Alan Henry Krueck, 70, of Brownsville, PA passed away suddenly at his home on 24 June 2010. Alan was born on 15 November 1939, the son of the late William F. Krueck and Ruth (Hayes) Krueck of Rochester, NY.

Alan Krueck attended various elementary schools in Rochester, Albany, and Syracuse, NY and graduated from Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, in 1957. He received a Bachelor of Arts in music and related arts from Syracuse University in 1961. The same year he went to Switzerland to begin work for the doctoral degree in musicology at the University of Zürich. In 1963 he interrupted his studies and obtained a Master's Degree in German Language and Literature from Michigan State University in East Lansing in 1965. He subsequently returned to Switzerland to conclude studies there and received his doctorate in 1966. His doctoral dissertation, The symphonies of Felix Draeseke: a study in consideration of developments in symphonic form in the second half of the nineteenth century was the first English-language study of Draeseke's music. Alan joined the faculty of what is now the California University of Pennsylvania in 1967, where he remained for the rest of his career as a Professor in the Departments of Music and Modern Languages, retiring as Emeritus Professor in 2004.

Dr. Krueck was a renowned expert on late 19th Century music and was the world’s authority on the composer Felix Draeseke, about whom he prepared the chapter in the authoritative Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He was instrumental in the organization of the International Draeseke Society of Germany and the US and was the founder of AK/Coburg, a music company that received high praise from music periodicals and publications for recordings with a high degree of originality and quality. Alan lectured frequently at scholarly meetings and earlier in June 2010 returned from the 24th annual conference of the Draeseke Society in Germany.

He is survived by his brother, Donald of Syracuse, a cousin, Stephen Glanville of Rochester, and many other family members in Rochester and Canada. His devotion to scholarship was equaled only by the generosity which he shared it with, and encouraged it in, others. He will be missed and long remembered with great affection by all who had the privilege to know him and experience his sheer exuberance at the variety of life.

Beloved solitude,
Hermitage of the mind,
Refuge of ideas,
Delight of the intellect,
Which discusses and contemplates,
Heavenly ideals
Here amidst the greenery of nature,
I find peaceful repose.
 

To do justice to Alan’s talents needs contributions not only from a musicologist, but also an oenologist and a master chef, plus experts on German literature and World War II tanks. Sticking to my last, in my study of post-romantic music, he was a mentor and an inspiration. We’d gone to high school together and, though mutually civil, really became friends in college, when I’d contacted him regarding a Bruckner edition question. Like many busy people, Alan always had time for someone seriously interested in music. During his studies in Zürich, we exchanged an extensive correspondence on musical and literary matters. Our common reverence for post-romantic Austrian and German music strengthened the bond. (There were differences: I was as deaf to his regard for Massenet as he was to mine for Delius.)

Around 1960, at his house in Syracuse, he opened the pages of an elaborate orchestral score, asking if I could guess when and by whom it was written. I got the year right (1911) but missed the composer - Siegmund von Hausegger. Coincidentally, that very week, I’d just read about Hausegger in a biography of Richard Strauss and in a snarky obituary in Slonimsky’s Music since 1900. I mentioned these coincidences and he said “You should do something on him”. (I’d just begun a more systematic study of music.)

From then on, if in his travels, he hit on an article about Hausegger, or one of his scores, he’d immediately send it to me, or point me in the right direction for further research. When I got interested in the music of Jean Louis Nicodé, he was there again with full support, including endorsing me as the person to contribute to the Nicodé entry in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

These were acts of pure selflessness. As an established expert on late 19th Century music, he’d have been well within his rights to take that material for himself, develop it and get the credit. He had an abundance of novel insights into the music of that era, from the true origins of Borodin’s B minor symphony to the continuation in French symphonic music of the concertante tradition, thus bridging the 18th to the 20th Centuries. That the reputation of Felix Draeseke has gone from an unknown to over 30 listings in current record catalogues is due in large part to his unceasing championship.

When developing my websites, or even doing an article for the American Record Guide, I’d always ask myself, “What would Alan think?” or “How would Alan do this?” We constantly exchanged thoughts and opinions on new recordings, composers, and their works (we were both, I’m afraid, immune to the cult of the virtuoso). When he wrote to praise my Hausegger website, I felt a sense of accomplishment in that I’d already pleased my most important reader.

With his death, I lost a 50-year friend and guide. To those of us privileged to have known him, he must ever be the authentic touchstone whose light we could only reflect. I can scarcely describe the void he leaves and can only think “We’re on our own, now.”

Don O'Connor
Kraemer, PA

Eine Kerze brennt, Alan lächelt - auf dem Foto von der Jahrestagung 2010 - und seine letzten Zeilen vom 9.Juni an mich liegen vor mir. Die Gedanken sind bei dem Verstorbenen, der heimging ohne eine haltende Hand. Wie finde ich Trost? Ich suche einen Weg aus der Tiefe der Trauer: Die Erinnerungen an die Jahre des Kennenlernens, das Wachsen der Freundschaft, die geschenkte Zeit durch Besuche in Magdeburg und die Fülle der Gespräche, in deren Mittelpunkt sich stets die Musik befand. Alan, so lange ich lebe, werde ich es dir danken. 

Ruhe in Frieden.

A candle is burning, Alan is smiling – on the photograph of our Annual Convention in 2010, and his last words written to me on June 9th are in front of me. My thoughts are with the deceased, who left without a comforting hand. How – where – do I find consolation? I seek a path out of the depths of my sadness. The memories of all the years we knew each other, the cementing of friendship, the gift of all the time devoted to visits to Magdeburg and the wealth and fullness of our conversations, which always seemed to center on music. Alan, as long as I live, I shall be eternally grateful to you for all this, and I shall never forget you. 

Rest in Peace.

Brigitte Draeseke
Magdeburg, Germany

I will remember Alan mostly for his joie de vivre. He even enjoyed being grumpy when contemplating his daily struggles. He was an enthusiastic host who loved to cook for his friends. There was always serious conversation around his table, but also raucous humor. No one laughed louder than Alan.

Bill Murdick
Tallahassee, FL

Alan was kind, considerate, generous and a good listener. He patiently permitted me to expound my ideas in emails and at our periodic meetings and was always encouraging about my work. In short, he was everything that a friend should be, a truly special human being.  I knew him for less than four years. We met at the Bard Liszt Festival in 2006. He sat at a table in the lobby with a copy of Raff's orchestration of one (at least one!) of the Liszt tone poems. This was clearly unusual, so I struck up a conversation. I already knew about his work on Draeseke, so his presence was an opportunity for me to make his acquaintance. He was delighted about my enthusiasm for the Raff Sextet, which was played at the festival. When we parted, I seem to remember that I promised to send him recordings of the Norbert Burgmüller symphonies. I did send those recordings a few months later. He responded by sending me radio broadcast recordings of the first four Kalliwoda symphonies. Later, he introduced me to the wonderful music of Rufinatscha.

Since I'm a New Yorker, we met at least twice a year when he flew to New York for the American Symphony concerts, which of course are devoted almost exclusively to unusual repertoire. We always had dinner before or after the concert. This permitted us to discuss myriad musicological topics. We also met last year at one of the Bard Festival performances of Les Huguenots and at the annual meeting of the American Musicological Society in Philadelphia, where we found ourselves face to face backstage after a concert of rarities for piano and orchestra, given by the pianist and musicologist Kenneth Hamilton. In between our meetings, we would periodically exchange lengthy emails about our mutual interests - I realize that I was only one of many who were privileged to have this kind of intellectual interchange with Alan, and there were many who knew him far better than I did.

Last year, when I had the opportunity to offer programming suggestions for a CD of chamber music, I chose works by Draeseke and Norbert Burgmüller. I asked Alan if he would be interested in writing the liner note for the Draeseke work (the clarinet sonata) when the recording was ready. Alas, I was given a copy of the third edit of this recording only yesterday. It's an outstanding recording. I'll do my best to discuss the importance of Draeseke in the notes, and I will include a brief tribute to Alan Krueck, to whose memory the recording will be dedicated.

Barry Wiener
New York, NY

I met Alan as a result of my interest in Draeseke's op. 77. As Director of the Kean University Concert Artists, I produced and performed in an all-Draeseke concert, I believe the first such in the U.S.  Alan came to the performance; he stayed at the house; we became friends; he wrote a generous review of the concert.  I have since been in touch with him about matters concerning Draeseke and other 19th century composers.  He was always gracious in helping us.  He was involved in researching something for us when I heard of his death.  We at Kean are saddened by the loss.  We shall miss him.

Anthony Scelba
Kean University, New Jersey

"The Most Unforgettable Person I've ever Met". A tired, old Readers' Digest topic if there ever was one. The monthly periodical was not held in great esteem by we sophisticated college students in the 1960s and this section, with its banal Norman Rockwellesque characterizations, was often grist for the humor mill. Little could I anticipate that some four decades later I’d be writing a chapter myself.

Alan Krueck was, if anything, unforgettable. I clearly remember the day that I met him: 15 November 1968 (only now realizing that this was also Alan’s 29th birthday - an event quite unrelated to our meeting). While in college I was exposed to a unique group of individuals who seemed to know just about everything about classical music, and the more obscure, the better. Beethoven? He couldn't hold a candle to Spohr. Dvořák? Just a warmed over Zdeněk Fibich! In those days of vinyl, today’s rich treasures and vast recorded legacy were unavailable; nearly half of Dvořák's nine Symphonies were still unrecorded. While I soaked up all I could from such expertise, my newly found gurus would always defer to one who was seemingly all-knowing in the sphere of music... a guy called "Alan" who had apparently moved overseas. Whenever I expressed awe at someone’s vast musical knowledge, the appreciative response was more often than not accompanied by the caveat, "...you should meet Alan."

On that gray November evening, the Syracuse Symphony included in its program Robert Schumann's Julius Caesar Overture - then never played, and certainly never recorded. Alan, with his freshly minted Ph.D. and brand new job in Pennsylvania made the seven hour trip to Syracuse to hear an eight-minute long obscure overture. That was a Krueck M.O. that would play out for the next forty years.

Alan was indeed as informed, dare I say brilliant, as in the legend. Although he could be initially intimidating, I immediately liked the guy. A few weeks later, a cancellation at the last moment of a party on New Year’s Eve left a number of us in the lurch. Not knowing any better, I invited those that I knew over to my student apartment. I had no graces at entertaining at that time (some may say that hasn't changed) but it had to beat any number of people staying at home alone on New Year’s Eve with cancelled plans. Alan, who had returned for the holidays, was on hand and it was more than clear to me that this second encounter would be far from the last. Indeed it was not - with few exceptions we managed to celebrate each subsequent New Year's Eve together for the next forty-one years.

Over those ensuing years Alan and I had the very good fortune to also meet at numerous other events and locations in the US and Europe. Needless to say music, food, and wine figured prominently and we, more often than not, challenged the limits of sobriety at each occasion. Alan's enthusiasm and willingness to always share a bit (or larger serving) of wisdom, or a new recording that one must hear, or a new recipe that one simply must try, or the wine bargain of the month are legend. Perhaps I might have learned some of all that without him, but I doubt it, and it certainly would have been a whole lot less fun.

I will miss him deeply. All who had the privilege to know him now have a vast hole in their lives that will be impossible to fill.

Robert Rej
NY

Der Tod unseres guten Freundes Alan Krueck reißt eine große Lücke in die wissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung mit Leben und Werk von Felix Draeseke. Seit seiner Dissertation bei Kurt von Fischer in Zürich über die Sinfonien Felix Draesekes im Jahre 1967 hat sich Alan Krueck wie kein zweiter mit dieser wichtigen Persönlichkeit des Musiklebens auseinandergesetzt und bis zuletzt grundlegende Forschungen vorgelegt, ohne die keine weiteren Arbeiten jemals auskommen werden. Immer wieder hat er uns mit seiner erstaunlichen, nie unangenehmen Hartnäckigkeit auf offene Fragen aufmerksam gemacht und ist den verschollenen Werken Draesekes auf der Spur geblieben. Mit großem persönlichem Einsatz hat er Editionen, Rekonstruktionen und Aufführungen initiiert, ganze Werkgruppen Draesekes zugänglich gemacht und mit ausführlichen Kommentaren musikwissenschaftlich erschlossen. Dabei bildete Draeseke einen Nukleus seines breitgestreuten kulturellen Interesses, das vor allem deutsche Kunst zum Gegenstand hatte. In seiner erfolgreichen Universitätslaufbahn hat er in Amerika dafür gesorgt, ein sympathisches Deutschlandbild zu vermitteln und junge Studierende mit den Schätzen unserer Kultur vertraut zu machen. Alan Krueck wird aufgrund seiner freundlichen Persönlichkeit und seiner musikwissenschaftlichen Leistungen unvergessen bleiben.

Helmut Loos
Leipzig, Germany

I first corresponded with Alan in 2004 having independently encountered the music of Felix Draeseke. He willingly and graciously entered into a long correspondence with me, a music-lover but musicological ignoramus, on Draeseke and all manner of other forgotten composers. I can say without fear of contradiction that this was something akin to a distance-learning course, conducted as it was entirely by e-mail and the occasional phone call, usually late at night at my end in the UK!

When I finally met Alan in London on one of his extended visits, the man came into clearer focus. He was a learned musicologist, an advocate of unsung great music - and he also had a twinkle in his eye. He could be caustic about the way concert programming these days makes it almost impossible to interest high-profile performers in performances of neglected music, but his enthusiasm for the concerts and recordings that were being organised, often at his own behest of course, was still that of the young man who had encountered the old wartime recording of Draeseke's 3rd Symphony, the Tragica,and had been bowled over by the music.

For me personally his passing is a huge blow, for I have lost a friend. For the wider musical world, his death is also a huge blow, for a man of great learning, intellect and dedication to his cause has departed from us.

Thanks, Alan, for all you have done.

Alan Howe
UK

Als ich mich vor vielen Jahren, am Beginn meines Musikwissenschaft-studiums, intensiver mit Felix Draeseke beschäftigte, stieß ich bald auf Alan Kruecks Dissertation über die Symphonien Draesekes und ihr Umfeld. Damals schien er mir eine unerreichbar weit entfernte Persönlichkeit zu sein. Umso erfreuter war ich, als er sich, nach der Gründung der Internationalen Draeseke-Gesellschaft, meldete und sich mit seiner ganzen Begeisterung deren Aktivitäten anschloß und sie auf vielfältige Weise besonders förderte. Ich habe ihn als ausgesprochen liebenswerten und humorvollen Menschen kennengelernt, der seine außergewöhnliche Musikalität und sein enormes musikhistorisches Wissen ganz in den Dienst der Verbreitung der Werke Draesekes stellte. Sein Tod verursacht sowohl in menschlicher wie auch in fachlicher Hinsicht eine nicht zu schließende Lücke.

Sigrid Brandenburg
Galmsbüll, Germany

Being rather in awe of Alan's reputation amongst Raff enthusiasts as the pioneering Raff advocate, when I finally met him I was disarmed by his bonhomie, boundless enthusiasm, his generosity of spirit and his thoughtfulness, already described in so many of these tributes. Throughout our warm friendship of 10 years, which managed to survive Alan's technophobic attempts at email, I was constantly humbled by his eagerness to share the fruits of his researches, his selfless encouragement of my own efforts to promote Raff's music and his delighted pleasure when those efforts bore fruit. But he was a man of passions. Passionate about music, passionate about the wrong which history had done to Draeseke and Raff in particular and passionate about what he regarded as the stumbling blindness of concert promoters and conductors in denying the public music capable of giving so much pleasure.

My abiding personal memory of him now, though, is that Alan was great fun to be with. Tribute has already been made to his idiosyncratic dress sense - you could usually pick Alan out in a crowd. He had a great fund of stories, often embroidered as the evening wore on and the bottle got emptier, but always retold with a warmth of spirit and self-deprecating humour. He did reserve a caustic wit, though, for retelling his frequent run ins with petty bureaucrats, a species for which he had no time at all. Alan was careful with money and took great pleasure in his frugality (and revelled in someone's description of him as "El cheapo grande") even though its results were not quite what he expected. His tortured transatlantic routings in pursuit of economy were always recounted with relish, even if on one occasion at least they resulted in a missed connection and no European trip at all. I particularly remember meeting him outside his hotel opposite Antwerp's rail station which, he delightedly told me, was very cheap. It clearly was - most of the other residents were renting rooms by the hour, something of which Alan seemed blissfully unaware! But he was a generous host - I remember a wonderful meal in a French restaurant near New York's Lincoln Center where Alan hosted his old friend Don Schwab and I, he refusing all offers to contribute to the substantial bill. He was an engaging guest too, staying with us in England for a few days and utterly charming my mother-in-law on a shared day trip out to Parry's and Elgar's birthplaces and, ever the cook, enthusiastically discovering English "chip butties" in a pub. They only met once, and yet she talked about him for the rest of her days.

Shortly before he died, he fulfilled a lifetime's ambition and heard Raff's Third Symphony played in concert in Germany. His review is typical of him - generous and enthusiastic. His account of his visit backstage after the concert for me encapsulates much of what Alan was: "I was given a chance to go upstairs backstage in the Stadthalle to converse with the conductor, Herr Stoehr. Coming down the hallway as I reached the floor was a member of the orchestra, a cellist. Upon greeting me in passing, I simply smiled and said: "A wonderful job this evening, especially in the Raff." His eyes lit up and with unbounded enthusiasm replied: "Yes, yes! Isn't it?! It's wonderful and nobody plays it! I hadn't even heard of him till I saw his name programmed". There's much more to this encounter but that must suffice. Since he was a cellist (unaware of other Raff symphonies) I told him to root for No.10, Zur Herbstzeit - "it's a cellist's dream!". I estimate his age at late 30s, early 40s. As I left the cellist, I was halted by a gentleman emerging from Stoehr's dressing room who had obviously overheard the lively banter between me and the cellist. He introduced himself as Florian Ludwig, the official conductor of the orchestra. When I told him I was an American who had gone out of his way to hear the Raff Im Walde in Hagen, he erupted with effusive joy and a lengthy conversation ensued during which I made more suggestions for Raff - and put in a good word for Felix Draeseke! Sensing that I wished to speak with Stoehr, he grasped my hand and shaking it said in farewell: "I would SO like to do Welt Ende!" Alan's enthusiasm working it's magic on two more people, who will probably remember those brief encounters for the rest of their lives.

Mark Thomas
UK

Wir haben Alan als liebenswerten Menschen kennengelernt, der uns während unserer Zusammenarbeit immer wieder mit seinem Wissen und seiner Begeisterung für die Musik beeindruckt und angesteckt hat.

Alans bewundernswertes Engagement für seine Ideale und seine Herzlichkeit im Umgang mit uns werden wir in tiefer Erinnerung behalten.

Hölderlin-Quartett

As a purveyor of obscure classical repertoire, who works out of his house, I received two visits from Alan.  During phone conversations I found that he was a great dog-lover and that he regretted that his frequent traveling during his retirement prevented him from getting a canine companion of his own.  I described my various dogs, past and present, and told him about the bloodhound I had at the time (this was back in 1999 when I was in Massachusetts).  Alan asked if he could drop by for a visit once when he was on his way back home to Brownsville from somewhere and, when he arrived, I was surprised to find him carrying a fresh steak in a bag for Ruby!  She loved people and covered him with hair, drool and affection and Alan seemingly couldn't get enough.

He didn't bring a steak two years ago when he visited me here in Tucson but was just as happy to be completely covered in canine attention by my basset hound and my borzoi.  This love of dogs went hand-in-hand with the gentle nature, modesty, good humor and great reservoir of human warmth which were my main and lasting impressions of the man.

Jeff Joneikis
Records International

I met Alan once in Rochester, New York, about eight years ago.  I was staying with a friend on the faculty of Nazareth College whom I had met the previous summer at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival.  I had been corresponding with Alan by e-mail and when I mentioned my forthcoming trip to central New York he told me that he would be there at the same time, so why not meet?

I told my host about Alan's suggestion, so we made plans to meet for dinner, then go to a concert of the Rochester Philharmonic.  Alan was a curious dresser, as has been mentioned.  When we met him, he was attired rather like how one would imagine an English country gentleman would dress, assuming one had never been to the English countryside.  He cheerily greeted us, chatted amiably during the short walk to our table, chatted enthusiastically while we ordered, and basically never stopped for the entire meal.  We nodded encouragingly between mouthfuls, but said little.

This was my first encounter with Alan's famous enthusiasm.  I must admit that at the time I was a bit perplexed, but I later came to understand that this was just how Alan was.  If you entered into an encounter with him prepared for "My Dinner With Alan", then you could actually have a grand time.  I am reminded of George Henschel's reminiscence of a visit with Brahms to Raff's house:

In the afternoon we paid a visit to Joachim Raff. Raff was one of the most popular composers of the time and lived at that time in Wiesbaden. Of his over 300 works, scarcely three are known today. 'I really like Raff a lot', said Brahms, 'and he likes to hear himself speak so much that it is as much fun as going to the theatre…He isn’t happy unless he composes a certain number of hours each day, and on top of that he writes out all his orchestral parts himself!'

I mean not a word of this disparagingly.  In a way, listening to Alan really was almost as much fun as going to the theatre.

Curiously, I don't remember much about the concert.  They might have done Hindemith's Mathis der Maler on the second half, which I ought to remember since it's one of my favorite works.  What I do remember vividly was a performance of Barber's Knoxville, Summer of 1915, with the very lovely Jennifer Aylmer as the soloist.  As the orchestra was tuning up Alan turned to me and said, "Forgive me, but you may hear a choked sob or two coming from me.  I love this piece, and every time I hear the part where the soprano talks about her mother and father being good to her, I can't help think of my own parents.  They were so good to me and I loved them very much."

The work began.  I was quite taken in by the performance.  Then, the moment arrived:

All my people are larger bodies than mine...with voices gentle and meaningless like the voices of sleeping birds.  One is an artist, he is living at home.  One is a musician, she is living at home.  One is my mother, who is good to me.  One is my father, who is good to me.  By some chance, here they are, all on this earth; and who shall ever tell the sorrow of being on this earth, lying on quilts, on the grass, in the summer evening, among the sounds of the night?

I became aware of motion to my left.  Alan was quietly clutching his handkerchief, muffling his sobs and dabbing his tears.

Alan gave me a standing invitation to visit him where he lived near Pittsburgh.  Though a musician in spirit he was a German scholar by profession, having taught the subject for many years at the improbably named California University of Pennsylvania.  Alas, in the intervening years I never took him up on it.  Now that chance is gone.  In it's place, I'll have a certain association to someone, now gone, whenever I hear a key passage from Barber's Knoxville.

John Boyer

I was so sorry to learn of Alan Kreuck’s sudden death.

I first got to know Alan Kreuck through a correspondence that he initiated about Stelzner instruments. He had recently recorded Draeseke’s Stelzner quintet and then learned that I had a complete set of Stelzner instruments, the only such set in existence in playing condition. He asked me to lend them to his players to allow for a recording of the work on the instruments for which it had been composed. I agreed immediately.

What followed was a memorable series of events, including a trip to Houston for a performance of the work and a series of performances in the USA and in Europe (one in Iowa City). During this period, more than a year, I believe, I interacted with Alan on many occasions both in person and through a lively email correspondence. We corresponded until very recently. It was a delight for me, in my declining years, to meet a man so full of life and so dedicated to a goal. His enthusiasm for the Stelzner saga that I was then still unearthing kept me digging away at the story. During those few years that I knew him, he was a singular influence on me, showing me how one can maintain the optimistic visions of youth for a lifetime. I will indeed miss him.

James Christensen
Iowa City, USA

Die Welt ist um einen Idealisten ärmer geworden. In seinem ersten Brief an mich vom 8.5.1959 handelte es sich um die Symphonien von Felix Draeaeke über die er damals seine Diseertation schrieb. Ein Leben lang fühlte er sich der Musik dieses Komponisten verpflichtet. Er wurde Mitglied und Förderer der Internationalen Draeseke Gesellschaft und gründete 1993 die "International Draeseke Society of North America" als hochgeschätzter Musikwissenschaftler der USA und in Europa. Er hat nicht nur über Musik geschrieben, sondern darüber hinaus sämtliche Kammermusikwerke von Felix Draeseke auf 8 CD'S aufnehmen lassen und wieder zum Klingen gebracht. Vergangenes Jahr hat er seiner Alma mater in Zürich eine größere Geldsumme zur Erforschung des Aufenthaltes Draeseke’s in der Schweiz zur Verfügung gestellt, da diese Jahre in der Biographie Draeseke's nur wenig bekannt sind. In seinem letzten Brief an mich vom 22.6.2010 schreibt er am Schluß: "Ich könnte eine neue CD ahnen, Violinkonzert, Symphonisches Andante, u. Bertram de Born Ouvertüre. Gibt's einen Unterschied zwischen spinnen und träumen? Beide ergeben Hoffnung?"

Ich gedenke in Dankbarkeit eines gutherzigen Menschen und freue mich zu seinen Freunden zählen zu dürfen. Sein gelebter Optimismus ist mir Vorbild.

Heinz Ebert
Neustadt, Germany

I was so sorry to hear the news - even more sorry because I had in mind that in the 2011-2012 season of performing the Draeseke 3rd Symphony, and one of things that I was looking forward to was to have Alan come in to hear it!

Alan flew in to hear us do the Raff Symphony no. 10 and the Henselt Concerto in October of 2008, and he wrote a very nice review of the concert for the Raff Society. I think he enjoyed being a kind of mini-celebrity - everyone in the orchestra knew he had flown in from Pennsylvania and that he was going to review us. He delighted people with his esoteric knowledge of music and his very distinctive opinions. A group of us went out to unwind after the concert, and my principal bassoon said to me "he knows more weird music than anyone I have met - including you!"

This season we will do a concert of music by composers whose music was compromised by their association-either by choice or inadvertently-with the National Socialist regime. As my desire to do this program stemmed at least in part out of a discussion I had with Alan on this subject, I will dedicate the concert to his memory.

Warren Cohen, Music Director
MusicaNova Orchestra

We are sad to hear about Alan's passing away. It was good to have met him many times in Germany, last time in early June 2010 in Coburg. We did always appreciate his fine sense of humor and will miss his positive outlook on life. With deepest sympathy we will remember Alan fondly.

Irmgard and Carlo Padilla
Issum, Germany

Mein Interesse an Alans Artikel Gudrun Opern des 19. Jahrhunderts führte uns vor einigen Jahren zusammen und resultierte in einer mehrjährigen Freundschaft mit regelmäßigen Treffen, Opern- und Konzertbesuchen während seiner Aufenthalte in Deutschland. Als Mitglied der "Gesellschaft der Freunde <Theater Altes Hallenbad> Friedberg / Wetterau e.V." stand er mir bei dem Bemühen, das leer stehende Jugendstilbad in Friedberg in ein Kulturzentrum umzuwandeln, bei.

Gerne erinnern meine Frau Gudrun und ich uns an Alans unterhaltsame Erzählungen aus seinem vor allem durch musikalische Erlebnisse geprägten Leben zurück.

Alan, wir freuen uns, Dich kennen gelernt zu haben! Vielleicht schaust Du nun gemeinsam mit Felix Draeseke auf uns herab und verfolgst unser Schaffen hier unten.

Marc Rohde
Friedberg, Hessen

I will truly miss Alan Krueck. He was a frequent presenter at meetings of the Allegheny Chapter of the American Musicological Society. He was always interesting and informative. His enthusiasm was infectious! Alan worked as a Professor of German at a small Pennsylvania state university. He was not allowed to teach musicology in the Music Department there. When you consider that all the research he accomplished was on his own, with absolutely no institutional support, his musicological accomplishments were truly remarkable!

Carl Rahkonen
Professor, Music Librarian
Indiana, PA

I was introduced to Alan Krueck in 2007 by Mark Thomas from the Raff Society and Martin Anderson from Toccata Classics As I was doing my research for the recording projects of Raff's works for piano and orchestra, I found myself very fortunate to have Alan's essays and analyses of the composer's works that were available from the Raff's website.

Our e-encounters were brief but I was touched by his spirit, sincerity, nourishing encouragement and the wonderful combination of wisdom and humility of a true scholar.

Am very saddened that Alan is no longer with us but, at the same time, am in peace with the thought that the fruits of his vision and life long passion for music will still be with us for many years to come.

Tra Nguyen, pianist
UK

Alan Krueck traf ich zum erstenmal vor etwa 15 Jahren. Er war damals auf seiner jährlichen Europareise und Herr Follert von der IDG meinte, eine Begegnung wäre für uns beide nützlich, da wir eine gemeinsame Liebe zur Musik Joachim Raffs hätten. Wir vereinbarten, uns am Ausgang des Stuttgarter Hauptbahnhofs zu treffen und, obwohl wir uns nie vorher begegnet waren, erkannten wir uns auf Anhieb. Merkwürdigerweise ist uns das in den folgenden Jahren - und er kam fast jede Jahr - nicht immer so gut gelungen und wir warteten häufig an verschiedenen Plätzen aufeinander. Die Verbreitung von Handys half hier sichtbar weiter. Was mir spontan an ihm auffiel, war sein Enthusiasmus für viele in Vergessenheit geratene Komponisten und ihre Werke und seine enzyklopädischen Kenntnisse auf diesem Gebiet. Es war so, als hätte er seine riesige Platten- und CD-Sammlung, für die er vor Jahren ja sogar ein zweites Haus gekauft hatte, ständig präsent. Nur selten konnte ich ihn mit etwas überraschen, das er noch nicht kannte, was ihm dann ein erstauntes "wirklich?" entlockte.

Fast sein ganzes Leben war er als Advokat vergessener Meister tätig, schrieb Publikationen, hielt Vorträge, versuchte Künstler zur Aufführung von Werken zu überzeugen. Da nun der Kunstbetrieb generell sehr eingefahrenen Gleisen folgt, in den USA mehr noch als in Europa, war dies ein mühseliges Unterfangen, glich wahrhaft Don Quichotes Kampf gegen die Windmühlenflügel. Wie oft erzählte mir Alan, dass er wieder einen Großen der Dirigierzunft beschworen hat, doch endlich Draesekes "Tragica" aufzuführen und wieder einmal ohne Erfolg. Wenn wir uns vorstellen, dass Alan nun im Gefilde der Seligen weilt, so müssten die Herren Draeseke und Raff ihren Propheten nun mit größter Dankbarkeit hofieren und ihm das Eingewöhnen in die neue Umgebung so angenehm wie nur möglich machen. Das jedenfalls wünsche ich ihm von Herzen. In dieser Welt hatte er noch die sehr gute Idee, wenigstens etwas von dem musikalischen Reichtum, den er kannte, von dem aber die harthörige Musikwelt nichts wissen will, der Nachwelt zu hinterlassen in Form von CD Aufnahmen von Werken Draesekes und Raffs. In dieser, im Vergleich zu Notendrucken sehr viel zugänglicheren Form wird die von Alan geliebte Musik für die Nachwelt anschaulich zugreifbar bleiben. Dieser Gedanke muss ihn sicherlich mit grosser Befriedigung erfüllt und für das viele antichambrieren entschädigt haben.

Überhaupt war Alan zwar ein Außenseiter im Musikbetrieb, aber keinesfalls ein verbitterter. Ich werde ihn stets als liebenswürdigen, optimistischen, auch junggesellenhaft kauzigen Menschen in Erinnerung behalten. Er hatte viel Humor, war stets zu Späßen aufgelegt, konnte mitunter sogar richtig albern sein, was bei zartbesaiteten Gemütern auch schon mal Verwunderung hervorrufen konnte. Seine Lustigkeit konnte aber auch den Blick auf den Menschen Alan Krueck verstellen, seine Träume, seine Passionen, sein Scheitern. Viel habe ich nicht erfahren, was in ihm vorging, nur hier und da mal einen halben Satz.

Neben seinen vielen Verdiensten bin ich Alan zu besonderem Dank verpflichtet für seine Tätigkeit als Übersetzer und Sponsor für die Edition Nordstern. Zahlreiche Vorworte meiner Raff Ausgaben hat er stilsicher ins Englische übertragen, bei anderen selbst den Text verfasst. Zwei Erstausgaben von Draeseke Werken hat er gesponsert: die Ouvertüre zu "Bertran de Born" und das "Symphonische Andante" für Cello und Orchester, welches noch in diesem Jahr in Partitur erscheinen soll mit einem Vorwort von Alan. Seine letzte Übersetzung war ein Vorwort zu Raffs Kantate "Die Sterne", die ebenfalls noch in diesem Jahr herauskommen soll. Es wird also auch nach seinem Tod noch Publikationen von Alan geben. Ihm und uns wünsche ich, dass sich vielleicht jemand finden möge, Alans Vermächtnis, das Label AKCoburg, weiterzuführen, aber auch das bisher erreichte ist ein reicher Besitz.

Ich werde Alan Krueck sehr vermissen.

Volker Tosta
Stuttgart, Germany

Alan and I came to know each other during the past six years or so at the time when my interests in Joachim Raff resulted in the series of articles, prefaces, analysis and commentary that I wrote for Mark Thomas' raff.org, Musikproduktion Hoeflich (Munich), Edition Nordstern (Stuttgart), Sterling Records (Stockholm) and Divox Records (Switzerland). Once we had established our friendship, it became particularly heartwarming to be able to talk extensively with him of our mutual knowledge and love of the great American symphonic literature. My personal relationships with people like Vincent Persichetti. Darius Milhaud and Roger Sessions (who were my teachers), Peter Mennin, Elliott Carter, Hugo Weisgall, Luciano Berio, David Diamond, Milton Babbitt, William Schuman, and others resulted in lively and informed conversation. He was particularly supportive of my own music and sought to help with the impossibly difficult problems of finding performers and performances. Alan, who was a great raconteur and who especially loved various kinds of cuisine, was particularly (and pleasantly) surprised by the kosher cuisine my wife and I introduced him to when we met from time to time in New York. As many others have already noted, Alan's work on behalf of Draeseke and Raff are perhaps his most significant contributions, and are most certainly his legacy.

Avrohom Leichtling
New York

Mit seinem Humor, seiner ansteckenden Lebensfreude und seinem ausgeprägten Intellekt war Alan immer ein vorzüglicher und interessanter Gesellschafter. Lachen war sein Lebenselixier. Viel Interesse zeigte er am Funktionieren der schweizerischen, direkten und föderalistischen Demokratie.

Diese bietet dem Einzelnen viel Gestaltungsraum und Mitbestimmung, verlangt aber im Gegenzug grosse Eigenverantwortung und Einsatzbereitschaft zugunsten des Gemeinwohls.

Als Leiter der schulischen Integration der Gemeinde Langnau a.A. Kt.Zürich durfte ich im Februar 1996 an Alans Schule, der California University of Pennsylvania einen Vortrag unter dem Titel "Teaching in a multicultural society" halten. Die nachfolgenden Diskussionen wurden von Alan mit grosser Freude und Sachkenntnis moderiert.

Alans Kulturvorlesungen an seiner Uni waren in jeder Hinsicht einzigartig. Alan, ich danke Dir für Deine Gastfreundschaft, Dein Lachen und Deine tiefgründigen Gespräche.

Jörg Schädler
Albis, Switzerland

In addition to his activities in Draeseke research, Dr. Krueck was an active member and participant in the Allegheny Chapter of the American Musicological Society. His frequent papers there were invariably informative and entertaining, and were marked by the highest standards of scholarship and musicality. His presence enlivened every conversation. The Chapter will miss him as a person as well as his contributions. We extend our condolences to his brother Donald, to the members of his extended family, and to the many friends who remember him fondly.

Robert M. Copeland
Professor of Music, Geneva College
President, Allegheny Chapter American Musicological Society