Kromolicki, Joseph
Life
Born: January 16, 1882, Posen
Died: October 11, 1961, Berlin
Biography Joseph Kromolicki's mother Sophia Kromolicki died soon after his birth. After graduation, he went to the School of Church Music in Regensburg, where he was taught by the Cäcilian-aligned masters Franz Xaver Haberl, Michael Haller and Joseph Renner Jr.. He continued his studies in Berlin at the Stern’schen Konservatorium with Max Julius Lowengard, as well as at the Staatlichen Akademie für Kirchen- und Schulmusik and at the University of Berlin in the fields of musicology, philosophy and art history. He also received private lessons with Hans Pfitzner in composition and conducting. He became a music teacher at the Königlich-Städtischen Realgymnasium in Berlin after graduation. But his main activity, he found as a conductor of the St. Michael's Church choir, which he headed from 1905 to 1956. In 1932 he married Elisabeth Karutz. During World War II, the St. Michael's Church was largely destroyed, which is why the services had to be held in neighboring Marienstift. This limited the scope of his technical possibilities for performance. His apartment in the Melchiorstraße was also bombed. A shelter he found first in Marienstift, later in the Waldemar Street. The remaining years of his life Kromolicki and his wife lived in a retirement home in Schlachtensee in the district Steglitz-Zehlendorf, where he died in 1961, after two years of illness. His grave is in the Michael-cemetery.
During his lifetime he received several awards: 1913 was appointed Royal Music Director, 1930, the ceremony of the Pontifical Order of Merit Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.
In Kromolickis work church music clearly dominates - of his catalog of 90 works only eight are of secular character. Although Kromolicki studied in Regensburg, then the stronghold of Cecilianism, the Festival-Mass in honor of St. Michael the Archangel for four-part mixed choir and organ (1911) his first Mass setting, is stylistically typical of the late romantic era : The setting is characterized by chromaticism, daring modulations and enharmonic equivalence. In his second Mass setting, the second Festival Mass (in honor of St. Sophia), in effort and scope his biggest Mass composition, strong momentum and frequent change of pace is added. After a prolonged period of time the third (1925) and fourth (1926) follow, both a cappella, of which the use of a remote choir is worth mentioning in the fourth. From the sixth Mass a stylistic change from the lush to the ascetic is seen: chromaticism is no longer an end in itself but functions for modulations, quartal harmony and subdued instrumental accompaniment give his later Mass settings a harsher flavor.
List of sacred works
- Fest-Messe zu Ehren des hl. Erzengels Michael für vierstimmigen gemischten Chor und Orgel; op. 1 (1911)
- Zweite Fest-Messe (i. h. S. Sophiae M.) für vierstimmigen gemischten Chor und Orgel; 4 Bläser oder Streichorchester ad lib.; op. 2 (1914)
- Dritte Messe in d-Moll für gemischten Chor; op. 7 (1925)
- Vierte Messe in b-Moll für gemischten Chor und Frauen-Fernchor; op. 9 (1926) Augsburg: Böhm
- Missa brevis (Fünfte Messe) für vierstimmigen gemischten Chor; op. 14 (1928). {http://conquest.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/8/8f/IMSLP404616-PMLP655195-Kromolicki_-_F__nfte_Messe__op._14__Full_score_.pdf Augsburg: Bohm]
- Missa festiva in E (Sechste Messe) für gemischten Chor und Orgel; op. 18 (1929)
- Festmesse für vierstimmigen Männerchor und Orgel (Siebente Messe); op. 20 (1930)
- Missa Dominicalis für vierstimmigen Männerchor (Achte Messe); op. 21 (1931) Augsburg: Böhm
- Missa in festis solemnibus (Neunte Messe) für drei Oberstimmen und Orgel; op. 23 (1931) Augsburg: Böhm
- Missa Exsultet für zweistimmigen Chor und Orgel oder Harmonium; op. 56 (1954)
