Rudolf Muchsel
Rudolf Muchsel was born on 10 November 1860 in Vienna (Austria). After school he first studied different disciplines (i.e. botany, chemistry) at the College of Technology in Vienna. But Rudolf Muchsel did not complete any of these studies because he was previously accepted at the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Finance for a qualification as a government accountant. Rudolf Muchsel finished this education and worked there until his retirement as a „Oberrechnungsrat“ in 1912.
It seems that Rudolf Muchsel began to study music at the end of his career to become a composer in his retirement. It must have been around 1905 that Rudolf Muchsel studied music because his first known compositions date from 1910. At that time he studied with Carl Lafite and Richard Stöhr as well as privately with Hermann Graedener. Rudolf Muchsel found several musicians who performed his music from the very beginning, for example a concert singer named Gisela Werth-Marba or a Danish violinist Charles Hyll.
During World War I Rudolf Muchsel served as a first lieutenant. After the war he moved to Lambach, a small town between Salzburg and Linz, where he became a much valued local composer. Rudolf Muchsel died on 29 December 1945 in Lambach (Austria).
The work catalogue of Rudolf Muchsel contains around 100 compositions. This include works for orchestra or band, compositions for violin and piano, for piano alone and many songs. Due to the fact that there is no available work list of Rudolf Muchsel online I compiled such a list with the help of the family of Rudolf Muchsel. Most of the autograph manuscripts are archived at the Stift Lambach.
Traunviertla Kirta
In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the piano reduction of "Traunviertla Kirta op.80" by Rudolf Muchsel. According to the manuscript the work is scored for choir, dance and orchestra and was composed in 1934. The composition presents scenes from a kermesse (a "Kirta") in the region of Lambach (called "Traunviertla" in Austria). The text is by Rudolf Muchsel himself and Leopold Steininger. The work is dedicated to Heinrich Gleissner, the governor of Upper Austria.
Enclosed to the manuscript is a clipping from the "Welser Zeitung" - a local newspaper - from 25 May 1934 that reports about the first performance of the work on 12 May 1934 in Lambach by the "Ortsgruppe der Vaterländischen Front". The article closes with the sentence: "The composer must have recognised from the jubilating audience that he had done an amazing work with this composition and he surely will find a publisher soon."
Time proved that Rudolf Muchsel did not find a publisher for this work and so I have typeset the score to present it here to the public:
Konzert-Polonaise und Romanze
I my possession is also the autograph piano reduction of the Concert-Polonaise and Romance for violin and orchestra op.29 by Rudolf Muchsel. The work was composed in 1911 and first performed on 21 September 1912 by Rudolf Malcher (violin), the Badener Kurorchester and Hans Maria Wallner. It received several performance in the following years both in the original orchestra version and the piano reduction.
The autograph was kindly donated to me by the Muchsel family.
Serenade for violin and piano
The Serenade for violin and piano op.40 was composed around 1912. It consists of three parts which are played attacca: 1. Ständchen der Musikanten, 2. Air (Duett der Liebenden) and 3. Abschied der Liebenden. The autograph manuscript is located at the Stift Lambach. I present here the typewritten score for informaation purposes:
