Gottfried von Einem; Austrian Composer

Gottfried von Einem, Austria’s best-known contemporary composer and creator of dozens of major musical works, died Friday. He was 78.

Von Einem died in his sleep at his home in Obernduernbach, a village about 30 miles north of Vienna, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Von Einem composed seven operas, including “Danton’s Death,” “The Visit,” and “The Trial.” Considered one of the most prolific creators of music this century, the bearded composer with a shock of white hair also wrote five works for ballet, four symphonies and numerous other pieces.

On a State Department-sponsored tour of the United States in 1953, Von Einem indulged his fascination with jazz. A reporter noted that he displayed “an obvious delight in everything American.”

After meeting several American composers, Von Einem told The Times: “Their technique is very sound. They do not write romantic or Brahmsian music, and they indulge in no Wagnerian posing. To them music is music. They write in an absolutely serious style.”

Asked his opinion of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he said: “It is absolutely first class.”

Von Einem was immersed in music as a child. Famed conductors Wilhelm Furtwangler, Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter and other musical greats were frequent visitors to the family home in Bern, Switzerland, where his father was the Austrian military attache. Their visits continued after the family moved to Germany.

An attempt to study with composer Paul Hindemith after secondary school was foiled by the Nazis, who declared Hindemith’s music decadent. Von Einem instead joined the Berlin Opera in 1938 as a conductor and pianist.

“Princess Turandot,” a ballet composed in the early 1940s, brought fame to von Einem at age 26. That was followed by “Capriccio for Orchestra,” premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic, and his “Hafislieder.”

His “Concerto” created a scandal in Nazi-ruled Germany because the last movement included jazz improvisations, and the Nazis considered jazz decadent. Von Einem fled repercussions by moving from Berlin to the remote Styrian town of Ramsau, Austria.

His place among the century’s leading composers was ensured by “Danton’s Death,” first performed in 1947 at the Salzburg Festival.

Von Einem never was a proponent of atonality or dissonance, and his later works were colored by neo-Romanticism.

He is survived by his wife, author Lotte Ingrisch, and his son, Caspar, from an earlier marriage.