ABSTRACT
Max Reger was the child of Joseph and Philomena Reger, a devoutly Roman Catholic coupleliving in the village of Brand in Bavarian Oberpfalz. After receiving rudimentary music lessons from his parents, Max began piano and organ study with Adalbert Lindner in 1884. Reger manifested a philosophy by composing music that was at once almost pedantically historical in form and brazenly modern in harmony. The Max Reger and Karl Straube relationship arose from Straube's initial interest in Reger's music, an interest almost certainly acquired from the Berlin organist Heinrich Reimann and stimulated by the young composer's blend of tradition and innovation in a highly individual approach to counterpoint, harmony, and form. The Bavarian is potent genius, essentially related to Reger time only through music and the intimate experiences of youthful years filled with disappointment. The assumption Reger was an able organist grew concurrently with another, related tendency to grant him authority in matters of performance practice, especially regarding Bach.
