Hofrat Dr. Karl Scheidle

Karl Scheidle was born the son of a teacher and organist, who soon discovered and nurtured his son’s musical talent. His older brother was Hermann Scheidle, who later became a member of the Tyrolean Provincial Council. Scheidle attended high school in Bregenz, Hall in Tirol, and Feldkirch. In addition, he began taking violin lessons at the Innsbruck Music School at a very early age and served as an organist from a young age.

After graduating from high school, Karl Scheidle began his studies at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Innsbruck (Dr. iur.), where he joined the Austria Innsbruck fraternity. He then began training at the Department of Church Music at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

The economic situation at the time forced him to pursue a career as a civil servant at the Provincial Finance Directorate in Innsbruck. Alongside this, Karl Scheidle continued his studies in composition in Innsbruck. In 1935, his first major work, his Mass in A major, premiered at St. Augustin in Vienna.

After the Anschluss in 1938, he was dismissed from his position and worked as an organist and church choir director during the war. Toward the end of the war, he composed a Peace Mass in C minor, which was then premiered in September 1945 at the Wilten Abbey Church.

After the war, Karl Scheidle was reinstated as a civil servant at the Innsbruck Provincial Finance Office, but music remained his life’s work. He continued to compose, including, among other works, numerous liturgical compositions (masses, a Good Friday cantata), two symphonies, a violin concerto, a string quartet (in G major), the overture to the stage play “Duke Sigmund of Tyrol” by Gottfried Schöpf, an opera (“Belsazar”), various pieces for wind ensemble, and numerous songs. In terms of compositional style, he is associated with Romanticism.