Hans Gál facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Hans Gàl
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Gál, c. 1913–1916
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| Born | 5 August 1890 |
| Died | 3 October 1987 (aged 97) |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Occupation | Composer, pedagogue, musicologist, author |
Hans Gál (born August 5, 1890 – died October 3, 1987) was an Austrian composer, teacher, music expert, and writer. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1938. He was also awarded the OBE, a special honor from Britain.
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The Life of Hans Gál
Hans Gál was born into a Jewish family in a small village called Brunn am Gebirge, near Vienna, Austria. His father, Josef Gál, was a doctor.
When Hans was 19, his piano teacher, Richard Robert, made him a teacher at the New Vienna Conservatory. From 1909 to 1913, Gál studied music history at the University of Vienna. He learned from a famous music historian named Guido Adler. Gál even wrote his doctoral paper about the early style of the composer Beethoven.
From 1909 to 1911, Gál also studied how to compose music with Eusebius Mandyczewski. Mandyczewski was a close friend of the famous composer Johannes Brahms. Later, Gál and Mandyczewski worked together to edit ten books of Brahms's complete musical works.
In 1915, Gál won the first Austrian State Prize for Composition for his first symphony. However, he later decided not to keep this work or many others he wrote around that time. During World War I, he served in the army in different countries. When he returned, he had finished an opera called Der Arzt der Sobeide. This opera was performed in Breslau (now Wrocław) in 1919.
After World War I, life in Austria was very hard because of high inflation. Gál became a music theory teacher at the University of Vienna. Even with money problems, he married Hanna Schick. His second opera, Die heilige Ente (The Sacred Duck), was first performed in Düsseldorf in 1923. It was very popular and played in 20 different theaters. This opera, along with his third opera, Das Lied der Nacht (The Song of the Night), made him widely known.
In 1928, he won a special prize for his Sinfonietta, which he later renamed his First Symphony. The next year, with support from famous musicians like Wilhelm Furtwängler and Richard Strauss, he became the director of the Mainz Conservatory. The next three years were some of the happiest and most creative of his life.
Life During World War II
When the Nazis came to power in Germany, Hans Gál's career in Mainz ended suddenly. Because he was Jewish, he was fired from his job in March 1933. His music was also banned from being performed or published in Germany. His fourth opera, Die beiden Klaas, was supposed to be performed in two cities, but it was canceled. It wasn't performed until 1990 in England.
Gál and his family returned to Vienna, but the Nazis' influence was growing there too. He could not find a steady job.
In 1938, after Germany took over Austria, Gál quickly left for London. He planned to move to the United States, but he stayed in Britain. There, he met a musician named Donald Tovey, who invited him to Edinburgh, Scotland. Tovey taught at the university there. Although there were no full-time professor jobs, Tovey found him some work in late 1938. When World War II started in 1939, the Gál family moved to Edinburgh for good.
In 1940, because he was from an enemy country (Austria, which was part of Germany), he was held in special camps for a few months. These were in Huyton, near Liverpool, and on the Isle of Man.
After his release, he went back to Edinburgh and lived there for the rest of his life. He kept composing music, and his Second Symphony was published in 1942. In 1945, he became a music education lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. He taught there until he retired in 1960.
In Edinburgh, he was a respected part of the music community. He even helped start the Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. He received many honors later in his life, including the Grand Austrian State Prize for Music in 1957. He was also made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1964.
Hans Gál passed away in Edinburgh in October 1987, at the age of 97.
Hans Gál's Music Style
Gál's music style came from the traditional music of Austria and Germany. But from the early 1920s, he created his own unique sound. He stuck to this style throughout his long career. He never followed popular music trends and always believed that tonality (music having a clear home key) was important.
His music doesn't sound exactly like any one composer. However, it shares qualities with 18th-century Viennese composers. These include clear melodies, smooth sounds, and a playful, lighthearted feel. His works mix strong feelings with emotional control. They use rich harmonies and expanded keys, but also have a love for melody like Franz Schubert. His music also has many layers of sound, showing his lifelong study of J. S. Bach's works.
Gál wrote a lot of music. He created over 150 published works in almost every type of music. This includes four operas, four symphonies, four string quartets, and many other pieces for orchestra, chamber groups, piano, and voices.
Music in the 21st Century
In the early 2000s, people started to become interested in Gál's music again. Many of his works have been recorded, including all four symphonies and his piano music. His string trios, concertos, and string quartets have also been recorded. Recently, his opera Das Lied der Nacht was recorded for the first time.
BBC Radio 3 featured Hans Gál as their "Composer of the Week" in May 2014.
Since 2016, the Exilarte Center in Vienna has kept all of Gál's musical works. They also have his letters and other writings.
Books by Hans Gál
- Directions for Score Reading. London, 1924.
- The Golden Age of Vienna. London: Parish, 1948.
- Brahms: his Work and Personality. New York: Knopf, 1963.
- Richard Wagner. London: Gollancz, 1976.
- The Musician's World. Great Musicians in their Letters. London: Thames & Hudson, 1965.
- Franz Schubert and the Essence of Melody. London: Gollancz, 1974.
- Music behind Barbed Wire (Hans Gál's diary from when he was held in a camp in 1940). Bern: Peter Lang, 2003.
Selected Musical Works
Operas
- Op. 4 Der Arzt der Sobeide (Sobeide's Doctor) (1917–18)
- Op. 15 Die heilige Ente (The Sacred Duck) (1920–1)
- Op. 23 Das Lied der Nacht (The Song of the Night) (1924–5)
- Op. 42 Die beiden Klaas (Rich Claus, Poor Claus) (1932–3)
Orchestral Works
- Op. 30 Symphony No. 1 in D major (1927)
- Op. 45 A Pickwickian Overture (1939–44)
- Op. 46 Serenade for string orchestra (1937)
- Op. 53 Symphony No. 2 in F major (1942–3)
- Op. 62 Symphony No. 3 in A major (1951–2)
- Op. 105 Symphony No. 4, sinfonia concertante for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and orchestra (1974)
Concertos
- Op. 39 Concerto for Violin and small orchestra (1932)
- Op. 43 Concertino for Piano and string orchestra (1934)
- Op. 57 Concerto for Piano and orchestra (1948)
- Op. 67 Concerto for Cello and orchestra (1944–49)
Chamber Music
- Op. 16 String Quartet I in F minor (1916)
- Op. 35 String Quartet II in A minor (1929)
- Op. 41 Serenade for Violin, Viola and Cello (1932)
- Op. 95 String Quartet III (1969)
- Op. 99 String Quartet IV (1970)
- Op. 107 Quintet for clarinet and string quartet (1977)
Keyboard Works
- Op. 28 Sonata for piano (1927)
- Op. 83 Twenty-four Preludes for piano (1960)
- Op. 108 Twenty-four Fugues for piano (1979–80)
Recordings of Hans Gál's Music
Since the early 2000s, many of Gál's musical pieces have been recorded. These recordings include his four symphonies, concertos, and chamber music.
Some Recordings Include
- 24 Preludes for Piano op. 83, by Aladár Rácz.
- Complete String Quartets by the Edinburgh Quartet.
- Complete Works for Solo Piano by Leon McCawley.
- Hans Gál & Edward Elgar: Cello Concertos (Gál: Cello Concerto, op. 67) with Antônio Meneses on cello.
- Hans Gál & Robert Schumann (Gál: Symphony No. 1, op. 30) with the Orchestra of the Swan.
- Hans Gál & Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Gál Concerto for Piano and Orchestra op. 57) with Sarah Beth Briggs on piano.
- Music for Cello (Sonata for Solo Cello op. 109a; Suite for Solo Cello op. 109b; Sonata for Cello and Piano op. 89) by Alfia Nakipbekova.
- Violin Concerto, Violin Concertino, Triptych for Orchestra (Gál: Concerto for violin & small orchestra, op. 39) with Annette-Barbara Vogel on violin.
