Eduard Künneke

Eduard Künneke was born on 27 January 1885 in Emmerich (Germany). He was fascinated by music from an early age. His father taught him how to read notes and on this basis Eduard Künneke learned to play the domestic piano mainly on his own. He later received piano lessons from his mother and at the age of 8 through a professional piano teacher. In addition the young Eduard Künneke studied scores and books on music theory to compose his own music. He had a soft spot for orchestral music and attended concerts of the military band in the neighbour village Kleve as often as possible. During his school days in the Gymnasium Eduard Künneke became the leader of the school orchestra, composed a complete opera "Snow White" on the libretto of a classmate at the age of 15 and wrote further music under the pseudonym "E. v. Rigdmar" (a pseudonym he never used again afterwards). For his own graduation ceremony he composed another complete opera - "Socrates" - in 1903. Both works remained unperformed due to certain circumstances, but already showed the musical career of Eduard Künneke.
After his school days Eduard Künneke moved to Berlin and studied piano, music theory and counterpoint at the Royal Academy of Art. In 1906 he was accepted for the master class of Max Bruch which he attended one year. In 1907 Eduard Künneke left the university without a graduation because he had to find work and make a living. He first worked as a kapellmeister at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, in 1911 at the Deutsches Theater under Max Reinhardt. After World War I Eduard Künneke more and more focused on a career as a composer and produced mainly operettas. His international breakthrough came with the operetta "Der Vetter aus Dingsda" in 1921. In the following years Eduard Künneke tried to start a career in the USA as well, but this failed and he returned to Germany in 1926. In the early 1930s some of his operettas received some success but Eduard Künneke as a composer became more and more out-moded. With the rise of the Nazi regime things got worse because his wife was not "Arian". But the success and importance of "Der Vetter aus Dingsda" saved Eduard Künneke from major restrictions and he was even put on the Gottbegnadeten list in 1944. After World War II Eduard Künneke did not have the energy to revive his career and fell seriously ill in his last years. Eduard Künneke died on 27 October 1953 in Berlin (Germany).

In my possession are several autograph manuscripts of Eduard Künneke. All these compositions date from 1902 when Eduard Künneke was just 17 years old and still student at the Gymnasium in Emmerich. Several of these works are signed with the pseudonym "E. v. Rigdmar", the rest remain unsigned. All but one of the compositions are songs for voice and piano. Some belong to larger song cycles and are known in the work catalogue of Eduard Künneke (see Sabine Müller: "Eduard Künneke: Leben und Werk"), other seems to be unknown so far:



1) Acht Lieder op.11a

The "Acht Lieder" are a collection of songs for voice and piano with texts mainly by Nikolaus Lenau. My manuscript only contains the first three songs in completeness and an incomplete fourth song. On the title page the full cycle is given with:

1. Spielmannslied (author unknown) - composed 5.3.1902
2. Und wüßtens die Blume, die kleinen... (author: Heinrich Heine) - composed 1.4.1902
3. Drüben geht die Sonne scheiden (author: Nikolaus Lenau) - composed 4.4.1902
4. Trübe wird's, die Wolken jagen (author: Nikolaus Lenau)
5. Auf geheimem Waldespfade (author: Nikolaus Lenau)
6. Sonnenuntergang (author: Nikolaus Lenau)
7. Auf dem Teich, dem regungslosen (author: Nikolaus Lenau)
8. Im Walde schleicht ein alter Mann (author: Nikolaus Lenau)

According to biography by Sabine Müller, the Spielmannslied was withdrawn by Künneke.

At the margins of the manuscript for the song No.2 (Und wüßtens die Blumen, die kleinen...) Eduard Künneke wrote some personal notes which are of historical interest. He wrote:

"Ich hatte sie zum ersten Male wieder gesehen seit einem schrecklich langen Jahre und ich war mir über meine Neigung sehr klar. Du meinst zwar die ersten Lieben sind vergänglich. Nun, es mag sein. Vorderhand spüre ich das noch nicht.

In einem träumerischen Zustand kam ich nach Haus. "Das ist sie also geworden. Etwas größer, etwas voller. Im übrigen aber derselbe Engel, wie er in meinen Träumen lebt." Willenlos blätterte ich im Heine. Dies war ja mein zweites Lied erst. Das erste hat mich nicht ermutigt nach Stoffen zu suchen. Dies Gedicht fiel mir so in die Augen. Wie ich es sah, hath ich die Melodie, die ich mit wenig Überlegen so hinschrieb, wie sie dasteht, und die ganze Woche hatte ich eine lyrische Ader. E."

At the end of song No.3 (Drüben geht die Sonne scheiden), Eduard Künneke wrote the note:

"Die Schilflieder sind mir besonders lieb geworden, was du daraus sehen kannst, dass sie mit einer mir sonst ziemlich fremden Sorgfalt mit Vortragsbezeichnungen versehen sind. Freilich thu ich's schon aus Langeweile, da ich jetzt ständig in der Matratzengruft liegen muß, aber wenn sie mir nicht gefielen, thät ichs überhaupt nicht. Ich betrachte das als gutes Zeichen, denn bis jetzt hat mir von meinen eigenen Sachen noch nichts gefallen."

2) Deutscher Frühling & Abendglocken & Deutscher Winter

All my manuscripts are dated at the end. Therefore I can present the works in their historical order. The two songs "Deutsche Frühling" and "Abendglocken" were composed on 23 resp. 24 May 1902. I found no information about the author of the texts and it seems that these songs are unknown in the work catalogue so far. The double-sided manuscripts ends with an incomplete, untitled song starting with the words "Deutscher Winter". Again I could find any hint about the author:

3) Heine songs

In September and October 1902 Eduard Künneke composed several songs on words by Heinrich Heine from his "Buch der Lieder". All these works are unknown so far:

• Dein Angesicht so lieb und schön (Lyrisches Intermezzo Nr. 5) - composed 9.9.1902
• Nacht liegt auf den stillen Wegen (Die Heimkehr Nr. 86) - composed 8.10.1902
• Das ist ein Brausen und Heulen (Lyrisches Intermezzo Nr. 58) - composed 15.10.1902
• Hör ich das Liedchen klingen (Lyrisches Intermezzo Nr. 41) - composed 27.10.1902

4) Lyrisches Intermezzo op.18

In November 1902 Eduard Künneke composed the Lyrisches Intermezzo op.18, a set of five songs. Curiously and despite the title only three of the five songs were composed on words by Heinrich Heine. The cycle is dedicated to "Trude", which is Gertrud Krüger and consists of the following works:

1. Im Walde wandle ich und weine (author: Heinrich Heine) - composed 4.11.1902
2. Wenn zwei voneinander scheiden (author: Heinrich Heine) - composed 6.11.1902
3. Zerrissen habe ich meinen Freudentanz (author: Reinhard Volker) - composed 7.11.1902
4. Vergiftet sind meine Lieder (author: Heinrich Heine) - composed 28.11.1902
5. Der Wildwein färbt sich blutig rot (author: T. Resa = Theresa Gröhe)

In my possession are only manuscripts of the first four songs.

5) Allegro vivace

In my possession is also an untitled composition for an instrument in treble clef and piano. A possible setting for the work could be violin and piano, but that is only my personal guess. I titled the composition after its tempo indication. The manuscript is on recto of "Nacht liegt auf den stillen Wegen" from 8 October 1902. Therefore it is likely that this work was composed shortly before or afterwards

archive of letters

In addition to the autograph music manuscripts I also own a small part of the letter archive of Eduard Künneke. The letters dates mainly from 1950 to 1953 and contain all sort of professional correspondence of Eduard Künneke: publishing houses, STAGMA/GEMA, lawyers, fans, musicians, etc. The archive contains letters by i.a. Paul Borgeest, G. La Haye, G. F. Stegmann, Max Villinger, Helmar Köhler, Walter Meckauer, Max Berg-Ehlert, Maurice de Abravanel, Horst Cigan, Hanns Hartmann, Stefan von Baranski, Wolf Jesche, Richard Bars and the complete libretto "Der Lumpenfranzl" by A. Barack.