Ernst Hermann Meyer

Encyclopedia : E : ER : ERN : Ernst Hermann Meyer

Ernst Hermann Ludimar Meyer (December 8, 1905 – October 8, 1988) was a German composer and musicologist.

Meyer was a significant composer and musicologist, his works include numerous songs, as well as chamber music, two sinfonies and other works for orchestra, an opera and an oratorio. He has written numerous musicological articles, and an important book on English chamber music.

Contents

1 Biography
2 Works

2.1 Music
2.2 Books

Biography

Ernst Meyer was born on December 8th 1905 in Berlin. He received his first piano lessons at the age of six, and started composing at the age of eleven. After finishing school he worked as an apprentice at a bank, and in 1926 he started studying music at Heidelberg University, where he completed his PhD on the 17th century chamber music of North German composers in 1930. He became a pupil of Hanns Eisler. To avoid detention by the NSDAP he emigrated to the UK in 1933, where he became a close friend of Alan Bush one year later. In the UK he researched English chamber music of the 17th century and lectured for the Workers Educational Association. In 1939 He started lecturing at Bedford College, London, and in 1945 he was given a guest professorship at King's College, Cambridge. He returned to the GDR in 1948 and became one of the most influential figures of music culture in the GDR. E.H.Meyer was head of the German Society of Composers and Musicologists, professor of musicology at the Berlin Humboldt University, chairman of the German Handel Society and founder of the annual Handel festival, which is still celebrated in Halle, Germany.

Works

Music

In addition to over 300 songs, and other orchestral and vocal works:

Symphony for Strings (1947)
Mansfeld Oratorio (1950)
String Quartett in G Nr. 1 (1956)
String Quartett Nr. 2 (1959)
Symphony in B flat (1967)
String Quartett Nr. 3 (1967)
Concerto for Harp and Chamber Orchestra (1968)
Leinefelder Divertimento (1969)
Toccata for Orchestra (1971)
Reiter der Nacht (Opera, 1972)

Books

In addition to a large amount of papers and essays:

"Die mehrstimmigie Spielmusik des 17. Jahrhunderts in Nord- und Mitteleuropa", Heidelberg 1930
"English Chamber Music", London 1951

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.