Bernhard Sekles

Bernhard Sekles, c. 1913

Bernhard Sekles (20 March 1872 – 8 December 1934) was a German composer, conductor, pianist and pedagogue.

Bernhard Sekles was born in Frankfurt am Main, the son of Maximilian Seckeles and Anna, (née Bischheim). The family name Seckeles was changed by Bernhard Sekles to Sekles. From 1894 to 1895 he was the third Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater in Mainz. In 1896 he became a teacher at the Hoch'sche Konservatorium in Frankfurt am Main; here he started the first jazz class anywhere in 1928. He was the director of the Hoch'sche Konservatorium from 1923 to 1933. His composition students included Paul Hindemith, Rudi Stephan, Theodor W. Adorno, Max Rudolf, and Erich Schmid. He was one of the first German Jewish academics to lose his job when Hitler came to power in Germany. He died in his native Frankfurt am Main.

Selected compositions

• The Birthday of the Infanta (ballet, 1913, based on an Oscar Wilde fairy tale)
• Scheherazade (opera, 1917)
• Die Hochzeit des Faun (ballet, 1921)
• Die zehn Küsse (opera, 1926)
• Chaconne über ein achttaktiges Marschthema (Chaconne on an Eight-Beat March Theme) for viola and piano, Op.38 (1931)

Students

• Theodor W. Adorno
• Ottmar Gerster
• Hermann Heiß
• Paul Hindemith
• Anthony van Hoboken
• Erich Itor Kahn
• Max Kowalski
• Hans Rosbaud
• Max Rudolf
• Cyril Scott
• Erich Schmid
• Rudi Stephan

See also

• Timeline of jazz education
• Jazz in Germany

Literature

• Articles in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Kassel 2006) and New Grove (London 2001)
• Peter Cahn: Das Hoch'sche Konservatorium 1878-1978, Frankfurt am Main: Kramer, 1979, pages 257-270, 295-297.
• Joachim Tschiedel: Der "jüdische Scheindirektor" Bernhard Sekles und die Gründung der ersten europäischen Jazz-Klasse 1928, in: mr-Mitteilungen Nr. 20 - September 1996
• Joachim Tschiedel: Bernhard Sekles 1872 - 1934. Leben und Werk des Frankfurter Komponisten und Pädagogen, Schneverdingen 2005
• Theodor W. Adorno: Bernhard Sekles zum 50. Geburtstag, in Gesammelte Schriften Band 18, Frankfurt/Main 1984, S. 269 f.
• Theodor W. Adorno: Minima Moralia, Frankfurt/M. 1951, page 291 ff.
• Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, (Nicolas Slonimsky, Editor) New York: G. Schirmer, 1958

External links

• academic paper including some info on Sekles
• Free scores by Bernhard Sekles at the International Music Score Library Project