Mary Dickenson-Auner

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Mary Frances Dickenson-Auner , b. Dickenson (born October 24, 1880 in Dublin , Ireland ; † May 25, 1965 in Vienna , Austria ) was an Irish violinist , teacher and composer . She has composed symphonies , oratorios , operas and chamber music works .

Life

Mary Dickenson came from the Irish aristocratic Mac Donnell family, her grandfather Sir Hercules H. Graves Mac Donnell was rector of the university and co-founder of the Dublin Academy of Music. After the death of her father, Mary Dickenson grew up in Wiesbaden. She received her first private violin lessons. Back in Dublin she worked as an assistant at the Academy of Music in 1897/98. Against the wishes of her family, she continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where she passed her final exams in violin, organ and composition in 1902. In order to refine her 'left hand technique', she studied with Otakar Ševčík in Prague. In 1905 she made her debut with the Česká filharmonie . A lively concert activity as a violinist in the musical centers of Europe followed. First compositions were published under the pseudonym Frank Donnell. From the 1920s she was a member of a Viennese lodge of the Austrian Droit Humain .

In 1922 she gave the Austrian premiere of Béla Bartók's sonata for violone and piano in the Wiener Konzerthaus; in the summer of 1922 she and Bartók presented the work at the newly founded international chamber music performances in Salzburg. She joined the association for private musical performances by Arnold Schönberg and gave concerts under his direction. From 1925 onwards she developed a pedagogical concept: the listening lessons, which she tried out in collaboration with the Vienna City School Board. The aim was to train young listeners to understand music through a theoretical and practical introduction to the work of selected composers. The experiment was extended to 17 schools by 1938. When the National Socialists came to power in 1938, Mary Dickenson-Auner was banned from working as a British citizen. At the age of almost 60 she decided to devote herself exclusively to her compositions. In the next 25 years she wrote six symphonies, four operas, two oratorios, numerous songs and chamber music works. From 1946 to 1962 her chamber music works were presented in twelve concerts; three of her symphonies were premiered and broadcast on Austrian radio .

Influenced by the contemporary music of the 1920s and 1930s, May Dickenson-Auner developed a polyphonic music concept that combines her predilection for Johann Sebastian Bach with Schönberg's 12-tone music. In choosing her musical motifs, she repeatedly resorted to Irish folk tunes. The late Romantic Irish poet William Butler Yeats and the philosophers of Europe and Asia cited by theosophy determined the choice of their literary subjects. She wrote numerous song texts herself.

Works

  • Irish Symphony, op.16 (1941)

swell

  • Kay Dreyfuß, Margarethe Engelhardt-Krajanek, Barbara Kühnen: The violin was her life. Vier Viertel Verlag Straßhof 2000
  • Irish classical recordings. A discography of Irish art music
  • Johanna Müller-Hermann, Maria Bach, Mary Dickenson-Auner: Frauentöne Vol. 1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Emanuely: New light on old questions. Viennese freemasons and writers in exile in the intermediate world. Journal of the Culture of Exile and Resistance. Vol. 27 No. 3 (November 2010), p. 50
personal data
SURNAME Dickenson-Auner, Mary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dickenson-Auner, Mary Frances; Dickenson, Mary Frances
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish violinist, educator and composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1965
Place of death Vienna , Austria