{{Short description|German composer (1887–1915)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Rudi Stephan | image = Rudi Stephan, 1930.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1887|07|29|df=y}} | birth_place = Worms, Grand Duchy of Hesse, German Empire | death_date = {{Death date and age|1915|09|29|1887|07|19|df=y}} | death_place = Chodaczków Wielki, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary | education = {{plainlist| * Hoch Conservatory <!--* Musikhochschule München--> }} | occupation = Composer | awards = }} '''Rudi Stephan''' (29 July 1887 – 29 September 1915) was a German composer of great promise who was considered one of the leading talents of his generation.<ref name="Brand" /> He was killed in action during World War I.
== Life == Stephan was born at Worms, Grand Duchy of Hesse, the son of the privy councillor and politician {{ill|Karl Stephan|de|Karl Stephan (Politiker)}} who was also the head of the local Richard-Wagner-Verband.<ref name="Hanstein" /> Stephan became a composition pupil of Bernhard Sekles at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, and of<!-- Heinrich Schwartz and--> Rudolf Louis in Munich, where he settled after completing his studies in 1908.<ref name="Willaschek" />
He left only a few works: his liking for pointedly neutral titles along the lines of 'Music for ...' has caused him to be seen as a forerunner of the 'New Objectivity' of the post-war era, but his music is in fact in a hyper-expressive late-Romantic idiom which has more plausibly been seen by some as a kind of proto-Expressionism.<ref name="Brand" /> His father was able to finance the performance of his early works, which at first met with incomprehension, but the premiere of his 1912 ''Music for Orchestra'' in Worms was a major critical breakthrough.<ref name="Hanstein" /> He completed his only opera, ''Die ersten Menschen'', shortly after the outbreak of the First World War.<ref name="Willaschek" /> It was eventually premiered in Frankfurt, five years after the composer had been killed in action at Chodaczków Wielki near Tarnopol on the Galician Front.<ref name="Hanstein" />
His complete extant orchestral works were recorded by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oleg Caetani.<ref name="Barnett" />
==List of works== Source:<ref name="Schott Music 1915">{{cite web | title=Rudi Stephan | website=Schott Music | date=29 September 1915 | url=https://en.schott-music.com/shop/autoren/rudi-stephan/products/ | access-date=4 February 2022}}</ref><ref name="Deutsche Biographie">{{cite web |last=Lehr |first=Hartwig | title=Stephan, Rudi | website=Deutsche Biographie | url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz126714.html | language=de | access-date=4 February 2022}}</ref><ref name="Hillenbrand">{{cite web | last=Hillenbrand | first=Markus | title=Klassika: Werkverzeichnis Rudi Stephan (1887-1915) | website=Klassika | url=https://www.klassika.info/Komponisten/Stephan/wvjh.html | language=de | access-date=4 February 2022}}</ref>
* ''Opus 1'' for Orchestra * ''Liebeszauber'' for baritone and orchestra, after Hebbel (1907, rev. 1911) * ''Music for Orchestra'' [No. 1] (1910)<ref name="HathiTrust 2020">{{cite journal |title=German Music of the Last Decade | journal=The Musical Quarterly |volume=10 | publisher=HathiTrust | date=1924 | hdl=2027/mdp.39015008095179?urlappend=%3Bseq=224 | url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015008095179?urlappend=%3Bseq=224 | access-date=3 February 2022 |last=Leichtentritt |first=Hugo | editor1-last=Sonneck | editor1-first=Oscar George Theodore }}</ref> * ''Grotesque'' for violin and piano * ''Music for Violin and Orchestra'' (1910, rev. 1913) * ''Music for Seven Stringed Instruments'' (2 violins, viola, violoncello, doublebass, harp and piano) (1907–11; unfinished revision for piano quintet, 1914)<ref name="HathiTrust 2020" /> * ''Music for Orchestra'' [No. 2] (1912, rev. 1913) [NB this work is often said to be a revision of the 1910 Music for Orchestra, but they are in fact unrelated] * ''Die ersten Menschen'' (1909–14), opera after the erotic mystery-play by Otto Borngräber<ref name="HathiTrust 2020" />
==Legacy== In Worms a school was named {{ill|Rudi-Stephan-Gymnasium|de}}.<ref name="k453">{{cite web | title=Startseite | website=Rudi Stephan Gymnasium Worms | url=https://www.rudi-worms.de/rudi-worms/index.php | language=de | access-date=5 December 2025}}</ref>
==References== <references>
<ref name="Barnett">{{cite web | last = Barnett | first = Rob | title = Stephan: Orchestral Works CHSA5040 | url = http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/apr06/Stephan_CHSA5040.htm | type = Classical CD Reviews | website = musicweb-international | date = April 2006 | access-date = 1 July 2012 }}</ref>
<ref name="Brand">{{cite Grove |last=Brand |first=Juliane |title=Rudi Stephan}}</ref>
<ref name="Hanstein">{{cite web | last = Hanstein | first = Johannes | url = https://www.klassika.info/Komponisten/Stephan/lebenslauf_1.html | title = Rudi Stephan | website = klassika.info | date = 1 May 2004 | language = de | access-date = 4 February 2022 }}</ref>
<ref name="Willaschek">{{cite web | last = Willaschek | first = Wolfgang | url = http://www.funkstunde.com/de/musik/rudi-stephan/biographie.html | title = Neues schaffen aus Nichts / Leben und Werk Rudi Stephans | website = Funkstunde | date = | language = de | access-date = 4 February 2022 }}</ref>
</references>
==External links== *{{AllMusic |id=mn0001507671}} *{{IMSLP|id=Stephan, Rudi|cname=Rudi Stephan}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephan, Rudi}} Category:1887 births Category:1915 deaths Category:19th-century German composers Category:19th-century German male composers Category:20th-century German classical composers Category:German military personnel killed in World War I Category:German opera composers Category:Hoch Conservatory alumni Category:German male opera composers Category:People from Rhenish Hesse Category:People from Worms, Germany Category:20th-century German male composers