Józef Koffler

Józef Koffler (28 November 1896 – 1944) was a Polish composer, music teacher, musicologist and musical columnist.

He was the first Polish composer living before the Second World War to apply the twelve-tone composition technique (dodecaphony).

Biography

He was born on 28 November 1896 in Stryj, Austria–Hungary. He studied from 1914 to 1916 in Lwów and from 1918 to 1924 he studied music at the Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna. His teachers were Paul Graener and Felix Weingartner. From 1928 till 1941 Koffler was professionally active as music teacher in Lwów, teaching at the Lwów Conservatory. Polish exile composer Roman Haubenstock-Ramati studied in 1920–1923 composition together with Koffler in Lwów.

Koffler was a composer of 20th-century avant-garde Polish music and the first Polish twelve-tone technique composer.

He must have come into contact with Edward Clark, the British conductor, BBC music producer and former student of Arnold Schoenberg, as his "Variations on a Waltz by Johann Strauss", Op. 23 (1935) were dedicated "À mon ami Edward Clark".