Carl Wilhelm Kern: Valse heroique, Op.230

Phillip Sear plays a 1910 'heroic waltz' by the German/American composer Carl Wilhelm Kern (1874–1945).
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Per the Gaylord Music Library website ( http://bit.ly/2eVWN6e ), “Carl Wilhelm Kern was born on June 4, 1874 in Schlitz, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany and died in St. Louis on August 19, 1945. Kern was a pianist, theorist, editor, and composer who studied at Mayence Conservatory of Music. He was first taught by his father Carl August Kern and then by Friedrich Lux, Paul Schumacher, and Adam Coy. He came to the United States in 1893 and taught at Elmhurst (Ill.) College of Music, 1893-94; was an organist in Merrill, Wisconsin, 1894-95; taught at Springfield (Ohio) School of Music 1895-98; and Dennison (Ohio) School of Music, 1898-1903. He concurrently served as supervisor of Music, Dennison (Ohio) Public Schools, 1898-1903. He was in St. Louis briefly in 1903 before taking a position at Baptist University, Dallas, Tex., 1903-04. Kern then returned to St. Louis to join the Strassberger’s Conservatory of Music from 1904 until 1922. In 1923, he joined the Ottmar Moll Piano School as Teacher of Theory.”

He apparently wrote over a thousand piano pieces, and operettas, songs and organ pieces. Certainly, he had exceeded Op. 700 by 1936.

'Heroic waltzes' are few and far between. I presume Kern gave that title because of the bravura octave passage in the beautiful central section. The piece is dedicated to Kern's friend and employer (Carl) Clemens Strassberger (ca.1859–1919). Like Kern, Strassberger, born in Dresden, was a prominent German-American musician, and educator in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, best known as the founder of Strassberger's Conservatory of Music in St. Louis. He established the conservatory around 1902–1905, and served as director and proprietor, supported by family members including his wife as secretary-treasurer and son Bruno as assistant manager.

Thumbnail image generated by Gemini (within Google Slides).
#germanmusic #americanmusic #waltzmusic
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