Boris Blacher ( - 30 January 1975) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
composer.
Blacher was born when his parents were living within a
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
-speaking community in the
ManchuriaManchuria is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria either falls entirely within China, or is divided between China and Russia...
n town of Niuzhuang (hence the use of the
Julian calendarThe Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC . It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus...
on his birth record). He spent his first years in
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and in the Asian parts of
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and in 1919, he eventually came to live in
Harbin' , is a sub-provincial city and the capital of the Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China. It lies on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
. In 1922, after finishing school, he went to
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
where he began to study architecture and mathematics.
Boris Blacher ( - 30 January 1975) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
composer.
Life
Blacher was born when his parents were living within a
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
-speaking community in the
ManchuriaManchuria is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria either falls entirely within China, or is divided between China and Russia...
n town of Niuzhuang (hence the use of the
Julian calendarThe Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC . It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus...
on his birth record). He spent his first years in
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and in the Asian parts of
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and in 1919, he eventually came to live in
Harbin' , is a sub-provincial city and the capital of the Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China. It lies on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
. In 1922, after finishing school, he went to
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
where he began to study architecture and mathematics. Two years later, he turned to music and studied composition with Friedrich Ernst Toch.
His career was interrupted by
National SocialismNational Socialism is a political term that is both vague and ambiguous. As the name suggests, features of nationalism and socialism are combined and interrelated to form an overall National Socialist ideology, although the combination process is neither obvious nor straightforward...
. He was accused of writing
degenerate musicDegenerate music was a label applied in the 1930s by the Nazi government in Germany to certain forms of music that it considered to be harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concern for degenerate music was a part of its larger and more well-known campaign against degenerate art...
and lost his teaching post at the Dresden Conservatory.
His career resumed after 1945, and he later became director of the Music Academy of Berlin, and is today regarded as one of the most influential music figures of his time. His students include
Aribert ReimannAribert Reimann is a German opera composer, pianist and accompanist. His version of King Lear was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who sang the title role.-Biography:...
,
Isang YunIsang Yun was a Korean-German composer originally from Korea. According to his official publisher's Boosey & Hawkes biography of him, he was given a political asylum by West Germany, eventually becoming a naturalised German citizen, following his abduction and torture in the 60s by the South...
,
Maki Ishiiwas a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music, and brother of composer Kan Ishii.Born in Tokyo, he studied composition and conducting from 1952 to 1958 in Tokyo, then moved to Berlin, where he continued his studies under Boris Blacher and Josef Rufer...
,
Fritz GeißlerFritz Geißler was one of the most important composers of the German Democratic Republic....
,
Giselher KlebeGiselher Wolfgang Klebe was a German composer. He composed more than 140 works, among them 14 operas, 8 symphonies, 15 solo concerts, chamber music, piano works, and sacred music.-Biography:...
,
Heimo ErbseHeimo Erbse was a German composer from Rudolstadt.Erbse studied in Weimar, and then worked from 1947-1950 in the theater before studying under Blacher in 1950. He lived most of his life in Austria.- Works :...
,
Klaus HuberKlaus Huber is a Swiss composer. One of the leading figures of his generation in Europe, Huber has written extensively for chamber ensembles, choirs, soloists and the orchestra as well as the theater. Huber is a socially and politically conscious composer and his music often conveys a humanistic...
, Francis Burt,
Gottfried von EinemGottfried von Einem 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....
, and
Richard WernickRichard Wernick in Boston, Massachusetts is a US composer.Wernick studied with Irving Fine, Harold Shapero, Arthur Berger, Ernst Toch, Aaron Copland, and Boris Blacher at Brandeis University, and with Leon Kirchner at Mills College....
.
Blacher was married to the pianist Gerty Blacher-Hertzog. They have four children including the German actress Tatjana Blacher and the international violinist Kolja Blacher.
Works
Works include:
- Concertante Music for Orchestra (1937)
- Symphony (1938)
- String Quartet No. 2 (1940)
- Orchestral Variations on a Theme by Paganini (1947)
- Violin Concerto (1948)
- Hamlet
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father, the King, and then...
(1949) - Ballet in a Prologue and three scenes after Shakespeare by Tatjana Gsovsky
- Preußisches Märchen (1949/52) - Ballet-opera in five scenes
- Lysistrata
Lysistrata is one of the few surviving plays written by the master of Old Comedy, Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War...
(1950) - Ballet in three scenes after AristophanesAristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a prolific and much acclaimed comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays have come down to us virtually complete...
- Piano Concerto No. 2 (in variable metres) (1952)
- Viola Concerto, Op. 48 (1954)
- Der Mohr von Venedig (1955) - Ballet in a Prologue, 8 scenes and an Epilogue after Shakespeare by Erika Hanka
- Cello Concerto (1964), premiered by Siegfried Palm
Siegfried Palm was a German cellist who is known worldwide for his interpretations of contemporary music. Many 20th-century composers like Kagel, Ligeti, Xenakis wrote music for him....
- Tristan
Tristan is one of the main characters of the Tristan and Iseult story, a Cornish hero and one of the Knights of the Round Table featuring in the Matter of Britain...
(1965) - Ballet in seven scenes by Tatjana Gsovsky
- Anacaona (1969) - Six Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS , much better known as "Alfred, Lord Tennyson," was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language.Tennyson excelled at penning short lyrics, "In the valley of...
about the Indian Queen AnacaonaAnacaona born 1464 in Yaguana - today the town of Leogane ,Haiti died about 1504, Hispaniola), also called the Golden Flower, was a Taíno chief, sister of Behechio and wife of Caonabo,chief of a nearby territory, two of the five highest caciques who possessed the island of Hispaniola when the...
- Poem for large orchestra (1974) - dedicated to Tatjana Gsovsky
- Variationen über ein Thema von Tschaikowsky ("Rokoko-Variationen") (1974), for cello and piano
External links
- Boris Blacher page on Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher that claims to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and wind musical instruments....
website
- Boris Blacher A Centenary Sketch by Dr David C F Wright