Johanna Müller-Hermann

Johanna Müller-Hermann (born January 15, 1868 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; died April 19, 1941 there ) was an Austrian composer .

Life

Johanna Hermann received music lessons from an early age, together with her two siblings. That corresponded completely to the middle-class educational ideal, her father was section head in the Ministry for Cultus and Education and thus belonged to the upper class of civil servants. Due to the circumstances of the time, she was unable to pursue her musical ambitions, but graduated from the teacher training college and taught for several years at a Viennese elementary school.

With the marriage of transport specialist Otto Müller-Martini in 1893 , the previously necessary professional activity ceased and she continued her music studies. This was followed by piano and violin lessons, instruction in music theory with Josef Labor , studies with Guido Adler , whose teacher was Anton Bruckner , among others , composition lessons with Alexander Zemlinsky , the Czech Josef Bohuslav Foerster and Franz Schmidt . Her Opus 1, Seven Songs , was printed in 1895. Public performances of her works took place in the Wiener Musikverein and at women's composition evenings, where she also met Mathilde Kralik von Meyrswalden . In 1918 Johanna Müller-Herrmann succeeded her teacher Joseph Bohuslav Foerster as professor of music theory at the New Vienna Conservatory .

She left an extensive body of work: songs, chamber music, large-scale works for solos, choir and orchestra, mostly on a literary and programmatic basis. After her death, Wilhelm Furtwängler , among others, campaigned for the preservation of her work. In 1995 her Heroic Overture op.21 and her epilogue to a tragedy Brand , symphonic fantasy based on Ibsen’s drama for large orchestra op.25 (Thorofon, Frauentöne Vol. 1), were published on CD and in 1999 her string quartet in E flat major op.6 ( Nimbus near Naxos).

Works

Songs

(for 1 voice and piano unless otherwise noted)

• Seven songs, op. 1 (published by Gutmann 1895)
• Five songs, op.2
• Four songs, op.4
• Two women's choirs with orchestra, op.10
• Four songs, op. 14, after JP Jacobsen for a voice with piano accompaniment. 1. Landscape. 2. Sunset. Let the spring come. Polka. (1915, dedicated to Alma Mahler-Werfel )
• Three songs, op.19
• Four songs, op.20
• German oath for male choir and orchestra, op.22
• Autumn songs, op.28
• Three songs, op.32 (No. 1 with orchestral accompaniment)
• Two songs for one voice with orchestra, op.33

Cantatas

• Song of Remembrance, op.30

Sonatas

• Sonata in D minor for violin and piano, op.5
• Sonata for violoncello and piano, op.17

literature

• M. Schneider:  Müller-Martini, Johanna; born by Hermann (Herman), Ps. Müller-Hermann (1868–1941). In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 6, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-7001-0128-7 , p. 430.
• In: Alfred Baumgartner: Propylaea world of music - The composers - A lexicon in five volumes . Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-549-07830-7 , pp. 129, volume 4 .
• Elena Ostleitner: Müller-Hermann, Johanna. In: Brigitta Keintzel, Ilse Korotin (ed.): Scientists in and from Austria. Life - work - work. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-205-99467-1 , p. 526f.

Web links

• Works by and about Johanna Müller-Hermann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Johanna Müller-Hermann in the Austrian Media Library (with audio sample)
• Classic: Johanna Müller-Hermann (1878-1941)