Johann Cilenšek

Johann Cilenšek * December 4 1913 In Großdubrau In Upper Lusatia † December 14 1998 In Erfurt Was A German Composer And Music Teacher. Johann Cilenšek Was The Son Of A Porcelain Maker From Slovenia And Attended Secondary School In Bautzen From 1924 To 1933. Already As A Pupil He Received Lessons In Playing The Zither Piano Cello And Organ. In 1933 He Was Engaged To The Reichsarbeitsdienst And Worked 1934 In The Hermsdorf Factory Of The Hermsdorf-Schomburg-Isolatoren GmbH. Between 1935 And 1939 He Studied Composition With Johann Nepomuk David And Organ With Friedrich Högner At The Leipzig Conservatory's Institute Of Church Music. In 1937 He Joined The NSDAP. From 1939 To 1945 He Was Employed As A Grinder And Lathe Operator At Junkers-Flugzeugwerke Throughout The Second World War. After The War He Joined The KPD. He Became A Member Of The SED In 1946 Through The Forced Unification Of SPD And KPD. In 1945 Cilenšek Was Appointed Lecturer For Music Theory At The Thuringian State Conservatory In Erfurt. He Now Lived In This City All His Life. In 1947 He Moved To The Hochschule Für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar Where He Was Offered A Professorship In Composition. From 1966 To 1972 Cilenšek Succeeded Werner Felix As University Director. Although He Retired In 1978 He Continued To Teach There As A Lecturer At The Musikhochschule Until 1980. He Was Also A Member Of The Central Board Of The Association Of German Composers Of The GDR Whose Thüringer Bezirksverband He Chaired From 1951 To 1956 And Again From 1964 To 1966. In 1961 Cilenšek Was Appointed A Member Of The Academy Of Arts Where He Was Vice-President From 1978 To 1990. Johann Cilenšek Enjoyed A High Reputation In The GDR Both As A Composer And As A Music Teacher And Was Honoured With Numerous Awards.
Cilenšek's Work Is Mainly Instrumental. The Most Important Part Is Formed By The Orchestral Works In Addition Numerous Chamber Music Especially In The Late Work. Vocal Music On The Other Hand Is Only Sparsely Represented. From The Late 1940s Onwards The Composer Began Writing In A Contrapuntal Conservative Style Strongly Oriented Towards Johann Nepomuk David And Paul Hindemith. Slight Influences By Dmitri Shostakovich And Béla Bartók Are Also Noticeable. During This Creative Period He Composed Five Concerts A Little Later Five Symphonies In Rapid Succession. Since About 1960 Cilenšek Began To Handle Tonality Increasingly More Freely And Dissonantly Including Twelve-Tone Music And Later Even Under The Influence Of Witold Lutosławskis Albeit To A Much More Limited Extent Than This Aleatorics In His Work. At The Same Time More Importance Was Attached To Timbre Than Before Although Counterpoint And Polyphony Continued To Be The Dominant Elements In Cilenšek's Works. Characteristic For The Composer's Development Is The Fact That He Has Now Stopped Writing Symphonies And Concerts In Traditional Form And Has Chosen The Formally Freer Genre Of The Concert Piece As His Main Field Of Activity Instead. read less