Holler, Karl

Holler, Karl, German composer and teacher; b. Bamberg, July 25, 1907; d. Hausham, April 14, 1987. He received training in piano, organ, and cello in Bamberg, and then was a student of Zilcher (composition) at the Würzburg Cons, and of Haas and Waltershausen (composition), Gatscher (organ), and Hausegger (conducting) at the Munich Academy of Music. He also took courses with Sandberger at the Univ. of Munich. After teaching at the Munich Academy of Music (1933–37) and the Frankfurt am Main Hochschule für Musik (1937–46), he taught a master class in composition at the Munich Hochschule für Musik (1949–72), where he also served as its president (1954–72). His compositional style owed much to late Romanticism.

Works

orch.: Organ Concerto (1930; rev. 1966); Hymnen über gregorianische Choral-melodien (1932–34); Chamber Concerto for Harpsichord and Small Orch. (1934; rev. 1958); Symphonische Phantasie über Thema von Frescobaldi (1935; rev. 1965); 2 violin concertos (1938, rev. 1964; 1947-48); Passacaglia und Fuge (1939); Heroische Musik (1940); 2 cello concertos (1940-41; 1949); 2 syms. (1942-16; 1973); Sweelinck-Variationen “Mein junges Lebe hat ein End” (1950–51); Piano Concerto (1973). CHAMBER: 8 violin sonatas (1929, rev. 1968; 1942; 1943; 1944; 1945; 1946; 1947; 1949); Piano Quartet (1930; rev. 1955); 6 string quartets (1938, rev. 1966; 1945; 1947; 1947; 1948; 1949); Cello Sonata (1943; also for Viola and Clarinet, 1967); Piano Trio (1944; also for Harp, Violin, and Cello, 1966); Trio Sonata (1946; also as Concerto Grosso for 2 Violins and Piano, 1965); 2 flute sonatas (1947, 1948); Viola Sonata, “in memoriam Paul Hindemith” (1967). Piano: Zwei leine Sonaten for Piano, 4-Hands (1943); 3 small sonatas (1946); Tessiner Klavierbuch (1961). VOCAL: Missa brevis (1929); Weihnachts- und Passionmusik (1932); Requiem (1932); Tenebrae factae, Good Friday motet (1937).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire