Rudi Stephan (29 July 1887 – 29 September 1915) was a German composer of great promise who was considered one of the leading talents among his generation. He was killed in action during World War I.

Life

Stephan was born at

Worms Worms may refer to: *Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs Places *Worms, Germany, a city **Worms (electoral district) *Worms, Nebraska, U.S. *Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio, Italy Arts and entertainme ...

, Grand Duchy of Hesse, the son of the

privy councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee A com ...

and politician who was also the head of the local Richard-Wagner-Verband. Stephan became a composition pupil of Bernhard Sekles at the

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 its ...

, and of

Rudolf Louis Johann Rudolf Louis (30 January 187015 November 1914) was a German music critic and conductor. Biography Louis was born in Schwetzingen in 1870. He studied in Geneva, where he was a pupil of Friedrich Klose, and continued his studies in Vienna ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, where he settled after completing his studies in 1908. He left only a few works: his liking for pointedly neutral titles along the lines of 'Music for ...' has caused him to be seen as a forerunner of the 'New Objectivity' of the post-war era, but his music is in fact in a hyper-expressive late- Romantic idiom which has more plausibly been seen by some as a kind of proto-

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radi ...

. His father was able to finance the performance of his early works, which at first met with incomprehension, but the premiere of his 1912 ''Music for Orchestra'' in Worms was a major critical breakthrough. He completed his only opera, ''

Die ersten Menschen ''Die ersten Menschen'' ''(The first humans)'' is an opera in two acts by Rudi Stephan. For the libretto the composer chose poetry of the same name by Otto Borngräber. The opera was premiered at the Oper Frankfurt on 1 July 1920. History The ...

'', shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. It was eventually premiered in Frankfurt, five years after the composer had been killed in action by a Russian sharpshooter, at

Chodaczków Wielki Velykyi Khodachkiv ( uk, Великий Ходачків, pl, Chodaczków Wielki) is a selo in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine. It lies on the banks of the Rudka river, on the rail line from Ternopil to Rohatyn. Velykyi Khodachkiv belo ...

near

Tarnopol Ternópil ( uk, Тернопіль, Ternopil' ; pl, Tarnopol; yi, טאַרנאָפּל, Tarnopl, or ; he, טארנופול (טַרְנוֹפּוֹל), Tarnopol; german: Tarnopol) is a city in the west of Ukraine. Administratively, Ternopi ...

on the Galician Front. His complete extant orchestral works were recorded by the

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an Australian orchestra based in Melbourne. The MSO is resident at Hamer Hall. The MSO has its own choir, the MSO Chorus, following integration with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008. The MSO relies on f ...

conducted by

Oleg Caetani Oleg Caetani (born 1956) is an Italian conductor. Life and career Born in Lausanne, Caetani studied with Nadia Boulanger. At the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, he studied conducting with Franco Ferrara and composition with Irma Ravinale ...

List of works

Source: * ''Opus 1'' for Orchestra * ''Liebeszauber'' for baritone and orchestra, after Hebbel (1907, rev. 1911) * ''Music for Orchestra''

o. 1 O is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. O may also refer to: Letters * Օ օ, (Unicode: U+0555, U+0585) a letter in the Armenian alphabet * Ο ο, Omicron, (Greek), a letter in the Greek alphabet * O (Cyrillic), a letter of the ...

(1910) * ''Grotesque'' for violin and piano * ''Music for Violin and Orchestra'' (1910, rev. 1913) * ''Music for Seven Stringed Instruments'' (2 violins, viola, violoncello, doublebass, harp and piano) (1907–11; unfinished revision for piano quintet, 1914) * ''Music for Orchestra''

o. 2 O is the fifteenth letter of the modern Latin alphabet. O may also refer to: Letters * Օ օ, (Unicode: U+0555, U+0585) a letter in the Armenian alphabet * Ο ο, Omicron, (Greek), a letter in the Greek alphabet * O (Cyrillic), a letter of the ...

(1912, rev. 1913) B this work is often said to be a revision of the 1910 Music for Orchestra, but they are in fact unrelated* ''

'' (1909–14), opera after the erotic mystery-play by Otto Borngräber

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stephan, Rudi 1887 births 1915 deaths 19th-century German composers 19th-century German male musicians 20th-century classical composers 20th-century German composers 20th-century German male musicians German classical composers German male classical composers German military personnel killed in World War I German opera composers Hoch Conservatory alumni Male opera composers People from Rhenish Hesse People from Worms, Germany