Kurt Hessenberg was born on 17 August 1908 in Frankfurt, as the fourth and last child of the lawyer Eduard Hessenberg and his wife Emma, née Kugler. Among his ancestors was Heinrich Hoffmann, whose famous children's book Struwwelpeter Hessenberg was to arrange for children's choir (op. 49) later in his life. From 1927–1931 Hessenberg studied at the Leipzig Conservatory. Among his teachers were Günter Raphael (composition) and Robert Teichmüller (piano). In 1933 Hessenberg became a teacher at the Hoch'sche Konservatorium in Frankfurt am Main, where he himself had taken his earliest music lessons. In 1940 Hessenberg received the "Nationaler Kompositionspreis" (national prize for composition), joined the NSDAP in 1942,[1] and in 1951 he was awarded the Robert-Schumann-Prize of the city of Düsseldorf for his cantata "Vom Wesen und Vergehen" op. 45. Hessenberg was appointed professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in 1953 and taught there until his retirement in 1973. Kurt Hessenberg died in Frankfurt am Main on 17 June 1994.[2]
Hessenberg's work contributed significantly to the repertoire of the Protestant churches in the 20th century. Among his most noted students were Peter Cahn, Margaret Vardell Sandresky,[3] and Hans Zender.
Notes
^Ernst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 242.
^Biographical information is taken from the "Brief Autobiography", which Hessenberg himself wrote in the late 1980s (Hessenberg 1990a). Information on awards and prizes, Hessenberg's career, as well as the date of death are taken from Kirchberg 2001.
^Cohen, Aaron I. (1987). International encyclopedia of women composers. 2: Sai - Zyb, Appendices (2. ed., revised and enl ed.). New York: Books & Music. p. 615. ISBN978-0-9617485-1-7.
References
Kirchberg, Klaus (2001), "Hessenberg, Kurt", in Sadie, Stanley (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 11 (2nd ed.), London: Macmillan, pp. 464–465.
Hessenberg, Kurt (1990a), "Kleine Selbstbiographie", in Cahn, Peter (ed.), Kurt Hessenberg: Beiträge zu Leben und Werk, Mainz: Schott, pp. 9–33. (English translation accessible online: "A Brief Autobiography". Cassandra Records. Archived from the original on 2017-02-01. Retrieved 2008-02-27.)
Further reading
Catalogues of Hessenberg's works
Hessenberg, Kurt (1968), Werkverzeichnis, Mainz: Schott
Hessenberg, Kurt (1990b), "Werkverzeichnis Kurt Hessenberg", in Cahn, Peter (ed.), Kurt Hessenberg: Beiträge zu Leben und Werk, Mainz: Schott, pp. 119–161
Further reading
Albrecht, Christoph (1969), ""… weil ich die Möglichkeiten der Tonalität noch nicht für erschöpft halte": Kurt Hessenberg (geboren 17.8.1908)", in von Brück, Ulrich (ed.), Credo musicale: Komponistenportraits aus der Arbeit des Dresdener Kreuzchores. Festgabe zum 80. Geburtstag des Nationalpreisträgers Kreuzkantor Professor D. Dr. h. c. Rudolf Mauersberger, Kassel; Basel: Bärenreiter, pp. 165–175
Cahn, Peter, ed. (1990), Kurt Hessenberg: Beiträge zu Leben und Werk, Mainz: Schott.
Hensley, Robin Elmore (1992), The Solo Organ Works of Kurt Hessenberg, Ann Arbor, MI: UMI (Diss., University of Georgia, Athens, 1992)
Laux, Karl (1949), "Kurt Hessenberg", Musik und Musiker der Gegenwart, vol. 1: Deutschland, Essen: Spael, pp. 117–126
Mohrs, Rainer (2002), "Hessenberg, Kurt", in Finscher, Ludwig (ed.), Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol. 8 (Personenteil), Kassel / Stuttgart; Weimar: Bärenreiter / Metzler, pp. 1484–1486
Riemer, Otto (1953), "Unausgeschöpfte Tonalität: Gedanken zum Schaffen von Kurt Hessenberg", Musica, 7: 56–60.
Thomson, Virgil (1946) "German Composers", New York Herald Tribune, October 13, 1946. Reprinted in Thomson, Virgil (1981), A Virgil Thomson Reader, Boston, MS: Houghton Mifflin, pp. 284–287
External links
www.kurthessenberg.de – Website dedicated to Kurt Hessenberg. Contains biography, bibliography, discography and a few links. (German)
