Max Reger

Max Reger.

Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (March 19, 1873 – May 11, 1916) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, organist, and teacher.

Life

Born in Brand, Bavaria, Reger studied music in Munich and Wiesbaden with Hugo Riemann. From September 1901 he settled in Munich, where he obtained concert offers and where his rapid rise to fame began. During his first Munich season, Reger appeared in ten concerts as an organist, chamber pianist and accompanist. He continued to compose without interruption, producing a huge body of work for organ and voice, also his three famous "Munich masterpieces": Piano Quintet op. 64 and two sonatas for Piano and Violin opp. 72 and 84. From 1907 he worked in Leipzig, where he was music director of the university until 1908 and professor of composition at the conservatory until his death. It was during one of his weekly trips to Leipzig in 1916 to teach at the Conservatory that he died of a heart attack at age 43. He was also active internationally as a conductor and pianist in that period of time. Among his students there were Joseph Haas and George Szell.

Reger was the cousin of Hans von Koessler.

Recording session with Max Reger for the Welte-Philharmonic-Organ, 1913.

Works

During a composing life of little more than 25 years, Reger produced an enormous output in all genres, nearly always in abstract forms, although few of his compositions are well known today. Many of his works are fugues or in variation form, including what is probably his best known orchestral work, the Variations and Fugue on a theme of Mozart (based on the opening theme of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata, K. 331). He also wrote a large amount of music for organ, including the Fantasy and Fugue on BACH (this piece, based on the BACH motif, is considered one of the most difficult and demanding in organ literature). He was particularly attracted to the fugal form his entire life, once remarking: "Other people write fugues - I live inside them". He composed music in virtually every genre—opera being a notable exception.

He was a firm supporter of absolute music and saw himself as being part of the tradition of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. His work often combines the classical structures of these composers with the extended harmonies of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner and the complex counterpoint of Johann Sebastian Bach. His organ music, though also influenced by Liszt, was provoked by that tradition. Of his orchestral pieces, his symphonic and richly elaborate Hiller Variations and Mozart Variations are justly remembered; of his chamber music the lighter-textured trios have retained a place in the repertory, along with some of the works for solo string instruments. His late piano and two-piano music places him as a successor to Brahms in the central German tradition. He pursued intensively, and to its limits, Brahms's continuous development and free modulation, often also invoking, like Brahms, the aid of Bachian counterpoint: Many of his works are in variation and fugue forms; equally characteristic is a great energy and complexity of thematic growth.

His works could be considered retrospective as they followed classical and baroque forms such as the fugue and continuo. The influence of the latter can be heard in his chamber works which are deeply reflective and unconventional.

Media

See also

• List of compositions by Max Reger

Bibliography

• Liu, Hsin-Hung. (2004)" A study on compositional structure in Max Reger Phantasie für Orgel über den Choral, "Hallelujah! Gott zu loben, bleibe meine Seelenfreud!" D.M.A. Dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle.
• Anderson, Christopher (2003). Max Reger and Karl Straube: Perspectives on an Organ Performing Tradition. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 0-7546-3075-7.
• Bittmann, Antonius (2004). Max Reger and Historicist Modernisms. Baden-Baden: Koerner. ISBN 3-87320-595-5.
• Cadenbach, Rainer (1991). Max Reger und Seine Zeit. Laaber, Germany: Laaber-Verlag. ISBN 3-89007-140-6.
• Grim, William (1988). Max Reger: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-25311-0.

Sources

• Geocities

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Max Reger

• The Max Reger Foundation of America^®, New York City- "Helping Musicians Fulfill Their Dreams and Goals"
• Max-Reger-Institut, Karlsruhe, Germany
• Piano recital without Pianist or Max Reger plays Max Reger
• Max Reger at Find A Grave

Recordings

• Max Reger String Trio No.1 sound-bite and short bio
• Performances of organ works by Max Reger in MP3 and MIDI formats at Logos Virtual Library

Music scores

• Free scores by Max Reger in the International Music Score Library Project
• Max Reger free scores in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)