Boehe, Ernst

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Boehe, Ernst

Boehe, Ernst, German composer and conductor; b. Munich, Dec. 27, 1880; d. Ludwigshafen, Nov. 16, 1938. He studied with Rudolf Louis and Thuille in Munich. In 1907 he was assoc. conductor, with Courvoisier, of the Munich Volkssymphoniekonzerte; from 1913 to 1920 was court conductor at Oldenburg; then conducted concerts in Ludwigshafen. His works are of a programmatic type, the orchestration emphasizing special sonorities of divided strings, massive wind instruments, and various percussive effects; his tone poems show a decisive Wagnerian influence, having a system of identification motifs. His most ambitious work was an orch. tetralogy on Homer’s Odyssey, under the general title Odysseus’ Fahrten, comprising Odysseus’ Ausfahrt und Schiffbruch (Munich, Feb. 20, 1903; Philadelphia, Dec. 3, 1904), Die Insel der Kirke, Die Klage der Nausikaa, and Odysseus’ Heimkehr. He also composed the symphonic poem Taormina (Essen, 1906; Boston Sym., Nov. 29, 1907).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire