Alfred Planyavsky

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Alfred Planyavsky (born on January 22, 1924 in Vienna ; died on June 18, 2013 in Vienna) was an Austrian double bass player , long-time member of the Vienna Philharmonic and music historian .

Alfred Planyavsky burial site

life and work

Planyavsky was a member of the Vienna Boys' Choir from 1933 to 1938 . From 1941 he was a soldier in World War II , was captured by the Americans and was tenor soloist and leader of a prisoner-of-war church choir during his imprisonment in the USA. In 1946 he began to study singing and double bass at the Vienna Music Academy . He became a tenor soloist in the Vienna Academy Chamber Choir and a member of the Vienna Men's Choir .

Between 1950 and 1952 he recorded a number of masses by Bach , Beethoven , Mozart and Schubert as a tenor soloist for the record company Vox Productions . The Vienna Academy Chamber Choir sang, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra played and Ferdinand Grossmann , Rudolf Moralt and Felix Prohaska conducted . In 1952, Planyavsky graduated. In 1954/55 he was a member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. In 1955 he became a member of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and in 1957 the Vienna Philharmonic. From 1957 to 1967 he taught at the College of the Vienna Boys' Choir, began publishing, the Salzburger Nachrichten printed two of his poems, and he played a number of world premieres by Paul Angerer and Fritz Skorzeny , works dedicated to Planyavsky. In 1967 he was appointed professor by the Federal President and became a member of the highly regarded Viennese court music band . His first book was published in 1970, and in 1974 he founded the Vienna Double Bass Archive , which is in the music collection of the Austrian National Library . As a result, he was invited several times as a jury member. His first book was published in Japanese in 1979, and in 1984 the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna organized an exhibition to mark the 10th anniversary of its archive. In 1986 he completed his master's degree at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna , and in 1989 he was retired.

Planyavsky received numerous honors and awards.

History of the double bass

The first edition of Planyavsky's history of the double bass appeared in 1970, the second edition comprises 686 pages of text, 231 pages of appendix, 908 footnotes, 139 illustrations and 173 music examples. Critics immediately called it a standard work , in some cases even the double bass Bible . Zubin Mehta : "I am convinced of the importance of this book and believe that it will open up new horizons for the old instrument." The book contains a range of information about the musical history of the instrument, the old master violin makers, the playing practice and the use of the Instruments as a solo in the few orchestral works written for this purpose and in chamber music . Planyavsky also describes the different efforts in different times and regions and pays tribute to great double bass players of different nationalities, such as Édouard Nanny , Friedrich Pischelberger and Franz Simandl , but also composers such as Giovanni Battista Vitali .

In 1989 he published his second book, initially self-published: The Baroque Double Bass Violone . In it he describes the history of the violone as a bass instrument in baroque music . In 1998 the second, much expanded edition was published by a regular publisher and at the same time the English version under the title The Baroque Double Bass Violone . Again there were benevolent voices in the press. The Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society declared the book to be pioneering work alongside the work of Brun and Elgar, but also noted that Planyavsky relied largely on secondary sources.

Planyavsky also published regularly in well-known media such as Furche , the Austrian music magazine and the magazine Das Orchester .

Vienna double bass archive

In 1974 he began collecting concert literature for the double bass, and in 1986 - while still alive - he bequeathed his collection to the Austrian National Library . His main concern himself describes "the historical role of the baroque double bass violone as a great bass violin (not bass violin!) On the basis of source studies, and thus eliminating the misinterpretation and misinformation that still persists about his family and his tonal identity. The prerequisite for the authentic presentation was the concentration on original documents, including around 2,000 unedited compositions, including original orchestral formations from 500 years, uncommented treatises, school works, biographies, etc. "

In 2004, Planyavsky handed over his letter collection, which includes correspondence with Pierre Boulez , Friedrich Cerha , HK Gruber , Hans Werner Henze , György Ligeti , Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Ludwig Streicher , to the historical archive of the Vienna Philharmonic . Stephan Bonta summarized his life's work as follows: "In a real sense, Planyavsky has given his life to the double bass, the instrument that for years he played professionally in Vienna."

Private

In 1946 Planyavsky married Margarete Molzer , a high school teacher for mathematics and physics. The marriage had two children: a son, the organist and composer Peter Planyavsky (1947), and a daughter, Johanna (1956).

He was buried in the Döblinger Friedhof (group 29, number 65) in Vienna.

Quote

“But I cannot remember ever having read a special tale of 537 pages about a seemingly fringe area with such tension and then read it again, line by line and footnote by footnote, like Alfred Planyavsky's“ History of the Double Bass ”[... ]. A success that can only be explained by the fact that the young philharmonic double bass player not only approached his project as a practitioner, but also combined the meticulousness of a real scientist and researcher with the passionate commitment to make up for the neglect of his instrument, musicology and actually even more practice a whole century in whose style change he was guilty of. "

- Fritz Walden : An instrument is being rehabilitated , Arbeiterzeitung, October 12, 1971

Book publications

Awards (selection)

proof

  1. ↑ Uwe Harten : Planyavsky, family. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 4, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7001-3046-5 .
  2. ^ A b Roland John Jackson: Performance Practice: A Dictionary Guide for Musicians . Routledge, 2005, ISBN 978-0-415-94139-6 , pp. 174 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ^ "When tuning the strings", August 4, 1962 and "Forgive Mozart", August 22, 1964
  4. ↑ a b Rodney Slatford:  Planyavsky, Alfred. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  5. ↑ a b Stephen Bonta: The Baroque Double Bass Violone. By Alfred Planyavsky. Translated by James Barket. . In: Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music . 6, No. 2, 2000.
  6. ^ Alfred Planyavsky: The baroque double bass violone. Schneider, Tutzing 1998, ISBN 3-7952-0903-X ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  7. ^ A b Alfred Planyavsky: The Baroque Double Bass Violone . Scarecrow Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0-8108-3448-4 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  8. ^ Alfred Planyavsky and the Vienna Double Bass Archive . earlybass.com. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
  9. ^ Paul R. Laird: The Baroque Cello Revival: An Oral History . Scarecrow Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-5153-5 , pp. 52 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  10. ^ Shanon P. Zusman: Planyavsky, Alfred. The Baroque Double Bass Violone (Review) . In: Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society . tape 26 , 2000, pp. 238–242 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  11. ^ Alfred Planyavsky : Wiener Kontrabaß-Archiv , accessed on August 14, 2015
  12. ↑ Double bass archive . Austrian National Library . 2007. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. Retrieved on May 8, 2020.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Planyavsky, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian double bass player and music historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 2013
Place of death Vienna