Quick Facts
Biography
Rohan Kriwaczek is a British writer, composer and violinist of part-Austrian descent. He studied under Peter Maxwell Davies, Oliver Knussen and Judith Weir, and is a prolific creator of classical works, scores for theatre, TV, and radio, he has become best known as "England's foremost authority on the history and practice of Funerary Violin", a musical art form he invented, complete with a history and composers dating back several centuries. He is the author of the 2006 book An Incomplete History of the Art of Funerary Violin that purports to document this musical genre and contains numerous musical examples in score.
His work has been compared to Peter Schickele; however, Schickele's compositions—passed off as works by Bach's fictitious offspring (cf. P. D. Q. Bach) -- are humorous parodies. Instead, Kriwaczek's music is sombre and haunting—if not macabre. In the latter quality Kriwaczek's works are similar in both character and the attached mythopoeia to tombeaux by Roman Turovsky.