I am posting this in order to ask for your assistance in ascertaining the true identity of yet another "work" by Hans Franke - or rather, three of them.
As I'm slowly making further headway in the Franke story (go
here (https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6910.0.html) for further background), our attempts to discover the identity of more works continue. For the present status I refer everyone to Felix Lambsdorff's
overview of identified and unidentified Franke works. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yNTxYGgleljJURAsLEQjHqRSrQ1GUhBR0yhra5eb8zk/edit?tab=t.0) I remain convinced that further identifications are important to the story, since they can lead us to Franke's sources and give us some insight in his way of thinking. And it can be a satisfying chase, of course.
Before delving into the story, let me emphasize how grateful I would be to hear everyone's ideas, suggestions, and even hunches.
The "5th Symphony" in E major, Deutscher Wald (German Forest), Op. 785, is a somewhat exceptional case in the Franke saga. Its fourth movement was uncovered as originally being Josef Rheinberger's
Taming of the Shrew overture from 1872. This could have gotten the Franke ball rolling, but since everyone forgot about it, it didn't. The score and parts are no longer in the Franke archive in Dresden, and were probably destroyed by Franke's daughter, Erika Prokop.
For that reason, all that we have to identify the other three movements is Frank Heckel's incipits, which he prepared for the Franke catalogue in 1992 (Schaller, Gabriele.
Hans Franke, Werkverzeichnis. Bestandsverzeichnis der erhaltenen Werke (https://www.mediafire.com/file/tsiuzkjg71c6x3r/Schaller%252C_Gabriele_%25281992%2529%252C_Hans_Franke%252C_Werkverzeichnis._Bestandsverzeichnis_der_erhaltenen_Werke%252C_%2528.pdf/file). Frankfurt am Main: Privately Published, 1992.). Felix and I have been deconstructing the information that we have, but it hasn't led to any positive identification yet (although we eliminated a fair number of works from contention). Although we assume that these were probably overtures or similar like the Rheinberger work, it really could be any orchestral movement or even fragment that conveys the right "mood".
The scoresSchaller's catalogue mentions the following about the (now destroyed) scores:
Composition: Completed 13 January 1936 (according to score); 16 March 1936 (according to manuscript).
First (documented) performance: 7 June 1943, Teplitz-Schönau (according to score), Teplitz Opera House, Bruno C. Schestak, Teplitz Municipal Orchestra (according to Teplitz-Schönauer-Anzeiger of 10 June 1943 and Dresdener Zeitung of 17 June 1943, Franke Archive.
Further (verified) performances:
- 2nd movement: • 25 June 1953, Bad Homburg, spa gardens, special spa concert, Hans Franke (for all information: according to Bad Homburger Kurzeitung from 20-27 June 1953 and Der Taunusbote, 3 July 1953, M 5.
- 3rd movement: • 3 August 1954, Bad Kissingen, spa concert, GMD Karl Tutein, Staatl. Kurorchester/Hofer Symphoniker (for all information: according to original programme, M 3).
Sheet music inventory:
- 2 scores
- 2 scores of the 2nd movement
- 1 score of the 3rd movement
- 1 score of the 4th movement
- 1 performance score (additional: 2 parts for horns 1 and 2, if a) only 2 horns and 1 viola or
- b) if horns 3 and 4 and pos. 2 are not occupied)
- 2 performance materials of the 2nd movement
- 1 performance material of the 3rd movement (additional: 1 part for clarinet 1, if flute 2 is not occupied)
- 1 performance material of the 4th movement
The musicTo begin explaining what we know about the music, here is a description from a review in the
Teplitz-Schönauer Anzeiger, 10 June 1943:
QuoteThe second part of the evening was filled with the premiere of Symphony No. 5 in G major [sic] 'Deutscher Wald" (German Forest) by Dresden composer Hans Franke. In four magnificent movements, the composer paints a romantic picture of colourful intensity. The first movement, 'Forest Life', presents us with an idyll, and we experience a friendly atmosphere. We hear a hunting party passing by. In the second movement, 'The Enchanted Forest', a rich array of events passes before us, sometimes with lively intimacy, sometimes with downright Puccinian realism. Unbridled musical passion dominates this movement, which places considerable demands on the orchestra and conductor and crowns them with new glory in its superior mastery. Although modern in character, this music effortlessly allows the listener to penetrate its ideas, and the often complex harmonies repeatedly culminate in the liberating clarity of the melody. The instrumentation of the third movement, 'Abendstimmung am Waldsee' (Evening Mood at the Forest Lake), is entirely calculated to create a mood. The fourth movement, 'Jäger und Jagd' (Hunter and Hunt), depicts a lively bustle of somehow royal grandeur, beginning with a masterful fugue and ending in jubilation and splendour.
Together with Frank Heckel's incipits, this description can give us an idea of what to look out for. Most importantly, the music is supposed to describe scenes from a forest. With many thanks to Felix Lambsdorff for helping with the analysis of the music:
- 1st movement: E major, andante/allegro, 704 bars in total, approx. 13-15 minutes long. Possibly a hunting motif (French horn?) somewhere. This could be an overture from anywhere between 1850 and 1900. It is not possible to determine the style more precisely.
(https://i.imgur.com/dkXpoqE.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/wqGSxdS.jpeg)
- 2nd movement: 290 bars, Allegro-Andante-Allegretto, approx. 6-7 minutes long, 'Puccinian realism', 'unbridled musical passion', technically challenging. It is quite peculiar in terms of harmony. It begins harmonically in E flat minor, but modulates quickly, with the Andante section almost progressive-tonal, if anything, then A flat major. It could be any symphonic poem, probably composed after 1880/90.
(https://i.imgur.com/kPMMozz.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/6y0rmJ9.jpeg)
- 3rd movement: B-flat major (?), 90 bars, Lento, approx. 5 minutes, with solo for English horn. This would also be a very suitable key for such a depiction of nature. It seems to be a copy of Wagner's Waldweben from Siegfried, so it can be dated to after Wagner (and the premiere of the Ring in 1876).
(https://i.imgur.com/OZ7vrQn.jpeg)
- The 4th movement has already been identified as Josef Rheinberger's overture The Taming of the Shrew. The incipits are given for reference purposes.
(https://i.imgur.com/PNGTWRR.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/y4aMOsF.jpeg)
Ilja,you have marshalled the facts in masterly fashion.
Now,what is needed is maximum publicity,in order to recruit some of the finest musical brains in Western Europe (and beyond) to help in the search.
Are you intending to forward this brilliant submission to the top musical authorities at the great Dutch,Czech,German,and Swiss universities (and,perhaps,to Oxford and Cambridge),to the appropriate musical authorities at museums and libraries, and maybe even to publicists such as Hurwitz ?
Your research is worthy of a PhD - have you considered submitting an article on this specific matter to Musicweb International?
The issue is that while it's an interesting case, it's a total academic footnote. Franke (and I'm still not a hundred percent convinced he is who he says he is) was a non-entity, so his impact on the world of music was very, very insignificant. For those reasons I think the case won't be of much interest to professional musicologists, but rather to interested amateurs such as ourselves.
I should have made this clearer, but I am working on a publication about the case. What form that will take is still a bit uncertain. We've come a lot further since the discovery early in 2024, but there's also still a great deal to be uncovered and that takes time.
It only takes one Zola, of course.
What have we got to lose?
Well, there was that bricklayer who poisoned Zola by closing off his chimney. I don't expect anything quite so drastic, but the trick about getting useful information out of experts is to ask the right questions, and I'm still not entirely sure about those. So as far as I'm concerned, the task now is to get the facts sorted out, including identifications of as many works as possible, and gaining more detail about Franke's (and Schestak's) infuriatingly vague biography.
To my mind, there is much more than a musical footnote in all this - there is a principle at stake. There are thousands of composers who have worked tirelessly away and the idea of someone (whether successfully or not) pilfering the fruits of their labours would be anathema.
I will just make one illustration of this point: Liechtenstein (which I have visited several times and had the honour of meeting the father of its reigning prince) is a small ,but proud, nation. Its foremost composer has had one of his compositions filched. What would the Prince want to do,if he was made aware of this turn of events?
Thank you, I had never heard of this.
However, I would suggest that we stick to the Franke 5th symphony discussion here and keep the general discussion of the case at the general Hans Franke thread (https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6910.0.html).
The first movement -could in principle- be some movement from a larger work for orchestra (or for orchestra and other forces, but with orchestra only in that movement) where that movement is presumably an Andante-Allegro (etc) in E major, from around 1840 to even as late as 1920-odd (and similarly mutatis mutandis for the two others not identified so far from this work). RISM and such sources aren't much help here as the themes themselves are generic...
A tangential thought, I know, but I'm always hopeful that some or all of Max Jentsch's E-flat major Symphony will one day turn up. Unfortunately it is impossible to say whether or not Franke possessed any of Jentsch's manuscripts, despite the circumstantial fact that none (bar one) of J's chamber music or orchestra manuscripts seem to have survived. Only time will tell. His does seem like the kind of music Franke may have had access to.
Who knows!
Quote from: 4candles on Sunday 09 November 2025, 23:16A tangential thought, I know, but I'm always hopeful that some or all of Max Jentsch's E-flat major Symphony will one day turn up. Unfortunately it is impossible to say whether or not Franke possessed any of Jentsch's manuscripts, despite the circumstantial fact that none (bar one) of J's chamber music or orchestra manuscripts seem to have survived. Only time will tell. His does seem like the kind of music Franke may have had access to.
Who knows!
I would be curious to know if any instance of Franke working from manuscripts of other composers has been discovered, or whether he relied exlusively on printed scores as the sources of his plagiarisms. If he happened to be in possession of uncatalogued manuscripts of his fellow composers that have since been destroyed or lost, it might be near impossible to discern their original authors...
Wanting to know what these sounded like I typeset them in MuseScore so I figured I would share them with fellow forum members. I have no faith in the transpositions I did in movements 1 and 3 but I wanted to provide more orchestral color.
I. Andante ma non troppo (https://musescore.com/user/27035762/scores/29350388/s/NJh9nd)
I. Allegro moderato (https://musescore.com/user/27035762/scores/29350460/s/WF6_XO) (sound="fast strings")
II. Allegro, molto appassionato (https://musescore.com/user/27035762/scores/29350490/s/KS4f8y)
III. Lento (https://musescore.com/user/27035762/scores/29350529/s/kxAoG6)
The first movement clearly is from the overture to Max Erdmannsdorfer's cantata Prinzessin Ilse, which Martin Walsh has rended a simulation and later made judicious cuts. That piece attracted quite some attention from forum members in the last year. I consider it a terrific earworm piece.
So here Martin unconsciously revealed another strong evidence of Franke's plagiarism.
Cypressdome, thank you for this! The more so since it's obviously been immediately helpful by leading tuatara442442 (whose astuteness I also have to applaud) to Erdmannsdorfer's overture.
The 2nd movement rings no bells, but the 3rd sounds tantalizingly familiar to me...
Ah, thanks! All I could think of was the very slightly related opening to Dvorak's 6th symphony (or also, Brian's as yet unpublished 1930s 3rd[4th] symphony's also fourths-based opening :) ... ) and a few other such things (related to its opening bars, I mean) and then Mendelssohn-like works for the Allegro...
As to the 3rd movement, frankly, the opening has the mood of late Wagner- not that that helps, I know.