Zsolt Gárdonyi
Encyclopedia
Zsolt Gárdonyi is a German-Hungarian composer, organist and music theorist. He is the son of Zoltán Gárdonyi
.
, Hungary
. He studied composition, organ, sacred music and theory. At the age of 19 he received an award of the Budapest university competition in organ as well as composition. Aged 24 he became cantor
of the Alexanderkirche in Wildeshausen
, Germany. Ten years later he was appointed professor for theory of music at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg in Würzburg
. His students include Claus Kühnl
.
In international organ concerts he presents especially works of his father and his own, in addition to the standard organ repertoire. In a program at the Marktkirche
he combined works of his father, the two organ preludes on Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott and Ich weiß, woran ich glaube, and the Partita "Veni Creator Spiritus
", with works of his own, the two organ preludes on Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort and In dir ist Freude, three compositions paying homage to composers (Hommage à J. S. Bach
, Hommage à F. Liszt
, Hommage à M. Dupré
), his jazzy Mozart Changes and EGATOP, an homage to Erroll Garner
, Art Tatum
and Oscar Peterson
. Several of his works were recorded. The composer comments on Grand Choeur for organ, recorded by Roland Maria Stangier in the Philharmonie Duisburg:
Gárdonyi's short organ piece Mozart Changes, composed for the 1995 "OK MOZART" International Festival in Bartlesville
, departs from the theme of the finale of Mozarts's last piano sonata
in D major, K. 572, and treats it to changes using elements of jazz.
university in Hungary and its theological faculty Debreceni Református Teológiai Akadémia for Protestant sacred music. In 2011 he was awarded a medal of honor by the president of Hungary.
, Debussy
, Skriabin
and Messiaen
), resulting in a book he published together with Hubert Nordhoff, "Harmonik" (harmony). He also researched the relation between composition, interpretation, analysis and improvisation. He published a book on counterpoint, taking Bach
's fugal structures as examples. The book was translated to Italian.
Music and books were published by Möseler and Schott.
and his father Zoltan Gárdonyi, such as the three motets.
Zoltán Gárdonyi
Zoltán Gárdonyi was a Hungarian composer and musicologist. He taught at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music for 26 years.- Life and work :...
.
Professional career
Gárdonyi was born in BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. He studied composition, organ, sacred music and theory. At the age of 19 he received an award of the Budapest university competition in organ as well as composition. Aged 24 he became cantor
Cantor (church)
A cantor is the chief singer employed in a church with responsibilities for the ecclesiastical choir; also called the precentor....
of the Alexanderkirche in Wildeshausen
Wildeshausen
Wildeshausen is a town and the capital of the Oldenburg district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated by the river Hunte.-History:...
, Germany. Ten years later he was appointed professor for theory of music at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg in Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
. His students include Claus Kühnl
Claus Kühnl
Claus Kühnl is a German composer and teacher. He lives in Frankfurt am Main.- Life :Kühnl is the eldest child of Gudrun Kühnl from Lower Franconia and Wilhelm Kühnl who comes from the Sudetenland.His musical training began in 1973, first as an external student during his last years of high school...
.
In international organ concerts he presents especially works of his father and his own, in addition to the standard organ repertoire. In a program at the Marktkirche
Marktkirche
The Marktkirche , officially Marktkirche S. Georgii et Jacobi, dedicated to St. George and St. James, is the main Lutheran church in Hanover. It was built in the 14th century and, together with the nearby Old Town Hall, is considered the southernmost example of the "North German brick gothic" ...
he combined works of his father, the two organ preludes on Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott and Ich weiß, woran ich glaube, and the Partita "Veni Creator Spiritus
Veni Creator Spiritus
Veni Creator Spiritus is a hymn believed to have been written by Rabanus Maurus in the 9th century. It is normally sung in Gregorian Chant and often associated with the Roman Catholic Church, where it is performed during the liturgical celebration of the feast of Pentecost...
", with works of his own, the two organ preludes on Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort and In dir ist Freude, three compositions paying homage to composers (Hommage à J. S. Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Hommage à F. Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, Hommage à M. Dupré
Maurice Dupré
Maurice Dupré, PC was a Canadian politician.Born in Lévis, Quebec, he first ran unsuccessfully for the Canadian House of Commons representing the Quebec riding of Kamouraska in the 1925 federal election. A Conservative, he was elected in the 1930 federal election representing the riding of Quebec...
), his jazzy Mozart Changes and EGATOP, an homage to Erroll Garner
Erroll Garner
Erroll Louis Garner was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His best-known composition, the ballad "Misty", has become a jazz standard...
, Art Tatum
Art Tatum
Arthur "Art" Tatum, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and virtuoso who played with phenomenal facility despite being nearly blind.Tatum is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time...
and Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
. Several of his works were recorded. The composer comments on Grand Choeur for organ, recorded by Roland Maria Stangier in the Philharmonie Duisburg:
Organ compositions entitled Grand Choeur such as those by César FranckCésar FranckCésar-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
, Jacques-Nicolas LemmensJacques-Nicolas LemmensJacques-Nicolas Lemmens , was an organist and composer for his instrument.Born at Zoerle-Parwijs, near Westerlo, Belgium, Lemmens took lessons from François-Joseph Fétis, who wanted to make him into a musician capable of renewing the organ-player's art in Belgium...
, Théodore DuboisThéodore DuboisFrançois-Clément Théodore Dubois was a French composer, organist and music teacher.-Biography:Théodore Dubois was born in Rosnay in Marne. He studied first under Louis Fanart and later at the Paris Conservatoire under Ambroise Thomas. He won the Prix de Rome in 1861...
, Alexandre GuilmantAlexandre GuilmantFélix-Alexandre Guilmant was a French organist and composer.- Short biography :Guilmant was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer...
und Eugène GigoutEugène GigoutEugène Gigout was a French organist and a composer of European late-romantic music for organ.-Biography:Gigout was born in Nancy, and died in Paris....
are often conceived as preludes and postludes for worship services and traditionally contain registration directions at the start. In France, Grand Choeur indicates a composition whose sound is characterized by its high proportion of reed stops. My Grand Choeur is tied to this French organ tradition and was written in 1979 based on one of my worship service improvisations during 1971-75 at the organ of the Alexanderkirche Wildeshausen.
Gárdonyi's short organ piece Mozart Changes, composed for the 1995 "OK MOZART" International Festival in Bartlesville
Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Bartlesville is a city in Osage and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 43,070 at the 2010 census. Bartlesville is located forty-seven miles north of Tulsa and very close to Oklahoma's northern border with Kansas. It is the county seat of Washington County, in...
, departs from the theme of the finale of Mozarts's last piano sonata
Piano Sonata No. 18 (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 18 in D major, K 576 is a sonata in three movements:#Allegro#Adagio#AllegrettoA typical performance takes about 15 minutes....
in D major, K. 572, and treats it to changes using elements of jazz.
Awards
In 1979 Gárdonyi received the prize for composition of Bavaria. In June 2000 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the DebrecenDebrecen
Debrecen , is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar county.- Name :...
university in Hungary and its theological faculty Debreceni Református Teológiai Akadémia for Protestant sacred music. In 2011 he was awarded a medal of honor by the president of Hungary.
Publications
One major area of Gárdonyi's research is the harmony of the 19th and 20th century (LisztFranz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, Skriabin
Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
and Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
), resulting in a book he published together with Hubert Nordhoff, "Harmonik" (harmony). He also researched the relation between composition, interpretation, analysis and improvisation. He published a book on counterpoint, taking Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's fugal structures as examples. The book was translated to Italian.
- Zsolt Gárdonyi and Hubert Nordhoff: Harmonik, Wolfenbüttel 1990, ² 2002, ISBN 978-3787730353
- Zsolt Gárdonyi: Kontrapunkt - dargestellt an Fugenstrukturen bei J. S. Bach, Wolfenbüttel 1980, ² 1991, ISBN 978-3787730278
- Zsolt Gárdonyi: La struttura della fuga, Milano 1996, (Traduzione di A. Giacometti)
- Zsolt Gárdonyi and Siegfried MauserSiegfried MauserSiegfried Mauser is a German pianist.Mauser was born in Munich. He studied piano with Rosl Schmid and Alfons Kontarsky, musicology, philosophy, art history in Munich and Salzburg....
: Virtuosität und Avantgarde. Untersuchungen zum Klavierwerk Franz Liszts (Virtuosity and Avantgarde. Research on the piano works of Franz Liszt), SchottSchott MusicSchott Music is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe and is currently the second oldest music publishing house. The company headquarters of Schott Music was founded by Bernhard Schott in Mainz, Germany in 1770.Established in...
Musikwissenschaft, vol. 2 of "Schriften der Hochschule für Musik Würzburg", ISBN 978-3795717971
Music and books were published by Möseler and Schott.
Editions
Gárdonyi edited various organ works by César FranckCésar Franck
César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
and his father Zoltan Gárdonyi, such as the three motets.
External links
- Zsolt Gárdonyi website
- Zsolt Gárdonyi SchottSchott MusicSchott Music is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe and is currently the second oldest music publishing house. The company headquarters of Schott Music was founded by Bernhard Schott in Mainz, Germany in 1770.Established in...
- Zsolt Gárdonyi arkivmusic.com