Moriz violin

Moriz Violin (born March 30, 1879 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; died April 1, 1956 in San Francisco ) was an Austrian-American pianist, composer and piano teacher.

Life

Moriz Violin's parents came from Nikolsburg in Moravia. They had moved to Vienna and ran a haberdashery on Rudolfsplatz in the 1st district . Violin turned out to be a musical prodigy, one of his mentors was Johannes Brahms . He studied piano at the Conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Vienna with Julius Epstein , graduating in 1894, and composition with Robert Fuchs , graduating in 1896. He continued his studies with Epstein privately. In 1895 violin played his own piano composition for the first time in public.

In 1896 he got to know the music theorist Heinrich Schenker , from then on he belonged to his closest student group and stood up for him and his teaching throughout his life. On January 26, 1900, Violin and Schenker played the world premiere of his Syrian Dances .

As a soloist, violin played classical pieces and also worked as a song accompanist. In November 1901 he became a conductor and piano accompanist in Ernst von Wolzogens Buntem Theater / Überbrettl in Berlin . Even Arnold Schoenberg came as conductor added, but Wolzogen soon gave the theater, and violin moved in 1902 to Vienna.

In Vienna he formed a trio with Paul Fischer and Julius Klengel , which, in addition to the classical repertoire, also dedicated itself to the world premiere of contemporary compositions. In 1903, Violin briefly became a member of Schoenberg's “Association of creating sound artists”. In 1907 Violin signed a letter of support for Gustav Mahler's stay as head of the Vienna Court Opera .

In 1908 Violin became a piano teacher at the Vienna Conservatory. When the university administration refused to employ Schenker as a theory teacher in 1912, Violin published the pamphlet “The Conditions at the Imperial and Royal Academy of Music and Performing Arts” and was dismissed, although colleagues stood up for him. From then on, Violin worked as a private teacher.

In 1912 he married Valerie Rauch ("Wally", born 1885), who had studied singing. During the First World War, the violin played at charity concerts and in troop support.

In 1921 he moved to Hamburg and worked there as a piano teacher. He performed there in the Bandler Trio, among others. In Berlin he played with Friedrich Buxbaum (cello), Ludwig Mittel (violin) and Rudolf Hindemith (cello). In 1931 he founded the Hamburg Schenker Institute with Felix-Eberhard von Cube , at which both then also taught.

After the handover of power to the National Socialists in 1933, he had to leave the German Reich as a Jew with his family and from 1935 worked at the Vienna Schenker Institute. Schenker died in 1935, and Violin wrote an obituary. After Austria's annexation in 1938, Violin had to emigrate again. Arnold Schönberg promised him help with the affidavit and added him to his long list of friends who needed help. Violin was able to receive help from other sources, but his older sister Fanny was murdered in the Theresienstadt ghetto . He and his wife fled Rotterdam with the SS Zaandam in May 1939, their daughter Eva Violin reached New York in February 1940 on the SS Volendam, they moved to San Francisco .

Despite various letters of recommendation from Schönberg, Otto Klemperer and others, Violin did not succeed in gaining a professional foothold in the USA. He made a living as a laborer for a while, had some piano students and played at local music events. In 1944 he received American citizenship. His marriage ended in divorce in 1945, and his wife and daughter moved to Los Angeles .

Violin was buried in Colma (CA). Most of his works, including two string quartets, have been lost; the estate is administered at the University of California, Riverside .

Fonts

• Via the so-called continuo. A contribution to solving the problem . Vienna: Universal Edition, 1911
• The conditions at the kk academy for music and performing arts. An open word about the director of the institution, Mr. v. Wiener u. Bopp . Vienna: self-published, 1912

literature

• Martin Eybl: Violin, Moriz. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-7001-3067-8 .
• Carolin Stahrenberg:  Moriz Violin in the dictionary of persecuted musicians of the Nazi era (LexM)
• William Drabkin: Heinrich Schenker and Moriz Violin in the 1920s , in: Axel Beer, Gernot Gruber, Herbert Schneider (eds.): Festschrift Hellmut Federhofer on the 100th birthday . Tutzing: Schneider, 2011, pp. 51–62
• Horst Weber, Manuela Schwartz (ed.): Sources for the history of emigrated musicians 1933–1950 / Sources relating to the history of émigré musicians 1933–1950, Vol. 1 California / California . Munich: Saur, 2003
• Hellmut Federhofer : Heinrich Schenker, based on diaries and letters in the Oswald Jonas Memorial Collection . Hildesheim: Olms, 1985 ISBN 9783487076423
• Moriz Violin , at Schenker documents

Web links

• Literature by and about Moriz Violin in the WorldCat bibliographic database