Wolfgang Fortner

{{Infobox person

| name = Wolfgang Fortner

| image = Wolfgang Fortner (1b).jpg

| image_upright =

| alt = Three-quarter view of elderly man's face: clean-shaven, with dark-rimmed spectacles and receding hair.

| caption = Wolfgang Fortner in the 1970s

| birth_date = {{birth date|1907|10|12|df=y}}

| birth_place = Leipzig, Saxony, German Empire

| death_date = {{death date and age|1987|09|05|1907|10|12|df=y}}

| death_place = Heidelberg, West Germany

| education = Leipzig Conservatory

| occupation = {{ubl| Composer | Conductor | Academic teacher }}

}}

Wolfgang Fortner (12 October 1907 – 5 September 1987) was a German composer, academic composition teacher and conductor.

Life and career

Fortner was born in Leipzig. From his parents, who were both singers, Fortner very early on had intense contact with music.

In 1927 he began his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory (organ with Karl Straube, composition with Hermann Graubner) and at University of Leipzig, (philosophy with Hans Driesch, musicology with Theodor Kroyer, and German studies with Hermann August Korff) {{harv|Weber|2001}}. While still a student, two of his early compositions were publicly performed: Die vier marianischen Antiphonen at the Lower Rhineland Festival in Düsseldorf in 1928, and his First String Quartet in Königsberg in 1930 {{harv|Weber|2001}}.

In 1931 he completed his studies with the State Exam for a high teaching office, after he accepted a lectureship in music theory at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik Heidelberg. There his music was attacked as Cultural Bolshevism. In 1935 and 1936 Fortner created the Heidelberg Chamber Orchestra with which he supported New Music and undertook expanded concert journeys for "armed forces support", from Scandinavia to the Netherlands to Greece. In the same year he also took over the directorship of the orchestra of the Hitler Youth of Heidelberg, a string orchestra, formed from juvenile laymen, whose directorship changed in 1939 again. In 1940, he was drafted into the army as a medical soldier.

After the end of the war, Fortner underwent Denazification and was found not affected by professional disqualification.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} Fortner moved to the Heidelberg Kohlhof and there a group of very young students formed around him, who showed interest in the modern music of 1933.{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} In 1946 he joined the circle of the Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, and taught within that framework. In 1954 he became a professor for composition at the North-West German Music Academy in Detmold, then from 1957 up to his retirement in 1973 taught in Freiburg. After the death of Karl Amadeus Hartmann, in 1964 he took up the leadership of the musica viva concerts, which he directed until 1978 {{harv|Weber|2001}}.

Together with eleven other composer-friends (Conrad Beck, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Benjamin Britten, Henri Dutilleux, Alberto Ginastera, Cristóbal Halffter, Hans Werner Henze, Heinz Holliger, Klaus Huber, and Witold Lutosławski), he was asked by Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, on the occasion of the 70th birthday of the Swiss composer and art patron Paul Sacher, to write a composition for cello solo using the notes of his name (eS, A, C, H, E, Re). Wolfgang Fortner created the theme and three variations Zum spielen für den 70. Geburtstag, Thema und Variationen für Violoncello Solo. These compositions were partially presented in Zurich on 2 May 1976.

Wolfgang Fortner died in Heidelberg in 1987, aged 79.

Awards

1948 Schreker-Prize Berlin
1953 Louis Spohr Prize Brunswick
1955 Bearer of the "Great Prize of Art-Music" of North-Rhine/Westphalia
1955 Member of the Academy of the Beautiful Arts of Berlin
1956 Member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste of Munich
1957 President of the German section of the ISCM (from 1971)
1960 Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
1975 President of the Dramatists' Union
1977 Reinhold Schneider Prize of Freiburg
1977 Grand Medal of Service of the Federal Republic of Germany
1977 Honorary Doctorate of the Universities of Heidelberg and Freiburg

Students

: {{See LMST|Wolfgang|Fortner}}

Among his students were composers {{ill|Günther Becker|de|Günther Becker (Komponist)}}, Friedhelm Döhl, Hans Ulrich Engelmann, {{ill|Diego H. Feinstein|de}}, Peter Förtig, {{ill|Volkmar Fritsche|de}}, Hans Werner Henze, Carl Johnson, Milko Kelemen, Rudolf Kelterborn, Karl Michael Komma, {{ill|Arghyris Kounadis|de}}, {{ill|Uwe Lohrmann|de}}, {{ill|Wolfgang Ludewig|de}}, Roland Moser, Diether de la Motte, Nam June Paik, Graciela Paraskevaidis, Robert HP Platz, Rolf Riehm, Wolfgang Rihm, {{ill|Griffith Rose|de}}, Mauricio Rosenmann, {{ill|Dieter Schönbach|de}}, Manfred Stahnke, Karen Tarlow, Peter Westergaard, Hans Zender, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Heinz Werner Zimmermann, conductors and Arturo Tamayo and translator Hans Wollschläger.

Works

= Operas =

Bluthochzeit. Lyric Tragedy in 2 Acts/7 Pictures, libretto by the composer after the drama Bodas de sangre by Federico García Lorca in Enrique Beck's German translation (1957)
Corinna. Opera buffa in one act after a comedy by Gérard de Nerval (1958)
In seinem Garten liebt Don Perlimplin Belisa. Opera after Federico García Lorca (1962)
Elisabeth Tudor. Opera in three acts after a libretto by Mattias Braun (1972) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, with Helga Dernesch and William B. Murray
That time. Scenic cantata after Samuel Beckett (1977)

= Ballets =

Die weiße Rose, after Oscar Wilde (1950)
Die Witwe von Ephesus, pantomime after a scenario of Petronius
Carmen (Bizet Collagen), music for a ballet by John Cranko (1971)

= Other works =

String Quartet No. 1 (published 1930){{cite book|title=Streichquartett.|date=1930|oclc = 22912438}}
Concerto for organ and strings (published 1932){{cite book|title=Konzert für Orgel und Streichorchester. Partitur.|date=1932|oclc = 20761217}}
Concertino in G minor for viola and chamber orchestra (1934)
Sonatina for piano (1935){{cite book|title=Sonatina für Klavier (1935)|date=1934|oclc = 8984425}}
Concerto for string orchestra (1935?) {{Cite journal

| last = Vinton

| first = John

| title = For Jan LaRue: The Concerto for Orchestra

| journal = Notes |series=Second Series

| volume = 30

| issue = 1

| pages = 17

| publisher = The Music Library Association

|date=September 1973

| doi =10.2307/896020

| jstor=896020}}

Sinfonia concertante (published 1937){{cite book|title=Sinfonia concertante für Orchester|date=1937|oclc = 51859047}}
String Quartet No. 2 (published 1938){{cite book|title=2. Streichquartett.|date=1938|oclc = 7608375}}
Piano Concerto (published 1943){{cite book|title=Konzert: für Klavier und Orchester|date=1943|oclc = 68000369}}
Violin Sonata (1945){{cite book|title=Sonate für Violine und Klavier: (1945)|date=1948|oclc = 22912450}}
Violin Concerto (1947; written for Gerhard Taschner)
Flute Sonata (1947){{cite book|title=Sonate für Flöte und Klavier (1947)|date=1948|oclc = 4174846}}
Symphony 1947 (1947)
String Quartet No. 3 (1948) {{Cite journal

| last = von Lewinski

| first = Wolf-Eberhard

| last2=Mintz

| first2=Donald

| title = The Variety of Trends in Modern German Music

| journal = Musical Quarterly

| volume = 51

| issue = 1

| pages = 167

| publisher = The Oxford University Press

| issn = 0027-4631

|date=January 1965

| jstor=740896}}

Fantasy (music)|Phantasie über die Tonfolge BACH for Orchestra (1950)
Cello Concerto (1951){{cite book|title=Konzert, für Violoncello und Orchester, 1951.|date=1952|oclc = 2272997}}
The Creation (Die Schōpfung) for middle voice and orchestra (1954). Recorded by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (with the Sinfonie Orchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt.)
Impromptus for large Orchestra (1957){{Cite journal|last=Powell|first=Mel|title=Review of the Impromptus for Orchestra|journal=Notes|pages=482|publisher=the Music Library Association|year=1960|volume=17|issue=3|doi=10.2307/892360|last2=Fortner|first2=Wolfgang|jstor=892360|issn=0027-4380}}
Die Pfingstgeschichte nach Lukas, Evangelist-scoring for tenor solo, six-part choir, 11 instruments and organ (1963)
Triplum for 3 Klaviere and Orchestra (1965/6){{cite book|title=Triplum: für Orchester mit obligaten Klavieren : (1965/66)|date=1966|oclc = 66185435}}
Prismen for flute, oboe, harp, percussion and orchestra (1967)
Marginalien. Dem Andenken eines guten HundesfFor orchestra (1969)
Zyklus for cello and chamber orchestra without strings (1970)
Machaut-Balladen, setting ballads by Guillaume de Machaut for singer and orchestra (1974)
String Quartet No. 4 (1975) {{Cite journal|last=Oppelt|first=Robert|title=Review of the String Quartet No. 4|journal=Notes|pages=984|publisher=the Music Library Association|year=1979|volume=35|issue=4|jstor=939655|issn=0027-4380|doi=10.2307/939655|last2=MacOnchy|first2=Elizabeth|last3=Matthus|first3=Siegfried|last4=Fortner|first4=Wolfgang}}
Triptychon for orchestra (1977)
Two string trios (1951, 1983){{cite book|title=2. Trio für Violine, Viola und Violoncello = for violin, viola, and violoncello (1983)|date=1987|oclc = 18166320}}
Piano trio (1978)

References

Sources

{{Cite book|last=Borio|first=Gianmario|author2=Danuser, Hermann|title=Zenit der Moderne: die Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt 1946–1966: Geschichte und Dokumentation in vier Bänden|publisher=Freiburg im Breisgau: Rombach|year=1997|isbn=3-7930-9138-4}}
{{Cite book|last=Lindlar|first=Heinrich|title=Wolfgang Fortner; eine Monographie. Werkanalysen, Aufsätze, Reden, Offene Briefe, 1950-1959|publisher=Rodenkirchen/Rhein: P. J. Tonger|year=1960|id=OCLC 1999810}}
{{Wikicite|ref={{harvid|Lohrmann|1982}}|reference=Lohrmann, Uwe (1982). "Wolfgang Fortner". Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 143, no. 10:{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}}}
{{Cite conference|last=Roth|first=Matthias|title=War Wolfgang Fortner ein Nazi?|book-title=Jahrbuch Musik in Baden-Württemberg|year=2005|isbn=3-89912-082-5}}
{{Cite conference|last=Roth|first=Matthias|title=Der Komponist Wolfgang Fortner und sein ,Kohlhof Club'|book-title=Die Insel im Wald - 300 Jahre Heidelberger Kohlhof|year=2006|isbn= 3-935992-23-8}}
{{Cite book|last=Roth|first=Matthias (2008)|title=Ein Rangierbahnhof der Moderne. Der Komponist Wolfgang Fortner und sein Schülerkreis (1931–1986); Erinnerungen, Dokumente, Hintergründe, Porträts |year=2008|place=Freiburg im Breisgau |publisher=Edition Rombach |isbn=978-3-7930-9521-7}}
{{Cite conference|last=Schipperges|first=Thomas|title=Musik unterm Hakenkreuz – Heidelberg 1933-45|book-title=Verführt und verraten: Jugend im Nationalsozialismus: Bruchstücke aus der Region: Kurpfäsisches Museum der Stadt Heidelberg, 8. Mai bis 16. Juli 1995|publisher=Heidelberg: Kurpfälzisches Museum Stadt Heidelberg|year=1995|id=OCLC 36220656}}
{{Cite book|last=Stephan|first=Rudolf|author2=Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt.|publisher=Stuttgart: Daco Verlag|year=1996|title=Von Kranichstein zur Gegenwart – 50 Jahre Darmstädter Ferienkurse|isbn=3-87135-028-1}}
{{Cite book|last=Weber|first=Brigitta|title=Wolfgang Fortner und seine Opernkompositionen|publisher=Mainz: Schott|year=1995|isbn=3-7957-0308-5}}
{{Wikicite|ref={{harvid|Weber|2001}}|reference=Weber, Brigitta (2001). "Fortner, Wolfgang". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.}}