Max Laurischkus (1876-1929)

[SadRobotSings]

Hi everyone! I'm trying to find some information about a Lithuanian-German Composer named Max Laurischkus (Maksas Lauriškus) (1876-1929). I was searching for clarinet music on IMSLP when I came across a piece he wrote which I think is really interesting. There are two other pieces as well, a piano trio and a woodwind quintet. Aside from a small Lithuanian wikipedia article I can't seem to find any info on him at all! I figured someone on this board might know something about him!

This is a really interesting forum and I've already had a lot fun browsing old threads!

[eschiss1]

The brief biographical description at jwpepper.com is "Max Laurischkus, the German composer, was born at Insterburg in 1876 and died in Berlin in 1929. He was a pupil of [Woldemar] Bargiel's and studied at the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin."

(Indeed, he was born and died in Germany- I'm not sure I see the Lithuanian connection...)

[SadRobotSings]

Haven't had much success with this, it seems that although Insterburg, as it was then known, was part of Germany it exists within a region that historically is ethnically Lithuanian. (Insterburg is now known as Chernyakhovsk, a town in the Kaliningrad region, and exclave of Russia. What a complicated history this region has had! ) This explains his desire to incorporate Lithuanian themes in his works such as his Woodwind Quintet, Aus Litauen. I wonder if the Lithuanian spelling was his given name.

In case anyone is interested, a new arrangement of his was recently added to IMSLP, a chamber setting of an Entracte from Schubert's Rosamunde, which I imagine is quite lovely.

[Mark Thomas]

exclave of Russia

What a great way of describing it.

[SadRobotSings]

I had to look it up, but it turns out it's a real thing!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclave

[Mark Thomas]

Who knew (apart from the author of the Wikipedia article, clearly)?

[Christopher]

Am in Lithuania now and been going through the music shops.  Haven't seen any Laurischkus.....

[Friesner]

Yes it's off-topic, but a couple of you seem to be interested, so:

Re:  Exclave.  I have a friend, currently curating the map collection at the Nat'l. Library of Australia, whose Ph.D. specifically dealt with exclaves.  He didn't deal with Kaliningrad/Königsberg, but he did study some really strange ones on the border between Burma and Thailand, and also Belgium/Netherlands.  For the latter, and for a bit of a marvel at how complicated this can get, look here:
                        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Nassau

My friend has had a book published concerning this border in the 1914-18 war, and how - keeping in mind that Belgium was occupied but the Netherlands was not - gave rise to a primitive but effective bit of espionage involving early radio and towers erected in the Netherlands exclaves to snoop on German troop movements in Belgium.

This concludes my deviation from music for today.   

[Simon]

Back to Laurischkus and his music, I got in touch a year ago with members of Max Laurischkus family, namely the wife of his brother's grandson. Unfortunately, she couldn't provide any information about his music at the time, or location of his manuscripts.

[SadRobotSings]

Unfortunately, she couldn't provide any information about his music at the time, or location of his manuscripts.

Huh, that's too bad! I would kill for at least a full list of works. His opus numbers go at least up to 30, so there has to be some other stuff out there. His Op. 4 is another clarinet piece, a set of miniatures. I got my hands on the music, hoping to read it through with a pianist before too long. It's a newer edition, but I think I'll be able to get my hands on a public domain copy soon and put it up on IMSLP. I think his Op. 3 is a cello and piano Duo, not totally sure though. He apparently arranged 10 Brahms songs for clarinet as well, I'm using every resource I know of to get a copy.

The only piece of his on IMSLP I haven't heard is the Waltz Caprices, but it looks neat! Going to see if I can get some friends to read through it for me.

My librarian managed to dig up some short bio's as well. Sorry these pictures are kind of big!

Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians


Riemann Musiklexikon

[Simon]

A list of opus numbers up to op. 17 is available in the Universal-Handbuch der Musiklitteratur, vol. 11, p. 211-212
https://archive.org/details/universalhandboo11pazd

[SadRobotSings]

Wow, how cool! I would have never thought to look in something like that. So, this means that all of those pieces were published, right? Theoretically there must be copies sitting around somewhere?

[eschiss1]

not all published works still exist, alas. Consider the case of poor Algernon Ashton, some of whose works had their manuscripts destroyed in the Blitz during WWII- and in the same war, the plates of the published versions of many of those works were destroyed during bombings in Germany; though with some of them I suppose it's conceivable that someone somewhere has a purchased copy- though none I gather has yet turned up...

[SadRobotSings]

So it turns out the Berlin State library has all of Laurischkus' works up to Op. 31, as well as a bunch of his arrangements, on their online digitized card catalog (I cobbled together a worklist over on IMSLP). However the Cello Concerto and the Konzerstücke for Violin and Orchestra as mentioned in the above bios remain conspicuously absent...

Mainly doing this for my own amusement at this point! Interesting though that he wrote so much for the Harmonium. I hadn't heard of the Mustel Harmonium before but it's pretty sweet! Such a weird composer and instrument might make for a cool combination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT66EV2SfjU

[Bruni Braun]

I´m Bruni Braun from Dortmund, Germany. 

I´m a  German artist & authoress (www.brunibraun.de), born as Brunhilde Laurischkus.

The composer Max Laurischkus was the Brother of my grandfather from the fathers side.

You may contact me by email: bruni.braun@t-online.de