Fidelio Friedrich Finke (22 October 1891, Josefsthal, Austria-Hungary (now Josefův Důl, Czech Republic) – 12 June 1968, Dresden, East Germany) was a Bohemian-German composer.

Life

Finke was born the son of a teacher in 1891 in the north-Bohemian Josefstal (modern-day Josefův Důl, Czech Republic). From 1906 to 1908, he attended a teacher's seminar in Reichenberg (now Liberec). He received organ, piano and violin lessons, and from 1908 to 1911, studied at the Prague Conservatory, where he studied piano and composition. From 1911 onward, he worked as a private music teacher and from 1915 as a teacher of musical theory at the Prague Conservatory. In 1920, he moved to the German Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Prague, where he worked as a teacher of musical theory and composition. He became a professor in 1926, and worked as the rector from 1927 to 1945.

After imprisonment and expropriation as a result of the Beneš decrees as well as a suicide attempt in 1945, Finke was brought to Dresden by the Soviet occupation forces via Moscow. There, he founded the State Academy of Music and Dresden Theatre, and was, until 1951, its rector. Until 1958, he was a professor of sound recordings at the Leipzig Academy of Music. His total works comprise about 170 compositions.

During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, he composed works expressing sympathy for the Nazis, including the hymn, O Herzland Böhmen (1942).^[1] His opportunistic application for membership within the Nazi party expired in 1942 because of his political unreliability.^[2]

Finke was a member of the SED from 1946 until his death in 1968 in Dresden. He was buried in Heidenfriedhof Cemetery. His gravestone graces his signature. Finke's estate is preserved by the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

Compositions

Stage work

• Die versunkene Glocke. Oper in 4 Akten (1915–1918, not listed). Libretto: ? (after Gerhart Hauptmann)
• Die Jakobsfahrt. Oper in 3 Aufzügen (1932–1936). Libretto: ? (After the Legend of Dietzenschmidt). UA 17. Oktober 1936 Prag
• Lied der Zeit Tanzpantomime in 2 Teilen (1946/47). UA 20. März 1947 Bühlau
• Der schlagfertige Liebhaber. Heitere Oper in 3 Akten (1950–1954; nur Klavierauszug fertiggestellt). Libretto: ? (after Karl Zuchardt)
• Der Zauberfisch. Märchenballade (Oper) in 2 Akten (1956–1959). Libretto: Wilhelm Hübner. UA 1978 Dresden

Vocal compositions

• Kantaten
• Chöre
• Lied Ich bin ein Haus. Text: Emil Merker (1888–?)

Instrumental works

• acht Orchestersuiten
• fünf Streichquartette
• Werke für Klavier und Orgel

Honors, memberships

• 1910 Brahms-Preis at the Vienna Tonkünstlervereins
• 1919 Chorpreis des Weltmusikbundes in Vienna
• 1928 and 1937 Czechoslovak State Prize for music
• 1956 National Prize of the German Democratic Republic
• Membership at the Academy of Arts, Berlin
• Honorary sponsor at the music academies of Dresden and Leipzig
• 1961 Bronze Patriotic Order of Merit

Literature

• Dieter Härtwig: Fidelio F. Finke: Leben und Werk. Habilitationsschrift, masch. vervielf. Leipzig 1970. Deutsche Bibliothek Frankfurt am Main U.70.3699
• Fred K. Prieberg: Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945, CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, S. 1565–1569.
• Kurzbiografie zu:Template:WWW-DDR
• Wilhelm Hübner: Fidelio F. Finke – Gedanken über meinen Lehrer, in: Dresden und die avancierte Musik im 20. Jahrhundert. Teil II: 1933-1966, hrsg. von Matthias Herrmann und Hanns-Werner Heister, Laaber 2002, S. 397–404 (Musik in Dresden 5), ISBN 3-89007-510-X
• Thorsten Fuchs:Template:MGG2

See also

• List of classical composers in the GDR

External links

• Werke von und über Fidelio F. Finke in the German National Library catalogue
• Fidelio-F.-Finke's Archive in the archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin

Footnotes