Béla Kéler
Béla Kéler was a Hungarian composer of romantic music period and orchestral conductor. Béla Kéler was born as "Albert Paul Keler" ("Adalbert Paul von Keler)." He is also known in Hungarian as "Kéler Béla". He was born on 13 February 1820 in City of Bártfa, Sáros County, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire (present-day Bardejov, Slovakia), and died on 20 November 1882 in Wiesbaden, German Empire. He was active in Hungary, Austria and Germany. Biography. Béla Kéler was born in 1820 in Bártfa (, ), Kingdom of Hungary as Albert Paul Keler, but German and Austrian sources also give Adalbert  Paul "von" Keler. He descended from an ethnic German family on his father's side, but was ethnic Magyar on his mother's side. His father Stefan Keler (17811849) was a principal magistrate of Bártfa, from an old Bártfa burgher's family. His mother Anna Bóth (17931848) was from the Hungarian Both de Botfalva noble family. They raised 13 children. Albert's siblings were Frederika, Stefan, Emilia, Antonia, Matilda, Augusta, Apollonia, Ferdinand, Viktor, Josefina, and Amalia. The household was German speaking; the majority of residents of Bártfa that time were Carpathian Germans. As a little boy he studied violin with  Franz Schiffer in Bártfa. He began his school education in 1834 in the Evangelical Lyceum of Lőcse (today Levoca, Slovakia). After that he studied in Evangelical College of Eperjes (today Prešov, Slovakia), and later briefly studied law and philosophy in Debrecen. Soon he left and picked up studies again in Eperjes. After dropping out of law school, he worked on a farm where he read a textbook by Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, the Austrian baroque composer. He then started practicing the violin. By the time he moved to Vienna, he was good enough to play in the orchestra of the Theater  an der Wien. While holding this position, he studied with Simon Sechter. He became leader of the Gungl Band in Berlin in 1854, and the next year succeeded Augustin Lanner in Vienna. From 1856 to 1863, he was Kapellmeister of an infantry regiment in the Vienna garrison. In 1867, he joined the Kur Orchestra in Wiesbaden, where he remained until 1873. In the 1870s, he toured all over Europe. He lived and worked in Eperjes, where he led a students' orchestra. In 1845, he moved to Vienna, Austria and in 1863 to Wiesbaden, Germany, where he lies buried. In his  testament he donated all of his works to the city of Bártfa, where he was born. Compositions. His best known piece "Erinnerung an Bartfeld" is written on the melodies of typical local folk songs of Šariš. This piece was (partly) mistakenly rewritten by Johannes Brahms as Hungarian Dance No. 5 because Brahms thought it was a folk song, not an original work.Anton Bruckner copied the instrumentation and form (but not the harmony) of Kéler's "Mazzuchelli-Marsch" (also called "Apollo-Marsch") exactly for his own March in E-flat major. (The "Apollo Marsch" was later mistaken for a work  of Bruckner's). Kéler was very popular as a composer of orchestral and dance music, and was looked upon as one of the best of writers of violin solos. His overtures and compositions for small orchestra were long popular in the United States and England. "The Carpathians" (1854) is the most serious and at the same time the most extensive work by Béla Kéler. Although the title of the almost an hour long composition refers to the Carpathian Mountains, the composer was exclusively inspired by the surroundings of the High Tatras), which is near his birthplace. Parts: Overture, Introduction, and  5 musical pictures, in the order: The Lomnica Peak (Lomnický štít), The Poprad Lake (Popradské pleso), The Iron Hammers, The Hunt, The Arrival and Life in the Carpathian Spa. It turns out that idyllic music pictures the Carpathians is the first work of program music to be inspired to Slovak natural beauties and everyday life in their surroundings. The digital transcription of the work, in the Petrucci Music Library, was supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council. Heritage. Béla Kéler donated all of his works to the city of Bártfa. After the founding of the Šariš Museum in Bártfa  in 1903 this collection became part of the permanent exhibition of the museum. Today, Béla Kéler has his own exhibition screen near the entrance in the City Hall Museum in Bardejov, which is a part of the Šariš Museum. His personal correspondence, manuscripts and printed works, portraits and his memorial tablet are kept and displayed there.