Helmut Braunlich (born 19 May 1929 in Brünn, Moravia; d. 24 May 2013) was a German-American violinist, composer, and

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

Education

He received his formal musical education at the

Mozarteum Mozarteum University Salzburg ( German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the "Mozarteum" name in Salzburg municipality; the International Mozarteu ...

Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...

, where he studied violin with Christa Richter-Steiner,

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

with Egon Kornauth, and music history with Eberhard Preußner. After his immigration (1951) to the United States in 1951 he played with various professional symphony orchestras and became a member of the U.S. Air Force Symphony Orchestra. He studied composition at the

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily a ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, where one of his teachers was the great organist, Prof.

Conrad Bernier Conrad Bernier (9 May 1904 – 7 November 1988) was a French-Canadian organist, composer, conductor and teacher. For many years he was a professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Early life and education Born into a f ...

. After earning his master's degree in composition with a concerto for two violins and orchestra, he pursued doctoral studies, earning his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

Musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...

Career

Here he taught numerous courses in composition, music theory, and performance practice. In 1988 he was promoted to Professor. In 1989 the state government of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, awarded him the "Sudetendeutscher Kulturpreis" in composition. He served as the chairperson of the Composition Department at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at the Catholic University of America, until he became Professor Emeritus in 1999. From then on he devoted his time mostly to composition and performance, but also taught selected graduate students.

Compositions

During his career he received commissions from a variety of organizations. Among them are the Contemporary Music Forum, the Montgomery County Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Catholic University Wind Ensemble, and the Friday Morning Music Club Foundation. As a member of the Society of Composers, Prof. Braunlich devotes his efforts to the promotion of composition, performance, understanding and dissemination of new and contemporary music. Compositions by Helmut Braunlich include works for

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

, works for various solo instruments, and songs. Several chamber music works have been published by McGinnis & Marx and by Tap Music Sales. His recordings are available on Educo Records, Opus One Records, and Centaur

Compact Disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

References

Citations

Sources

*Braunlich, Helmut. "Satire in Music, 1900–1920." Ph.D. dissertation, Musicology, Catholic University of America, 1966. 160 p. *Braunlich, Helmut. "Johann Peter Kellner's Copy of the Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo by J. S. Bach." ''Bach'' xii/2 (Apr 1981), 2–10. *Bonnie Hedges and Bonlyn Hall, compilers. ''Twentieth-Century Composers in the Chesapeake Region: A Bio-Bibliography and Guide to Library Holdings''. Richmond, Virginia: Chesapeake Chapter Music Library Association, 1994, 168 p. *, Bernadette, ed. ''Composer's Forum. The Directory''

989 Year 989 ( CMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Emperor Basil II uses his contingent of 6,000 Varangians to help him defeat Bardas Phokas (the Younger), who suffe ...

New York: Composers' Forum, 1989, p. 47.

External links

*http://www.cua.edu *http://pipl.com/directory/people/HelmutBraunlich {{DEFAULTSORT:Braunlich, Helmut 1929 births German male classical composers German classical composers American male classical composers 20th-century American classical composers Mozarteum University Salzburg alumni German emigrants to the United States Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art alumni Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art faculty 2013 deaths 20th-century German composers 20th-century American male musicians Catholic University of America alumni