Reuss, August

August Reuss – Zwei Melodramen

(b. Znaim [now Znojmo, Czech Republic], 6 March 1871 – d. Munich, 18 June 1935)

Preface
August Reuss was born in March of 1871, in Liliendorf, Moravia. His father worked as a contractor for a railway company’ however, he had a strong interest in the arts, especially music, because his father was an organ player and teacher. Reuss went to school in Ingolstadt and high school in Augsburg, also joining his father at work. Due to his father’s early death, Reuss was forced to take his role in the company. In his spare time, Reuss was still very dedicated to the arts, developing a love for painting and poetry. He also studied music as a self-taught composer in the hopes that he might be able to fulfill his desires of composing and making a life out of music.

In the year 1899, Reuss began studying music, he met Ludwig Thuille. Thuille succeeded his own professor, Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger, as the professor of piano and harmony at the Royal Music School of Munich. He was one of the most respected and appreciated teachers during that time. In his studio, he had Ernest Bloch and Walter Courvoisier as students, as well as others who would become professional composers in their own right. Even though Reuss proved himself to be a very qualified musician, his career did not reflect this.

Shortly after finishing school, Reuss worked as Kapellmeister (conductor) in Magdeburg and Augsburg, but had to stop the activity because of illness. Reuss never gave up, however, and received some recognition by being nominated a member of the Akademie der Tonkünste for his compositional activity. Furthermore, in 1927, the violinist, composer, and teacher Jakob Trapp founded a private music school in Munich. Five years later, in 1932, his school became a conservatory, the Trapp’sches Konservatorium der Musik. Trapp’s teacher had been Reuss’s fellow student, Walter Courvoisier. Because of that connection, Trapp was happy to have his expertise in the area and Reuss began teaching composition at the conservatory until his death in 1935. …

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