Eric-Paul Stekel
Erich-Paul Stekel was born on 27 June 1898 in Vienna (Austria). His father was Wilhelm Stekel, a psychiatrist, who worked together with Sigmund Freud for some time and so received a certain public awareness. His father was moreover a free-time composer and musician and hosted chamber music concerts at his home. For example Arnold Schönberg took part of these concerts as a cellist several time and these events established the basis for the musical career of Erich-Paul Stekel. Already during his schooldays Erich-Paul Stekel took courses at the music academy (composition history under Egon Wellesz) and fully enrolled in 1915. He studied under Franz Schalk and Ferdinand Loewe (conducting), Franz Schreker (counterpoint), Karl Prohaska (Partiturspiel), Frantisek Ondricek (violin) and Richard Robert (piano). Just a year later he interrupted his studies to fight for Austria in World War I. In 1918 Erich-Paul Stekel got into war captivity in Italy and was released only in August 1919. He returned to Vienna and completed his studies.
After his studies Erich-Paul Stekel opted for a career as a conductor. He first became violist, then repetiteur at the Vienna State Opera - a stepping stone for positions as a kapellmeister in Lübeck (1922), Prague (1923-25), again Vienna (Volksoper and at the State Opera as assitant conductor to Franz Schalk) and Saarbrücken (1928-30). In the early 1930s Erich-Paul Stekel had no permant position and therefore toured as a conductor. For example he conducted three complete performances of the Ring des Nibelungen by Wagner in Algiers (Algeria). At that time Erich-Paul Stekel - of Jewish faith - more and more found a home in Paris due to the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany and Austria. It must have been this time when he changed his given name to Eric-Paul.
The time in Paris was challenging for Eric-Paul Stekel. In the first years he was a recent settler, hence new to the local classical music circles, and he was a foreign national. Beside some short-run conducting activities he also worked for a small publishing house and founded a string quartet. With the breakout of World War II things got even worse for Eric-Paul Stekel: Now he was not only a foreigner, but an enemy. He was detained and forced to work in a stone quarry. To escape from the detainment he lend himself to the French army and became part of a unit with foreign soldiers in Langeluade near Nimes. In 1943 Eric-Paul Stekel had to go into hiding due to the persecution of Jews in Vichy France.
With the end of World War II Eric-Paul Stekel could continue his musical career. At first he became conductor of the symphony orchestra in Algiers again. In 1947 he was appointed director of the conservatory in Saarbrücken. In 1951 he was given notice and left to the conservatory in Grenoble, where he fulfilled the same position as director. In remained in this position until his retirement in 1970. He established the orchestra of the conservatory and was its conductor in many concerts.
Eric-Paul Stekel died on 11 February 1978 in Grenoble (Switzerland).
The work catalogue of the composer Eric-Paul Stekel contains an opera, 4 symphonies, a violin concerto, a piano concerto, and other orchestral music. His chamber music includes a string quartet, a violin sonata, and a piano sonata. Moreover he has composed songs, and an oratorio.
In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the "Six melodies op.21" by Eric-Paul Stekel. The work is a set of 6 songs for low voice and piano composed in October to December 1942 in Nimes. According to my manscript the cycle is dedicated to "Madame et Monsieur Philippe Faure-Fremiet". The cycle consists of the following songs:
- Confiance (text by Eugene Manuel)
- L'Agonie (text by Sully Prudhomme)
- L'Etranger (text by Sully Prudhomme)
- Homme, descends sur ta terrasse (text by Xavier de Magallon)
- Mon ame a ton coeur s'est donnee (text by Victor Hugo)
- Viatigue (text by Eugene Manuel)
The work was published by Delrieu in 1963 but is long out of print and virtually impossible to find nowadays.
