Sekles, Bernhard

Preface

Sekles, Bernhard

String Quartet Op. 31 (Parts)

I Andantino intimo
II Quasi marcia funebre
III Presto
IV Menuetto in forma antica
V Allegro comodo

Passacaglia und Fuge im vierfachen Kontrapunkt, op. 23

I Passacaglia. Sehr ruhig, aber nicht schleppend
II Fuge. Mäßig bewegt

Preface
Today one encounters the name of Bernhard Sekles on the very fringes of German musical history in the years between the two World Wars, and above all as a pedagogue. From 1896 until he was forced out by the Nazis in 1933, he was a teacher at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, where he had himself been a student: His teachers included Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921) in orchestration, and Iwan Knorr (1853-1916) in composition. With the exception of two years’ worth of conducting activity in Heidelberg (1893-94) and Mainz (1894-95), he remained true to his home town his entire life. In 1906 he was given a composition studio, and among his most famous students were Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), Rudi Stephan (1887-1915), Hans Rosbaud (1895-1962) and Erich Itor Kahn (1905-1956). To these one should also add Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969), who studied with Sekles privately. The notes and subsequent recollections of his students yield a picture of Sekles as someone who knew how to express himself precisely, and who demanded precision, above all in technical matters, from his students as well; behind a somewhat ironic façade he was also, however, a helpful and concerned mentor, decidedly open to the progressive tendencies of his time. One of music history’s small ironies is that the young Hindemith, spoiled by the indulgent attitude and “just compose” pedagogical style of his former composition teacher Arnold Mendelssohn (1855-1933), complained about the technical strictness of his new teacher — only to become, once he himself was a teacher, famous and notorious for his own strictness.

For more information on the piece:

Read the preface to the full score / das Vorwort zur Partitur lesen > HERE