Sekles, Bernhard

Bernhard Sekles – Kleine Suite für Orchester, op. 21

(b. Frankfurt, 20 March or 20 June 1872 – d. Frankfurt, 8 December 1934)

Scherzando, ma non troppo presto p.3
Menuetto p.22
Intermezzo p.32
Allegretto p.45

Largely forgotten today, Bernhard Sekles was one of the most well-known musicians and music teachers in Germany of his time, as well as an influential music administrator. His students included composers and musicians such as Paul Hindemith, Erich Itor Kahn and the would-be Frankfurt School philosopher Theodor W. Adorno. In addition to his achievements as a composer, conductor, and music educator, Sekles was also an early promotor of jazz music in Germany of the 1920s, a fact that made him controversial among adherents of the German folk ideologies arising at the time.

Relatively little is known about Sekles’ life, but the following has been established by scholars (Rectanus, 2016; Massar, 2009; Tschiedel, 2005). He was born in 1872 and attended the school of the Frankfurt Jewish Community. He received his musical education between 1888 and 1893 at the Hoch Conservatory (in German: Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium) in Frankfurt, where his primary teachers included Lazzaro Uzielli (piano) and Iwan Knorr (composition). Sekles also took orchestration classes with Engelbert Humperdinck who may have influenced his interest in tales as musical themes.

Sekles’ first jobs as a conductor and music director were at the State Opera houses in Heidelberg and Mainz (1893-1894 and 1894-1895, respectively). In 1896, he moved back to Frankfurt to become a lecturer in music theory at his alma mater. He pursued subsequent professional positions there, rising to the rank of the conservatory’s director over time by the mid-1920s.

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