Johann Nepomuk David

Synopsis

Austrian composer and teacher

• 1895 born in Eferding, Upper Austria.
• 1920-1923 studied composition with Joseph Marx at the Vienna Academy of Music.
• 1924–34 worked in Wels as a primary school teacher, organist and choirmaster, while continuing his study of composition alone.
• 1934 appointed to the staff of the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik.
• 1942 became director of the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik.
• 1945-1947 director and composition teacher at the Salzburg Mozarteum.
• 1948–63 professor of composition at the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik.
• 1977 died in Stuttgart, Germany.

According to Wikipedia, "His general style changed from the modal tendencies seen in his first two symphonies to the more acerbic though still tonal sound of the later ones." In David's own words, whatever he wrote ‘turned into a fugue’, signifying that counterpoint was always present.

For details, see the Wikipedia article on Johann Nepomuk David.

List of Organ Works

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Opus	Title	Year
Op. ??	Fantasia super 'L'homme armé'	1929
Op. ??	Fantasy and Fugue in C major	1935
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Background and General Perspectives on Performing These Organ Works

According to Oxford Music Online,

"David’s music which has survived manifests, in the main, debts...to music that he knew from his childhood and adolescence: Gregorian chant, Josquin, Bach and Bruckner, and also Reger, without whose example David’s extensive organ output would not have been possible."

"there are parallels with middle-period Stravinsky and traces of jazz..."

"linked with his contemporary Hindemith by a love for old forms, a frequent use of German folktunes of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, and similar extensions to tonal harmony...polyphonic foundation of their art and their emphasis on craftsmanship"

"characteristically 20th-century harmonic materials – an extended tonality, often organized into polytonal layers, and an emphasis on the 4th in chord construction."

Registration and Organs

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Fingering and Pedaling

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Articulation and Phrasing

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Ornamentation

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Tempo and Meter

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Scores and Editions

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Recordings

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Free Online

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Other Resources

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Notes

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