Richard Rudolf Klein (21 May 1921 in Nußdorf/

Pfalz Pfalz, Pfälzer, or Pfälzisch are German words referring to Palatinate. They may refer to: Places *Pfalz, the Palatinate (region) of Germany **Nordpfalz, the North Palatinate **Vorderpfalz, the Anterior Palatinate **Südpfalz, the South P ...

– 17 December 2011) was a German composer, musician, and teacher. His compositional output is diverse, including nursery rhymes and music for children,

choral music A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which s ...

and

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hy ...

s, incidental music, and

orchestral music An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

, as well as chamber music.

Life

Klein attended the humanistic Gymnasium in

Landau Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990) ...

, Germany and learned to play the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

, and the

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

. He later learned the

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

and the organ. He started composing at a young age and as an adolescent had already conducted his own works with his school orchestra on the occasion of school and commemorative events. In 1935, at the age of fourteen, he started performing piano pieces and songs in broadcasts at the former Rundfunk-Sender Kaiserslautern. His teachers included

Wolfgang Fortner Wolfgang Fortner (12 October 1907 – 5 September 1987) was a German composer, composition teacher and conductor. Life Fortner was born in Leipzig. From his parents, who were both singers, Fortner very early on had intense contact with music. ...

(composition),

Hans Grischkat Hans Adolf Karl Wilhelm Grischkat (29 August 1903 – 10 January 1977) was a German conductor, especially a choral conductor, also a church musician and academic teacher. He founded the choir for pioneering concerts and recordings of works by Bac ...

and

Karl Münchinger Karl Münchinger (29 May 1915 – 13 March 1990) was a German conductor of European classical music. He helped to revive the now-ubiquitous Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel, through recording it with his Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in 1960. (Jean ...

(conducting), as well as Philipp Mohler. In 1948, when he was 27, Klein received a lecturing position for music theory at the University of Music in Stuttgart, and one year later he became lecturer of music theory at the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie in

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of t ...

. From 1960 to 1984, he was a lecturer in composition, musical form, score reading, and basso continuo at the

Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts The Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (german: Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main, italic=no, link=no, HfMDK) is a state Hochschule for music, theatre and dance in Frankfurt and is the only one of its k ...

. In 1965 he was appointed professor at the same institution. From 1985 to 1996 Klein lectured at

Hoch Conservatory Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium – Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on 22 September 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for ...

Frankfurt 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 it ...

. For more than four decades Klein worked as a freelance music editor at the German publisher Fidula. Klein was committed to a variety of projects, and was a member of the jury for the Alois Kottmann Award for classical violin, playing along with the singer Agnes Giebel and violinist

Alois Kottmann Alois Kottmann (20 June 1929 – 4 December 2021) was a German violinist, music pedagogue, university professor and patron. He was based in Frankfurt, where he founded several ensembles, and taught at both the Hoch Conservatory and the Musikhoch ...

Awards

* Hesse State Cross of Merit (1990)Ehrungen
(German) Source: komponistenverband.de

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klein, Richard Rudolf 20th-century German composers 1921 births 2011 deaths Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Detmold Academic staff of the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart People from Landau