Ernst Heinrich Krenek was an Austrian composer who later became an American citizen. He was born on August 23, 1900, and died on December 22, 1991. Krenek studied and used atonality and other modern musical styles in his work. He wrote several books, including Music Here and Now (1939), a book about Johannes Ockeghem (1953), and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music (1974). Krenek also composed two pieces under the name Thornton Winsloe.

Life

Born Ernst Heinrich Křenek in Vienna (then part of Austria-Hungary), he was the son of a Czech soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army. He studied in Vienna and Berlin with Franz Schreker before working as a conductor in several German opera houses. During World War I, Krenek was drafted into the Austrian army but remained stationed in Vienna, allowing him to continue his musical studies. In 1922, he met Alma Mahler, the widow of Gustav Mahler, and her daughter, Anna, to whom he dedicated his Symphony No. 2. He married Anna in January 1924, but the marriage ended in divorce before its first anniversary.

At the time of his marriage to Anna Mahler, Krenek was completing his Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 29. The Australian violinist Alma Moodie helped Krenek by securing financial support from her Swiss patron, Werner Reinhart, during a period of extreme inflation in Germany. In gratitude, Krenek dedicated the concerto to Moodie. She premiered it on January 5, 1925, in Dessau. Krenek’s divorce from Anna Mahler was finalized shortly after the premiere. Krenek did not attend the premiere but had a brief and complicated relationship with Moodie. He never heard her perform the concerto but included aspects of her personality in the character of Anita in his opera Jonny spielt auf.

This "jazz opera," completed in 1926, became very popular across Europe and made Krenek well-known for several years. A brand of cigarettes named "Jonny" still exists in Austria today. Krenek later felt uncomfortable with this success because his musical peers criticized the commercial use of his music. Soon after, he changed the direction of his compositions.

The jazz-influenced score of Jonny spielt auf and its central character, a Black jazz musician who is also portrayed as womanizing and stealing a valuable violin, drew criticism from the early Nazi Party. The character of Jonny was used in a poster for the 1938 "Degenerate Music" exhibition. Krenek was often incorrectly labeled as a Jewish composer during the Third Reich, though he was not Jewish. He faced intimidation from the regime until he left Austria. On March 6, 1933, one day after the last free election in Germany, Krenek’s incidental music for Goethe’s Triumph der Empfindsamkeit was removed from performance in Mannheim. Later, the Vienna State Opera canceled the planned premiere of Karl V.

In 1938, Krenek moved to the United States, where he taught music at Vassar College. He later taught at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, from 1942 to 1947. There, he married his third wife, Gladys Nordenstrom, who was his student at the time. He became an American citizen in 1945. Krenek later moved to Toronto, Canada, where he taught at The Royal Conservatory of Music in the 1950s. His students included Milton Barnes, Lorne Betts, Roque Cordero, Samuel Dolin, Robert Erickson, Halim El-Dabh, Richard Maxfield, Will Ogdon, George Perle, Virginia Seay, and Hsiung-Zee Wong. He later lived in Tujunga and then in Palm Springs, California, where he died in 1991 at the age of 91. He was buried in Vienna Central Cemetery. In 1998, Gladys Nordenstrom founded the Ernst Krenek Institute. In 2004, the institute moved from Vienna to Krems an der Donau, Austria.

Completions of other composers' unfinished works

In 1922, after meeting Krenek, Alma Mahler asked him to finish her late husband's Symphony No. 10. Krenek helped edit the first and third movements but did not complete the rest. A more successful project was Krenek's work on a request from his friend Eduard Erdmann, a pianist and composer, who wanted to add Schubert's Reliquie piano sonata to his performances. Erdmann needed help completing the incomplete third and fourth movements of the sonata. Krenek's completion was recorded as happening in 1921 by some sources, but he remembered it as occurring in 1922. Later, other musicians, including Webster Aitken, Ray Lev, Friedrich Wührer, and more recently Stanislav Khristenko, performed or recorded Krenek's version.

In notes for a 1947 recording by Ray Lev, Krenek explained the challenges of completing works by other composers. He used an example to show that while someone who studies Rembrandt's style carefully might be able to finish a painting missing one or two corners, they could not create two entirely missing paintings from a set of four. Such an attempt would result in "more or less successful fakes." Krenek then used a musical example, noting that Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony was left with only two of its four movements written. He said that while it might be possible to write additional movements in Schubert's style, the result would not truly be Schubert's work.

Musical style

Krenek's music included many different styles and showed important musical influences from the 20th century. His early music was in a late Romantic style, influenced by his teacher Franz Schreker. Around 1920, he began using atonality, inspired by Ernst Kurth’s textbook, Grundlagen des linearen Kontrapunkts, and ideas from composers like Busoni, Schnabel, Erdmann, and Scherchen.

A visit to Paris introduced him to Igor Stravinsky’s work, especially Pulcinella, and the group Les Six. This experience led him to adopt a neo-classical style around 1924. Soon after, he turned to neoromanticism and included jazz in his opera Jonny spielt auf (1926) and one-act opera Schwerewicht (1928). Other neoromantic works from this time were inspired by Franz Schubert, such as Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen (1929).

In the late 1920s, Krenek stopped using neoromanticism and began using Arnold Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique. This method was used in his opera Karl V (1931–33) and many later works. His most strict use of the twelve-tone technique was in his Sixth String Quartet (1936) and Piano Variations (1937). In Lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae (1941–42), Krenek combined twelve-tone writing with Renaissance-style modal counterpoint. He used musical ideas from his student Virginia Seay in works like Hurricane Variations for Piano, opus 100 (1944) and Tricks and Trifles (1945).

In 1955, Krenek worked at the Electronic Music Studio in Cologne, which inspired him to develop a total serial style. Starting around 1960, he added elements of aleatoric music to his serial approach, as seen in works like Horizon Circled (1967), From Three Make Seven (1960–61), and Fibonacci-Mobile (1964).

In his later years, Krenek’s style became more relaxed, but he continued to use elements of both twelve-tone and total serial techniques.

Decorations and awards

• 1951: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1955: City of Vienna Prize for Music
• 1960: Grand Silver Honor Decoration (Grosses Silbernes Ehrenzeichen)
• 1960: Gold Medal from the City of Vienna
• 1963: Grand Austrian State Prize for Music
• 1965: Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Großes Verdienstkreuz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
• 1966: Bach Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
• 1970: Honorary Ring of Vienna
• 1975: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
• 1978: Goethe Medal of Hesse
• 1980: Honorary Citizen of the City of Vienna
• 1984: Honorary Citizen of the City of New Orleans
• 1990: Grand Decoration of Salzburg

On Krenek's 85th birthday, the City of Vienna established the Ernst Krenek Prize.

• 1944: Hamline University, St. Paul
• 1953: Chapman College, Los Angeles
• 1965: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
• 1976: New England Conservatory, Boston
• 1977: Philadelphia Musical Academy, Philadelphia