Biography

In recent years the life of the composer, conductor and pedagogue Paul Graener became a subject of musicology. After 1950 Graener was nearly forgotten not only as a composer in concert programmes but also in music encyclopaedias. Since the mid 1990s, one notes a slow revival of his compositions associated with a scientific discussion on Graener´s life and work. In the second edition of the German encyclopaedia MGG (Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Personenteil, Band 7, c. 1455-1457) Knut Andreas has published (in 2002) the article "Paul Graener". The author is familiar with Graener´s biography due to his study of the composer´s life. Currently Knut Andreas is working on his doctoral thesis on Paul Graener. Quite recently Dr. Fred Büttner´s comprehensive article on Graener´s life (including a catalogue of his compositions) was published by the German BMLO (Bayerisches Musiker-Lexikon Online). Due to the simple access to the above mentioned articles the following biography will give only a short overview but intends to encourage the reader to learn more about Graener in the recommended articles.

Paul Graener was born on January 11th, 1872 in Berlin. He grew up in the house of his relatives since his parents past away early. In Berlin he went to school at the "Askanisches Gymnasium" as well as at the "Veitsches Konservatorium" but he left both institutions before the final examination. Graener´s desire to become a conductor at the theatre was the reason for short residences in different German cities, e. g. Bremerhaven, where Graener conducted the first performance of his operetta "Backfische auf Reisen". He got his first permanent appointment as musical director at the legendary London Royal Theatre Haymarket in 1898.
Graener spent more than ten years in London where he married his wife Marie and where his three children were born. In 1910 Graener moved to Vienna in order to take up a position as a teacher of composition at the "Neues Wiener Konservatorium". In the summer 1911 he was appointed as director of the "Mozarteum" in Salzburg. There he was director of the music school "Mozarteum" and its symphony orchestra which performed under the conductorship of the composer the first release of Graener´s Symphony D minor "Schmied Schmerz".
From 1914 Graener lived in Dresden and Munich as a free composer. In 1920 he was the successor of Max Reger as professor of composition at the "Konservatorium Leipzig". This engagement was as short as his time at the "Mozarteum". After four years Graener moved to Munich to consecrate himself to his compositions. In 1930 he returned to his native city Berlin in order to take the position of the director of the "Stern´sches Konservatorium". After three years Graener handed over this position to his substitute and started to direct a master class for composition at the “Preußische Akademie der Künste Berlin”.
In the early 1930s Graener joined the NSDAP and worked with different national socialist organisations, e. g. as successor of Wilhelm Furtwängler as vice president of the "Reichsmusikkammer". For unsettled reasons Graener abdicate in 1941. The question whether Graener´s partially demonstrable commitment for Jewish composers and publishers has played a role in this regard is still subject of further analysis.
During the second world war Graener lived in Berlin until his flat was destroyed by air bombings. The composer and his family took refuge first in Wiesbaden, Munich and Metz, later in Wien and finally in Salzburg where Graener died on November 13th, 1944 at the age of 72.

Graener´s work contains more than 130 songs - including numerous scorings of poems by Christian Morgenstern – ten operas (one is unfinished), one operetta, orchestral works, compositions for solo instruments with and without accompanist, chamber music as well as compositions for mixed choir and male choir. His scores were published at Eulenburg, Universal-Edition Wien, Bote&Bock, Zimmermann, Schott, Kistner & Siegel, Simrock and Litolff and well-known conductors and soloists have performed Graener´s music, e. g. Arturo Toscanini, Erich Kleiber, Eugen Jochum, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arthur Nikisch, Paul Grümmer, Franz Ledwinka, Fritz Rothschild and Walter Davisson. Only some of Graener´s compositions are available as CD recordings. Please click on Publications & Recordings to find a selection of those CDs.