EINEM, GOTTFRIED VON

born Jan. 24, 1918, Bern, Switz. died July 12, 1996, Oberdrnbach, Austria Austrian composer whose operas and orchestral works combine Romantic elements with the more contemporary styles of jazz and atonality. The son of an Austrian military attach, Einem was educated in Germany and England. He helped several people escape from Nazi Germany, and in 1938 he was arrested by the Gestapo and was imprisoned for four months. After his release he became a conductor and coach at the Berlin State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival. He studied (194143) under the composer Boris Blacher, who later wrote the librettos for four of his operas. Einem's first stage work, the ballet Prinzessin Turandot (1944), established his musical credentials. In 1945 he moved to Salzburg in Austria. Dantons Tod (Danton's Death), his first opera, with a text by Blacher based on Georg Bchner's play, was produced in 1947 at the Salzburg Festival. The opera Der Prozess (The Trial), which was inspired by Einem's arrest in 1938 and by Franz Kafka's novel, was first performed in 1953. Einem composed several symphonic works for American orchestras, including the Philadelphia Symphony (1960). His opera Der Besuch der alten Dame (1970; The Visit of the Old Woman), with a libretto by Friedrich Drrenmatt based on his play, is considered to be his greatest operatic success. His other works include the Piano Concerto (1955) and the opera Kabale und Liebe (1975; Cabal and Love), based on Friedrich von Schiller's play. Einem's best-known operas reflect the dark atmospheres of the stories that inspired them. His works combine the influence of late 19th-century Romantic composers with later styles, such as jazz, various kinds of dissonance, and atonality, in which the key or tonal centre of traditional music is rejected.