A speech delivered by Bertold Hummel on 23 March 1987 at the University of Music in Würzburgto mark Peter Jona Korn’s 65th birthday

Ladies and gentlemen!

Whenever one attempts to paint a portrait of Peter Jona Korn, it is impossible not to mention his versatility. There is his extensive body of work – ranging from simple music for amateur musicians, through demanding chamber music of the most varied genres, to large-scale orchestral works – and from simple choral settings and a rich output of art songs to grand cantatas and operas.

Then there is his ongoing, ever-intensifying career as a conductor, which accompanies his work as a composer.

Then there is his successful career as a teacher of composition and his long-standing role as director of the Richard Strauss Conservatoire.

There is his time-consuming involvement in professional bodies such as the Composers’ Association and GEMA, championing the interests of his colleagues.

And finally, there is his literary work, which has made him widely known alongside his compositional output.

One can only imagine the workload behind all this, and it can only inspire admiration.

I shall attempt to paint a further portrait:

Recognised and nurtured as a gifted child by Otto Klemperer in Berlin at the age of seven – in 1933, the 11-year-old Peter Jona found himself caught up in the ill-fated maelstrom of political upheaval. A long period of wandering began, always in search of a new home. He became a wanderer between ‘worlds’. England and Palestine were his first stops; it was here that he lost his father, who died as a result of his imprisonment in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

In 1941, he moved on to the USA. During the turbulent war and post-war years, Korn met the leading émigrés from old Europe in Los Angeles. Attempts to settle in, marriage and family finally gave him a sense of security.

He cautiously re-established contact with his old homeland in the 1950s.

In the 1960s, he resolved to return to Germany.

It would have been easy for Peter Jona Korn – whose teachers included Stefan Wolpe, Edmund Rubbra, Ernst Toch, Arnold Schoenberg and Hans Eisler – to jump on the serial avant-garde bandwagon, which was then gathering momentum at breakneck speed, and pursue a career in that vein. Instead, he chose the arduous and thorny path of the lone fighter. Remaining true to his convictions and trusting in his cause, without belonging to any so-called ‘movement’, his aim was – and remains – the humanisation of music.

I fondly recall Peter Jona Korn’s first appearance in Würzburg in 1966, when he delivered his lecture ‘Music between Reason and Emotion’, which remains relevant to this day. Of course, self-pity was never his style.

Both his pen and his tongue were sharpened in times of need and in serious situations. Indeed, for many he was – and remains – an uncomfortable contemporary. This gave rise to a series of witty writings, essays and speeches which – to put it mildly – are not entirely free of polemics.

The best-known of these is probably the piece entitled ‘Musical Pollution’. Alongside enthusiastic approval, there remains to this day bitter hostility from those affected, probably also because many of Korn’s predictions have since come true.

Alongside this, however, there is also the charming and lively Korn, who hits the nail on the head with genuine Berlin humour. Many a column in leading West German newspapers has come from his ‘pseudonymous’ pen.
Nor should we forget that a body of compositional work has matured which, in an impressive manner, brings together years of experience and insight, and which conveys the personality of Peter Jona Korn better than words ever could.

Speaking about his composing, Korn says: “Every sophisticated compositional technique has its purpose and function. I use all the musical means I need, from the strictest tonality – which for me remains the essential starting point and end point of all musical activity – through free tonality and atonality, right up to dodecaphony. In doing so, I openly embrace eclecticism and believe I am in the very best of company. For, as the painter Max Liebermann once said: ‘Where admiration ends, style begins!’”

We are delighted to have Peter Jona Korn with us today and to celebrate him with his music on the occasion of his 65th birthday. We wish him – who will soon be retiring from the civil service – a long and successful career as an “unretireable” creative and critical mind.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to add a few personal words:

Dear Peter, thank you for your long-standing, dependable, generous and always intellectually stimulating friendship. Stay just as you were, just as you are, for many years to come.

Bertold Hummel dedicated the ‘Tombeau’ for PJK to Peter Jona Korn

Biography
Peter Jona Korn, born on 30 March 1922 in Berlin. 1932: Composition lessons at the Berlin University of the Arts (special class for gifted pupils). 1933: Emigration to England. 1934: Studied with Edmund Rubbra (London). 1936: Studied with Stefan Wolpe (Jerusalem)1939 Studied under Hermann Scherchen (Tel Aviv)1941–1942 Studied under Arnold Schoenberg (Los Angeles)1944 US citizenship1946–1947 Studied under Ernst Toch, Hanns Eisler, Miklós Rózsa; 1948 Founded the New Orchestra of Los Angeles; 1953 First return to Germany; 1957 First concert tours and performances in Europe; 1960–61 Teacher of composition at the Trapp Conservatoire in Munich;Huntington Hartford Foundation (several grants)1964–65 Visiting professor at the University of California (Los Angeles)1967–1978 Director of the Richard Strauss Conservatoire, MunichDied on 12 January 1998

Works

• Opera ‘Heidi in Frankfurt’
• Cantata ‘The Psalm of Courage’
• 4 symphonies
• Various overtures and suites
• Works for small orchestra and string orchestra
• Symphony for large wind orchestra
• Concertos for cello, oboe, horn, alto saxophone, violin, trumpet, harpsichord and accordion with orchestra
• Solo vocal works with orchestra
• Solo works for piano, organ, violin, cello, flute and harp
• Duets with piano or organ for cello, violin, viola, oboe, horn, trumpet, trombone and percussion
• Chamber ensembles in various formations
• Songs, choral works

www.peterjonakorn.com