Knorr, Iwan (Otto Armand)

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Knorr, Iwan (Otto Armand)

Knorr, Iwan (Otto Armand), German composer and teacher; b. Mewe, Jan. 3, 1853; d. Frankfurt am Main, Jan. 22, 1916. His family went to Russia when he was 3 years old, returning to Germany in 1868. He entered the Leipzig Cons., where he studied piano with Moscheles, theory with Richter, and composition with Reinecke. In 1874 he went back to Russia, where he taught in Kharkov and was made head of theoretical studies of the Kharkov division of the Russian Imperial Musical Soc. (1878). He settled in Frankfurt am Main in 1883 as a teacher at the Hoch Cons., becoming its director in 1908. His most distinguished pupils were Cyril Scott, Pfitzner, and Ernst Toch. His works are conceived in a Romantic vein, several inspired by the Ukrainian folk songs which he had heard in Russia.

Writings

(all publ. in Leipzig): Aufgaben für den Unterricht in der Harmonielehre (1903); Lehrbuch der Fugenkomposition (1911); Die Fugen des Wohltemperieten Klaviers in bildlicher Darstellung (1912; 2nd ed., 1926).

Works

dramatic:Opera: Dunja (Koblenz, March 23, 1904); Die Hochzeit (Prague, 1907); Durchs Fenster (Karlsruhe, Oct. 4, 1908). other:Ukrainische Liebeslieder for Vocal Quartet and Piano, op.6 (1890); Variationen (on a Ukrainian folk song), op.7 (1891); Variations for Piano, Violin, and Cello, op.l; Piano Quartet, op.3; Variations for Piano and Cello, op.4; etc.

Bibliography

M. Bauer, I. K.: Ein Gedenkblatt (Frankfurt am Main, 1916).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire