Otto Siegl
Otto Siegl (born October 6, 1896 in Graz, Austria; died November 9, 1978 in Vienna) was an Austrian musician and composer.
Siegl was born in Graz in 1896 to a musical family. His father, a man with a “pleasant baritone voice” died young (1900), but his mother, a well-trained pianist, started her children’s musical studies at home. Otto, while still a boy, arranged pieces for his brother and mother and himself to play. After serving in World War I, where he spent his time in the barracks studying Bach’s “The Art of the Fugue”, he finished his studies in 1920, with degrees in conducting, violin playing, and composition. He served as an orchestral violinist in Vienna, and as choir director for various choirs in the Styria, and wrote music that always garnered positive reviews, citing him as being modern without losing lyricism.
Siegl was well known in close rural circles, working in Cologne and Paderborn in Germany as a church musician and choral conductor. Several times in his life, he moved to Vienna to work towards greatness, but suffered from home-sickness and depression whenever he was far from his “green Styria.” He wrote many vocal works: sacred music on a grand scale and also Lieder (art songs) for single voices. He played and wrote chamber music, often taking the part of the viola “as other composers and conductors do” and he did not call it Kammermusik (chamber music) but rather Hausmusik (house music). He wrote: “The house music, once the pride and joy of music lovers is provided now by the radio; one can turn it on or off, without any effort…Thus music becomes something that to the ears becomes gradually secondary, turns to background noise. It must be something to tickle your senses, to be comfortable, or uncomfortably exciting, but never shocking, just enough to free one from the everyday.” After World War II he wrote more large-scale works, symphonies and concerti. He died in 1978 in Vienna.
Awards and Honors[edit]
- 1956: Grand Austrian State Prize (Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis für Musik)
- 1967: Preis der Stadt Wien für Musik
See Also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Wolfgang Suppan: Otto Siegl. eine Studie. Wien 1966.
External links[edit]
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