Gottfried Müller (1914-1993): Sonata for solo oboe (1948)

Gottfried Müller was recognized as a very promising young composer during the Nazi era - which is exactly what after that era prevented his music from being recognized too widely. Born in Dresden, he taught at the conservatories of Leipzig (1942-1945) and Nuremberg (1961-1979). When the first Wikipedia article was published about him it told almost nothing else about his music than that he published a cantata titled "Führerworte" in 1943. But as far as I know, during the long remainder of his life he did not compromise himself again, and he composed very sophisticated, heartfelt and soft-spoken music in a conservatively modernistic idiom. Here is my playlist for his music:    • Gottfried Müller   Müller's rich, long and demanding solo sonata for oboe might rather be called a suite. Though there is an allegretto scherzo movement and a song-like slow one, neither does the first one show sonata form, nor does the last bear any rondo or finale character: The opening movement is a two-part rhapsody, whose second part is just a slight variation of the first via inversion, abbreviation or transposition of some of its elements; the last one is a three-part perpetuum mobile, quietly flowing along in 6/8. There is no palpable interrelation between the movements, and whereas the first three are extremely chromatic in the vein of Reger and Karg-Elert, with the third one going to the very fringe of tonal order, the last one returns into unquestioned tonality like Strauss between "Elektra" and "Rosenkavalier". As late as 1987 Müller reedited the third movement by the name of "Agnus Dei", without any change about the music, as a separate solo piece for saxophone. Sonate für die Oboe allein (1948) 1. Grave - adagio - andante - più mosso 0:00 2. Allegretto scherzando 6:51 3. Largo (aka "Agnus Dei") 10:53 4. Con moto flessibile 16:42 played by myself on the clarinet in 2019 painting: Adalbert Stifter, Westungarische Landschaft (West Hungarian landscape, 1841)