Karg-Elert [Karg], Sigfrid

(Theodor)

(b Oberndorf am Neckar, 21 Nov 1877; d Leipzig, 9 April 1933). German

composer and keyboard player. A devoted advocate of harmonium music,

he is best known for his compositions for that instrument and for his organ

works.

1. Life.

2. Works.

WORKS

WRITINGS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

FRANK CONLEY

Karg-Elert, Sigfrid

1. Life.

Son of a newspaper editor and publisher and the youngest of 12 children, Karg-Elert moved with his family
to Leipzig at the age of five. He began his musical studies as a member of the Johanniskirche choir,
composing under the guidance of the cantor, Bruno Röthig, who conducted several of his early choral
works. Although his father’s death in 1889 meant there was no money to spend on music lessons, a Leipzig
family provided him with a piano; he continued to depend on the patronage and support of others
throughout his life. In 1891 the church director decided that Karg-Elert should train in Grimma to become a
teacher. After two years in which he learned to play the flute, oboe and clarinet, he discontinued the
course and moved to Markranstädt where he supported himself as a freelance musician while studying
philosophy and music theory. He returned to Leipzig about 1896 to study at the Conservatory, where his
teachers included Emil Nikolaus von Rezniček, Carl Reinecke, Salomon Jadassohn, Paul Homeyer and Karl
Wendling. In 1900 a performance of his First Piano Concerto with himself as soloist so impressed
Reisenauer that his scholarship was extended and he contemplated a career as a performer. After a
successful tour of Germany, he returned to Leipzig where he engaged in further composition study with
Teichmüller, a decision that caused a breach in his relationship with Reisenauer. He added his mother’s
maiden name [Ehlert] to his original surname [Karg] when his first published composition, a song, appeared
in Musikwoche. In 1902 Karg-Elert was appointed head of the piano masterclass at the Magdeburg
Conservatory. The following year he met Grieg, who advised him to study the contrapuntal forms and
dance idioms of the 17th and 18th centuries. He took this advice so seriously that he cancelled a proposed
tour of the USA in order to concentrate on composition. Extremely grateful to Grieg for recommending him
to several publishers, he later described the elder composer as ‘my unforgettable patron’. Grieg also
became an important influence on his musical style. During the same period he fell in love with the
keyboard player Maria Oelze. When her father insisted that their relationship end, he returned to Leipzig in
a state of mental collapse. In 1904 an illegitimate son was born to him by Henriete Kretzschmar, whose
daughter, Minna, he married in 1910. By 1903, most likely influenced by August Reinhard, Karg-Elert had
begun to compose for the harmonium. August Robert Forberg’s publication of Sechs Skizzen (1903),
numbered as op.10 so that the pieces would not appear to be the work of an immature composer,
unwittingly launched a tradition of unreliable opus numbers for Karg-Elert’s works. Unprepared to publish
any further harmonium compositions, Forberg recommended Karg-Elert to Carl Simon, who accepted
additional pieces on the condition that the composer become familiar with the Kunstharmonium. This
contingency was to alter the course of Karg-Elert’s subsequent career: ‘the Kunstharmonium, with its
capacity for expressiveness, its wealth of differentiation of tone and its technical perfection became the
instrument which met my highly strung artistic demands’. For the next ten years the instrument dominated
his musical life, both as a composer and a performer. He gave his first Kunstharmonium concert in March
1906 and his first compositions for the organ were arrangements of harmonium works; these led him to
write original works for the organ, bringing him to the attention of figures such as Max Reger and Karl
Straube. Virtually all of Karg-Elert’s harmonium music and much of the rest of his output was written before
World War I. In 1915 he enlisted in the 107 th Infantry Regiment, but because of his musical reputation was
not allowed to see active service. After failing to gain the position of organist at Berlin Cathedral in 1917, he
underwent an artistic crisis. From 1912 he had been strongly influenced by contemporaries such as
Debussy, Schoenberg and Skryabin. His study of orchestral repertory during the war, however, led him to
regard the styles of these composers as ‘fruitless artistic selfindulgence’. Embracing ‘the purity of classical
and romantic art’ he destroyed about 20 works; as he later told Paul Schenk, he ‘began again in C major,
and prayed to the muse of melody’. After the war he succeeded Reger at the Leipzig Conservatory, but
never gained a permanent post as organist. From 1924 Karg-Elert gave weekly radio recitals on the
harmonium from his home, not allowing the instrument to be moved to another location. His 50th birthday
in 1927 was celebrated with concerts and radio broadcasts, including his own performance of the Second
Harmonium Sonata (1909–12). His growing reputation in England culminated in the Karg-Elert Festival at
the church of St Lawrence Jewry, London, in 1930. English support, however, caused a decline in his
popularity in Germany, particularly as his modernist image collided with the developing political situation
there. In 1926 he wrote to his English friend Godfrey Sceats, ‘Because some of my works have French or
English titles I am automatically an “Ungermann”, someone to be boycotted … one is immediately
dismissed as a Jew, traitor or Bolshevik’. Personal and financial circumstances led him to undertake a recital
tour in the USA in 1932, but already in poor health the result was a musical disaster, variously described as
‘utterly impossible’ and ‘total chaos’. He declined a post in Pittsburgh a year before his death. Karg-Elert,
Sigfrid

2. Works.

Karg-Elert was most successful as a composer when he was working within clear limitations. He tended to
avoid sonata form and fugue in favour of an emphasis on timbre, and his large-scale structures have a
tendency to sprawl, as in the first piano (1904) and Kunstharmonium (1905) sonatas. He was particularly
successful in extended variation forms such as the passacaglia and chaconne. Though he experimented with
atonality, a warmly chromatic musical language featuring lush harmonies and complex key relationships is
more characteristic of his output. Karg-Elert’s most substantial body of works are his pieces for the
harmonium and the organ. The harmonium offered a range of colours, the possibility for kaleidoscopic
changes of registration, and ‘expression’ (see Harmonium) achieved by subtle variations in the amount of
pressure applied to the instrument’s pedals, qualities that appealed to his musical sensibility. Unlike French
theorists such as René Vierne who believed that ‘expression’ should be used selectively, Karg-Elert
identified the device as the ‘soul’ of the instrument. His earliest harmonium works, written for the four-
rank instrument used by French composers, include the Passacaglia (1903–5), one of his most successful
musical structures, the Partita (1905) and the Phantasie and Fugue (1905). The Kunstharmonium provided
Karg-Elert with a much greater range of colours and mechanical devices, and he exploited these to an
extent not attempted by any other composer. Between 1905 and 1914 he produced numerous extended
works as well as sets of shorter pieces. The Second Sonata (1909–12) is on an immense scale and can be
considered his masterpiece for the instrument. The Third Sonatina (1906) and the second of the
Orchestrale Konzertstudien (1907) are also notable. Of the shorter pieces, the eight Konzertstücke (1905–6)
deploy all the possibilities of the instrument: the central section of no.6 ‘Capricietto’ features 17 changes of
registration in 29 bars. The seven Idyllen (c1914) contain some of his most daring experiments with
Expressionism and atonality. Though he continued to play the harmonium and to advocate its use, Karg-
Elert only published two sets of short pieces and a second book of Portraits for the instrument after World
War I. With the exception of those pieces arranged for the organ, his music for the harmonium fell into
obscurity until the revival of interest in the instrument as part of the performing practice movement in the
late 20th century. In contrast, his organ music – which can be divided into three main periods: up to 1914,
1921–4, and from 1930 onwards – continued to hold a prominent place in the repertory. Although
encouraged and influenced by Reger, Karg-Elert’s earliest works for the organ reflect the inspiration of J.S.
Bach. He was proud to assert that each piece of op.65 (66 Choral-Improvisationen) had ‘its own appropriate
type of form – Trio, Sarabande, Ciacona, Canon … etc’. The best-known, Nun danket alle Gott, is a triumphal
march and trio, while O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig is a strict canon at the 7th. Pastels from the Lake of
Constance and Cathedral Windows, Impressionistic works based on Gregorian chant melodies, were
composed in the 1920s. Later he became interested in ‘Werkprinzip’ organs and his music became more
abstract. The most significant pieces from his last compositional phase are the Symphony (1930) and the
Music for Organ (1931). His final completed work, the Passacaglia and Fugue on BACH (1931), is based
largely on the first movement of the Second Harmonium Sonata. Although he began his career as a pianist,
Karg-Elert’s piano music has not established a place in the repertory. Much of it is technically demanding,
although the Sonatinas (1909) and Mosaik (1933) are in a lighter, more accessible style. The Third Sonata
(1914–20) is a single movement that generates its momentum through repeated rhythmic figures. Unlike
anything else in his output, it echoes the sonatas of Skryabin. His transcriptions of Elgar and Dvořák (1908–
14) are impressive in transferring a great deal of orchestral detail to the piano, but their tremendous
technical difficulty places them out of the reach of most performers. Unfortunately, much of the remainder
of Karg-Elert’s output, particularly his chamber music has been neglected. The works for wind instruments
largely date from his years of military service. His interest in Schoenberg is apparent in the Suite
ointillistique (1919), in which the second movement is entitled ‘Der kranke Mond’, one of the poems set in
Pierrot lunaire. During the 1920s he apparently worked on a number of chamber works, but they were not
published and may be lost. His songs owe much to the style of Robert Schumann and Robert Franz.

Karg-Elert, Sigfrid

WORKS

(selective list)

see Gerlach and Kaupenjohann (1984) for more complete list

works without opus numbers reflect Gerlach’s numbering system

instrumental

Orch: Sinfonia brevis, F, op.1, 1897, unpubd; Pf Conc. no.1, d, op.6, 1900, unpubd;

Suite, op.21, 1902 [after Bizet: Jeux d’enfants]; Pf Conc. no.2, D , woo 21, 1913,

unpubd; Deutsche Helden, sym. march, woo 29, wind, 1915; Kammersinfonietta, A,

chbr orch, woo 44, 1918–19, unpubd

Chbr: Trio, d, op.49, ob, eng hn, cl, 1902; Qnt, c, op.30, ob, 2 cl, hn, bn, 1904;

Sonata, A, op.71, vc, pf, 1907–8; 10 Leichte Charakterstudien, op.90, 2 vn, 1911–

12, nos.1, 3, 4, 7, 8, arr. 2 vn, pf as Divertimento, op.90b, 1920; Little Sonata, C,

op.68, vn, pf, 1914; Sinfonische Kanzone, E , op.114, fl, pf, 1917; Sonata, B ,
op.121, fl, pf, 1918, rev. as Trio Buccolico, op.121b, fl, vn, pf, 1918–25; Impressions

exotiques, op.134, fl + pic, pf, 1919; Suite pointillistique, op.135, fl, pf, 1919;

Jugend, op.139, fl, cl, hn, pf, 1919, arr. cl/va, pf as Sonata no.2, op.139b; 8 Pieces,

op.112, vn, pf, 1922

Solo: Etüden-schule, op.41, ob/eng hn, 1905; Partita, D, op.89, vn, 1910; Sonata

no.1, e, op.88, vn, 1910; Sonata appassionata, f , op.140, fl, 1917; 30 Capricien

‘Gradus ad Parnassum’, op.107, fl, 1918–19; Sonata c , op.110, cl, 1924; 25

Capricien und Sonate, op.153, sax, 1929

vocal

Acc. choral: Pfingst-Motette, op.60, solo vv, 8vv, org, 1909, unpubd; Bs, op.82/1,

chorus, vn, hp, org, 1912; Vom Himmel hoch, chorale canzone, op.82/2, chorus, vn,

org, 1912; Nearer, my God to Thee, canzone, op.81, solo vv, chorus, orch, 1913;

Die Grablegung Christi, passion canzone, op.84, S, chorus, ob, eng hn, org, 1913;

2 Hymns (R. Tagore), woo 47, A/B, chorus, orch/(a fl, hmn, pf), 1920, unpubd; Ps i,

woo 63, 1v, chorus, org/orch, 1922, unpubd; Mass, b, woo 64, solo vv, chorus, orch,

org, 1923–7, unfinished, unpubd

Unacc. choral: 4 Männerchöre, op.55, 1907; 15 geistliche Frauenchöre, op.44, 3–

4vv, 1908; Das christliche Kirchenjahr, woo 11, 1909; Triumph, op.79, 1912;

Requiem aeternam, op.109, 8–12vv, 1913; Die Verhüllten (R. Dehmel), woo 24, 4–

8 male vv, 1914, unpubd; 2 Männerchöre, woo 30, 1915; 6 Frauenchöre, op.59,

1920

Lieder: 8 Lieder (J. Uhland, T. Storm, F. v. Bodenstedt, A. Trager, A. Christen),

op.11, 1898–1900; Stimmen und Betrachtungen (J. Mosen, K. Müller, H. Heine),

op.53, 1905; An mein Weib (R. Dehmel, F. Rückert, T. Schäfer, M. Itzerott, K.

Müller, E. Rittershaus), op.54, 1906; 10 Epigramme (G. Lessing), op.54, 1907; 10

Impressionen und Gedichte (A. v. Wegerer), bk 1: 3 Rosenlieder, bk 2: 5 Gedichte,

bk 3: 2 Madrigale, 1907–8; 6 Lieder im Volkston (Dehmel), op.111, 1914; other

Lieder on texts by Dehmel, Lessing, Ritter, Rückert, Schuler and Uhland and

others, 1900–22

harmonium

Hmn: Passacaglia, e , op.25, 4-rank hmn, 1903–5, arr. org, 1905–7; 6 Skizzen,

op.10, 4-rank hmn, 1903; Improvisation (Ostinato und kleine Fuge), E, op.34, 4-rank
hmn, 1905, arr. org; 5 Monologe, op.33, 4-rank hmn, 1905, no.4 arr. org; Partita, D,

op.37, 4-rank hmn, 1905, movts 1, 3, 4, arr. org, 1906–11; Phantasie and Fugue, D,

op.39, 4-rank hmn, 1905, arr. org

Kunsthmn: 5 Aquarellen, op.27, 1905, arr. org; 8 Konzertstucke, op.26, 1905–6,

nos.1, 4, 6, 7 arr. hmn, pf; Sonata no.1, b, op.36, 1905, 2nd movt arr. org; 3

Sonatinas, G, e, a, op.14, 1906; Scènes Pittoresques, op.31, 1906, nos.1 and 6 arr.

hmn/pf; Silhoutten, op.29, hmn/pf, 1906; Leichte Duos (T. v. Obendorff), c, woo 7,

hmn/pf, 1906; Madrigale, op.42, 1906; 2 Orchestrale Konzertstudien, op.70, 1907;

Poesien, op.35, hmn/pf, 1907; Renaissance, op.57, 1907, rev. 1917; 5 Miniaturen,

op.9, 1908, rev. 1918; Sonata no.2, b , op.46, 1909–12, 2 movt arr. org, 1911;

Intarsien, op.76, 1911; Funerale, woo 18, 1912; Die hohe Schule des Ligatospiels,

op.94, hmn/pf, 1912; Ersten grundlegende Studien, op.93, 1913; Gradus ad

Parnassum, op.95, 138 arrs., 1913–14; Portraits ‘von Palestrina bis Schoenberg’,

33 pieces, op.101, 1913–23; 12 Impressionen, op.102, 1914; 6 Romantische

Stücke (Impressionen aus dem Reisengebirge), op.103, suction hmn, 1914; Schule

für Hmn, op.99, 1915; Tröstungen Innere Stimmen, op.58, 1918–19; Tröstungen (8

religiöse Stimmungsbilder), op.47, 1918; Innere Stimmen, op.58, 1918–19; arrs of

works by other composers, incl. 3 vols. of works by Wagner (1914)

organ

Solo: Sequenz no.1, a, woo 8, 1908; 66 Choral-Improvisationen, op.65, 1908–10; 3

Impressions, op.72, 1909; Sonatina, a, op.74, 1909; Sequenz no.2, c, woo 12,

1910; 4 Diverse pieces, op.75/1, 1910–11; 10 charakteristische Tonstücke, op.86,

1911; 17 kleine Charakterstücke, woo 13, 1911; 3 Pastels, op.92, 1911; 4 Chorale

Improvisations, woo 16, 1912; 20 Prae- und Postludien, op.78, 1912; [22]

Pedalstudien, op.83, 1913; Homage to Handel, op.75/2, 1914; 7 Pastels from the

Lake of Constance, op.96, 1921; Cathedral Windows, op.106, 1923; 3 Impressions,

op.108, 1923; Partita no.1, E, op.100, 1924; Kaleidoscope, e/E, op.144, 1930; 3

Pieces (3 New Impressions), op.142/2, 1930; Sym., f , op.143, 1930; Triptych,

op.141, 1930; Music for Org, op.145, 1931; Partita retrospettiva III, op.151, 1931–2;

Passacaglia and Fugue on BACH, op.150, 1931 [based on op.46/1]; Sempre

semplice, op.142/2, 1931 [arr. of hmn pieces]; Rondo alla campanella, a, op.156,

1932; arrs. of works by other composers, arrs. of hmn works

With vv or insts: Chaconne and Fugue Trilogy, op.73, B, org, perc, 1908; 3

sinfonische Kanzone: op.85/1, org, opt. brass, op.85/3, 1v, female chorus, vn, org,

1910; 3 sinfonische Chorale: op.87/3, 1v obbl, vn, org, 1911

piano

Reisebilder, op.7, 1895–1911; Arabeske no.1 ‘Filigran’, G , op.5, 1900; 3 Caprices,

op.16, 4 hands, 1900; Variations on a Theme of Brahms ‘Verrat’, op.8, 1902,

unpubd; 5 Bagatelles, op.17, 1902; 2 Konzertetüden, op.22, 1902; Walzerszenen

‘Carneval’, op.45, 1902; Aus dem Norden, op.18, 1903; 4 Pieces, op.23, 1903;

Skandinavische Weisen, op.28, 1903; 7 charakteristische Stücke, op.43, 1903;

Sonata no.1, f , op.50, 1904, rev. as op.50b, 1920, unpubd; Dekameron, op.69, 10

teaching pieces, 1904; Aphorismen, op.51, 1905; Aus meiner Schwabenheimat,

op.38, 1906; Sonata no.2, b , op.80, 1907, lost; 3 Sonatinas, G, a, e, op.67, 1909; 9

poetische Bagatellen, op.77, 1911; Nächtlicher Regen, woo 19, 1912; Zwielicht-

Impressionen, woo 20, 3 pieces, 1913; Sonata no.3 ‘Patetica’, c , op.105, 1914–20;

Romantische Studien, woo 35, 1916, unpubd; Hohburgiana, woo 36, 1916, unpubd;

Exotische Rhapsodie (Dschungel Impressionen), op.118, 1917; Hexameron,

op.97/1, 1920; Heidebilder, op.127, 1920; Schwere Düfte, woo 48, 1920; Partita, g,

op.113, 1922; Patina, op.64/1, 1923; Mosaik, op.146, 29 teaching pieces, 1933;

arrs. of works by other composers incl. Dvořák: Sym., G, op.88, 1908; Elgar: Sym.

no.1, 1909; Sym. no.2, 1912; Falstaff, 1914, unpubd; Duos with hmn

Principal publishers: Breitkopf & Härtel, Kistner, Leuckart, Novello, OUP, Pantheon, Peters, Schmidt,

Simon, Zimmermann

Karg-Elert, Sigfrid

WRITINGS

‘Das Harmonium und die Hausmusik’, Rheinische Musik- und

Theaterzeitung, vii/40 (1906); repr. in ZI, xxvii (1906–7), 929–31

Die Kunst des Registrierens, op.91 (Berlin, 1911–14) [harmonium treatise]

Das Problem der künstlerischen Transmission der Orgel (MS, 1911–13)

Vergleichende Orgel-Dispositionen (MS, 1913–14)

Die Grundlagen der Musiktheorie (Leipzig, 1922)

Akustische Ton-, Klang-, und Funktionsbestimmung (Leipzig, 1930)

Polaristische Klang- und Tonalitätslehre (Leipzig, 1931)

Numerous brochures on harmonium models, registration etc.

Karg-Elert, Sigfrid

BIBLIOGRAPHY

E. Rupp: ‘Sigfrid Karg-Elert und das Harmonium’, Rheinische Musik- und

Theaterzeitung, ix (1908)

A. Hull: ‘Sigfrid Karg-Elert’, MT, liv (1913), 89, 161

K. Beringer: ‘Karg-Elert als Orgel-Komponist’, Neue Musik-Zeitung, xxxviii

(1917), 103–6

P. Schenk: Sigfrid Karg-Elert: eine monographische Skizze mit

vollständigem Werkverzeichnis (Leipzig, 1927)

G. Sceats: The Organ Works of Karg-Elert (London, 1948, 2/1950)

P. Schenk: ‘Karg-Elerts polaristische Harmonielehre’, Beiträge zur

Musiktheorie des 19. Jahrhunderts (Regensburg, 1966), 133–62

W. Stockmeier: ‘Sigfrid Karg-Elert und wir’, Musica sacra [Regensburg],

lxxxvii (1967), 319–20

S. Young: The Organ Works of Sigfrid Karg-Elert (diss., U. of North

Carolina, 1968)

W. Kwasnick: Sigfrid Karg-Elert: sein Leben und Werk in heutiger Sicht

(Westerwald, 1971)

S. Gerlach and R. Kaupenjohann: Sigfrid Karg-Elert: Werkverzeichnis

sämtlicher Werke (Frankfurt, 1984)

G. Hartmann: Die Orgelwerke von Sigfrid Karg-Elert (diss., U. of Berlin,

1985)

A. Hayden: ‘Karg-Elert and the Art of Registration’, MT, cxxviii (1987) 649,

651, 653

F. Conley: The Harmonium and its Music, with Special Reference to the

Music of Sigfrid Karg-Elert (diss., U. of Sheffield, 1995)