Anton Heiller
Anton Heiller ( born September 15, 1923 in Vienna Dornbach, † March 25, 1979 ) was an Austrian composer, organist and music teacher.
Life and work
At an early stage received Anton Heiller first lessons in piano ( the father ) as well as harmony and counterpoint. In the 1930s, he received the organ with William Mueck, the organist of St. Stephen's Cathedral.
At the same time he studied from April 1941 to June 1942 at the Vienna Academy of Music, the subjects organ, piano, harpsichord and music theory. Immediately after his graduation he was drafted in 1942 for military service.
After the war he worked at the Vienna Music Academy, where he was appointed professor of Sacred Music in 1945 and the fan organ, composition and Church since 1969 taught composition. In 1950 he took over the "Collegium Musicum for contemporary music ". As of 1947, followed by addition to his teaching several concert tours as an organist, harpsichordist and conductor, which have led him to Switzerland and the Netherlands, where he won the 1st prize in the prestigious Improvisation Competition in Haarlem in 1952.
Heiller was a highly respected concert organist, who especially devoted to the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. During his tenure at the Vienna Music Academy, he was responsible for the formation of a number of leading organists of recent times and from all over the world. He led many master classes and conducted summer courses. Anton Heiller was married to the deceased in Vienna in 2007, pianist Erna Heiller. He already died in Vienna in 1979, after he had suffered a first stroke in 1974 and his left hand was partially paralyzed.
His honorary devoted grave is located in Vienna's Central Cemetery (Group 40, Number 133).
Anton Heiller created in a rich polyphonic and chromatic colored style almost exclusively ecclesiastical works as well as compositions for organ. Among his compositions continue to include measurement, Requiem, psalms, choral works, motets, cantatas and oratorios and other orchestral works. In his compositions he combines the traditional Austrian music with elements of modern music, by, for example, cover, reinforced the twelve-tone technique. Paul Hindemith was a friend and mentor since 1950 Heiller which premiered Hindemith's Concerto for Organ and Orchestra in New York in 1963. Heiller is considered as a leader of church music in Austria and southern Germany in the second half of the 20th century.
Anton Heiller gained great contributions to the Austrian organ building after the Second World War. In particular, the conceived and initiated by him teaching organ with mechanical grinding shop for those Vienna Academy of Music, built in 1958 by Johann Pirchner / Steinach am Brenner, was influential for several generations organist. The instrument is now in the parish church Sandleiten in the 16th district of Vienna Ottakring.
Anton Heiller was honored several times, including in 1954 with the State Prize of Music and in 1969 the Grand Austrian State Prize. He also won several prizes in organ competitions at home and abroad.
Works (selection)
- Toccata for Two Pianos
- Psalm cantata
- Te Deum
- Advent Music for oboe, violin, children's choir and organ
- Fantasia super Salve Regina
- Prelude and Fugue in A Major
- Ecce lignum crucis
- Dance Toccata
- Meditation on the Gregorian Easter Sequence