Karl Weigl

Biography

Karl Ignaz Weigl (February 2, 1881August 11, 1949) was born in Vienna, the son of a bank official who was also a keen amateur musician. Alexander Zemlinsky took him as a private pupil in 1896. Weigl went to school at the Franz-Joseph-Gymnasium and graduated from there in 1899. After that, he continued his studies at the Vienna Music Academy, where he became a composition pupil of Robert Fuchs, and also enrolled at the University of Vienna, studying musicology under Guido Adler, having Anton Webern as a classmate. His only opera, Der Rattenfänger von Hameln, premiered in Vienna in 1932.

When the Nazis occupied Austria, in 1938, Weigl emigrated to the United States, together with his second wife, Valerie (Vally) and his son. He obtained a number of increasingly important teaching posts: at the Hartt School of Music, at Brooklyn College, at the Boston Conservatory and, from 1948 on, at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. He was an important early member of ACA. He died in New York in 1949.

Weigl wrote many compositions including symphonies, chamber music pieces, string quartets, and songs for solo piano. The ACA Archive has preserved more than 200 Weigl scores, which are available for sale and rental through the American Composers Alliance.

Photo of the composer taken by Ernst Kassowitz, near Seattle, in 1947; courtesy of the ACA Archives, Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland.

ACE Publications

81 title(s)
Composer Title SCORING/INSTRUMENTATION Year
Karl Weigl SIX SONGS FOR CONTRALTO & PIANO contralto, pf
Karl Weigl SIX SONGS ON POEMS BY O. J. BIERBAUM high voice, pf
Karl Weigl Sonata for Viola and Piano, 2nd Ed. 2023 Viola and Piano
Karl Weigl SONATA FOR VIOLIN & PIANO IN G MAJOR, No. 2 vln,pf
Karl Weigl SONATA FOR VIOLONCELLO & PIANO vcl, pf
Karl Weigl SONG OF THE SAILOR'S GIRL
Karl Weigl STRING QUARTET No. 1
Karl Weigl STRING QUARTETS No. 1-6, 8 KARL WEIGL - Perusal PDF
string quartet
Karl Weigl STRING QUARTET No. 2 (w with viola d'amore) violin 1,2, viola (or viola d'amore), cello
Karl Weigl STRING QUARTET No. 3, op 4 str qrt
Karl Weigl STRING QUARTET No. 4 in D minor string quartet
Karl Weigl STRING QUARTET No. 5 in G Major string quartet
Karl Weigl STRING QUARTET No. 6 in C Major string quartet
Karl Weigl STRING QUARTET No. 8 string quartet
Karl Weigl SYMPHONISCHE PHANTASIE orch: 3-3-3-3; 4-3-3-1, strings
Karl Weigl THREE INTERMEZZI FOR STRING QUARTET String Quartet
Karl Weigl THREE INTERMEZZI FOR STRING QUINTET OR STRING ORCHESTRA string quintet or string orchestra
Karl Weigl THREE ODEN satb soli, pf
Karl Weigl THREE POEMS - DREI GEDICHTE, op 6 satb a capella: 8 part
Karl Weigl THREE SONGS FOR MEZZO SOPRANO and STRING QUARTET Mezzo Soprano, string quartet
Karl Weigl THREE SONGS FOR SOPRANO & PIANO, op 12 Soprano, piano
Karl Weigl TO BABY CHRISTINE (IDYL) Voice and Piano
Karl Weigl TOTENINSEL - ISLE OF THE DEAD solo piano
Karl Weigl TRIO FOR VIOLIN, CELLO, AND PIANO pf,vln,vcl
Karl Weigl TWENTY-EIGHT VARIATIONS On an Original Theme Op. 15 pf

Additional Works

Boosey/Imagem

AT THE CHICKEN FARM                 
DUSK HOUR                 
LULLABY
MUSIC FOR THE YOUNG
PICTURES FROM CHILDHOOD
RAIN FALL
RHAPSODY 
SYMPHONY NO 6   
TWO PIECES FOR VIOLIN CELLO AND PIANO, OP.39  
VIOLIN CONCERTO