Edwin Komauer: Violin concerto

[violinconcerto]

The violin concerto by Edwin Komauer (1869-1944) can be downloaded from my website:

http://www.tobias-broeker.de/rare-manuscripts/violin-concertos/edwin-komauer/

Edwin Komauer was born on 11 February 1869 in Klagenfurt (Austria) into a musical family: his father was music teacher and organist, his mother pianist and singer. Edwin Komauer studied law and music in Graz. He finished his studies in 1893 with a doctoral degree in law. Afterwards he worked at the state finance department in Klagenfurt for a living, but his passion was the music and composing. He also taught music theory and piano privately and among his students was the later famous composer Anton von Webern, who took his first piano lessons from 1895 to 1902 with Edwin Komauer.
Edwin Komauer was choir master of the ,,Kärtner Sängerbund" from 1895 to 1919 and of the ,,Klagenfurter Männergesangsverein" for 24 years.
In 1922 he quit from working at the finance department and focussed completely on music. The financial loss arising from the layoff forced Edwin Komauer to move to Krumpendorf and to give piano lessons to local students. He also founded the ,,Krumpendorfer Kammerorchester" and served as its director until it was abolished in 1935. Edwin Komauer composed in all genres and his music was very popular in Carinthia at the beginning of the 20th century.
In 1943 Edwin Komauer became seriously ill and moved to Waiern, a small village near Feldkirchen. He died there on 20 May 1944.

[Gareth Vaughan]

This is rather attractive music. Does a full score exist?

[violinconcerto]

Not as far as I know. But Komauer is a little investigated composer, so if someone digs deeper maybe a full score could turn up in a local archive somewhere in Carinthia. But I did not dig deeper so far.

[minacciosa]

That is really attractive and well-written. I hope a score turns up!

[minacciosa]

Are there three movements?

[violinconcerto]

Yes, there are three movements (Allegro - Andante - Lebhaft, mit Schwung) which are played attacca.

[eschiss1]

His first symphony in C minor was broadcast and might be on Youtube.

[Double-A]

It is on YouTube here.

It is a radio broadcast from around 1970 according to the comments on YouTube.  Also the poster says he is not sure it actually is Komauer's symphony and asks for more information from the public.  Posted in 2013 and gives composition date as 1924.

I am listening to it now.  It is late romantic in style, rather gloomy, while the (later) VC appears to feature some harmonies that put it at the border line of the remit.

[minacciosa]

If those harmonies are truly the borderline for this remit, that makes we residents positively musical neanderthals. There's not a single thing in that Kornauer excerpt that could qualify as even remotely late-romantic.

[Double-A]

I don't understand.  Late-romantic is inside the remit, no?  So what is wrong with the VC being late-romantic?  (Just to make sure we are on the same page; I called the symphony on YouTube late-romantic, not this VC which I think is not romantic, late or otherwise).

I just listened to the computer realization again and I have to maintain that those are 20th century chords.  Not dodekaphonic or anything else highly dissonant but yet not in keeping with the definition of "romantic" in use on this forum.  (I have long wondered:  Would Debussy--were he unsung--be inside or out?  I'd think out.)  I am not saying anything against the concerto; it may be not exactly a masterwork, but I find it attractive, humorous, upbeat (unlike the symphony which doubtless is inside the remit and is gloomy and somehow unremarkable at the same time, at least to my ears).

Unrelatedly the existence of the remit says nothing about individual contributor's musical taste.  Just because you post here does not make me assume you never listen to Shostakovich.

[Mark Thomas]

I haven't got time at present to listen to Komauer's Symphony again, but from memory it is indeed a late romantic work which falls squarely within our range of interest.

[Ilja]

I just listened to the computer realization again and I have to maintain that those are 20th century chords.

I think the presence of "20th century cords" does not preclude romanticism: Marx' or Schmidt's (or to name a less evident example: Enescu's) works are clearly 20th-C works, but romantic nonetheless.

[Alan Howe]

I haven't got time at present to listen to Komauer's Symphony again, but from memory it is indeed a late romantic work which falls squarely within our range of interest.

Mark is right: it fits perfectly well. The Symphony's a pretty forgettable affair, by the way.

[minacciosa]

A 9th chord or flavors of augmented 6th chords hardly qualifies as 20th century anything.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Absolutely - tame stuff!!