Alois Melichar (Conductor, Music Critic, Composer, Arranger)

Born: April 18, 1896 - Vienna, Austria
Died: April 9, 1976 - Munich, Germany

The Austrian music critic, composer, and conductor, Alois Melichar, studied theory at the Vienna Academy of Music with Joseph Marx (1917-1920) and at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin with Schreker (1920-1923).

From 1923 to 1926 Alois Melichar was in the Caucasus, where he collected materials on Caucasian folk songs. Then he lived in Berlin and Vienna. As a composer, he followed the safe footpath of Max Reger, Pfitzner, and Graener; he wrote a symphonic poem, Der Dom (1934); Rhapsodie über ein schwedisches Valkslied (1939); Lustspiel-Ouvertüre (1942); lieder; fIlm music.

As a music critic, Alois Melichar acquired notoriety by his intemperate attacks on better composers than himself. His publications, written in his virulent, polemical manner, include Die unteilbare Musik (Vienna, 1952), Musik in der Zwangsjacke (Vienna, 1958), and (particularly vicious) Scbönberg und die Folgen (Vienna, 1960).

Source: Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (April 2002)

Alois Melichar: Short Biography | Recordings of Vocal Works | Recordings of Instrumental Works
Arrangements/Transcriptions: Works | Recordings of Works for Orchestra

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