KRENEK, ERNST

born Aug. 23, 1900, Vienna, Austria died Dec. 23, 1991, Palm Springs, Calif., U.S. Austrian-American composer, one of the prominent exponents of the serial technique of musical composition. Krenek studied in Vienna and Berlin and was musical assistant at the German opera houses of Kassel (192527) and Wiesbaden (192728). In 1938 he immigrated to the United States. He taught composition at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (193942), and Hamline University, St. Paul, Minn. (194247). Krenek's earliest compositions were influenced by Gustav Mahler (his father-in-law from 1923 to 1925). In his first operas, however, he turned to a dissonant, Expressionist style, as in Zwingburg (1924; Dungeon Castle). He gained international success with the opera Jonny Spielt Auf! (1927; Johnny Strikes up the Band!), written in an idiom that mixed Expressionist dissonance with jazz influences. After a period in which he espoused the Romanticism of Franz Schubert, he began in the 1930s to use the 12-tone method of Arnold Schoenberg. His first significant 12-tone work was the opera Karl V (1933; produced 1938). Other important 12-tone works were the Second Piano Concerto (1938) and the Fourth Symphony (1947). Krenek experimented widely with styles and techniques of composition. In Sestina (1957) he used total serialization, in which not only pitch but all musical elements are arranged in basic series. In his Third Piano Concerto he temporarily abandoned the 12-tone method for traditional tonality; his Fifth Symphony is atonal but avoids serial technique. In his oratorio Spiritus Intelligentiae (1958) he utilized electronically produced sound. In Pentagram, for wind quintet (1952; revised 1958), and in Fibonaci Mobile (1965), mathematical ideas influence the musical content. Krenek's other compositions include sonatas for harp and for organ; Twelve Short Piano Pieces, an introduction to 12-tone technique; Eleven Transparencies for orchestra; and operas. Krenek's books include ber neue Musik (1937; Music Here and Now); Studies in Counterpoint (1940); and Selbstdarstellung (1948; Self-Analysis), an autobiography.