Karl Weigl

Biography

Karl Ignaz Weigl (February 2, 1881August 11, 1949) was born in Vienna, the son of a bank official who was also a keen amateur musician. Alexander Zemlinsky took him as a private pupil in 1896. Weigl went to school at the Franz-Joseph-Gymnasium and graduated from there in 1899. After that, he continued his studies at the Vienna Music Academy, where he became a composition pupil of Robert Fuchs, and also enrolled at the University of Vienna, studying musicology under Guido Adler, having Anton Webern as a classmate. His only opera, Der Rattenfänger von Hameln, premiered in Vienna in 1932.

When the Nazis occupied Austria, in 1938, Weigl emigrated to the United States, together with his second wife, Valerie (Vally) and his son. He obtained a number of increasingly important teaching posts: at the Hartt School of Music, at Brooklyn College, at the Boston Conservatory and, from 1948 on, at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. He was an important early member of ACA. He died in New York in 1949.

Weigl wrote many compositions including symphonies, chamber music pieces, string quartets, and songs for solo piano. The ACA Archive has preserved more than 200 Weigl scores, which are available for sale and rental through the American Composers Alliance.

Photo of the composer taken by Ernst Kassowitz, near Seattle, in 1947; courtesy of the ACA Archives, Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland.

ACE Publications

81 title(s)
Composer Title SCORING/INSTRUMENTATION Year
Karl Weigl GLORIOUS VAGABOND
Low Voice and Piano
Karl Weigl GREY YEARS med voice, pf
Karl Weigl IM DUNKEL med-low voice, pf
Karl Weigl IN LOVE
Sop, pf
Karl Weigl INVISIBLE LIGHT - Das unsichtbare Licht high (or low) voice, with piano
Karl Weigl JESUS, op 10, no 2 bs bar, pf
Karl Weigl KINDERLIEDER op. 11, Seven Children's Songs 2-voice
Women's Chorus: SA OR children's chorus OR med high voice & pf
Karl Weigl LIEBES-LIEDER,op 22 for Soprano or Tenor, and pf
Karl Weigl LIEBESLIED high or low voice, piano
Karl Weigl MAIDEN SONGS (MAICHENLIEDER)
Sop, pf
Karl Weigl MEDITATION pf 4 hands
Karl Weigl MENUETTO
cello, piano
Karl Weigl NACHTPHANTASIEN solo piano
Karl Weigl NIGHT FANTASIES, for 2 Pianos 2 PF
Karl Weigl NORWEGIAN DANCE 2pf
Karl Weigl PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN op 24 OPERETTA children's operetta for chorus, 2 soloists & pf, or cham orch:1-1-1-1,hn,str
Karl Weigl PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN SUITE small orch: fl/pic; ob; clar in A/clar in Bb; bsn; horn; perc (2); harm; piano; strings
Karl Weigl PRELUDE And FUGUE (in D major) org
Karl Weigl PRELUDE & FUGUE IN THE OLD STYLE (C min) org
Karl Weigl REFUGEE voice, pf
Karl Weigl REQUIEM FOR EVA
String Quartet No. 4, 3rd movement
Karl Weigl SEVEN CHILDREN'S SONGS, op 11 (Kinderlieder) voice, piano med high voice & pf
Karl Weigl SEVEN SONGS opus 1 low voice, piano
Karl Weigl SHOUTING SUN (Early Easter Morning) SATB or medium voice solo with piano
Karl Weigl SIX FANTASIES FOR PIANO pf

Additional Works

Boosey/Imagem

AT THE CHICKEN FARM                 
DUSK HOUR                 
LULLABY
MUSIC FOR THE YOUNG
PICTURES FROM CHILDHOOD
RAIN FALL
RHAPSODY 
SYMPHONY NO 6   
TWO PIECES FOR VIOLIN CELLO AND PIANO, OP.39  
VIOLIN CONCERTO