Sigfrid Karg-Elert

Sigfrid Karg-Elert (November 21, 1877 – April 9, 1933) was a German composer of considerable fame in the early twentieth century, best known for his compositions for organ and harmonium (Conley 2001).

Karg-Elert was born Siegfried Theodor Karg in Oberndorf am Neckar, Germany, the youngest of the twelve children of Johann Jacob Karg, a book dealer, and his wife Marie Auguste Karg, born Ehlert [sic]. According to another account, however, his father was a newspaper editor and publisher (Conley 2001). The family finally settled in Leipzig in 1882, where Siegfried received his first musical training and private piano instruction. At a gathering of composers in Leipzig, he presented his first attempts at composition to the composer Emil von Reznicek, who arranged a three-year tuition-free scholarship at the Leipzig Conservatory. This enabled the young man to study with Salomon Jadassohn, Carl Reinecke, Alfred Reisenauer and Robert Teichmüller.

From August 1901 to September 1902 he worked as a piano teacher in Magdeburg. It was during this period that he changed his name to Sigfrid Karg-Elert, adding a variant of his mother's maiden name to his surname, and adopting the Swedish spelling of his first name.

Having returned to Leipzig, he started devoting himself to composition, primarily for the piano (encouraged by Edvard Grieg, whom he greatly admired); and in 1904 he met the Berlin publisher Carl Simon, who introduced him to the harmonium. From then on until his death he created one of the most significant and extensive catalogs of original works for this instrument. Encouraged by the organist Paul Homeyer, he reworked several of these harmonium compositions for organ, before composing his first original organ piece, 66 Chorale Improvisations, Op. 65 in 1909.

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