Conrad Beck was a Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Beck was the son of a pastor. His stay in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 between 1924 and 1933 proved crucial to his artistic development, where he studied with Jacques Ibert

Jacques Ibert

Jacques François Antoine Ibert was a French composer. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I.Ibert pursued a successful composing career,...

 and also made contact with Arthur Honegger

Arthur Honegger

Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...

, Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...

, and Albert Roussel

Albert Roussel

Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period...

. Returning to Basel in 1933, he headed the music department of Radio Basel for the next thirty years. He helped mediate cultural exchange through his many contacts with Swiss and international musicians.

At the suggestion of Swiss conductor Paul Sacher

Paul Sacher

Paul Sacher was a Swiss conductor, patron and impresario.-Biography:He studied under Felix Weingartner, among others. In 1926 he founded the Basel Chamber Orchestra to play works written before the classical period and modern works...

 (1906–1999), who promoted his career more than any other composer, Beck settled in Basel in 1934. During a period of over 50 years, Sacher commissioned his works and conducted their premieres with the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the Collegium Musicum Zürich. From 1939 to 1966 Beck worked as music director of Swiss Radio in Basel, a position that enabled him to do a great deal to promote contemporary music.

On the occasion of Paul Sacher's 70th birthday, Beck was asked, together with 11 composer friends (Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...

, Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...

, Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

, Henri Dutilleux

Henri Dutilleux

Henri Dutilleux is one of the most important French composers of the second half of the 20th century, producing work in the tradition of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Albert Roussel, but in a style distinctly his own...

, Wolfgang Fortner

Wolfgang Fortner

Wolfgang Fortner was a German composer, composition teacher and conductor.-Life:Fortner was born in Leipzig. From his parents - both singers - Fortner very early on had intense contact with music...

, Alberto Ginastera

Alberto Ginastera

Alberto Evaristo Ginastera was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.- Biography :...

, Cristobal Halffter

Cristóbal Halffter

Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina is a Spanish composer. He is the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter.-Life:...

, Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...

, Heinz Holliger

Heinz Holliger

Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger (born 21 May 1939 is a Swiss oboist, composer and conductor.-Biography:He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland, and began his musical education at the conservatories of Bern and Basel. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez...

, Klaus Huber

Klaus Huber

Klaus Huber is a Swiss composer.Huber was born in Bern, Switzerland. One of the leading figures of his generation in Europe, he has written extensively for chamber ensembles, choirs, soloists and the orchestra as well as the theater...

 and Witold Lutosławski), by Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich

Mstislav Rostropovich

Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...

 to write a composition for cello which used the notes creating Sacher's name: eS, A, C, H, E, Re (E, A, C, B, E, D). Beck created a three-movement work entitled Für Paul Sacher, Drei Epigramme for cello solo. The compositions were partially presented in Zürich on 2 May 1976. The first complete performance of the "eSACHERe" project will be given by Czech Cellist František Brikcius in Prague this autumn 2010-2011.

His honours include the composition prize of the Schweizerischer Tonkünstlerverein (1954), the Ludwig Spohr Prize of the city of Brunswick (1956) and the Basle Arts Prize (1964).

Beck's music is characterized by a large measure of seriousness, tenacity, and depth of expression, but also by transparency and a sense of harmonic

Harmony

In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...

 proportion. He composed a number of orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

l and choral

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

 works in the style of Arthur Honegger, the best known of which was Der Tod zu Basel, a piece for choir, soloists

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

, speaker

Narrator

A narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...

, and orchestra. Besides opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, his work extended to all kinds of instrumental

Instrumental

An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....

 and vocal music

Vocal music

Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...

, including seven symphonies

Symphony

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

, seven concerto

Concerto

A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...

s, chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

, one oratorio

Oratorio

An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...

, one lyric cantata

Cantata

A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....

, one elegy

Elegy

In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.-History:The Greek term elegeia originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tombs...

, and one ballet

Ballet

Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

, Der große Bär.

Selected works

Stage

• Der große Bär (The Big Bear), Ballet (1935–1936)

Orchestra

• Aeneas Silvius, Symphony (1957)
• Concertato (1964)
• Fantasie (1969)
• Hommages (1965)

1. "Dans le lointain..."
2. "...et dans le présent"
   • Hymne (1952)
   • Innominata (1931)
   • Kammerkonzert (1971)
   • Kleine Suite for string Orchestra (1930)
   • Nachklänge, Tripartita for orchestra (1983)
   • Ostinato (1936)
   • Sonatina (1958)
   • Suite Concertante for winds, percussion and double bass (1961)
   • Symphony No. 3 for string orchestra (1927)
   • Symphony No. 4 "Konzert für Orchester" (1928)
   • Symphony No. 5 (1930)
   • Symphony No. 6 (1950)

Concertante

• Concertino for clarinet, bassoon and orchestra (1954)
• Concertino for oboe and orchestra (1962)
• Concertino for Piano and orchestra (1927–1928)
• Concerto for clarinet and orchestra (1967–1968)
• Concerto for piano and orchestra (1930)
• Concerto for string quartet and orchestra (1929)
• Concerto for viola and orchestra (1949)
• Concerto for wind quintet and orchestra (1976)
• Kammerkonzert for violin and orchestra (1949)
• Konzertmusik for oboe and string orchestra (1932)
• Lichter und Schatten (Lights and Shadows), 3 Movements for 2 horns, percussion and string orchestra (1982)
• Serenade for flute, clarinet and string orchestra (1935)

Chamber music

• Alternances for clarinet, cello and piano (1980)
• Duo for 2 violins (1960)
• Duo for violin and viola (1934–1935)
• Facetten, Three Impromptus for trumpet and piano (1975)
• Intermezzo for horn and piano (1948)
• Légende for clarinet and piano (1963)
• Nocturne for alto saxophone and piano (1969)
• Sonata No. 2 for cello and piano (1954)
• Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano (1948)
• Sonatina for cello and piano (1928)
• Sonatina for 2 flutes (1971)
• Sonatina for flute and 1 or 2 violins
• Sonatina for flute and piano (1960)
• Sonatina for oboe and piano (1957)
• Sonatina for viola and piano (1976–1977)
• Sonatina for violin and piano (1928)
• String Quartet No. 3 (1927)
• String Quartet No. 4 (1935)
• String Quartet No. 5 (1967)
• String Trio No. 1 (1928)
• String Trio No. 2 (1947)
• Three Epigrammes for cello solo (1976)
• Trio for flute, oboe and piano (1983)

Piano

• Sonatina (1928)
• Sonatina No. 2 (1951)
• Sonatina for piano 4-hands (1955)

Organ

• Choral Sonata (1950)
• Sonatina (1958)
• Zwei Präludien (2 Preludes) (1932)

Vocal

• Die Sonnenfinsternis, Cantata (1967)
• Der Tod des Oedipus, Cantata for soprano, tenor, baritone, mixed chorus, organ, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones and timpani (1928)
• Der Tod zu Basel, Großes Miserere for soprano, bass, 3 speakers, mixed chorus and orchestra (1952)
• Elegie, Solo Cantata after Friedrich Hölderlin
  Friedrich Hölderlin
  Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was a major German lyric poet, commonly associated with the artistic movement known as Romanticism. Hölderlin was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism, particularly his early association with and philosophical influence on his...
  
   (1972)
• Herbstfeuer, 6 Songs for alto and chamber orchestra (1956)
• 3 Herbstgesänge for voice and piano or organ
• Kammerkantate after Sonnets of Louise Labé
  Louise Labé
  Louise Labé, , also identified as La Belle Cordière, , was a female French poet of the Renaissance, born at Lyon, the daughter of a rich ropemaker, Pierre Charly, and his second wife, Etiennette Roybet...
  
  for soprano, flute, piano and string orchestra (1937)
• Lyrische Kantate for soprano, alto, female chorus and small orchestra (1931)
• Suite nach Volksliedern im Jahresablauf (1947)

External links

• Conrad Beck's CV
• "Cello Duo Revives Compositions of Holocaust Victims" The Epoch Times