Franz Schreker
Encyclopedia
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, teacher and administrator. Primarily a composer of opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s, his style is characterized by aesthetic plurality (a mixture of Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, Naturalism
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
, Symbolism
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
, Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
, Expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
and Neue Sachlichkeit
New Objectivity
The New Objectivity is a term used to characterize the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany as well as the art, literature, music, and architecture created to adapt to it...
), timbral
Timbre
In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...
experimentation, strategies of extended tonality
Tonality
Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
and conception of total music theatre into the narrative of 20th-century music.
Biography
Schreker was born in MonacoMonaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
, the eldest son of the Bohemian
Bohemian
A Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region of Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic. The word "Bohemian" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word...
Jewish court photographer Ignaz Schrecker and his wife Eleonore von Clossmann, who was a member of the Catholic aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
of Styria. He grew up during travels across half of Europe and, after the early death of his father, the family moved from Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
(1888) where in 1892, with the help of a scholarship, Schreker entered the Vienna Conservatory. Starting with violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
studies, with Sigismund Bachrich
Sigismund Bachrich
Sigismund Bachrich , aka Sigmund Bachrich or Siegmund Bachrich, was a Hungarian composer, violinist, and violist....
and Arnold Rosé
Arnold Rosé
Arnold Josef Rosé was a Romanian-born Austrian Jewish violinist. He was leader of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for over half a century. He worked closely with Brahms. Gustav Mahler was his brother-in-law...
, he moved into the composition class of Robert Fuchs
Robert Fuchs
Robert Fuchs was an Austrian composer and music teacher.As Professor of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, Fuchs taught many notable composers, while he was himself a highly regarded composer in his lifetime....
, graduating as a composer in 1900. His first success was with the Intermezzo for strings, Op. 8, which won an important prize sponsored by the Neue musikalische Presse in 1901. After graduating from the conservatory he spent several years taking various bread-and-butter jobs. His first opera, Flammen
Flammen
Flammen is a one-act opera by Franz Schreker, on a libretto by Dora Leen, pseudonym of Dora Pollak .-Composition history:...
, was completed in 1902 but failed to receive a staged production.
Schreker had begun conducting in 1895, when he had founded the Verein der Musikfreunde Döbling. In 1907 he formed the Vienna Philharmonic Chorus, which he conducted until 1920: among its many premières were Zemlinsky's
Alexander von Zemlinsky
Alexander Zemlinsky or Alexander von Zemlinsky was an Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher.-Early life:...
Psalm XXIII and Schoenberg's
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
Friede auf Erden and Gurre-Lieder
Gurre-Lieder
Gurre-Lieder is a massive cantata for five vocal soloists, narrator, chorus and large orchestra, composed by Arnold Schoenberg, on poems by the Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen...
.
His "pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
", Der Geburtstag der Infantin, commissioned by the dancer Grete Wiesenthal
Grete Wiesenthal
Grete Wiesenthal was a member of the corps de ballet of the Hofoper in Vienna. Gustav Mahler was responsible for giving her the role of 'Fenella' in La Muette de Portici in 1907...
and her sister Elsa for the opening of the 1908 Kunstschau, first called attention to his development as a composer. Such was the success of the venture that Schreker composed several more dance-related works for the two sisters including Der Wind, Valse lente and Ein Tanzspiel (Rokoko).
November 1909 saw the stormy premiere of the complex orchestral interlude (entitled Nachtstück) from Der ferne Klang
Der ferne Klang
Der ferne Klang is an opera by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:Drafted in 1901, Schreker completed the three-act libretto in 1903. However, composing the music would take about ten years. Criticism from his composition teacher Robert Fuchs caused Schreker to abandon...
, the opera he had been working on since 1903. In 1912, the first performance of the complete opera in Frankfurt consolidated his fame. In the same year, director Wihelm Bopp offered Schreker a provisional teaching appointment at the Conservatory where Schreker had studied, now the Vienna Music Academy. In early 1913 he was appointed full professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
. This breakthrough heralds a decade of great success for the composer. His next opera, Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin, which was given simultaneous premières in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
and Vienna (March 15, 1913) was less well received (the work was subsequently revised as a one-act 'Mysterium' entitled simply Das Spielwerk in 1915), but the scandal caused by this opera in Vienna only served to make Schreker's name more widely known.
The outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
interrupted the composer's success but with the première of his opera Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten is an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
(Frankfurt, April 25, 1918) Schreker moved to the front ranks of contemporary opera composers. The first performance of Der Schatzgräber
Der Schatzgräber
Der Schatzgräber is an opera in four acts, with a prologue and an epilogue, by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
(Frankfurt, January 21, 1920) was the high point of his career. The Chamber Symphony, composed between the two operas for the faculty of the Vienna Academy in 1916, quickly entered the repertoire and remains Schreker's most frequently performed work today. In March 1920 he was appointed director of the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and between 1920 and 1932 he gave extensive musical tuition in a variety of subjects with Berthold Goldschmidt
Berthold Goldschmidt
Berthold Goldschmidt was a German Jewish composer who spent most of his life in England...
, Alois Hába
Alois Hába
Alois Hába was a Czech composer, musical theorist and teacher. He is primarily known for his microtonal compositions, especially using the quarter tone scale, though he used others such as sixth-tones and twelfth-tones....
, Jascha Horenstein
Jascha Horenstein
Jascha Horenstein was an American conductor.Horenstein was born in Kiev, Russian Empire , into a well-to-do Jewish family; his mother came from an Austrian rabbinical family and his father was Russian....
, Julius Bürger
Julius Bürger
Julius Bürger was an Austrian then American composer, pianist and conductor.He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music under Franz Schreker, and was one of the group of Schreker's pupils - Alois Hába, Jascha Horenstein, Ernst Křenek, Karol Rathaus - who followed Schreker to Berlin when Schreker was...
, Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...
, Artur Rodziński
Artur Rodzinski
Artur Rodziński was a Polish conductor of opera and symphonic music. He is especially noted for his tenures as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic in the 1930s and 1940s.-Biography:...
, Stefan Wolpe
Stefan Wolpe
Stefan Wolpe was a German-born composer.-Life:Wolpe was born in Berlin. He attended the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory from the age of fourteen, and the Berlin Hochschule für Musik in 1920-1921. He studied composition under Franz Schreker and was also a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni...
, Zdenka Ticharich
Zdenka Ticharich
Zdenka Ticharich was a Hungarian pianist, music educator and composer.-Biography:Zdenka Ticharich was born in Budapest, Hungary...
and Grete von Zieritz
Grete von Zieritz
Grete von Zieritz was an Austrian-German composer and pianist.-Life:Grete von Zieritz was born in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of peerage, and grew up in Vienna, Innsbruck and Graz. She received her first piano lessons at the age of six, and later studied with Hugo Kroemer and Roderick Mojsisovics...
numbering among his students.
Schreker's fame and influence were at their peak during the early years of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
when he was the most performed living opera composer after Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
. The decline of his artistic fortunes began with the mixed reception given to Irrelohe
Irrelohe
Irrelohe is an opera in three acts by the Austrian composer Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:Schreker wrote the libretto in a very short time in 1919. The work takes its name from a train station called Irrenlohe which Schreker passed through during a journey to...
(Cologne, 1924 under Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century.-Biography:Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany...
) and the failure of Der singende Teufel (Berlin, 1928 under Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber was an Austrian conductor.- Biography :Born in Vienna, Kleiber studied in Prague...
). Political developments and the spread of anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
were also contributory factors, both of which heralded the end of Schreker's career. Right-wing demonstrations marred the première of Der Schmied von Gent (Berlin, 1932) and National Socialist
National Socialist German Workers Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party , commonly known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party , existed from 1919 to 1920...
pressure forced the cancellation of the scheduled Freiburg
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
première of Christophorus in 1933 (the work was finally performed there in 1978). Finally, in June 1932, Schreker lost his position as Director of the Musikhochschule in Berlin and, the following year, also his post as professor of composition at the Akademie der Künste. In his lifetime he went from being hailed as the future of German opera to being considered irrelevant as a composer and marginalized as an educator. After suffering from a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
in December 1933, he died in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
on March 21, 1934, two days before his 56th birthday.
Although Schreker was influenced by composers such as Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
and Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, his mature style shows a highly individual harmonic
Harmonic
A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...
language, which, although broadly tonal, is inflected with chromatic
Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone apart. On a modern piano or other equal-tempered instrument, all the half steps are the same size...
and polytonal passages.
Contemporary reputation
After decades in obscurity, Schreker has begun to enjoy a considerable revival in reputation in the German-speaking world and in the United States. In 2005 the Salzburg FestivalSalzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
mounted a major production of Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten is an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
, conducted by Kent Nagano
Kent Nagano
__FORCETOC__Kent George Nagano is an American conductor and opera administrator. He is currently the music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian State Opera.-Biography:...
, and the Jewish Museum in Vienna
Jewish Museum Vienna
The Jüdisches Museum Wien, or the Jewish Museum Vienna, is a museum of Jewish history, life and religion in Austria. The present museum was founded in 1988 in the Palais Eskeles in the Dorotheergasse, Vienna, and has distinguished itself by a very active programme of exhibitions.- History :The...
presented an exhibition devoted to his life and work. New productions of Der ferne Klang
Der ferne Klang
Der ferne Klang is an opera by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:Drafted in 1901, Schreker completed the three-act libretto in 1903. However, composing the music would take about ten years. Criticism from his composition teacher Robert Fuchs caused Schreker to abandon...
have been staged at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and the Zurich Opera
Zurich Opera
Oper Zürich is an opera company based in Zurich, Switzerland. The company gives performances in the Opernhaus Zürich which has been the company’s home for fifty years.-History:...
in 2010, as well as in smaller opera houses in Germany. Irrelohe
Irrelohe
Irrelohe is an opera in three acts by the Austrian composer Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:Schreker wrote the libretto in a very short time in 1919. The work takes its name from a train station called Irrenlohe which Schreker passed through during a journey to...
was performed at the Volksoper in Vienna in 2004 and again at the Bonn Opera in November 2010.
In spring 2010 Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten is an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
had its American premiere at the Los Angeles Opera
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...
, while Der ferne Klang
Der ferne Klang
Der ferne Klang is an opera by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:Drafted in 1901, Schreker completed the three-act libretto in 1903. However, composing the music would take about ten years. Criticism from his composition teacher Robert Fuchs caused Schreker to abandon...
enjoyed its first staged American performance at the Bard
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
Summerscape Festival.
Operas
- FlammenFlammenFlammen is a one-act opera by Franz Schreker, on a libretto by Dora Leen, pseudonym of Dora Pollak .-Composition history:...
, Op. 10 (1901/02) - Der ferne KlangDer ferne KlangDer ferne Klang is an opera by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:Drafted in 1901, Schreker completed the three-act libretto in 1903. However, composing the music would take about ten years. Criticism from his composition teacher Robert Fuchs caused Schreker to abandon...
(1903–1910) - Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin (1908; 1909–1912); revised as Das Spielwerk (1915)
- Die GezeichnetenDie GezeichnetenDie Gezeichneten is an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
(1911; 1913–1915) - Der SchatzgräberDer SchatzgräberDer Schatzgräber is an opera in four acts, with a prologue and an epilogue, by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
(1915–1918) - IrreloheIrreloheIrrelohe is an opera in three acts by the Austrian composer Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:Schreker wrote the libretto in a very short time in 1919. The work takes its name from a train station called Irrenlohe which Schreker passed through during a journey to...
(1919–1922) - Der singende Teufel (1924; 1927–1928)
- Christophorus (oder Die Vision einer Oper) (1925–1929)
- Der Schmied von Gent (1929–1932)
Orchestral works
- 1896: Love Song for string orchestra and harp (lost)
- 1899: Scherzo (unpublished)
- 1899: Symphony in A minor, Op. 1 (unpublished, final movement lost)
- 1900: Intermezzo for string orchestra, Op. 8 (later incorporated into the Romantische Suite)
- 1900: Scherzo for string orchestra
- 1902-1903: Ekkehard: Symphonic Overture, Op. 12
- 1903: Romantische Suite, Op. 14
- 1904: Phantastische Ouvertüre, Op. 15
- 1906-1907: Nachtstück (from the opera Der ferne KlangDer ferne KlangDer ferne Klang is an opera by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:Drafted in 1901, Schreker completed the three-act libretto in 1903. However, composing the music would take about ten years. Criticism from his composition teacher Robert Fuchs caused Schreker to abandon...
) - 1908-1910: Der Geburtstag der Infantin: Dance-pantomime after Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's The Birthday of the Infanta for chamber orchestra - 1908: Festwalzer und Walzerintermezzo
- 1908: Valse lente
- 1908-1909: Ein Tanzspiel (Rokoko)
- 1913: Vorspiel zu einem Drama
- 1916: Chamber Symphony
- 1909/1922: Fünf Gesänge for low voice and orchestra (T: Arabian Nights, Edith Ronsperger)
- 1922: Symphonic Interlude (from the opera Der SchatzgräberDer SchatzgräberDer Schatzgräber is an opera in four acts, with a prologue and an epilogue, by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
) - 1923: Der Geburtstag der Infantin: Suite for large orchestra
- 1923/1927: Vom ewigen Leben for soprano and orchestra (T: Walt WhitmanWalt WhitmanWalter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
) - 1928: Kleine Suite for small orchestra
- 1929-1930: Vier kleine Stücke for large orchestra
- 1932-1933: Das Weib des Intaphernes: Melodrama for speaker and orchestra (T: Eduard Stucken)
- 1933: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
) - transcribed for orchestra - 1933: Vorspiel zu einer großen Oper
Choral works
- 1900: Psalm 116 for 3-part women's chorus, orchestra and organ, Op. 6
- 1902: Schwanensang for mixed choir and orchestra, Op. 11 (T: Dora Leen)
Chamber works
- 1898: Sonata for violin and piano
- 1909: Der Wind for clarinet, horn, violin, 'cello and piano
Principal publisher: Universal Edition
External links
- Franz Schreker - Life, Work, and Quotations
- Secrets of the grotto "Die Gezeichneten" (The Marked Ones) by Franz Schreker, played at the 2005 Salzburg festival, got critic Peter Hagmann hot under the collar
- List of Works (German)
- Deutsche Musik der Gegenwart (German) — 1922 essay by critic Paul BekkerPaul BekkerPaul Bekker was one of the most articulate and influential German music critics of the 20th century....
about Franz Schreker's place in contemporary German music - Franz Schreker Foundation official website