Walter Fedor Georg Abendroth (29 May 1896 in Hanover – 30 September 1973 in Fischbachau) was a German
composer,
editor, and writer on music.
Biography of Walter Abendroth
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Life
Walter Abendroth was born in the Lower Saxon city of Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
. The middle child of a land surveyor
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is c ...
, he grew up with a younger brother and an older sister in Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
and, from 1907, in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
.
He encountered the teachings of Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...
as a schoolchild. From that moment on, Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Follower ...
, a movement for which he would remain active in many contexts, became a constant companion in his life. From 1914 he studied Painting and Music in Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
; 1916 he was drafted into the military.
After 1918, his "Wanderjahre
In a certain tradition, the journeyman years () are a time of travel for several years after completing apprenticeship as a craftsman. The tradition dates back to medieval times and is still alive in France, Scandinavia and the German-speaking c ...
" took him to Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911.
General information
The ori ...
, where he married in 1920, Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...
, Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
and finally back to Berlin in 1930. Following primarily private musical studies, he became a freelance composer and music critic. Between 1930 and 1934 he took over editing the ''Allgemeine Musikzeitung'', combining this activity with contributions to the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger
The ''Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger'' was a daily newspaper published in Berlin, with one of the highest national circulations of its time. Its publisher was newspaper magnate August Scherl, who also owned ''Die Woche
''Die Woche'' (, "The Week") was ...
.
Following the National Socialists
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
arrival in power, he became a staff music writer at the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger
The ''Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger'' was a daily newspaper published in Berlin, with one of the highest national circulations of its time. Its publisher was newspaper magnate August Scherl, who also owned ''Die Woche
''Die Woche'' (, "The Week") was ...
until 1944. In 1934, he expressed agreement with nationalist socialist cultural policy with regards to the " Neue Musik" (new music), which he described as a "Rotting bacillus, deliberately and calculatedly inoculated into the cultural body ..
In 1939 he wrote an antisemitic article for the magazine ''Deutsches Volkstum'' in which he described the Jewish people's intellectuality as "mere means to the end of exerting power" and "effective method of decomposition, an explosive for splitting the dominated people into powerless classes".
After the war, Abendroth's work was examined by the Allied Control Council during the so-called Denazification processes. He was deemed to be a nationalist anti-Semite rather than a Nazi and as such given 'employable' status.
Abendroth moved to Hamburg with his second wife Hilde, née Schlegl, working as features editor for the national newspaper '' Die Zeit'' from 1948 until 1955, when he moved to Munich, working freelance as cultural correspondent.
He is noted in particular as biographer (1935) and publisher of the composer, conductor and author Hans Pfitzner
Hans Erich Pfitzner (5 May 1869 – 22 May 1949) was a German composer, conductor and polemicist who was a self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera ''Palestrina'' (1917), loosely based on the life of the ...
's works.
Artistic Creation
In addition to his activities as a music journalist and writer, Abendroth composed five symphonies, as well as a variety of concerts
A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variet ...
, songs
A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...
and chamber music. In his compositional work, he endeavoured to develop the traditional forms of music and to combine them with the musical styles of the 20th century.
Selected compositions
;Orchestral
*''Sinfonietta in drei Sätzen'' (Sinfonietta in Three Movements) for large orchestra (1924)
*''Kleine Orchestermusik'' (Little Orchestra Music) (1940, with Karl Böhm
Karl August Leopold Böhm (28 August 1894 – 14 August 1981) was an Austrian conductor. He was best known for his performances of the music of Mozart, Wagner, and Richard Strauss.
Life and career
Education
Karl Böhm was born in Graz. T ...
)
*''Erste Symphonie'' (Symphony No. 1) (1941, with Paul van Kempen
Paul van Kempen (16 May 1893 – 8 December 1955) was a Dutch conductor.
Personal life
Van Kempen was born in Zoeterwoude, Netherlands. He studied at the Amsterdam conservatory from 1910 to 1913, including composition and conducting with Ju ...
)
*''Konzert für Orchester'' (Concerto for Orchestra) (1943)
;Concertante
*''Konzert für Bratsche und Orchester'' (Concerto for Viola and Orchestra)
;Chamber music
*''Divertimento'' for flute and viola, Op. 5 (1928)
*Sonata No. 1 in G for viola and piano, Op. 21a (1956)
*Sonata No. 2 in C for viola and piano, Op. 21b (1957)
Books
*''Hans Pfitzner'' (1935)
*''Deutsche Musik der Zeitwende. Eine kulturphilosophische Persönlichkeitsstudie über Anton Bruckner und Hans Pfitzner'' (1937)
*''Johannes Brahms. Sein Wesen und seine musikgeschichtliche Bedeutung'' (1939)
*''Die Symphonien Anton Bruckners. Einführungen'' (1940)
*''Hans Pfitzner. Sein Leben in Bildern'' (1941)
*''Vom Werden und Vergehen der Musik'' (1949)
*''Vier Meister der Musik. Bruckner, Mahler, Reger, Pfitzner'' (1952)
*(Hg.:) ''Hans Pfitzner. Reden, Schriften, Briefe. Unveröffentlichtes und bisher Verstreutes'' (1955)
*''Bruckner. Eine Bildbiographie'' (1958)
*''Kleine Geschichte der Musik'' (1959)
**neubearbeitet als: ''Kurze Geschichte der Musik'' (1969)
*''Selbstmord der Musik? Zur Theorie, Ideologie und Phraseologie des modernen Schaffens'' (1963)
*''Ich warne Neugierige. Erinnerungen eines kritischen Zeitbetrachters'' (1966)
*'' Arthur Schopenhauer'', (1967)
*''Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...
und die heutige Welt. Ein Beitrag zur Diskussion um die menschliche Zukunft'' (1969)
*''Reinkarnation'' (1986)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abendroth, Walter
1896 births
1973 deaths
Musicians from Hanover
People from the Province of Hanover
German male composers
German editors
Writers from Lower Saxony
Anthroposophists
German male writers
20th-century German composers
20th-century German male musicians