Werner Egk (, 17 May 1901 – 10 July 1983), born Werner Joseph Mayer, was a 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 ...

Early career

He was born in the

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

n town of Auchsesheim, today part of

Donauwörth Donauwörth () is a town and the capital of the Donau-Ries district in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is said to have been founded by two fishermen where the rivers Danube (Donau) and Wörnitz meet. The city is part of the scenic route called "Roman ...

, Germany. His family, of Catholic peasant stock, moved to

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

when Egk was six. He studied at a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

Gymnasium (academic high school) and entered the municipal conservatory. Egk demonstrated talents as a composer, graphic artist, and writer, and he moved first to Frankfurt to improve his piano talents and then, in 1921, to Munich. There, working as a theater composer and playing in the pit, he married Elizabeth Karl, a violinist. He derived his

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

"Egk" from his wife's initials: ''Elisabeth, Karl'' (Elisabeth,

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Karl). His only son, Titus, was born in 1924. Egk moved to Berlin in 1928, meeting composers

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

and

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 ...

. He intended to become a cinema composer and accompanied silent films. When radio broadcasting became available to the public, Egk immediately realised its importance as a mass medium and developed

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

s and

radio play Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...

s. He was introduced to Hans Fleisch, an important radio executive (also

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...

's brother-in-law and a Jew), by composer

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

. He received his first commission for broadcasting from Fleisch's company. He returned to Munich in 1929 to work for the local radio station and settled in Lochham, a suburb. He became associated with musicians

Fritz Büchtger Fritz Büchtger (14 February 1903 – 26 December 1978) was a German composer. Life Born in Munich, Büchtger studied at the Music Academie of Munich with , Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen and Anton Beer-Walbrunn. In March 1927, together wi ...

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

, and especially,

Carl Orff Carl Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, best known for his cantata ''Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Schulwerk were influential for children's music education. Life Early life Car ...

, whom he had met in 1921. His music of the period shows a debt to the compositional style of

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

. He also became friends with new-music conductor

Hermann Scherchen Hermann Scherchen (21 June 1891 – 12 June 1966) was a German conductor. Life Scherchen was born in Berlin. Originally a violist, he played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens. He conducted in Riga ...

and the owners of the music publisher,

Schott Music Schott Music () is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe, and is the second oldest music publisher after Breitkopf & Härtel. The company headquarters of Schott Music were fou ...

in Mainz. His career as a composer took off with the premiere of his

radio opera Radio opera (German: 'Funkoper' or 'Radiooper') is a genre of opera. It refers to operas which were specifically composed to be performed on the radio and is not to be confused with broadcasts of operas which were originally written for the stage. ...

, ''Columbus'', in July 1933 (staged in April 1934).

Nazi era

Any composer working in Germany at the time had to deal with the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

coming to power in 1933. Michael H. Kater, professor of German studies at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

labels Egk "The Enigmatic Opportunist" in his portrait of ''Eight German Composers of the Nazi Era'', and by far the most extensive evaluation of the composer's wartime connections in English. As a German of Catholic heritage, Egk was in no danger of falling into disfavor with the regime's racial policies; rather, the professional hardships for Jewish composers and others created opportunities for him. Egk's contact with Scherchen soon lapsed, and the composer developed a complicated relationship as well as a professional rivalry with Orff, whose works ultimately found more lasting success. Initially, Munich's cultural administrators had doubts about the compatibility of Egk's Stravinskian style with a Nazi audience, and he encountered difficulty with Munich's representative for

Alfred Rosenberg Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head of ...

's ''Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur'' (

Militant League for German Culture The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin ...

), Paul Ehlers. In 1935, he premiered his first opera ''Die Zaubergeige'' (''The Magic Violin'') in Frankfurt am Main. The work channeled Bavarian folksong and a

diatonic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize Scale (music), scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, Interval (music), intervals, Chord (music), chords, Musical note, notes, musical sty ...

idiom far less

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

than his earlier, more angular ''Columbus''. This opera therefore matched Nazi artistic guidelines prescribing folk elements as being close to the people. Swiss composer

Heinrich Sutermeister Heinrich Sutermeister (12 August 1910 – 16 March 1995) was a Swiss composer, most famous for his opera '' Romeo und Julia''. Life and career Sutermeister was born in Feuerthalen. During the early 1930s he was a student at the Akademie der T ...

saw the stylistic change as "opportunistic." The success of the work led to a commission for ballet music related to the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

(for which he received a gold medal in the Art Competition) and his appointment as 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 ...

– a position he held until 1941. Egk's protector in Berlin was

Heinz Tietjen Heinz Tietjen (24 June 1881 – 30 November 1967) was a German conductor and music producer born in Tangier, Morocco. Biography Tietjen was born in Tangier, Morocco. At age twenty-three, he held the position of producer at the Opera House in ...

, director of the Prussian state theaters and artistic director of the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...

. November 1938 saw the première of his opera ''

Peer Gynt ''Peer Gynt'' (, ) is a five- act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen published in 1876. Written in Norwegian, it is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays. Ibsen believed ''Per Gynt'', the Norwegian fairy tale on wh ...

'' based on

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

. Propaganda minister

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...

wrote in his diary on 1 February 1939: "I am very enthusiastic and so is the Führer. A new discovery for the both of us". Oddly enough, Egk had returned to his more Stravinskian style in the work. More conservative critics found elements in the plot threatening to Nazi ideals of martial grandeur, and they also had difficulties with the reworking of the Nordic plot. One possible interpretation of the event lies in an argument Hitler had with his lieutenant Göring, who had warned Hitler not to go to the opera, "because none of your favorite singers were in it." It has been credibly suggested that Hitler and Goebbels decided to "like" the opera as a "taunt" to Göring for having the audacity to tell Hitler what he could and could not see. and accompanying footnotes, also an oral history from Viennese composer

Gottfried von Einem Gottfried von Einem (24 January 1918 – 12 July 1996) was an Austrian composer. He is known chiefly for his operas influenced by the music of Stravinsky and Prokofiev, as well as by jazz. He also composed pieces for piano, violin and organ. Biog ...

, Vienna, 30 November 1994 As the thirties wore on, Egk was asked, or perhaps commanded, to make official pronouncements about German music, and he received a large commission (never fulfilled) for a large scale opera on Nazi themes. His next major work was the ballet ''Joan von Zarissa'' in 1940. In the following decade, it was common to pair the work with Orff's ''

Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent ...

''. In general, Egk's music found much more success in Berlin, and Orff lost to Egk in the prize surrounding the Olympic games composition. Unlike Egk, who enjoyed regular income from his artistic directorship, Orff was also self-employed and much impoverished. This exposed Egk to attack from Orff's partisans, though Egk and his wife continued to see Orff socially. These rivalries impinged on the credibility of witnesses in Egk's trial after the war. From 1941 to 1945 Egk was the leader of the Composer division ("") in the State-Approved Society for the Exploitation of Musical Performing Rights (German: ; STAGMA) which was then under the control of the Nazi

Reichsmusikkammer The Reich Chamber of Music (German: ''Reichsmusikkammer'') was a Nazi Party, Nazi institution. It promoted "good German music" which was composed by Aryan race, Aryans and seen as consistent with Nazi ideals, while suppressing other, Degenerate musi ...

(Reich Music Chamber). Egk never joined the Nazi party and was exonerated in

denazification Denazification (german: link=yes, Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by remov ...

tribunals held in 1947, but the trials were fraught with inaccuracies, including accounts of involvement with the Austrian resistance movement that were highly dubious. Among Egk's defenders were

and composer

Boris Blacher Boris Blacher (30 January 1975) was a German composer and librettist. Life Blacher was born when his parents (of German-Estonian and Russian backgrounds) were living within a Russian-speaking community in the Manchurian town of Niuzhuang () (he ...

. Initially his Nazi affiliations were held against him, though only briefly. There are various interpretations regarding the extent of his collaboration: * Egk was never a Nazi, or * Egk was never interested in unfair advantage for himself, or * Egk was barely tolerated by the regime; or, * Egk was an official musician of the Third Reich, who identified himself and his music with the ideals of the Nazis. According to historian

Michael Hans Kater Michael Hans Kater (born 1937) is a German historian of Nazism. He is a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of history at York University, Toronto, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Sociét� ...

, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Post-war

His major career began after the war. In Germany, Egk has been dubbed "Komponist des Wiederaufbaus" ("composer of the reconstruction", which followed World War II). Besides being a conductor and composer, he was head of the Berlin Musikhochschule (1950–1952) and important figure of the GEMA since 1950; he was also the first German president of the

Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Auteurs et Compositeurs The International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers ( French: ''Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Auteurs et Compositeurs'', ''CISAC'') is an international non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation that aims to p ...

(CISAC). In 1954 he became conductor of the

Bavarian State Opera The Bayerische Staatsoper is a German opera company based in Munich. Its main venue is the Nationaltheater München, and its orchestra the Bayerische Staatsorchester. History The parent ensemble of the company was founded in 1653, under Ele ...

with a 20-year contract. His later years saw a constant string of premieres at major European festivals, beginning with ''Irische Legende'' in 1955, conducted by

George Szell George Szell (; June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970), originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. He is widely considered one of the twentieth century's greatest condu ...

and featuring

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, ...

. His opera ''Die Verlobung in San Domingo'' opened the

National Theatre Munich The National Theatre (german: link=no, Nationaltheater) on Max-Joseph-Platz in Munich, Germany, is a historic opera house, home of the Bavarian State Opera, Bavarian State Orchestra and the Bavarian State Ballet. Building First theatre � ...

in 1963 and features a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

Heinrich von Kleist Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (18 October 177721 November 1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. His best known works are the theatre plays ''Das Käthchen von Heilbronn'', ''The Broken Jug'', ''Amphit ...

, pleading for racial tolerance. His late works, however, were almost exclusively instrumental. Exceptional among them are works for winds, including the Divertissement for Ten Wind Instruments (1974) and the Five Pieces for Wind Quintet (1975). Egk died on 10 July 1983 in

Inning am Ammersee Inning is a municipality in Bavaria, Germany, in the district of Starnberg, in the Regierungsbezirk of Oberbayern Upper Bavaria (german: Oberbayern, ; ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany. Geography Upper Bavaria ...

and is buried in

Selected works

Operas

* ''

Columbus (opera) ''Columbus'' is a 1933 opera by Werner Egk. Originally a radio opera, Egk revised it in 1942 for the stage. The Munich premiere was acclaimed in the press and joined the year's repertoire at the Freiburg Theatre, though some dissented. The lack of ...

''. Radio Opera (1933) Revised (1942) * '' Die Zaubergeige'' (after

Count Franz Pocci Count Franz Graf von Pocci (7 March 1807 – 7 May 1876) was a significant official in the court of King Ludwig the First of Bavaria, best known as the founding director of the Munich Marionette Theatre where he was a shadow puppeteer and wrote ...

, libretto by Ludwig Strecker) (1935; Revised 1954) * ''

'' after

(1938) * '' Circe (opera)'' after

Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (, ; ; 17 January 160025 May 1681) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, writer and knight of the Order of Santiago. He is known as one of the most distinguished Baroque w ...

(1945, Premiered 1948; Reworked as an ''Opera semibuffa'' as '' 17 Tage und 4 Minuten'', 1966) * '' Irische Legende'' after

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

(1955; Revised 1975) * ''

Der Revisor ' is a comic opera in five acts by Werner Egk, who was also the librettist. It is based on Nikolai Gogol's play ''The Government Inspector''. The premiere on 9 May 1957 at the Schwetzingen Festival was conducted by the composer. Recording * ''Der ...

'' after

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

(1957) * '' Die Verlobung in San Domingo'' after

(1963)

Ballets

* ''Joan von Zarissa'' for narrator, mixed chorus, soprano, baritone, and orchestra (1940) ** two suites for orchestra, the second titled ''Triptych.'' ** 3 chansons (Charles d'Orléans) for 10-part chorus * ''Abraxas''. Faust-ballet after

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

(1948) ** Concert suite * ''Die chinesische Nachtigall'' after

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

(1953) ** Suite ''Divertissement'' for string orchestra * ''Casanova in London'' (1969; Extracts as ''Englische Suite'')

Orchestral works

* ''Kleine Symphonie'' (1926) * ''Olympische Festmusik'' (1936; text from

Carl Diem Carl Diem (24 June 1882, Würzburg – 17 December 1962, Cologne) was a German sports administrator, and as Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of the Berlin Olympic Games, the chief organizer of the 1936 Olympic Summer Games. H ...

) * ''Orchester-Sonate'' (1947/48) * ''Französische Suite'' after

Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau (; – ) was a French composer and music theory, music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of Fr ...

(1949; reworked as a ballet 1952) * ''Allegria'' (1952; Ballet 1953) * Variationen über ein karibisches Thema (1959; Ballet ''Danza'', 1960) * ''2. Sonate für Orchester'' (1969) * ''Spiegelzeit'' (1979) * ''Musik für eine verschollene Romanze''. Overture (1980) * ''Der Revisor''. Concert suite for trumpet and string orchestra (1981) * ''Die Zaubergeige''. Overture arranged for wind ensemble (1981) * ''Canzona'' for cello and orchestra (1982) * ''Nachtanz'' (Opus postumus, Premiered 1985)

Vocal works

*''Herrgott noch ein Stück Brot'' Chorus SSTT (1923) * '' Furchtlosigkeit und Wohlwollen''. Oratorio for tenor, mixed chorus, and orchestra; (1931; Revised 1959) * '' La tentation de Saint Antoine'' ''d’après des airs et des vers du 18e siècle'' for alto, string quartet, and string orchestra (1952; ballet version 1969) * ''Nachgefühl''. Cantata for soprano and orchestra after

Klabund Alfred Henschke (4 November 1890 – 14 August 1928), better known by his pseudonym Klabund, was a German writer. Life Klabund, born Alfred Henschke in 1890 in Crossen, was the son of an apothecary. At the age of 16 he came down with tuberculo ...

(1975)

Singspiels (musical plays)

* ''Die Löwe und die Maus''.

Singspiel A Singspiel (; plural: ; ) is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera. It is characterized by spoken dialogue, which is alternated with ensembles, songs, ballads, and arias which were often strophic, or folk-like ...

for children (1931) * ''Der Fuchs und der Rabe''. Singspiel for children (1932) * ''Die Historie vom Ritter Don Juan aus Barcelona''. After an old folk play (1932)

Film music

* ' (Film by

Heinz Rühmann Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann (; 7 March 1902 – 3 October 1994) was a German film actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1926 and 1993. He is one of the most famous and popular German actors of the 20th century, and is considered a Ge ...

, 1948)

Writings

* 1953: ''Abstrakte Oper Nr. 1'' – (

Libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

for a work by

) * 1958: ''Das Zauberbett'' – Comedy * 1960: ''Musik, Wort, Bild'' – Essays * 1973: ''Die Zeit wartet nicht'' – Autobiography * Various essays in ', ''

Das Orchester ''Das Orchester'' is a German-language magazine for musicians and management which has been published eleven times a year since 1953 by Schott Music and is distributed in over 45 countries worldwide. The editor-in-chief is based in Berlin while ...

'', ''

Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 'Die'' (; en, " heNew Journal of Music") is a music magazine, co-founded in Leipzig by Robert Schumann, his teacher and future father-in law Friedrich Wieck, and his close friend Ludwig Schuncke. Its first issue appeared on 3 April 1834. Histo ...

'', ''Österreichische Musikalische Zeitung''.

References

Sources *