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

Life

Stephan was born at

Worms The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...

Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine () was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The grand duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse (). It assumed the name ...

, the son of the privy councillor 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 am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, and of Rudolf Louis in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, 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 rad ...

. 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 a drama of the same name by Otto Borngräber. The opera was premiered at the Oper Frankfurt on 1 July 1920. History T ...

'', 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 at

Chodaczków Wielki Velykyi Khodachkiv (, ) is a Village#Ukraine, selo in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine. It lies on the banks of the Rudka (river), Rudka river, on the rail line from Ternopil to Rohatyn. Velykyi Khodachkiv belongs to Pidhorodnie rural hroma ...

near

Tarnopol Ternopil, known until 1944 mostly as Tarnopol, is a city in western Ukraine, located on the banks of the Seret (river), Seret River. Ternopil is one of the major cities of Western Ukraine and the historical regions of Galicia (Central Europe ...

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 fun ...

conducted by

Oleg Caetani Oleg Caetani (born 5 October 1956) is an Italian conductor. Life and career Born in Lausanne, Caetani is the son of Igor Markevitch (1912-1983) and Donna Topazia Caetani (1921–1990), Markevitch's second wife and a descendant of a very old aris ...

List of works

Source: * ''Opus 1'' for Orchestra * ''Liebeszauber'' for baritone and orchestra, after Hebbel (1907, rev. 1911) * ''Music for Orchestra'' o. 1(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(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 German classical composers 20th-century German male musicians German military personnel killed in World War I German opera composers Hoch Conservatory alumni German male opera composers People from Rhenish Hesse People from Worms, Germany