Max Spicker

Max Spicker (16 August 1858–15 October 1912) was a German Jewish musician, composer and conductor. He was born in Königsberg, Prussia. He studied with Louis Köhler for 5 years, and then attended Leipzig Conservatory from 1877-9.

In 1882, he moved to New York, where he began conducting the "Beethoven Männerchor". He was Director of the Brooklyn Conservatory from 1888 to 1895, after which he was a teacher of harmony and counterpoint at the National Conservatory in New York. He also served for 12 years as choir director of Temple Emmanuel on Fifth Ave.

He worked for G. Schirmer, in which position he edited the Anthology of Sacred Song and Operatic Anthology. Both became standard anthologies for young singers. He also revised the T. Tertius Noble edition of Handel's Messiah for Schirmer, which remains in wide use.

He died October 15, 1912 in New York City.

Compositions

• Suite for orchestra
• incidental music to Schiller's Demetrius
• cantata Der Pilot for bar. solo, male chorus and orchestra.
• choral compositions
• Many songs

Editions

• Aus aller Herren Länder (a collection of folk songs arranged for male choir)
• Anthology of Sacred Song (G. Schirmer)
• Operatic Anthology (G. Schirmer)
• The Messiah (G. Schirmer)
• Synagogal Services

References

Baker, Theodore (1919), Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (Third ed.), G. Schirmer, http://books.google.com/?id=H2kNAAAAIAAJ .

Strimple, Nick (2005), Choral Music in the Twentieth Century, Hal Leonard, ISBN 9781574671223, http://books.google.com/?id=qepYmsiSnwoC .

Persondata
Name	Spicker, Max
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Date of birth	1858
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Date of death	1912
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