Siegfried Alkan

Siegfried Alkan
Siegfried Alkan with his mother Johanna in an 1899 photograph
Born(1858-03-30)30 March 1858[1]
Dillingen, Saarland, Kingdom of Prussia
Died24 December 1941(1941-12-24) (aged 83)[1]
Mainz, Free State of Prussia[1]
OccupationComposer

Siegfried Alkan (30 March 1858 – 24 December 1941) was a German composer from Saarland in the Kingdom of Prussia. He was assaulted and his musical business was looted during the Kristallnacht.

Biography

Alkan was born in Dillingen, Saarland, within the Kingdom of Prussia[1] to prominent Jewish piano businessman Johannes Alkan and his wife Johanna née Bonn. His grandfather and two of his nephews were also musicians. He had three siblings.[2] He was a distant relative of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy[3] through his mother's relationship to the Oppenheim family.[2]

In November 1938, when he was in his eighties, Alkan was assaulted in the street during the Kristallnacht, and all the musical instruments and sheet music in his shop were destroyed,[4] and his piano looted by the Nazis.[5] He refused to seek treatment at a Christian hospital, he tried to seek help at his synagogue,[6] unaware it had been set ablaze.[4] He relocated to Mainz, where he died in 1941 for causes unrelated to persecution.[1] He never married.[6]

Posthumous information

In November 2018, the city of Dillingen held a communal ceremony for the victims of the Kristallnacht, which included honoring Alkan and 50 others.[4] In 2019, Katja Terlau, a specialist in looted art, and the Rose Valland Institute were able to trace Alkan's piano to a purchase in 1982.[3]

Music

Alkan's sheet music was written for the piano and the organ. He composed at least 99 musical compositions. His work was distributed by Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag and Kistner & Siegel in Leipzig:

  • "Gruß an die Saar" (English: "Greetings to the Saar"; Op. 32)[7]
  • "O wüsstest du's" (English: "Oh, if only you knew"; Op. 39)[8]
  • "Ur-Großmütterchen" (English: "Proto-Great-grandmother"; Op. 80)[7]
  • "Neues Saarlied" (English: "New Saar Song"; Op. 91)[9]
  • "Es wälzt sich der Nebel im Thale" (English: "The fog rolls through the valley"; Op. 92)[7]
  • "Hab' deine Eltern lieb!" (English: "Love thy parents!" Op. 99)[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Siegfried Alkan". gedenkbuch.saarbruecken.de. Retrieved 2026-01-05.
  2. ^ a b Leistenschneider, Tina (2023-06-26). "Jüdischer Friedhof in Diefflen: Mit rund 400 Grabstellen ist der größte jüdische Friedhof – was die Grabstätte in Diefflen so besonders macht". Saarbrücker Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2026-01-05.
  3. ^ a b "Provenienzforschung zu Objekten des Open Call: Unrechtmäßige Besitzverhältnisse in Deutschland des anlässlich der documenta 14 gegründeten Rose Valland Instituts – Das Klavier des Siegfried Alkan | Kulturgutverluste". kulturgutverluste.de (in German). 2019-09-01. Retrieved 2026-01-05.
  4. ^ a b c Künkeler, Axel (2018-11-08). "Pogromnacht: "Es geschah auch hier bei uns vor Ort"". Saarbrücker Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2026-01-05.
  5. ^ "Provenienzforschung zu Objekten des Open Call: Unrechtmäßige Besitzverhältnisse in Deutschland des anlässlich der documenta 14 gegründeten Rose Valland Instituts – Das Klavier des Siegfried Alkan | Kulturgutverluste". kulturgutverluste.de (in German). 2019-09-01. Retrieved 2026-01-05.
  6. ^ a b Best, Katharina (1988). "Die Geschichte der ehemaligen Synagogen-Gemeinden Dillingen und Nalbach" [The history of the former synagogue communities of Dillingen and Nalbach]. Unsere Heimat. Mitteilungsblatt des Landkreises Saarlouis für Kultur und Landschaft (in German) (3/4): 95–114.
  7. ^ a b c "Hofmeister XIX". hofmeister.rilm.org. Retrieved 2026-01-05.
  8. ^ Hofmeister, Friedrich, ed. (1887). Handbuch der musikalischen Literatur, oder Verzeichniss der im deutschen Reiche und in den angrenzenden Ländern erschienenen Musikalien: auch musikalischen Schriften, Abbildungen und plastischen Darstellungen; mit Anzeige der Verleger und Preise (PDF) (in German). Vol. 9. Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister. p. 13.
  9. ^ Hofmeister, Friedrich (1930). Hofmeisters Musikalisch-literarischer Monatsbericht (in German). Vol. 102. Leipzig: Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag. p. 33.
  10. ^ Fritzsch, E.W. (1906). Kipke, Carl (ed.). C. F. W. Siegel's Musikalisches Wochenblatt: Organ für Musiker und Musikfreunde (in German). Vol. 37. Leipzig: Kistner & Siegel. p. 41.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.