Leo Ornstein

Leo Ornstein (originally Russian Lew Ornstein / Лев Орнштейн, scientific transliteration Lev Ornštejn; born December 11, 1892 in Kremenchug, † 24 February 2002 in Green Bay, Wisconsin) was an American pianist and composer of Russian origin.

Ornstein year of birth is disputed, it is also of the years 1893-1895 the speech. At his death he was (probably ) 109 years and is thus regarded as the most durable composer of music history.

Life

Ornstein studied piano and composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory under Alexander Glazunov was, but as early as 1906 forced to flee with his family from the pogroms and moved to New York, where he continued his studies at the forerunner of the Juilliard School. In the hurried flight Ornstein parents forgot to take all personal papers, which is why the composer himself never found out the truth about his birth.

Since 1911, he began a highly acclaimed career as a pianist. In addition, he composed avant-garde piano music that made him quickly become the enfant terrible of that music scene. In 1918 he married the pianist Pauline Mallet- Prevost, a former fellow student at the Juilliard School. After the First World War, Ornstein retired from the concert stage and opened in the early 1930 's, the Ornstein School of Music, which he headed until 1953. He then worked increasingly withdrawn from the public, as a freelance composer.

Compositional style

His compositional output includes primarily piano works, among which stand out the five remaining sonatas, besides chamber music, some orchestral works, incidental music and a ballet.

From the mid- 1920s, a change in style is noticeable in Ornstein 's compositional work. Were still strongly influenced by harsh dissonances his early works, he engages in later compositions back on means of tonality or polytonality, which he combined with them. Overall, we can assign the expressionism his music. Although the lyrical element in his musical language is not foreign, so Ornstein music is still primarily determined by motor power.

Ornstein had a strange way of working when composing. Mostly he improvised a piece on the piano and it worked then in the head further. The notation he left his wife Pauline, which he dictated the plants in the spring. Ornstein was able to keep a composition over very long periods of time in his head, as in an archive. Sometimes he waited with the transcript decades. In the case of his first three piano sonatas too long: When he wanted to aufdiktieren than 50 years after the " composition" Pauline, he had forgotten it.

The composer was active until well into old age. His last work, the Eighth Piano Sonata, he wrote at the end of 90th

Catalog of works (selection)

  • Eight piano sonatas
  • Piano Concerto
  • Three string quartets
  • Piano Quintet
  • Two violin sonatas
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