Edith Weiss-Mann

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Edith Weiss-Mann (born May 11, 1885 as Edith Weiss in Hamburg , † May 18, 1951 in Westfield ) was a German harpsichordist , piano teacher and music critic .

Live and act

Edith Weiss was a daughter of the businessman Emil Weiss and his wife Hermine, née Rosenfeld. She studied from 1900 to 1904 at the University of Music in Berlin . She then received private tuition from James Kwast , José Vianna da Motta , Carl Friedberg and Bruno Eisner until 1908 .

In 1914 Edith Weiss married the painter Wilhelm Mann (1882–1957).

After returning to her native city, she shaped the cultural life there in the 1920s and 30s through her diverse musical work. She worked as a private piano teacher and was a member of the music committee of the Society of Friends of the Patriotic Schools and Education System, for which she and other artists offered “music lectures for young people”. Since there was no music academy in Hamburg at that time, she taught music teachers to the University of Hamburg . In 1923 she took part in setting up the folk music college. In the field of pedagogy, she occasionally chose new and unusual methods and applied concepts of reform pedagogy , with which she became a pioneer.

Historic stone in
the women's garden

As an artist, Edith Weiss-Mann was one of the first women to give the harpsichord a new meaning. In 1925 she took part in the founding of the Association for the Care of Early Music , whose concerts were initially presented in the Museum of Hamburg History . Due to the large audience, the concerts quickly took place in the small hall of the Hamburg music hall . Weiss-Mann played not only baroque pieces on a harpsichord built by Johann George Steingraeber, but also contemporary works. In doing so, she tried to get the composers to participate. She also wrote reviews that appeared in renowned national and international newspapers and the specialist press for contemporary music.

Since she was of Jewish origin, Edith Weiss-Mann had to give up all teaching posts after she came to power in 1933. Further public appearances were only possible for her in the Jüdischer Kulturbund . Due to increasing restrictions, she emigrated to New York City in 1939 , where she became a successful harpsichordist at the age of more than 50. In the autumn of 1940 she celebrated her greatest success there by recording all the harpsichord concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach and the North German masters of the baroque under Otto Klemperer's direction .

Edith Weiss-Mann had a son, in whose house she died in 1951. The ashes were transferred to their hometown. She found her final resting place on the grave of her in-laws at Ohlsdorf cemetery . Today her tombstone in the women's garden commemorates the musician.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short Biography Wilhelm man at auktionshaus-stahl.de
  2. ↑ In Memoriam: Edith Weiss Mann Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 4 No. 3, Autumn, 1951, p. 282. (English)
  3. ^ Alfred Mann at uni-hamburg
personal data
SURNAME Weiss-Mann, Edith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weiss, Edith
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German harpsichordist, piano teacher and music critic
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1951
Place of death Westfield