Theodor Berger (May 18, 1905, Traismauer - August 21, 1992, Vienna) was an Austrian composer.
Berger studied with
Franz Schmidt at the Wiener Musikakademie (now the
University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna
The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university located in Vienna, established in 1817.
With a student body of over three thousa ...
) from 1926 to 1932. From 1932 to 1939 he was in Berlin, where
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , , ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a major ...
became an active proponent of his work. He returned to Vienna in 1939 and remained there for the rest of his life, with extended stays in Germany and the United States. In later years, although he continued to compose and publish new works, his music was less frequently performed, and he largely withdrew from public musical life.
Most of Berger's published music is orchestral. His distinct musical language is characterized by shifting tonalities, complex rhythms, inventive and nuanced orchestration, and innovative structural principles.
Selected works
* Rondino Giocoso (1933)
* Malinconia (1933)
* Homerische Symphonie (1948)
* Concerto Manuale (1951)
* La Parola (1954)
* Sinfonia Parabolica (1956)
* Symphonischer Triglyph "Drei Fenster", Metamorphosen für Orchester über Motive von Franz Schubert (1957)
* Symphonie "Jahreszeiten" (1957)
* Frauenstimmen (1959)
* Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1964)
* Hydromelos (1965)
* Divertimento (1970)
* Malinconia 2 (1979)
* Fonofolium (1986)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Theodor
Austrian male composers
Austrian composers
1905 births
1992 deaths
20th-century Austrian composers
20th-century Austrian male musicians