Max Schönherr

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Max Schönherr (born November 23, 1903 in Marburg an der Drau, today Maribor , † December 13, 1984 in Baden near Vienna ) was an Austrian composer , conductor and music writer.

Live and act

Max Schönherr's grandfather, Franz Schönherr (1821–1886) and also his father Max Schönherr senior (1873–1955) were band masters of military bands; his brother Wilhelm (1902–1975) was an opera conductor.

Max Schönherr studied with Hermann Frisch in Marburg (Drau) and with Roderich Mojsisovics von Mojsvár at the Conservatory in Graz . From 1924 to 1928 he worked first as a double bass player , then as a répétiteur and conductor at the Graz Stadttheater, then successively until 1929 as conductor of an opera company on tour, 1929 to 1933 at the Wiener Theater an der Wien and at the Wiener Stadttheater and from 1933 to 1938 at the Vienna Volksoper . From 1931 to 1968 he was a conductor at the radio station in Vienna, but in the 1930s he also worked for orchestras from other radio companies and gave many concerts. After the end of the Second World War he re-founded the Vienna Radio Orchestra and worked as a guest conductor with foreign radio orchestras and with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra; During this time he was commissioned to work on the Austrian national anthem based on a melody by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .

Grave of Max Schönherr

Gradually he specialized in lighter music, whereby his radio performances of Viennese operettas and dance music revealed his particular sensitivity for the Viennese style. In 1952 Max Schönherr was awarded the title of professor and in 1954 the Joseph Marx Composition Prize for his Divertimento . After retiring from Radio Wien, he studied musicology and received his doctorate in 1973 from the University of Vienna with a dissertation on Carl Michael Ziehrer , which was published in 1974. The Ballet Hotel Sacher was particularly well known for his works .

Schönherr is buried in the Helenen Cemetery (Gr, 14, R. 3, No. 29) in Baden near Vienna.

Part of the estate is kept in the Vienna Library in the City Hall .

meaning

As a composer, Max Schönherr attached particular importance to clear melodic lines, even in compositions with serious music. His Bauernmusi 'from Austria (1936) and his Dances from Austria (1937) are based on traditional dances and should represent an Austrian counterpart to the national dances of Johannes Brahms , Antonín Dvořák , Enrique Granados and Edvard Grieg ; they have gained international popularity in concerts of light Viennese music. He also used his orchestration skills in many practical editions of classical Viennese dance music, adapting the original orchestration for modern performance practice by means of an alternative score representation for different ensembles. In his dissertation and other writings, he combined extraordinary practical experience with critical judgment and methodological presentation in his studies of popular musical forms.

Works (selection)

  • Musical works
    • Ballet Hotel Sacher (partly based on Josef Hellmesberger , first performance Vienna 1957)
    • Operetta Deutschmeisterkapelle (world premiere Vienna 1958)
    • Children's musical Flori squeaky fun (first performance Vienna 1958)
    • Four chamber music pieces for string orchestra (1959)
    • Suite Wiener Tagebuch (1960)
    • Suite Slavic Panorama (1961)
    • Overture The Girl from the Suburbs (1961)
    • Concertino for piano and orchestra (1964)
    • Suite Festa musicale (1966)
    • Bomb Waltz (based on Johann Strauss, premiered by Bayerischer Rundfunk 1967)
    • Piano pieces
    • Arrangements of compositions by the Strauss family, Franz Lehár , Carl Michael Ziehrer and others
  • Fonts
    • Johann Strauss father: a catalog raisonné (together with Karl Reinöhl, Vienna 1954)
    • The century of the waltz. Johann Strauss father (together with Karl Reinöhl; London, Vienna, Zurich 1954) [1]
    • Various articles about Johann Strauss Sohn in the Österreichische Musikzeitung (1964–1968)
    • Inventory of the Carl-Michael-Ziehrer-Archives […] (Vienna 1969)
    • Franz Lehár: Bibliography on life and work (dissertation at the University of Vienna 1970)
    • Carl Michael Ziehrer. His work - his life - his time. Documentation, analyzes and comments (book trade edition of the typewritten dissertation 1973, Vienna 1974) [2] ISBN 3-215-61827-3
    • Compendium to Volume 1–120 of the Monuments of Music Art in Austria (Graz 1974)
    • Models of the waltz composition , Österreichische Musikzeitung No. 30 (1975), pp. 273–286
    • Aesthetics of the Waltz , Österreichische Musikzeitung No. 31 (1976), pp. 57–120
    • From the time of the Viennese waltz. Title pages of dance compositions by the Strauss family (together with Johann Ziegler, Vienna 1981) ISBN 3-88379-285-3
    • Lanner, Strauss, Ziehrer. Synoptic Handbook of Dances and Marches (Vienna, Munich 1982) ISBN 3-900035-75-X
    • Karl Komzák. Father - son - grandson; a contribution to the history of the reception of Austrian popular music (together with Eugen Brixel, Vienna 1989) ISBN 3-215-07040-5
    • Who was Friedrich Eckstein ? A study. In: Bruckner yearbook. 1982/83.

Literature (selection)

Web links

Commons : Max Schönherr  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Part of the musical estate of Max Schönherr
  2. ↑ Inv.-No. Sep814-B of the ÖNB
personal data
SURNAME Schönherr, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian composer, conductor and music writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Marburg on the Drau
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1984
Place of death Baden (Lower Austria)