Joe Gilbert asked:

>Can anyone provide information on Rudolph Karel, died in Terezinstadt
>in 1945.  Compositions? biography?

The Grove entry, without a number of accents:

   Karel, Rudolf (b Pizen, 9 Nov 1880, d Terezin, 6 March 1945).  Czech
   composer and teacher.  In Prague he studied law at the university
   and composition at the conservatory, where he was Dvorak's last pupil.
   During World War I he was interned in Russia; he taught at the Taganrog
   Music School and worked at the Rostov Conservatory, also joining the
   Musicians' Union and directing the Irkutsk Music School.  In 1918 he
   joined the Czech legion, within which he established a symphony
   orchestra and conducted it in about 90 concerts.  He was, in 1923,
   made professor of composition and orchestration at the Prague
   Conservatory, a position from which he was forced in 1941.  Arrested
   by the Gestapo in 1943, he died in the Terezin concentration camp.
   Karel's early compositions were greatly influenced by Dvorak and
   Tchaikovsky, but his mature style is complexly polyphonic, showing
   predilections for involved variation form, modally-tinged harmony
   and irregular rhythm; comparisons can be made with Reger.  The
   difficulty of his music kept it from immediate acceptance, and in
   later years Karel tended towards simplification.

   Works (selective list):

   Operas: Ilscino srdce (Ilsa's Heart), 1909; Smrt kmotricka
   (Grandmother's Death), 1932; Tri slzte vlasy deda rseveda (The Three
   Golden Hairs of the Knowledgeable Grandfather), 1948, completed by
   Vostrak.

   Orchestral: Scherzo capriccioso, 1904; Idealy, 1909; Renesancni
   symfonie, 1911; 4 Slavonic Dance Moods, 1912; Demon - symphonic poem,
   1920; Jarni symfonie (Spring Symphony), 1938; Revolucni predehra,
   1941.

   Cantatas: Vzkriseni (Resurrection), 1927; Sladka balada detska, 1930.

He sounds like a good candidate for Decca's Entartete Musik series.

Richard Pennycuick
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