Egon Wellesz

In 1938 Egon Wellesz had to leave his hometown of Vienna where he was a professor of musicology * He emigrated to England where he lived until his death, apart from temporary teaching positions in the USA and in Edinburgh * As a musicologist, he studied Byzantine music which in turn influenced his work as a composer, for instance in the pentatonic melodics of his voice parts * A pupil of Schoenberg, he developed from a style following the influences of Reger, Mahler, Pfitzner and Schoenberg to an original synthesis of expressionist, neo-classicist and archaic elements * His stage works are primarily focussed on Greek mythology * In 1931, Clemens Krauss staged his most important work, the two-act opera Die Bakchantinnen (The Bakchantines), with great success in Vienna * His operas are ritualistic, quasi-oratoric stage works built upon massive choral blocks

Works by Egon Wellesz include:
String Quartets Nos.1 and 2 (1912, 1915-16)
The Bakchantines (1928-29) Opera in two acts