From: judd@wilkinson.cs.colorado.edu (Stephen Judd)
Subject: Re: Anyone heard of Huenter Kradaken?
Organization: Universtiy of Coloardo, Boulder
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 16:34:04 GMT

Is this for real?!?

In article <mjenkins.726241604@cunews> mjenkins@alfred.carleton.ca (Michael Jenkinson) writes:
>In <1993Jan5.105804.6014@ericsson.se> etlanar@yogi.ericsson.se (Alan Arthur) writes:
>
>>In article <1993Jan5.062622.19032@cheshire.oxy.edu> dementia@cheshire.oxy.edu (Daniel Steven Reinker) writes:
>>>Has anyone heard of this very obscure composer? I have heard his
>>>third symphony, which is also called "St. Peter and the Four Dragons"
>>>and would like to know if he has done anything else. (Assumedly
>>>he has done at least two more symphonies, but despite searching I
>>>have yet to find anything.)
>
>>If it is the composer that I am thinking of, he worked in Moscow, but was not from
>>there originally (not sure of birthplace, can anyone trace the name?) He died in the
>>late 1930's, and I believe he wrote seven symphonys, although there has been talk of 
>
>I think he was born in Vienna, but I could be mistaken. And if I'm not
>mistaken, he died in the 1941 during the war.
>
>Sorry, that's all I know.

I must admit to being a bit surprised that you are actually familiar with
the works of Huenter Kradaken!

Once while traveling through Bergen, Holland, I came across one of the
Kradaken quartets.  I found it in a very little shop whose name I don't
remember, but it looked interesting, so I puchased it.  I have performed
it on occasion, but while unique it is simply not that popular nor good.

The owner of the shop actually remembered Kradaken.  He was thin and gaunt
by the time he reached Holland, with silver spectacles and thick eyebrows.

I believe he was born near Vienna but not actually in Vienna, in the late
1880's.  When he was very young his parents moved to St. Petersberg, and he
received his musical training somewhere in Moscow.  This more traditional
Russian training may be heard throughout his music, and is reminiscent of
Mussourgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.  There were two symphonies and several
other chamber works composed at this time that I am aware of.

He left Moscow during the revolution and decided to move to Vienna, to
experience his (very nearly) birthplace.  When the Nazi's came into
power, he moved to the Netherlands.  He became very ill during the Nazi
occupation of the Netherlands, and died very soon after.

There are only a total of four symphonies that I am aware of.  I have no
idea where the 'seven' number above came from.  To me the second symphony
is the most interesting - it is called the "Trident", for its clever use
of tritones.

Another interesting work is the trio for piano, viola, and cello.  Each
movement begins on the dominant seventh of the last key of the last
movement, with the first movement beginning on a seventh in the key of
E-flat major, the ending chord of the work.  The seventh takes on a role
in the music of possessing genuine identity, as opposed to being used
just as a tool for getting between chords.  (There is currently a 'band',
called TNT, in the hard-rock genre, which also does this).

He again returned to the tritone in one of his last works, the Leider
No. 16, or 'Lobegesang'.  It is almost twelve-tone, with each new set
beginning either a tritone up or down from the beginning of the last set,
usually followed by an inversion of sorts.  I suppose some contemporary
composers, such as Rayner Brown, occasionally do something similar.

If anyone else comes across some of Kradaken's works I would be interested
to hear from you.

>
>Michael

					-Steve
--
judd@sgt-york.lanl.gov  // "May the saints protect us from the gifted
judd@colorado.edu     \X/   amateur."  -  Hitchcock, Dial 'M'...
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical