Hans Gál (1890-1987), of Hungarian Jewish lineage, was born in Brunn am Gebirge near Vienna, Austria. He learned piano and eventually composition. He taught at the New Vienna Conservatory and studied musicology at the Musikhistorisches Institut, under Guido Adler. Gál fled Austria as the Nazis came to power, leaving behind many of his compositions and seeing them destroyed because of anti-Semitism. Eventually he came to Edinburgh, Scotland. Even though he often returned home after the war, and though he never abandoned his German-Austrian musical heritage, Gál also spent much of his time studying and writing in Edinburgh, where in finally died.
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