Karl Marx (composer)

Karl Julius Marx (12 November 1897 – 8 May 1985) was a German composer and music teacher.

Karl Marx was born in Munich, the son of Josef Marx and his wife Emilie, née Eheberg.^[1] After early violin and piano lessons, Marx first studied natural sciences at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich in 1916. His encounter with Carl Orff, with whom he took private composition lessons after World War I, was decisive in determining his choice to turn to music professionally. From 1920 to 1922, Marx studied composition with Anton Beer-Walbrunn and conducting with Eberhard Schwickerath [de] and Siegmund von Hausegger at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich. From 1924 to 1935, Marx was solo repetiteur in Felix von Kraus's singing class. From 1935 to 1939, he led his own interpretation class for lieder and oratorio singers at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Munich, where he also taught harmony and form theory from 1929 to 1939. From 1928 to 1939, he conducted the choir of the Munich Bachverein (until 1931 together with Edwin Fischer and until 1933 with Carl Orff). During this time, his first settings of texts by Rainer Maria Rilke were composed, and Marx had his first great success with Rilke's motet Werkleute sind wir, Op. 6 at the Tonkünstlerfest 1928 in Schwerin and at the festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music 1929 in Geneva. Subsequently, his works were performed by leading interpreters, including the Piano Concerto, Op. 9 by Edwin Fischer under Eugen Jochum, the Viola Concerto, Op. 10 in Berlin under Hermann Scherchen, and the Passacaglia, Op. 19 by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Wilhelm Furtwängler.

In 1932, Marx was awarded the music prize of the city of Munich. After 1933, he was exposed to defamation by the Nazi press and his name gradually disappeared from concert programs. Since he did not belong to the Nazi Party, he had no further professional future to expect at the Academy of Music. He accepted a call to the newly founded Hochschule für Musikerziehung (music education) in Graz, where he taught theory of form and composition from 1940 to 1945.

The compositional focus increasingly shifted to choir and lay music, including the Rilke cantata to words from the Stundenbuch, Op. 43, 1942. One of Marx's most famous songs is Jeden Morgen geht die Sonne auf to the words of Hermann Claudius [de].

The assertions made by Michael Hans Kater in his controversial book The Twisted Muse^[2] about Marx's alleged Nazi past are disputed by others.^[3]

From 1946 to 1966, Marx taught harmony, counterpoint and composition at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart and from 1955 as head of the department for school music. The cantata Und endet doch alles mit Frieden to words from the novel Hyperion by Friedrich Hölderlin for soloists, choir and orchestra, Op. 52, was premiered in 1953. Marx was appointed to the German Music Council in 1954 (honorary council in 1977). In 1963, he was guest of honour of the German Academy Villa Massimo in Rome for three months. In 1966, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class. Marx died in 1985 in Stuttgart at the age of 87.

Marx names two traits that characterise his music: thrift in the use of means and constructive thinking, and continues: "Next to this is the commitment to melody, which is influenced by the handling of the folk song as well as by the encounter with pre-classical polyphony". This characterizes a style which, always based on vocal line, conveys a very independent sound image through its high transparency. This in turn corresponds to the texts that Marx chooses for his vocal compositions. He prefers poets such as Rilke and Hölderlin, who possess a high level of linguistic musicality which he sensitively traces on the one hand and whose expressiveness is redesigned with musical means on the other.^{[citation needed]}

• Art. Marx, Karl Julius, in: Kürschners Deutscher Musiker-Kalender 1954. Walter de Gruyter & Co, Berlin 1954, Sp. 797-799.
• Saalfeld, Ralf von: Karl Marx, sein Schaffen und seine Bedeutung (his work and its meaning). Zeitschrift für Musik, Regensburg, 98th year, issue 5, May 1931.
• Strobel, Heinrich: Die neue Münchener Schule (Junge Musik V), Berliner Börsenzeitung of August 2, 1932.
• Blumberger, Leonhard: Begegnung mit Karl Marx (Encounter with Karl Marx). Dortmunder Zeitung of February 2 and 9, 1936.
• Blumberger, Leonhard: Karl Marx. Zeitschrift für Hausmusik, Vol. 6, Issue 1, January/February 1937.
• Schmidt-Garre, Helmut: Der Komponist Karl Marx (The composer Karl Marx). Die Musikwoche, Berlin, Vol. 5, No. 29, dated July 17, 1937.
• Schmidt-Garre, Helmut: Zeitgenössische Instrumentalkonzerte (darin Besprechung des Klavier- und des Violinkonzertes). (Contemporary instrumental concertos (including reviews of the piano and violin concertos). Allgemeine Musikzeitung, 65th year, Leipzig, dated 7 January 1938.
• Scholz, Horst-Günther: Das Chorschaffen von Karl Marx (The Choir work of Karl Marx). Die Musikpflege, Leipzig, Vol. 9, Issue 12, March 1939.
• Blumberger, Leonhard: Rundfunk-Echo (in it detailed review of the "Vier Gesänge vom Tage", op. 25). Newspaper from 5/6 August 1939.
• Schmidt-Garre, Helmut: Karl Marx. (in: Musiker unserer Tage). Allgemeine Musikzeitung, Leipzig, Vol. 66, No. 34 of 25 August 1939.
• Oehlmann, Werner: Wandel der Innerlichkeit (in it "Vier Gesänge vom Tage", op. 25, mentioned and discussed). The Reich, Berlin, December 3, 1940.
• Bollert, Werner: Karl Marx, der Fünfzigjährige (the fifty-year-old). Musica, Kassel 1948, issue 5.
• Schweitzer, Gottfried: Karl Marx (Zeitgenössische Chorkomponisten) (Contemporary Choir Composers) Der Chor, VIII, August 1951
• Wöhler, Willi: Karl Marx – Abriß eines Lebens und Schaffens (Abstraction of a life and work). Salve Hospes – Braunschweiger Blätter für Kunst und Kultur, 1st Vol., Issue 8, October 1951, of which reprints in: Festblätter zum 14. Deutschen Sängerbundesfest in Stuttgart 1956, Issue 4, January 1956 (Schwäbische Tonsetzer der Gegenwart, III. Karl Marx) and: Wiesbadener Tagblatt, August 1956("Und endet doch alles mit Frieden").
• Oberborbeck, Felix: Karl Marx. Hausmusik, Kassel 1957, Issue 4/5.
• Sydow, Kurt: Karl Marx 60 years. Musik im Unterricht, Mainz, November 1957.
• Honolka, Kurt: Karl Marx 60 years. Musica, Kassel 1957, issue 11. Kautzsch, Christof: Hausmusik bei Karl Marx. "Singt und spielt, Schweizer Blätter für Volkslied und Hausmusik, Zurich, Vol. 25, Issue 1, January 1958, reprint of which in: Hausmusik, Kassel 1958, Issue 2.
• Metzger, Hans-Arnold: Das geistliche Vokalwerk von Karl Marx (The sacred vocal work by Karl Marx). Württembergische Blätter für Kirchenmusik, Waiblingen, 25th year, No. 1, January/February 1958.
• Karkoschka, Erhard (Ed.): Festschrift Karl Marx, Stuttgart 1967, in which among other things: Willi Wöhler, Karl Marx – outline of his life and work; Josef Friedrich Doppelbauer, Die a cappella-Chorwerke; Martin Gümbel, Marginalien zur Hölderlinkantate opus 52; Erhard Karkoschka, Neue Methoden der musikalischen Analyse und einigen Anwendungen auf späte Instrumentalwerke von Karl Marx; Rainer Zillhardt, Das Trio für Klavier, Flöte und Violoncello opus 61; Willi Wöhler, Anmerkungen zur Instrumentation Marxscher Orchesterwerke; Heinrich Deppert, Karl Marx' essays, lectures and analyses; Willi Wöhler, Karl Marx und seine Dichter; catalogue of works.
• Karkoschka, Erhard: Über späte Instrumentalwerke von Karl Marx (On late instrumental works by Karl Marx), Musica 26, Kassel 1972, pp. 542 ff Gudrun Straub, Günther Weiß, Josef Friedrich Doppelbauer: Karl Marx, Komponisten in Bayern (Composers in Bavaria), Volume 3; in which among others: G. Straub, Life and Work of Karl Marx, G. Weiß, Conversation with Karl Marx, J. F. Doppelbauer, The Works of Karl Marx, Catalogue of Works and Discography (pp. 133–152). Tutzing 1983. ISBN 3-7952-0403-8.
• Fellmann, Berthold: Marx, Karl. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4, pp. 344–346 (digital edition).
• Rottensteiner, Gudrun: Art. Karl Marx, in Komponisten der Gegenwart
• Riemann 3, p. 303; Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart 11, p. 1239; 16, p. 17

• Letters by Karl Marx, in the collection of the Leipzig music publisher C. F. Peters in the State Archive Leipzig
• Analyse der Klaviersonate B-Dur (KV 333) von W. A. Mozart (Analysis of the Piano Sonata B-flat major, K. 333 by W. A. Mozart), Stuttgart 1966.
• Zur Einheit der zyklischen Form bei Mozart, Stuttgart 1971, with 134 examples of music. Neue Musik – Ausdruck unserer Zeit (New music – expression of our time). Hausmusik, Vol. 13, 1949, pp. 29–38.
• Der Neue Liedsatz (The New Song). Hausmusik, Vol. 15, 1951, pp. 117–125.
• Einführung in ein zeitgenössisches symphonisches Werk: Béla Bartók, Musik für Saiteninstrumente, Schlagzeug und Celesta (Introduction to a contemporary symphonic work: Béla Bartók, music for string instruments, percussion and celesta). . Musikerziehung in der Schule, Mainz 1965, pp. 216–232.
• Schulmusik zwischen Kunst und Wissenschaft (School music between art and science). Musica, vol. 12, 1958, p. 511-514.
• Grenzen des Verständnisses und der Ausführbarkeit in den Bereichen der Gebrauchsmusik (Limits of understanding and practicability in the field of commercial music). Hausmusik, 24th year 1960, pp. 116–124.
• Kassel Music Festival. Hausmusik, 25th year 1961, pp. 169–179.
• Über die zyklische Sonatensatzform, zu dem Aufsatz von Günther von Noé (On the cyclic sonata form, to the essay by Günther von Noé). Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, 125th year 1964, pp. 142–146.
• Einige Anmerkungen zu Schuberts Forellenquintett und Oktett (Some notes on Schubert's trout quintet and octet). Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, 132nd year 1971, pp. 588–592.
• Über thematische Beziehungen in Haydns Londoner Symphonien (On thematic relations in Haydn's London symphonies). Haydn-Studien, vol. IV, 1976, pp. 1–20.
• Der musikalische Schaffensprozeß (The musical creative process). Schwäbische Sängerzeitung, Vol. 31, 1982, pp. 256–260.