Conrad Beck

Conrad Beck ( born June 16, 1901 in wages, Canton Schaffhausen, † 31 October 1989 in Basel) was a Swiss composer.

Life and work

The son of a pastor lived since 1933 in Basel and composed in the style of Arthur Honegger several orchestral and choral works, most notably The Death at Basle, a piece for choir, soloists, narrator and orchestra. Apart from the opera his work covers all genres of instrumental and vocal music. He wrote seven symphonies, seven concertos, chamber music, an oratorio, a cantata Lyrical, an elegy and the ballet The big bear. In his development of the stay in Paris from 1924 to 1933 is a critical station. This was followed by a compositional training with Jacques Ibert and contacts to Honegger, Nadia Boulanger and Albert Roussel.

Beck's music is characterized by a large degree of seriousness, tenacity and depth of expression, but also transparency and a sense of harmonious proportions.

From 1936 to 1966 he was head of the music department of Radio Basel. He gave many contacts among the Swiss, but also international musicians and composers, and so fostered the cultural exchange.