Kurt Schwaen was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 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...

.

Professional career

Schwaen studied piano, organ and composition under Fritz Lubrich. From 1929 to 1933 he studied at the universities of Berlin and Breslau, where his teachers included Curt Sachs

Curt Sachs

Curt Sachs was a German-born but American-domiciled musicologist. He was one of the founders of modern organology , and is probably best remembered today for co-authoring the Sachs-Hornbostel scheme of musical instrument classification with his fellow scholar Erich von Hornbostel.Born in Berlin,...

 and Arnold Schering

Arnold Schering

Arnold Schering was a German musicologist.He grew up in Dresden as the son of an art publisher. He learned violin at the Annengymnasium from which he graduated in 1896. Thereafter he studied violin at the Berlin School of Music under Joseph Joachim...

. In 1930 he met Hanns Eisler

Hanns Eisler

Hanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...

 who had a profound impact on his compositional style. After becoming active in an anti-fascist student group, he joined the Communist Party of Germany

Communist Party of Germany

The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...

; from 1935 to 1938 he was imprisoned because of his political views.

After the war he returned to Berlin and spent much of his time working to rebuild the musical culture of that city by writing compositions for amateur music groups, choirs, music schools and chamber ensembles, publishing and serving as a musical advisor. Between 1953 and 1956 he worked with Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

 who had a profound impact on his future compositions. He also worked with Ernst Busch

Ernst Busch (actor)

Ernst Busch was a German singer and actor.Busch first rose to prominence as an interpreter of political songs, particularly those of Kurt Tucholsky, in the Berlin Kabarett scene of the 1920s...

. He composed in several genres, producing a cantata for children entitled King Midas. In 1961 he became a member of the DDR Akademie der Künste, where he was head of the music department from 1965 to 1970. From 1962 to 1978 he was president of the East German National Folk Music committee. Between 1973 and 1981 he directed the children’s musical theatre in Leipzig. His awards include an honorary doctorate from Leipzig University (1983) and several state awards. Schwaen’s extensive oeuvre comprises over 620 titles. A number of works, such as the Piano Concerto no.2 (1987), show the influence of his several visits to Vietnam. Later works include the collaborative musical poem Potsdamer Platz (1998). His works, such as König Midas, were published by the Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag

Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag

Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag is a publisher of classical music, founded by Friedrich Hofmeister in Leipzig in 1807. Early listings included composers Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. Hofmeister was the first to publish Mahler's Second Symphony. Pedagogical works, such as...

.

Schwaen later settled in Berlin-Mahlsdorf, where he died at the age of 98.

Orchestral

• Sinfonietta KSV 142 (1957)
• Sinfonietta piccola KSV 374 (1974, rev. 1977)
• 3 Tanzsuiten (Nr.1 KSV 14, 1947, Nr.2 KSV 67, 1952, Nr.3 KSV 200, 1960)
• Ostinato 56 KSV 122 (1956)
• Jeu parti KSV 482 (1985)
• Piano Concerto no.1 KSV 259 (1963, rev. 1964)
• Piano Concerto no.2 "Vietnamesisches Konzert" KSV 515 (1987)
• Concert pour la jeunesse KSV 620 (1999)
• Violin Concerto KSV 433 (1979)
• Concerto for Clarinet, Trumpet and Orchestra KSV 174 (1959)

Operas

• Die Horatier und die Kuratier (children's opera) KSV 104 (1955/56)
• Pinocchios Abenteuer (children's opera), KSV 322 (1969/70, rev. 1997)
• Fetzers Flucht KSV 167 (1959)
• Leonce und Lena KSV 204 (1960/61)

Chamber music

• Volksliederstreichquartett KSV 143 (1958)
• Quartettino für Streichquartett KSV 615 (1998), rev. als Divertimento KSV 656 (2005)
• Piano Trio Nr.1 KSV 319 (1969)
• Piano Trio Nr.2 KSV 413 (1969/78)
• Piano Trio Nr.3 KSV 460 (1982)
• Piano Trio Nr.4 KSV 474 (1983)
• Piano Trio Nr.5 "en miniature" KSV 509 (1987)
• „Tänzerische Impressionen“ KSV 522 (1988)
• „Fern und nah. Neue Nationaltänze“ KSV 556,1 (1991)
• „Concertino. Hommage à Bartók“ für Violoncello und Klavier KSV 558 (1991)
• zahlreiche andere Werke für unterschiedliche Besetzungen

Piano music

• 5 Tanzbilder KSV 8 (1940)
• Movimenti KSV 457 (1957–82)
• Vietnamesische Impressionen KSV 546 (1990/91)
• Nocturne lugubre KSV 568 (1992)
• Nachlese KSV 638 (2002)
• Duo carattere KSV 601 (1997)

Sources

• Rosemarie Groth. The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
  New Grove Dictionary of Opera
  The New Grove Dictionary of Opera is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes....
  
  , edited by Stanley Sadie (1992), ISBN 0-333-73432-7 and ISBN 1-56159-228-5

External links

• Official website (German/English)