Max Reger
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Image:Max reger.jpg Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (March 19, 1873 – May 11, 1916) was a German composer, organist, pianist and teacher.
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Life
Born in Brand, Bavaria, Reger studied music in Munich and Wiesbaden with Hugo Riemann. In 1901 he settled in Munich, where he taught organ and composition, and from 1907 he worked in Leipzig, where he was music director of the university until 1908 and professor of composition at the conservatoire until his death. He was also active internationally as a conductor and pianist in that period of time. Among his students there were Joseph Haas and George Szell. From 1911 he conducted the court orchestra at Meiningen until it was disbanded in 1914, when he moved to Jena. He died of a heart attack in Leipzig. Image:WelteMaxReger1913.jpg
Works
- See also List of compositions by Max Reger.
During a composing life of little more than 20 years, Reger produced a large output in all genres, nearly always in abstract forms, although few of his compositions are well known today. Many of his works are fugues or in variation form, including what is probably his best known orchestral work, the Variations and Fugue on a theme of Mozart (based on the opening theme of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata, K. 331). He also wrote a large amount of music for organ, including the Fantasy and Fugue on BACH (this piece, based on the BACH motif, is considered one of the most difficult, most demanding ones in organ literature), and music in virtually every other genre (opera being a notable exception).
He was a firm supporter of absolute music and saw himself as being part of the tradition of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. His work often combines the classical structures of these composers with the extended harmonies of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner and the complex counterpoint of Johann Sebastian Bach. His organ music, though also influenced by Liszt, was provoked by that tradition. Of his orchestral pieces, his symphonic and richly elaborate Hiller Variations and Mozart Variations are justly remembered; of his chamber music the lighter-textured trios have retained a place in the repertory, along with some of the works for solo string instruments. His late piano and two-piano music places him as a successor to Brahms in the central German tradition. He pursued intensively, and to its limits, Brahms's continuous development and free modulation, often also invoking, like Brahms, the aid of Bachian counterpoint: Many of his works are in variation and fugue forms; equally characteristic is a great energy and complexity of thematic growth.
His works were not revolutionary and could be considered retrospective as they followed classical and baroque forms such as the fugue and continuo. The influence of the latter can be heard in his chamber works which are deeply reflective and unconventional.
»I am sitting in the smallest room in my house. Your review is before me. Soon it will be behind me.«-Reger's well-known response to a newspaper critic who had reviewed his work negatively.
Trivia
The theme in Reger's Violin Sonata op. 72 is based on a-f-f-e and es-c-h-a-f-e. In German, "Affe" means ape or monkey while "Schafe" means sheep. Reger used these notes in order to ridicule or insult his critics who claimed that he composed in a barely understandable way.
References and further reading
- Anderson, Christopher (2003). Max Reger and Karl Straube: Perspectives on an Organ Performing Tradition. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 0754630757.
- Bittmann, Antonius (2004). Max Reger and Historicist Modernisms. Baden-Baden: Koerner. ISBN 3-87320-595-5.
- Cadenbach, Rainer (1991). Max Reger und Seine Zeit. Laaber, Germany: Laaber-Verlag. ISBN 3890071406.
- Grim, William (1988). Max Reger: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313253110.
External link
See also
de:Max Reger fr:Max Reger ko:막스 레거 nl:Max Reger ja:マックス・レーガー nn:Max Reger pl:Max Reger sk:Max Reger fi:Max Reger sl:Max Reger sv:Max Reger