European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

Commemorating the Life and Work of Karl Amadeus Hartmann

Nov. 26, 2013

Commemorating the Life and Work of Karl Amadeus Hartmann

When Karl Amadeus Hartmann died on December 5, 1963 at the age of 58, he left behind a legacy, which, to this day, continues to exert a profound influence on our musical life. During the Third Reich, Hartmann experienced what it meant to not be free to work creatively as a composer and what it meant for a nation to be cut off from the new aesthetic trends of an entire era.

Against the background of these profound experiences, he set up the musica viva concert series in the early post-war years, and continued to organize these events up to the end of his life. The concerts were intended to familiarize post-war audiences with classical modern works and the latest music written by young composers. This guiding principle remains: musica viva, alongside the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Darmstädter Ferienkurse and the Wittener Tage für Zeitgenössische Musik, is one of the most significant contemporary music festivals in Germany.

Hartmann’s compositions, especially his operas Simplicius Simplicissimus and Wachsfigurenkabinett and his eight large-scale symphonies, are a unique testimony to music with a message, and have long held a permanent place on stages and in concert halls. The world of contemporary music regards this extraordinary musical figure with gratitude and admiration.

Composer Udo Zimmermann provides an apt description of Hartmann’s artistic ethos:

His outlook on life is imprinted on all his scores: a warning of the cruelties of this world, but simultaneously the resistance from within – a revocation of the spirits, love, and life itself.

For more information on Karl Amadeus Hartmann, please visit www.schott-music.com.

Karl Amadeus Hartmann
Simplicius Simplicissimus (1934-1935; rev. 1957)
three scenes from his youth
Libretto (Ger) by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Hermann Scherchen, Wolfgang Petzet and Karl Amadeus Hartmann
S, 2T, Bar, 2B, chorus; orchestra
1(pic).0.1.1-0.1.1.0-5perc-hp-str
95’

Wachsfigurenkabinett (1929-1930)
five little operas
Libretti (Ger) by Erich Bormann
2S, Mz, 2T, 2Bar, B, male chorus, speakers
1(pic).1.1.1-1.1.1.0–3perc-harm.2pno(3 players)
75’

News