Richard Mohaupt (14 September 1904 – 3 July 1957) was a German composer and Kapellmeister.[1]
Life and career
Richard Mohaupt was born in Breslau, where he studied music at Breslau University with Julius Prüwer and Rudolf Bilke.[1] After his studies he worked as a répétiteur and music director at opera houses in Breslau, Aachen and Weimar.[1] After a concert tour as pianist and conductor through the Soviet Union in 1931–1932, he settled Berlin in 1932 where he began working for the UFA film company.[1] Four years later he had his first success with his ballet Die Gaunerstreiche der Courasche.[1] The work was performed during the ballet festival which was part of the supporting programme of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin,[2] but shortly after this success the Nazis denounced him with the expression "Music Bolshevism" and he was excluded from the Reichsmusikkammer. With this exclusion Richard Mohaupt could not work in Germany anymore and so emigrated to the US in 1939 and settled in New York.[1]
During his time in the United States Mohaupt composed for a variety of mediums, including opera, ballet, film, radio, television and orchestral music.[1] Two of his works became very popular during the 1940s and 1950s: the 1939 orchestral work Stadtpfeifermusik (Town Piper Music) and his 1944 opera Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten; the latter of which premiered at Theater Bremen in 1949.[1] He wrote one other opera while in America: Double Trouble, which premiered at the Kentucky Opera in 1954.[1] While in America, Mohaupt also composed music for the ballets Max und Moritz (a "dance-burlesque" composed in 1945, 1949 premiere by Karlsruhe ballet) and The Legend of the Charlatan (1949, premiered in New York).[1] His works were performed by renowned American orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and the NBC Symphony Orchestra.[3]
Ulf-Martin Keller: Richard Mohaupt: Concerto for Orchestra (Based on Red Army Themes) (1942–43) – Gattungskontext, Analyse, Rezeption. Magisterarbeit Universität Hamburg, 2012
Nico Alexander Schneidereit: Richard Mohaupts Chormusik. Magisterarbeit Universität Hamburg, 2010
Mathias Lehmann: Der Dreißigjährige Krieg im Musiktheater während der NS-Zeit: Untersuchungen zu politischen Aspekten der Musik am Beispiel von Karl Amadeus Hartmanns "Des Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend", Ludwig Mauricks "Simplicius Simplicissimus", Richard Mohaupts "Die Gaunerstreiche der Courasche", Eberhard Wolfgang Möllers und Hans Joachim Sobanskis "Das Frankenburger Würfelspiel" und Joseph Gregors und Richard Strauss’ "Friedenstag". Hamburg 2004
Otto Friedrich Regner, Heinz-Ludwig Schneiders: Reclams Ballettführer. 8th edition, Stuttgart 1980
Friedrich Herzfeld: Das Lexikon der Musik. Frankfurt am Main/Berlin/Wien 1976
Kurt Stone: Mohaupt, Richard. In Friedrich Blume (editor): Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel etc. 1961
Heinrich Lindlar: In Memoriam Richard Mohaupt (3.7.). In Musica 11 (1957), p. 581–582
Rudolf Bilke: Richard Mohaupt. In Musica 4 (1950), pp. 324–326
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