Commemorative stamp series - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1973 - 20 Pfennig

Significant personalities, 1973 edition The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic publishes five special postage stamps with illustrations of important personalities. No special first day cover envelope Important personalities 20 Pfennig value MAX REGER, born on 19 March 1873 in Brand in the Fichtelgebirge, came from a very musical family of teachers. As a child he learned piano, organ and harmony from his parents. The organist Lindner continued in Weiden, whom the gifted boy was able to represent at the age of 13 at the organ. After studying with Hugo Riemann in Sondershausen, Max Reger took on teaching posts in Wiesbaden and later in Munich. At this time, his first compositions made a stir, so that in 1907 the famous Thomas Cantor Karl Straube brought him to Leipzig. Here Reger worked for a time as a university music director and until his death as a teacher at the conservatory. In 1911 he was appointed Court Composer and Kapellmeister to Meiningen. Of the many journeys as head of the Meininger Hofkapelle, as a chamber musician and Lied accompanist, his teaching and the free work on his compositions physically and mentally weakened, Max Reger died at the age of forty-three on May 11, 1916 in a hotel in Leipzig. The extensive musical work of Max Reger testifies to astounding productivity (he is said to have composed the tremendous fugue on the Hillervariationen in one day). He is at the end of the late Romantic Classicism and yet is considered one of the pioneers of new music. Throughout his life he dealt with the music of Bach, whom he worshiped like no other ("Bach is the beginning and end of all music"). Thus Reger's compositions are polyphonic, contrapuntal and tonal. Tending to extremely complicated composition technique, he creates a rushing sonority sometimes at the expense of melodic catchiness. Again and again he was attracted by the technique of variation. Reger's variations on themes by Bach, Telemann, Hiller and Mozart are among his most important creations still known today, as are many of his organ compositions, the Concerto for violin and that for the piano, the six string quartets and other chamber music.