Edwin Komauer

Edwin Komauer was born on 11 February 1869 in Klagenfurt (Austria) into a musical family: his father was music teacher and organist, his mother pianist and singer. Edwin Komauer studied law and music in Graz. He finished his studies in 1893 with a doctoral degree in law. Afterwards he worked at the state finance department in Klagenfurt for a living, but his passion was the music and composing. He also taught music theory and piano privately and among his students was the later famous composer Anton von Webern, who took his first piano lessons from 1895 to 1902 with Edwin Komauer.

Edwin Komauer was choir master of the „Kärtner Sängerbund“ from 1895 to 1919 and of the „Klagenfurter Männergesangsverein“ for 24 years.

In 1922 he quit from working at the finance department and focussed completely on music. The financial loss arising from the layoff forced Edwin Komauer to move to Krumpendorf and to give piano lessons to local students. He also founded the „Krumpendorfer Kammerorchester“ and served as its director until it was abolished in 1935. Edwin Komauer composed in all genres and his music was very popular in Carinthia at the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1943 Edwin Komauer became seriously ill and moved to Waiern, a small village near Feldkirchen. He died there on 20 May 1944.

The information about the Violin concerto by Edwin Komauer is not clear. Many encyclopedias mention a violin concerto titled „Wörtherseeskizzen“, another source gives a "Violin concerto in A major". But the score I present here does not contain a subtitle and it is written in D major. So maybe some information was mixed up, or Edwin Komauer composed two violin concertos.