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Image:Max reger.jpg|right|122px|Photograph of Max
Reger
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (March 19,
1873 – May 11, 1916) was a Germany|German
composer, organist, pianist and teacher.

== Life ==
Born in Brand, Germany|Brand, Upper Palatinate,
Reger studied music in Münich and Wiesbaden with
Hugo Riemann. In 1901 he settled in Münich, where
he taught organ and composition, and from 1907 he
worked in Leipzig, where he was music director of
the university until 1908 and professor of
composition at the conservatoire until his death.
He was also active internationally as a conductor
and pianist in that period of time. Among his
students there were Joseph Haas and George Szell.
From 1911 he conducting|conducted the court
orchestra at Meiningen until it was disbanded in
1914, when he moved to Jena. He died of a
myocardial infarction|heart attack in Leipzig.

== Works ==
During a composing life of little more than 20
years, Reger produced a large output in all
genres, nearly always in abstract forms, although
few of his compositions are well known today. Many
of his works are fugues or in variation form,
including what is probably his best known
orchestral work, the Variations and Fugue on a
theme of Mozart (based on the opening theme of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11
(Mozart)|Piano Sonata, K. 331). He also wrote a
large amount of music for organ (music)|organ,
including  the Fantasy and Fugue on BACH (based on
the BACH motif), and music in virtually every
other genre (opera being a notable exception).

He was a firm supporter of 'absolute' music and
saw himself as being part of the tradition of
Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. His work
often combines the classical structures of these
composers with the extended harmonies of Franz
Liszt and Richard Wagner and the complex
counterpoint of Johann Sebastian Bach.  His organ
music, though also influenced by Franz
Liszt|Liszt, was provoked by that tradition. Of
his orchestral pieces, his symphonic and richly
elaborate 'Hiller Variations and 'Mozart
Variations are justly remembered; of his chamber
music the lighter-textured trios have retained a
place in the repertory, along with some of the
works for solo string instruments. His late piano
and two-piano music places him as a successor to
Brahms in the central German tradition. He pursued
intensively, and to its limits, Brahms's
continuous development and free modulation, often
also invoking, like Brahms, the aid of Bachian
counterpoint: Many of his works are in variation
and fugue forms; equally characteristic is a great
energy and complexity of thematic growth.

His works were not revolutionary and could be
considered retrospective as they followed
classical and baroque forms such as the fugue and
continuo. The influence of the latter can be heard
in his chamber works which are deeply reflective
and unconventional. 

Reger is also known for his letter to a newspaper
critic who had reviewed his work negatively: "I am
sitting in the smallest room in my house.  Your
review is before me.  Soon it will be behind me."

==Some Reger Works==
===Chamber Works===

*Violin sonatas
**Without piano
***Four violin solo sonatas in opus 42
***Seven violin solo sonatas in opus 91
**With piano
***Violin Sonata #1 op. 1 in D minor
***Violin Sonata #2 op. 3 in D major
***Violin Sonata #3 op. 41 in A major
***Violin Sonata #4 op. 72 in C (gave rise to a
critical scandal at its premiere, juxtaposed with
the first sonata by Ludwig Thuille)
***Violin Sonata #5 op. 84 in F-sharp minor
***Violin Sonata #6 op. 103b/1 in D minor
***Violin Sonata #7 op. 103b/2 in A
***Violin Sonata #8 op. 122 in E minor (1911,
premiered Leipzig)
***Violin Sonata #9 op. 139 in C minor (1915)

*Cello sonatas
**Cello Sonata #1 op. 5 in F minor
**Cello Sonata #2 op. 28 in G minor
**Cello Sonata #3 op. 78 in F major
**Cello Sonata #4 op. 116 in A minor

*Serenades
**Serenade #1 opus 77a in D major (flute, violin,
viola)
**Serenade #2 opus 141a in G major (flute, violin,
viola)

*String trios
**String Trio #1 opus 77b in A minor
**String Trio #2 opus 141b in D minor

*Piano trios
**Piano Trio #1 opus 2 in B minor (violin, viola,
piano)
**Piano Trio #2 opus 102 in E minor

*String quartets
**String Quartet
#0 in D minor,
with optional double bass in finale
**String Quartet #1 opus number|opus 54 number 1
in G minor
**String Quartet #2 opus 54 number 2 in A major
**String Quartet #3 opus 74 in D minor
**String Quartet #4 opus 109 in E-flat major
**String Quartet #5 opus 121 in F-sharp minor

*Piano quartets
**Piano Quartet #1 opus 113 in D minor
**Piano Quartet #2 opus 133 in A minor

*Piano quintets
**Piano Quintet #1 op. posthumous in C minor
**Piano Quintet #2 op. 64 in C minor

*Organ (music)|Organ (a very, very considerable
output)
**Sonata opus 33 in F-sharp minor
**Sonata opus 60 in D minor
**Suite opus 92
**Fantasia and Fugue on a Theme of Bach, opus 64
**Fantasy and Fugue, opus 135b

*Piano (also a large output)
**Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Bach, opus 81

**Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Telemann,
opus 134

*Also
**Clarinet quintet op. 146 in A major
**String sextet op. 118 in F major

===Orchestral===
*Concertante
**Violin concerto (Reger)|Violin concerto opus 101
in A major
**Piano concerto (Reger)|Piano concerto opus 114
in F minor
**Concerto in the Olden Style opus 123

*Large-Scale Symphonic
**Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Beethoven,
opus 86 (arranged from a 2-piano work)
**Sinfonietta, opus 90 in A major
**Serenade, opus 95
**Hiller Variations, opus 100
**Symphonic Prologue to a Tragedy, opus 108
**Romantic Suite, opus 125
**Four Tone Poems after A. Bocklin, opus 128
**Variations on a Theme of Mozart, opus 132

*Choir and Orchestra
**Psalm 100, opus 106 (arranged also by Paul
Hindemith|Hindemith, has also been recorded in
this form)


==Selective Bibliography==

**Anderson, Christopher (2003).  Max Reger and
Karl Straube: Perspectives on an Organ Performing
Tradition.    Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate
Publishing. ISBN 0754630757.
**Bittmann, Antonius (2004). Max Reger and
Historicist Modernisms. Baden-Baden: Koerner.
ISBN 3-87320-595-5.
**Cadenbach, Rainer (1991). Max Reger und Seine
Zeit. Laaber, Germany: Laaber-Verlag. ISBN
3890071406.
**Grim, William (1988). Max Reger: A
Bio-Bibliography. Westport, Connecticut:
Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313253110.


==External link==
*http://www.maxreger.com/console.htm The Max Reger
Pages (in transition)