Max Butting

Max Butting (6 October 1888 in Berlin, German Empire – 13 July 1976 in Berlin, East Germany) was a German composer.

Max Butting was the son of an ironmonger and of a piano teacher. He received his first musical instruction from his mother and later from the organist Arnold Dreyer. After attending secondary school (Realgymnasium), he studied at the Akademie der Tonkunst (Academy of Composition) in Munich from 1908 to 1914. There, he received instruction in composition from Friedrich Klose, conducting from Felix Mottl and Paul Prill, as well as singing from Karl Erler. He also attended lectures in psychology, philosophy and musicology at the Munich University. Butting learned composition by private instruction from Walter Courvoisier, for the most part, whom Klose had recommended to him after a disagreement.

Butting was not called for military service in the First World War due to bad health. On the urging of his father, he worked as an assistant in his father's business when he returned to Berlin in 1919, where he remained until 1923. However, he was allowed sufficient free time for composing. He quickly got in contact with other young artists and became friendly with Walter Ruttmann and Philipp Jarnach, among others. In 1921, Butting was admitted into the left-wing Novembergruppe and he led their musical events until 1927. In 1925, he was also a musical journalist for the "Sozialistischen Monatsheften" (Socialist Monthly Magazine). His works became better known through performances at the music festivals of the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (Society for New Music), where Butting worked as a member of the board in the German section between 1925 and 1933, and at the Donaueschinger Musiktage. In 1929, Hermann Scherchen conducted Butting's Third Symphony in Geneva, which also brought him recognition at the international level. In the same year, the composer became the vice-chairman of the Genossenschaft deutscher Tonkünstler (Co-operative of German Composers).

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