Karl Goldmark
Encyclopedia
Keszthely
Keszthely is a Hungarian city of 21,100 inhabitants located on the western shore of Lake Balaton. It's the second largest city by the lake after Siófok....
– January 2, 1915, 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...
) was
Was
The was sceptre is a symbol that appeared often in relics, art and hieroglyphics associated with the ancient Egyptian religion...
a Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
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...
.
Life and career
Goldmark came from a large Jewish family, one of 20 children. His father was a chazan to the Jewish congregation at KeszthelyKeszthely
Keszthely is a Hungarian city of 21,100 inhabitants located on the western shore of Lake Balaton. It's the second largest city by the lake after Siófok....
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. His early training as a violinist was at the musical academy of Sopron
Sopron
In 1910 Sopron had 33,932 inhabitants . Religions: 64.1% Roman Catholic, 27.8% Lutheran, 6.6% Jewish, 1.2% Calvinist, 0.3% other. In 2001 the city had 56,125 inhabitants...
(1842–44). He continued his music studies there and two years later was sent by his father 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...
, where he was able to study for some eighteen months with Leopold Jansa
Leopold Jansa
Leopold Jansa was a Bohemian violinist, composer, and teacher....
before his money ran out. He prepared himself for entry first to the Vienna Technische Hochschule and then to the Vienna Conservatory to study the violin with Joseph Böhm
Joseph Böhm
Joseph Böhm was a violinist and teacher.He was born in Pest. He was taught by his father and by Pierre Rode. His brother Franz Böhm was too the well-known violinist and the soloist in the Russian empire in an imperial orchestra....
and harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
with Gottfried Preyer. The Revolution of 1848
Revolutions of 1848
The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...
forced the Conservatory to close down. He was largely self-taught as a composer. He supported himself in Vienna playing the 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....
in theatre orchestras, at the Carlstheater and the privately supported Viennese institution, the Theater in der Josefstadt
Theater in der Josefstadt
The Theater in der Josefstadt is a theater in Vienna in the eighth district of Josefstadt. It was founded in 1788 and is the oldest still performing theater in Vienna...
, which gave him practical experience with orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
, an art he more than mastered. He also gave lessons: Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
studied with him briefly. Goldmark's first concert in Vienna (1858) met with hostility, and he returned to Budapest, returning to Vienna in 1860.
To make ends meet, Goldmark also pursued a side career as a music journalist. "His writing is distinctive for his even-handed promotion of both Brahms and Wagner, at a time when audiences (and most critics) were solidly in one composer's camp or the other and viewed those on the opposing side with undisguised hostility." (Liebermann 1997) Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
and Goldmark developed a friendship as Goldmark's prominence in Vienna grew. Goldmark, however would ultimately distance himself because of Brahms' prickly personality.
Among the musical influences Goldmark absorbed was the inescapable one, for a musical colorist, of 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...
, whose anti-semitism stood in the way of any genuine warmth between them; in 1872 Goldmark took a prominent role in the formation of the Vienna Wagner Society. He was made an honorary member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien , was founded in 1812 by Joseph von Sonnleithner, general secretary of the Court Theatre, Vienna, Austria. Its official charter, drafted in 1814, states that the purpose of the Society was to promote music in all its facets...
, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Budapest and shared with 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...
an honorary membership in the Accademia di Santa Cecilia
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, based in Italy.It is based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and was founded by the papal bull, Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western...
, Rome.
Goldmark's 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...
Die Königin von Saba
Die Königin von Saba
Die Königin von Saba is an opera in four acts by Karl Goldmark. The German libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal, sets a love triangle into the context of the Queen of Sheba's visit to the court of King Solomon, recorded in First Kings...
("The Queen of Sheba"), Op. 27 was celebrated during his lifetime and for some years thereafter. First performed in Vienna on 10 March 1875, the work proved so popular that it remained in the repertory of the Vienna Staatsoper
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
continuously until 1938. He wrote six other operas as well (see list).
The Rustic Wedding Symphony
Rustic Wedding Symphony
Rustic Wedding Symphony, Op. 26 is a symphony in E flat major by Karl Goldmark, written in 1875, a year before his renowned Violin Concerto No. 1....
(Ländliche Hochzeit), Op. 26 (premiered 1876), a work that was kept in the repertory by Sir Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
, includes five movements, like a suite composed of coloristic tone poems: a wedding march with variations depicting the wedding guests, a nuptial song, a serenade, a dialogue between the bride and groom in a garden, and a dance movement.
His Violin Concerto No. 1
Violin Concerto No. 1 (Goldmark)
The Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op.28 by Karl Goldmark was composed in 1877 and premiered in Bremen the same year. It consists of three movements:# Allegro moderato# Andante# Moderato - Allegretto...
in A minor, Op. 28, was once his most frequently played piece. The concerto had its premiere in Bremen in 1877, initially enjoyed great popularity and then slid into obscurity. A very romantic work, it has a Magyar march in the first movement and passages reminiscent of Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
and Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
in the second and third movements. It has started to re-enter the repertoire, through recordings by such prominent violin soloists as Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-born violinist, conductor, and instructor of master classes. He is regarded as one of the pre-eminent violinists of the 20th and early-21st centuries.-Early life:...
and Joshua Bell
Joshua Bell
Joshua David Bell is an American Grammy Award-winning violinist.-Childhood:Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, United States, the son of a psychologist and a therapist. Bell's father is the late Alan P...
. Nathan Milstein
Nathan Milstein
Nathan Mironovich Milstein was a Russian-born American virtuoso violinist.Widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Milstein was known for his interpretations of Bach's solo violin works and for works from the Romantic period...
also championed the work and Milstein's recording of the Concerto (1963) is widely considered the definitive one.
Goldmark wrote a second violin concerto, but it was never published.
A second symphony in E-flat, Op. 35, is much less well-known. (Goldmark also wrote an early symphony in C major, between roughly 1858 and 1860. This work was never given an opus number, and only the scherzo seems to have ever been published.)
Goldmark's chamber music, in which the influences of Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
and Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
are paramount, although critically well-received in his lifetime, is now rarely heard. It includes the String Quintet
String quintet
A string quintet is a musical composition for a standard string quartet supplemented by a fifth string instrument, usually a second viola or a second cello , but occasionally a double bass. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who favoured addition of a viola, is considered a pioneer of the form...
in A minor Op. 9 that made his first reputation in Vienna, the Violin Sonata
Violin sonata
A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, which is nearly always accompanied by a piano or other keyboard instrument, or by figured bass in the Baroque period.-A:*Ella Adayevskaya**Sonata Greca for Violin or Clarinet and Piano...
in D major Op. 25, two Piano Quintet
Piano quintet
In European classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly piano, two violins, viola, and cello . Among the most frequently performed piano quintets are those by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, César Franck, Antonín Dvořák...
s in B-flat major Opp. 30 and 54, the Cello Sonata
Cello sonata
A cello sonata is usually a sonata written for cello and piano, though other instrumentations are used, such as solo cello. The most famous Romantic-era cellos sonatas are those written by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven...
Op. 39, and the work that first brought Goldmark's name into prominence in the Viennese musical world, the String Quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
in B-flat Op. 8 (his only work in that genre).
Goldmark also composed choral music, two Suites for Violin and Piano (in D major, Op. 11, and in E-flat major, Op. 43), and numerous concert overtures, such as the Sakuntala Overture Op. 13 (a work which cemented his fame after his String Quartet), the Penthesilea Overture Op. 31, the In the Spring Overture Op. 36, the Prometheus Bound Overture Op. 38, the Sappho Overture Op. 44, the In Italy Overture Op. 49, and the Aus jungendtagen Overture, Op. 53. Other orchestral works include the symphonic poem
Symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...
Zrínyi, Op. 47, and two orchestral scherzos, in E minor, Op. 19, and in A major, Op. 45.
Karl Goldmark's nephew Rubin Goldmark
Rubin Goldmark
Rubin Goldmark was an American composer, pianist, and educator. Although in his time he was an often performed American nationalist composer, his works are seldom played – instead he is known as the teacher of Aaron Copland and George Gershwin...
(1872–1936), a pupil of Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
, was also a composer, who spent his career in New York.
Goldmark died in Vienna and is buried in the Zentralfriedhof
Zentralfriedhof
The Zentralfriedhof is one of the largest cemeteries in the world, largest by number of interred in Europe and most famous cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries.-Name and location:...
(Central Cemetery), along with many other notable composers.
Operas
- Die Königin von SabaDie Königin von SabaDie Königin von Saba is an opera in four acts by Karl Goldmark. The German libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal, sets a love triangle into the context of the Queen of Sheba's visit to the court of King Solomon, recorded in First Kings...
("Queen of Sheba") (1875) - Merlin Goldmark (1886)
- Das Heimchen am Herd (1896), adapted from Dickens's The Cricket on the HearthThe Cricket on the HearthThe Cricket on the Hearth. A Fairy Tale of Home is a novella by Charles Dickens, published by Bradbury and Evans, and released 20 December 1845 with illustrations by Daniel Maclise, John Leech, Richard Doyle, Clarkson Stanfield and Edwin Henry Landseer. Dickens began writing the book around...
. - Der Fremdling (1897) ("The Changeling")
- Die Kriegsgefangene (1899), ("The Prisoner of War") a Trojan War story taking Achilles' captive BriseisBriseisBrisēís was a mythical queen in Asia Minor at the time of the Trojan War. Her character lies at the center of a dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon that drives the plot of Homer's Iliad.-Story:...
as central figure. - Götz von Berlichingen (1902), after Goethe's playGötz von Berlichingen (Goethe)Goetz von Berlichingen is a successful 1773 drama by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, based on the memoirs of the historical adventurer-poet Götz von Berlichingen . The plot has various changes to Götz's real biography...
about the historical figureGötz von BerlichingenGottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen and also known as Götz of the Iron Hand, was a German Imperial Knight and mercenary.... - Ein Wintermärchen (1908), adapted from Shakespeare's The Winter's TaleThe Winter's TaleThe Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...
.
Concerti
- Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minorViolin Concerto No. 1 (Goldmark)The Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op.28 by Karl Goldmark was composed in 1877 and premiered in Bremen the same year. It consists of three movements:# Allegro moderato# Andante# Moderato - Allegretto...
, Op. 28 - Violin Concerto No. 2 (Unpublished)
Chamber Music
- Ballad for Violin and Piano, Op. 54
- Piano Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 30
- Piano Quintet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 54
- Romanze for Violin and Piano
- Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 25
Piano works (solo unless indicated)
- Sturm und Drang, nine characteristic pieces, Op. 5
- Three Pieces for Piano Duet, Op. 12
- Hungarian Dances for Piano Duet, Op. 22 (later orchestrated by the composer)
- Zwei Novelletten, Op. 29
- Georginen, six pieces, Op. 52
Choral works
- Regenlied for unaccompanied chorus, Op. 10
- Two Pieces for unaccompanied men's chorus, Op. 14
- Frühlingsnetz for men's chorus, 4 horns, and piano, Op. 15
- Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt for men's chorus and horns, Op. 16
- Two Pieces for unaccompanied men's chorus, Op. 17
- Frühlingshymne for contralto, chorus, and orchestra, Op. 23
- Im Fuschertal, a set of six choral songs, Op. 24
- Psalm CXIII for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra, Op. 40
- Two Pieces for unaccompanied men's chorus, Op. 41
- Two Four-Part Songs with piano accompaniment, Op. 42
Lieder
- 12 Gesänge, Op. 18
- Beschwörung, Op. 20
- 4 Lieder, Op. 21
- 7 Lieder aus dem ‘Wilden Jäger’, Op. 32
- 4 Lieder, Op. 34
- 8 Lieder, Op. 37 (Leipzig, 1888 or 1889);
- Wer sich die Musik erkiest (for piano and four solo voices), Op. 42
- 6 Lieder, Op. 46
External links
- Doblinger Musikverlag: Composers Find the "Carl Goldmark" entry with the "A - Z" link on the left.
- Carl Goldmark String Quintet, Op.9 and Piano Trio No.2, Op.33 Sound-bites and short bio