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Franz Schreker and the Pluralities of Modernism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2009

Christopher Hailey
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Extract

Vienna's credentials as a cradle of modernism are too familiar to need rehearsing. Freud, Kraus, Schnitzler, Musil, Wittgenstein, Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka conjure up a world at once iridescent and lowering, voluptuously self-indulgent and coolly analytical. Arnold Schoenberg has been accorded pride of place as Vienna's quintessential musical modernist who confronted the crisis of language and meaning by emancipating dissonance and, a decade later, installing a new serial order. It is a tidy narrative and one largely established in the years after the Second World War by a generation of students and disciples intent upon reasserting disrupted continuities. That such continuities never existed is beside the point; it was a useful and, for its time, productive revision of history because it was fuelled by the excitement of discovery.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 219 , January 2002 , pp. 2 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

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References

1 Schreker's recordings of his own works include his Tanzspiel (Rokoko), Der Gebunstag der Infantin (twice), the interlude from Der Schatzgräber, the Little Suite, as well as excerpts from Der feme Klang, Die Gezeichneten, and Der Schatzgräber with Maria Schreker as soloist. There is, moreover, a test pressing of the introduction to the third act of Die Gezeichneten, as well as tantalizing evidence of an unreleased and now lost studio production of the Chamber Symphony. A forthcoming multiple–CD set of Schreker's extant recordings (including additional broadcast material) is planned for release by Symposium in 2002.

2 The series was produced by Eberhard Frowein during 1932 and 1933 under the title ‘Das Weltkonzert’ and the six films with which Schreker was involved included Rossini's Wilhehn Tell Overture under Max von Schillings, Weber's Oberon Overture under Bruno Walter, Wagner's Meistersittger Overture under Leo Blech, Johann Strauss's On the Beautiful Blue Danube under Erich Kleiber, Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor Overture under Fritz Stiedry, and Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture under Fritz Busch. Financial difficulties intervened before Schreker could film his own performance of his orchestration of Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody.

3 The premiere of Christophoms, originally scheduled for Freiburg i. Br. during the 1932/33 season, fell victim to the political events of that year. For background on the genesis of the work see Hailey, Christopher, ‘Zur Entstehungsgeschichte Franz Schrekers Christophoms’ Franz Schreker Symposium ed. Budde, Elmar and Stephan, Rudolf (Berlin: Colloquium Verlag, 1980), 115–140 Google Scholar.

4 Aspects of the relationship between Christophoruss and Moses and Aron are treated in Hailey, Christopher, ‘Between Modernism and Modernity: Schönberg and Schreker in Berlin’, Arnold Schönberg in Berlin (Vienna: Arnold Schönberg Center, 2001), 58–69 Google Scholar.

5 Sinaisky's recording with the BBC Philharmonic (Chandos CHAN 9797) appeared in 2000 and includes the Prelude to a Drama, Valse lente, Ekkehard, op. 12, the symphonic interlude from Der Schatzgräber, the Nachlstück from Der feme Klang, and the Fantasic Overture, op. 15. (For a review of Sinaisky's follow-up Schreker disc, see p.53 – Ed.)

6 See Schoenberg, , Theory of Harmony, translated by Carter, Roy E. (London: Faber & Faber, 1978), 421fGoogle Scholar.

7 See Kienzle, Ulrike, Das Trauma hiuter dem Traum, Franz Schrekers Oper ‘Der feme Klang’ und die Wiener Modeme (Schliengen: Edition Argus, 1998)Google Scholar. See further, Neuwirth, Gösta, Die Harmonik in der Oper ‘Der feme Klang’ von Franz Schreker (Regensburg: Gustav Bosse Verlag, 1972)Google Scholar. More recently Neuwirth has sought to extend his reading of Schreker's application of psychoanalytical processes to music structure, which he has called a grammar of the unconscious; see ‘Greta-Grete’, in Franz Schreker: Der feme Klang, ed. Waldschmidt, Ralf (Frankfurt: Insel Verlag, 2001), 86–96 Google Scholar.

8 See Chadwick, Nicholas, ‘Franz Schreker's Orchestral Style and its Influence on Alban Berg’; Music Review XXXV/1 (1974), 29–46 Google Scholar. A proximity to Schreker's use of the orchestra is especially evident in Webern's early orchestra pieces, opp. 6 and 10.

9 The Berlin Staatsoper production of Der feme Klang had its première on 21 October 2001 in a staging by Peter Mussbach.

10 Of particular note are Zillig's, Winfried performances of Der ferme Klang (Hamburg, 1955)Google Scholar and Die Gezciclmeten (Hamburg, 1960)Google Scholar; Heger's, Robert recording of Der Sdiatzgräber (Vienna, 1967)Google Scholar; Rosbaud's, Hans of première of the Vorspicl zu einer grossen Oper (Baden-Baden, 1958)Google Scholar; and Scherchen's, Hermann performance of Vom ewigen Leben (1965)Google Scholar.