Ernst Krenek (1900-1991)
Born in Vienna but spent much of his creative life in the United States.
His music shows the influence of almost all the stylistic
experiments of the early 20th century. An early opera
(1927), "Jonny spielt auf", utilized jazz
idioms and had great success both in Europe and America. After
many experiments, Krenek finally embraced a modified
twelve-tone style. A prolific composer, he composed eleven
operas, three ballets,
incidental
music for seven plays, a large number of choral works, five symphonies,
four piano concertos, six piano
sonatas, and eight string
quartets. He is also the author of several
books, including "Music Here and Now."
He continued to write experimentally in his later years. Representative
works are "Aulokithara", for oboe, harp, and tape. "Spätlese,"
a song cycle written in 1973, and "They Knew What they Wanted,"
for narrator, oboe, piano, and percussion (1977).