Peter Jona Korn: An Introduction to His Works for the Oboe

The composer, conductor, and writer Peter Jona Korn is not familiar to many musicians today. His works are rarely performed, but they include several works for the oboe that are valuable additions to the repertoire. Korn’s life bore similarities to many other German-Jewish composers of the twentieth century, as he, like Arnold Schoenberg, Stefan Wolpe, and Kurt Weill, was forced to flee Germany to escape Nazi persecution. However, unlike composers who turned away from tonality, searching for other modes of expression after the war, Korn remained committed to composing in a largely tonal idiom. Korn’s 1975 book Musikalische Umweltverschmutzung: Polemische Variationen über ein unerquickliches Thema (Musical Pollution: Polemical Variations on an Unpleasant Theme), in which he rails against what he saw as the hegemony of the serialists and the avant-garde, gives readers today an insight into a composer who rejected the prevailing style of his time. The first part of this document will provide a biographical sketch of the composer, followed by an examination of a new translation of Musical Pollution. The second part will discuss Korn’s two works for oboe and keyboard instrument with the intention of introducing these works to oboists looking to program lesser-known pieces of music.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Foltz, Emily Jane

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Marco, Margaret R

• Music
• Music history
• Performing arts
• Criticism
• Fantasia
• Germany
• Nazi
• Oboe
• Sonata

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright held by the author.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17176

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/39293