Franz Schreker

Franz Schreker (March 23, 1878 – March 21, 1934) was an Austrian composer and conductor. Primarily a composer of operas, his style is characterized by aesthetic plurality (a mixture of Romanticism, Naturalism, Symbolism, Impressionism, Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit), timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and conception of total music theatre into the narrative of 20th-century music.

Biography

Schreker was the oldest son of the Jewish court photographer Ignaz Schrecker and his wife Eleonore von Clossmann, who was a member of the Catholic aristocracy of Styria. He grew up during travels across half of Europe and after his father's death the family moved from Linz to Vienna (1888) where in 1892, with the help of a scholarship, Schreker entered the Conservatory. Starting with violin studies, with Sigismund Bachrich and Arnold Rosé, [cite web|url=http://www.hrt.hr/gp/koncerti_najave/20060323_so_mozart_str3.htm|title=Programme notes for a concert of Schreker] [cite web|url=http://www.mus.ulaval.ca/roberge/pdf/sonances_schreker.pdf|title=Sonances article about Schreker] he moved into the composition class given by Robert Fuchs and finally graduated as a composer in 1900. His first success was with the "Intermezzo" op.8 for strings which won an important prize sponsored by the "Neue musikalische Press" in 1901. Schreker had begun conducting in 1895, when he had founded the Verein der Musikfreunde Döbling. After graduating from the conservatory he spent several years taking various bread-and-butter jobs. In 1907 he formed the Philharmonic Chorus, which he conducted until 1920, and among its many premières were Zemlinsky's Psalm XXIII and Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden and Gurre-Lieder.

His "pantomime", "Der Geburtstag der Infantin", commissioned by the dancer Grete Wiesenthal 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)". In 1912, the first performance in Frankfurt of the opera "Der ferne Klang", on which he had been working since 1903, consolidated his fame and in the same year, Schreker was appointed as a professor at the Music Academy in Vienna. 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 and Vienna (15 March 1913) was less well received (the work was subsequently revised as a one-act 'Mysterium' entitled simply "Das Spielwerk" in 1915), but the scandal which this opera caused in Vienna only served to make Schreker's name more widely known.

The outbreak of World War I interrupted the composer's success but with the première of his opera "Die Gezeichneten" (Frankfurt, 25 April 1918) Schreker moved to the front ranks of contemporary opera composers. The first performance of "Der Schatzgräber" (Frankfurt, 21 January 1920) was the highpoint 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 Hochschüle für Musik in Berlin and between 1920 and 1932 he gave extensive musical tuition in a variety of subjects with Berthold Goldschmidt, Alois Hába, Jascha Horenstein, Ernst Krenek, Artur Rodziński, Stefan Wolpe, and Grete von Zieritz numbering among his students.

Schreker's fame and influence were at their peak during the early years of the Weimar Republic when he was the most performed living opera composer after Richard Strauss. The decline of his artistic fortunes began with the mixed reception given to "Irrelohe" (Cologne, 1923 under Otto Klemperer) and the failure of "Der singende Teufel" (Berlin, 1928 under Erich Kleiber). Political developments and the spread of anti-Semitism 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 pressure forced the cancellation of the scheduled Freiburg première of "Christophorus" (the work was finally performed 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. After suffering from a stroke in December 1933, he died on March 21, two days before his 56th birthday.

Although Schreker was influenced by a number of composers such as Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, his mature style shows a very individual harmonic language, characterized by a combination of tonal with chromatic and polytonal passages.

Selected Works

Operas

* "Flammen" op.10 (1901/02)
* "Der ferne Klang" (1903-1910)
* "Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin" (1908; 1909-1912); revised as "Das Spielwerk" (1915)
* "Die Gezeichneten" (1911; 1913-1915)
* "Der Schatzgräber" (1915-1918)
* "Irrelohe" (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
* 1899: Symphony in A minor op.1 (final movement lost)
* 1900: Intermezzo for string orchestra op.8
* 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 Klang")
* 1908-1910: Der Geburtstag der Infantin: Dance-pantomime after Oscar Wilde 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
* 1922: Symphonic Interlude (from the opera "Der Schatzgräber")
* 1923: Der Geburtstag der Infantin: Suite for large orchestra
* 1923/1927: "Vom ewigen Leben": Two songs after Walt Whitman for soprano and orchestra
* 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
* 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

Chamber works
* 1898: Sonata for violin and piano
* 1909: "Der Wind" for clarinet, horn, violin, 'cello and piano

Principal publisher: Universal Edition

Notes

External links

* [http://www.schreker.org/ Schreker Foundation]
* [http://www.k-faktor.com/en/schreker.htm Franz Schreker - Life, Work, and Quotations]
* [http://www.mynetcologne.de/~nc-waltergu3/wal_cd_klassik/Schreker_Werkverzeichnis.htm List of Works (German)]
* [http://home.arcor.de/mdoege/dldg.html#m Deutsche Musik der Gegenwart] — 1922 essay by critic Paul Bekker about Franz Schreker's place in contemporary German music (German)
* [http://www.signandsight.com/features/285.html "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 at signandsight.com
* [http://meteor.bibvb.ac.at/F/V9X2136HBXGQIDV3R27LQUVYTYM52D41XHR4GTFYM3MUSEJQHK-00786?func=find-b&find_code=WRD&request=schrekers Literature on Franz Schreker] Catalog of Österreichische Nationalbibliothek