Erwin Schulhoff

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Erwin Schulhoff together with the choreographer Milča Mayerová , 1931

Erwin Schulhoff (born June 8, 1894 in Prague , Austria-Hungary ; † August 18, 1942 on the Wülzburg / Weißenburg in Bavaria ) was a German-Bohemian composer and pianist . Erwin Schulhoff is one of those composers who have been forgotten, although they played an important role in music history.

Life

Stele in memory of Erwin Schulhoff on the Wülzburg fortress in Weißenburg in Bavaria

Erwin Schulhoff was born in Prague in 1894 as the son of the Jewish wool merchant Gustav Schulhoff and the daughter of a concert master , Louise Wolff, as well as the great-great-nephew of Chopin's friend, the piano composer Julius Schulhoff . Thanks to a recommendation from Antonín Dvořák , he was able to take up piano lessons with Jindrich Kaan at the age of seven and entered the Prague Conservatory at the age of ten . The boy, who was also precocious as a composer, combined his pianistic training with Willi Thern in Vienna, Robert Teichmüller in Leipzig and Carl Friedberg and Lazzaro Uzielli in Cologne with studies with Max Reger (1907–1910). Due to his excellent academic achievements, he received the Wüllner Prize and in 1918 the Mendelssohn Prize for his piano sonata Opus 22.

Schulhoff survived the First World War as a member of the Austrian army with hand injuries and frostbite in eastern Galicia and northern Italy. He then worked as a piano teacher in Saarbrücken and as a freelance musician in Berlin. In 1919 he moved to Dresden together with his sister Viola and lived there with her in a studio. In Dresden he met numerous artists, including George Grosz , who brought him into contact with the Dada movement. Against this background, the piano cycle Fünf Pittoresken was created in 1919 with the composition In Futurum consisting only of breaks - as a prime example of Dadaist art negation.

Returning to Prague in 1924, he supported the Viennese School as a concert organizer and pianist and undertook extensive concert tours to Salzburg, Venice, Geneva and Oxford with works by the avant-garde of the time. Schulhoff was interested in all radical directions of the avant-garde, in Dadaism and jazz (he wrote the jazz oratorio HMS Royal Oak and his best-known work, the Hot Sonata ), and was fascinated by jazz, he played in the jazz orchestra of the Prague theater and composed for it under the pseudonym Petr Hanus. He advocated the quarter-tone music of Alois Hábas and was influenced one after the other or in parallel by Impressionism, Expressionism and Neoclassicism.

In 1932 Schulhoff set the Communist Party's manifesto in the form of a cantata as Opus 82 . After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, he turned to the communist movement and was unable to continue his career in Germany. His works were listed as " degenerate music " and the first performance of his opera Flammen , which was planned for Berlin , was prevented. The performance of his works in Germany was completely banned and in Prague he could only earn the bare minimum of living with arrangements for the radio. From 1933 to 1935 he played in Jaroslav Ježek's orchestra in the Osvobozené divadlo theater in Prague and, until the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, also on the Ostrava radio . Afterwards he was only able to survive as a jazz pianist in Ostrau under a pseudonym.

Memorial stone in the Russian cemetery in Weissenburg in May 2011

Schulhoff took an artistic turnaround in the 1930s. While in the 1920s he knew how to adapt jazz rhythms and fashion dances with traditional forms of music and an atonal harmony, later work turned to the aesthetics of socialist realism . He wanted to fight for the communist world revolution and move to the Soviet Union with his family . He wrote battle songs and dedicated compositions to Spanish freedom fighters. After he received Soviet citizenship in May 1941 and had valid entry documents in his hands on June 13, the German attack on the Soviet Union began on June 22 . The next day Schulhoff was interned in Prague and deported to the camp for citizens of other countries on the Wülzburg near Weißenburg / Bavaria, where he died of tuberculosis on August 18, 1942 . With him, New Music lost one of its most experimental and radical personalities.

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Schulhoff was one of the first European composers to integrate jazz into their compositions. He knew how to adapt harmonious and rhythmic elements of jazz and fashion dances ( Charleston , Shimmy and Foxtrot ) into an expressive, but also musical tone language of extraordinarily bright colors.

He stood up for Arnold Schönberg and Alban Berg and dealt with the movement of Dadaism , which he cleverly implemented by combining elements of jazz. He set four poems for baritone and chamber ensemble from Hans Arp's volume of poems Die Wolkenpump to music , and added a spoken epilogue to the performance pieces for contrabassoon Bassnachtigall , which mocked the audience's “intellectual horn-rimmed glasses”. Later, his compositional style was still very playful and should be attributed to neoclassicism due to its traditional attachment.

The String Quartet No. 1 (1924) contains extreme contrasts. The wild motor skills of the aggressive Presto first movement are followed by a tonally pale Allegretto. The Allegro giocoso alla Slovaca is vital folklorism in its purest form ; in the finale, constructive elements and violent emotional outbursts are superimposed on a sometimes polytonal background. In the 3rd Piano Sonata (1927), an expanded sonata movement and cyclical elements, toccata, perpetuum mobile (Scherzo) and amorphous improvisations (Andante) collide with a cluster-spiced funeral march (4th movement) and form the raw material for the epilogue-like distillation far beyond his “Finale retrospettivo” (5th movement) pointing beyond the time of origin.

In his jazz oratorio HMS Royal Oak (VW 96), which premiered in 1930 and whose libretto is based on an authentic case, Schulhoff turned to political composition. Similar to what his contemporary Ernst Krenek did in his opera Jonny Plays three years earlier, Schulhoff made jazz the subject of his oratorio. More precisely, the fight for jazz, because the subject was an affair between officers of the British armored cruiser Royal Oak , which was carried up to a court martial. The disputes about the quality of the on-board band broke out. These disputes became more socially explosive when officers publicly criticized a superior in their course. This is brought to a head in Schulhoff's oratorio about the “fight of a team for jazz”. The actual place of action was Malta, but Schulhoff is relocating it to the South Seas. After 70 days on the high seas, the armored cruiser arrives at the Hawaiian Islands. The crew celebrates the arrival exuberantly. The admiral forbids the crew to play jazz on the war vehicles. The team is outraged and amused at the same time and disregards this ban. The captain of the Royal Oak repeats the ban and mutiny ensues. The uprising is put down and the leaders are chained. In the meantime, the admiral's ban has sparked protests in the English homeland. Under pressure from the people and the press, he was brought before a court martial and suspended. Jazz, on the other hand, has to be recognized by the English government. When they arrive in their home port, the sailors are greeted by a concert.

Works

Stage works

  • Flames . Musical tragicomedy (opera) in two acts (1928–1932; WV 93). Libretto: Max Brod (based on Karel Josef Beneš)
  • Ogelala (ballet)

Vocal compositions

  • Orchestral songs
    • Landscapes . Five poems by Johannes Theodor Kuhlemann . Symphony for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, op.26 (1912)
    • Humanity . Five poems by Theodor Däubler . A symphony for alto voice and orchestra, op.28 (1919)
  • Solo vocal works with piano
    • Three songs for soprano voice, op.14 (WV 12, 1911)
    • Three songs from the collection Das Lied vom Kinde , op.18 (WV 16, 1911)
    • Songs for baritone and piano, op.9 (after Hans Steiger) (WV 26, 1913)
    • Three songs for an alto voice with piano accompaniment, op.15 (after O. Wilde) (WV 33, 1914)
    • Five songs with piano (WV 52, 1919) (Schott)
    • 1917 . Song cycle for one voice with piano accompaniment (WV 110, 1933)
  • The Cloud Pump - Serious Chants for a Baritone Voice with Four Wind Instruments and Percussion Based on Words of the Holy Spirit, Op. 40 (1922, text by Hans Arp )
  • Works with a choir
    • Four songs based on poems from Die Garbe by Hans Steiger, op.2 (WV 19, 1912) for soprano and chamber orchestra (Schott)
    • HMS Royal Oak . Jazz Oratorio (WV 96, 1930) for speakers, jazz singers, acc. Choir and symphonic jazz orchestra (Schott)
    • The Communist Manifesto , op.82 (1932, based on Marx / Engels) for solos, choirs and wind instruments (WV 100)

Orchestral works

  • 6 symphonies and 2 symphony sketches
  • Suite for chamber orchestra (WV 58, 1921) (Schott)
  • Three pieces for string orchestra, op.6 (WV 5, 1910) (Schott)
  • Serenade for orchestra, op.18 (WV 36, 1914) (Schott)
  • Funny Overture for Orchestra, op.8 (WV 25, 1913)
  • 32 variations on an eight-bar theme for orchestra, op.33 (WV 53, 1919) (Schott)

Solo instruments and orchestra

  • Concerto for piano and orchestra, op.11 (WV 28, 1913/14) (Schott)
  • Concerto for piano and small orchestra, op.43 (WV 66, 1923) (Schott)
  • Double Concerto for Flute, Piano and Orchestra (WV 89, 1927) (Schott)
  • Concerto for string quartet and wind orchestra (WV 97, 1930) (Schott)

Chamber music for strings

  • Divertimento for string quartet, op.14 (WV 32, 1914) (Schott)
  • String quartet in G major (WV 43, 1918)
  • Five pieces for string quartet (WV 68, 1923) (Schott)
  • String Sextet (WV 70, 1924) (Bärenreiter)
  • 1st string quartet, op.8 (WV 72, 1924) (UE)
  • Duo for violin and violoncello (WV 74, 1925) (UE)
  • 2nd string quartet (WV 77, 1925)
  • Sonata for violin solo (WV 83, 1927) (UE)

Chamber music with wind instruments

  • Bass nightingale . Three performance pieces for double bassoon solo (WV 59, 1922) (Schott)
  • Concertino for flute, viola and double bass (WV 75, 1925) (UE)
  • Divertissement for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (WV 87, 1926) (Schott)
  • The peace . Scenic music for 5 wind instruments and percussion for the comedy by Aristophanes, arranged by Adolf Hoffmeister (WV 112, 1933)

Chamber music with piano

  • Variation trio for piano, violin and violoncello, op.7 (WV 7, 1910)
  • Suite for violin and piano, op.20 (WV 18, 1912) (Schott)
  • Sonata for violin and piano, op.7 (WV 24, 1913) (Panton)
  • Sonata for violoncello and piano (WV 35, 1914) (Schott)
  • Le bourgeois gentilhomme (Molière). Concert suite for piano, 7 wind instruments and percussion (WV 79, 1926) (Schott)
  • Sonata for flute and piano (WV 86, 1927) (Chester)
  • 2nd Sonata for Violin and Piano (WV 91, 1927) (Schott)
  • Hot Sonata for alto saxophone and piano (WV 95, 1930) (Schott)
  • Susi . Fox Song for one melody instrument and piano (1937) (Schott)

Piano works

  • Burlesque op.8 (WV 9, 1910)
  • Sonata op.5 (WV 21, 1912)
  • Four pictures op.6 (WV 22, 1913)
  • Two piano pieces op.4 (WV 23, 1913)
  • Variations on an own theme, work 10 (WV 27, 1913)
  • Five impressions op.12 (WV 29, 1914)
  • Ten variations on "Ah vous dirais- je, Maman" and Fugue op. 16 (WV 34, 1914)
  • Three Preludes and Fugues, Op. 19 (WV 37, 1915)
  • Five Grotesques, Work 21 (WV 39, 1917)
  • Sonata op.22 (WV 39, 1919)
  • Five Burlesques, Op. 23 (WV 41, 1918)
  • Five humoresques, Werk 27 (WV 45, 1919)
  • Five arabesques op.29 (WV 49, 1919)
  • Ten Piano Pieces, Op. 30 (WV 50, 1919)
  • Five Picturesques, Werk 31 (WV 51, 1919)
  • Ironies, Werk 34 (WV 55, 1920)
  • Music for piano in four parts, Work 35 (WV 56, 1920)
  • Inventions (WV 57, 1921)
  • Rag-music (WV 62, 1922)
  • 1st Sonata (in one movement) (WV 69, 1924)
  • 2. Suite (WV 71, 1924)
  • 3rd suite (WV 81, 1926)
  • 2nd Sonata (WV 82, 1926)
  • 3rd Sonata (WV 88, 1927)
  • Esqisses de Jazz (WV 90, 1927)
  • Hot Music, ten syncopated studies (WV 92, 1928)
  • Suite dansante en jazz (WV 98, 1931)

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Marion Brück:  Schulhoff, Erwin. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , pp. 683 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ↑ http://www.musica-reanimata.de/de/verbindungen.bio/0090.kompisten.bio.php?id=erwin.schulhoff
personal data
SURNAME Schulhoff, Erwin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schulhoff, Ervín (spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech composer and pianist
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1942
Place of death Weißenburg in Bavaria