorotheenstadt cemetery The Dorotheenstadt Cemetery, officially the Cemetery of the Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichswerder Parishes, is a landmarked Protestant burial ground located in the Berlin district of Mitte which dates to the late 18th century. The entrance to the ...

.Stiftung Historische Kirchhöfe und Friedhöfe in Berlin-Brandenburg
Friedhof der Gemeinden Dorotheenstadt und Friedrichswerder
. Retrieved 9 September 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spies, Leo 1899 births 1965 deaths 20th-century German conductors (music) German male conductors (music) 20th-century German composers 20th-century German male musicians Artists from Moscow German expatriates in the Russian Empire