Articles by tag "20th century"

“Frisch, Fromm, Fröhlich, Frei”: The Deutscher Turnerbund and the Berg Violin Concerto

Although Berg himself made public the nature of the extra-musical stimulus behind the composition of the Violin Concerto, through both his dedication “Dem Andenken eines Engels” and the article published by his biographer Willi Reich, the sketches for the work show that he originally planned to base the work on...
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Otto M. Zykan’s Peculiar Speech: Music and the Question of Its Reenactment

The article treats phenomena involved in the vocal interpretation of a composer’s own works, taking the example of the Vienna artist Otto M. Zykan (1935–2006) and making reference to the performance artist Marina Abramović, who is several generations younger. What I am interested in is (a) aesthetic implications, (b) challenges...
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The Other Marxism: Georg Knepler and the Anthropology of Music

The Viennese-born musicologist Georg Knepler (1906-2003) was one of the most important music scholars of the twentieth-century. Being both Jewish and a Communist, he emigrated to London in 1934 and returned to continental Europe after World War II. He was active for many years as a pianist and conductor, and,...
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Sonja Huber: Das zeitgenössische Klavierkonzert


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Der junge Webern


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Multivalent Form in Gustav Mahlerʼs Lied von der Erde from the Perspective of Its Performance History

The challenge of reconstructing Gustav Mahlerʼs aesthetics and style of performance, which incorporated expressive and structuralist principles, as well as problematic implications of a post-Mahlerian structuralist performance style (most prominently developed by the Schoenberg School) are taken in this article as the background for a discussion of the performance history...
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Hanslick, Kant, and the Origins of Vom Musikalisch-Schönen

Recent scholarship on musical aesthetics, notably in analytical philosophy of music, commonly identifies the main ideas of Eduard Hanslick’s Vom Musikalisch-Schönen (“On the Musically Beautiful”, 1854) with Kant’s Kritik der Urteilskraft (“Critique of the Power of Judgment”, 1790), due to an ostensibly equivalent concept of ‘strict’ aesthetic formalism. Hanslick’s aesthetics...
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Heinrich Schenker’s Identities as a German and a Jew

During his lifetime the music theorist Heinrich Schenker (1868–1935) was confronted with a variety of different cultures. After attending a Polish school in the eastern province of Galicia, he moved to Vienna, where he faced a cultural environment dominated by Catholicism, opening up for him, as a Jew, different options...
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Inventing the Italian Violin Making “Tradition”: Franjo / Franz / Francesco Kresnik, a Physician and Violin Maker, as Its Key Figure in a Fascist Environment

This article investigates the role played by the physician and violin maker Franz / Franjo / Francesco Kresnik in the discourse on violin making in the first half of the 20th century. It also considers the effect of his presence at the Bicentenario stradivariano, the 200th anniversary of the death...
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“A soul, rubbing the sleep from its eyes in the next world”: Dramaturgical Aspects of Metaphysical Temporality in the Libretti of Alban Berg’s Operas

Temporality, as a narrative device, was a central element in Alban Berg’s operas both textually and musically. The systematic form of creating circular structures with palindromes via large-scale retrogrades was meant to turn narrative time back onto itself as an expression of fatalistic negation. This conceptualization held metaphysical implications for...
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The Hrvatski glazbeni zavod (Croatian Music Institute) in the 1920s: Jutarnji koncerti (Morning Concerts) and Intimne muzičke večeri (Intimate Musical Evenings)

Jutarnji koncerti (Morning Concerts) and Intimne muzičke večeri (Intimate Musical Evenings) were concert series of the Hrvatski glazbeni zavod (Croatian Music Institute) in Zagreb, organized by the institute's secretary, art historian, and music amateur Artur Schneider in the 1920s. From 1921 to 1928 there were 148 concerts, with works by...
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From the People to the People: The Reception of Hanns Eisler’s Critical Theory of Music in Spain through the Writings of Otto Mayer-Serra

Although virtually ignored by music historiography so far, the Berlin-born musicologist Otto Mayer-Serra (1904–68) holds a unique position in the intellectual landscape of twentieth-century Spain. He was the first musicologist to develop a critical theory of music in Spain based on Marxist philosophy and greatly influenced by the positions on...
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“The Hand that Writes”: The Scriptorial Unfinishedness of the First Movement of Mahler’s Tenth

Since Theodor W. Adorno’s essay “Roman” (“Novel”), in his book Mahler: Eine Musikalische Physiognomik (Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy), it has become commonplace for scholars to study the narrativity of Gustav Mahler’s music. However, insufficient attention has been given to the analysis of narrativity within the compositional process, in light of...
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“The Foremost and Unrivalled Music Engraving Business in Austro-Hungary”: Josef Eberle (1845–1921), Printer, Publisher, and Manufacturer of Manuscript Paper

By the 1870s music printing and publishing in Austro-Hungary was under considerable competitive pressure from major firms based in Leipzig and elsewhere in Germany. Using more recent printing techniques (most notably printing from engraved plates by transfer lithography) and often a more integrated system of production, firms such as Breitkopf...
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Listening to Noise and Listening to Oneself: An Analysis of Peter Ablinger’s Orgel und Rauschen

Peter Ablinger’s innovative use of noise has provided a unique contribution to new music. In his composition, static noise (Rauschen) is not explored for the sake of expanding the sound palette but for its provocative potential as a “screen” onto which listeners project their imaginations. In order to show how...
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Fine-Tuning Ferdinand Rebay’s Second Sonata in E major for Guitar

Composed in 1941 and dedicated to his guitarist niece, Gerta Hammerschmid, Ferdinand Rebay’s Second Sonata in E major for Guitar remained unperformed during his life, only gaining its premiere recording after my performance film was released in 2022. One of the reasons for this deferral is that the piece needed...
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The Hrvatski glazbeni zavod (Croatian Music Institute) in the 1920s: Jutarnji koncerti (Morning Concerts) and Intimne muzičke večeri (Intimate Musical Evenings)

Jutarnji koncerti (Morning Concerts) and Intimne muzičke večeri (Intimate Musical Evenings) were concert series of the Hrvatski glazbeni zavod (Croatian Music Institute) in Zagreb, organized by the institute's secretary, art historian, and music amateur Artur Schneider in the 1920s. From 1921 to 1928 there were 148 concerts, with works by...
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Inventing the Italian Violin Making “Tradition”: Franjo / Franz / Francesco Kresnik, a Physician and Violin Maker, as Its Key Figure in a Fascist Environment

This article investigates the role played by the physician and violin maker Franz / Franjo / Francesco Kresnik in the discourse on violin making in the first half of the twentieth century. It also considers the effect of his presence at the Bicentenario stradivariano, the 200th anniversary of the death...
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Peeking into Mahler’s Compositional Workshop


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Furtwänglers Sendung: Essays zum Ethos des deutschen Kapellmeisters


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The Musikpädagogische Zeitschrift and its Supplement Modernes Musikleben (1912–20): Early Publication and Advertising Strategies of the Music Publisher Universal-Edition

Music journals serve multiple purposes and parties. The Musikpädagogische Zeitschrift (Music Pedagogical Journal; 1911–27) was the official organ of the “Österreichischer Musikpädagogischer Verband” (Austrian Music Pedagogical Association) and is an important source book on Austrian and Viennese musical life, concert life, and, in particular, teaching and association life. This article...
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Viennese Style in Viennese Waltzes: An Empirical Study of Timing in the Recordings of The Blue Danube

It is widely assumed that Viennese orchestras, especially the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO), possess distinctive qualities in their performance of Viennese waltzes. This article sets out to provide empirical evidence of this hypothesis. Focusing on the parameter of timing, it analyzes the rhythm and tempo in 34 recordings of Johann...
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Gottfried von Einem, Bertolt Brecht, and Franz Kafka: New Perspectives on Musico-Literary Collaboration from the Einem Archive

Once both globally renowned and tightly enmeshed in Austrian musical culture, Gottfried von Einem has faded into obscurity in the some thirty years since his death. However, his Nachlass (estate), left in its entirety to the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music) in Vienna, paints...
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Bojan Bujić, Arnold Schoenberg and Egon Wellesz: A Fraught Relationship


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Confronting the Past through Popular Musical Theatre: The Effects of Austrian Postwar Cultural Policies on the Reception History of Musicals

Exploring the effects of Austrian postwar cultural policies on the reception history of popular musical theatre, I analyze the role of the Opfermythos narrative and Kulturnation concept in the critical response to Broadway musicals after World War II. Because of their fictional portrayal of National Socialism, I focus on the...
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The Sound of Austria in Films about the Shoah and National Socialism

In the following article, I will show that Austrian music plays a very particular role in international film and television productions, as well as in Austrian TV productions, that explicitly address the Holocaust and National Socialism, especially when National Socialist violence and perpetrators are represented. On the basis of this...
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“Atlas der gesamten Musik und aller angrenzenden Gebiete”: Austrian Stereotypes, Music, and Material Agency as a Relational Model in Georg Nussbaumer’s Concert Installations

This article discusses references to Austrian clichés in specifically chosen concert installations by the composer Georg Nussbaumer (b. 1964). Nussbaumer, as one of the outstanding contemporary artists in Austria, has worked with this musical performance format since the 1980s. Therefore, the article begins by explaining the characteristics of this newly...
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“Austrian Popular Music Studies”: A Critical Assessment

This article aims to provide an overview of the research field of Austrian popular music studies. It outlines the main topics, perspectives, and concepts in regard to popular music from and in Austria and reflects on blind spots and starting points for further research. The discussion incorporates an overview of...
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Sewing Frankenstein!! Instrumental Theatre in Austria between 1960 and 1980

This text analyzes the development of the choreographed instrumental theater of the two Austrian composers Otto M. Zykan and HK Gruber, taking into account the predecessor works of Mauricio Kagel. Zykan’s Singers Nähmaschine ist die beste: Oper oder Ode oder Opernode (Singer’s sewing machine is the best: Opera or ode...
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Communicating Atonal Music: Alban Berg as Lecturer and Dialogue Partner

As a result of the new aesthetics and compositional techniques of musical modernism around and after 1900, the expectations of a concert and opera audience and the actual musical production of the musical avant-garde increasingly drifted apart. Scandal concerts multiplied and heated debates were carried out in the feuilleton. Musicians...
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