Walter Fedor Georg Abendroth (29 May 1896 in Hanover – 30 September 1973 in Fischbachau) 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 def ...
,
editor
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...
, 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 ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
. 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. These points are usually on the ...
, he grew up with a younger brother and an older sister in Hanover
Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
and, from 1907, in Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
.
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 a schoolchild. From that moment on, Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy is a spiritual new religious movementSources for 'new religious movement': which was founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensibl ...
, 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 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 ...
; 1916 he was drafted into the military.
After 1918, his "Wanderjahre
In the European apprenticeship tradition, the journeyman years (, also known in German as , , and colloquially sometimes referred to as , ) is a time of travel for several years after completing apprenticeship as a craftsman. The tradition date ...
" took him to Göttingen
Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
, where he married in 1920, Jena
Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany 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 in ...
, Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
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'', an illustrated weekly.
. Afte ...
.
Following the National Socialists
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
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'', an illustrated weekly.
. Afte ...
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
The Allied Control Council (ACC) or Allied Control Authority (), also referred to as the Four Powers (), was the governing body of the Allies of World War II, Allied Allied-occupied Germany, occupation zones in Germany (1945–1949/1991) and Al ...
during the so-called Denazification
Denazification () 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 removing those who had been Nazi Par ...
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
(, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles.
History
The first edition of was ...
'' 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
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...
, as well as a variety of concerts
A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...
, songs
A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usuall ...
and 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 ...
. 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, St ...
)
*''Erste Symphonie'' (Symphony No. 1) (1941, with Paul van Kempen)
*''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
Arthur Schopenhauer ( ; ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the Phenomenon, phenomenal world as ...
'', (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 ...
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
Pfitzner scholars