Petersen, Wilhelm
Petersen, Wilhelm
Petersen, Wilhelm, German composer and teacher; b. Athens, March 15, 1890; d. Darmstadt, Dec. 18, 1957. He studied in Germany and worked as a theater conductor, then served in the German army during World War I. In 1922 he settled in Darmstadt as a teacher. He wrote the opera Der goldne Topf (Darmstadt, March 29, 1941), 5 syms. (1921, 1923, 1934, 1941, 1957), 3 violin sonatas, 3 string quartets, and several sacred choruses and songs. He was highly regarded in Darmstadt as a musician and pedagogue. In 1972 a Wilhelm Petersen Society was founded to memorialize his work.
Bibliography
A. Petersen, W. P., Skizze seines Wesens und Lebens (Darmstadt, 1962); W. Mechsner, W. P.: Leben und Werk: Biographie mit thematischem Werkverzeichnis (Frankfurt am Main, 1996).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire