Othmar Steinbauer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Othmar Steinbauer (born November 6, 1895 in Vienna , † September 5, 1962 in Altenburg, a district of Wilhelmsburg (Lower Austria) ) was an Austrian composer and music theorist. He is considered the developer of the theory of sound series and was a student of Joseph Marx , Anton von Webern , Arnold Schönberg and Josef Matthias Hauer, among others .

Life

Othmar Steinbauer was born in Vienna on November 6, 1895. In March 1915 he volunteered for military service. After the end of the First World War he became a violin student with Otakar Ševčík and Gottfried Feist ; He also took theory lessons from Joseph Marx and most recently (1919–1923) from Anton von Webern and Arnold Schönberg . In the concerts of the " Association for Private Musical Performances " he was considered an important interpreter.

In 1922 and 1923 he lived in Berlin, where he initially worked as a theater musician and then founded the “Society for Modern Music Performances in Berlin” together with Schoenberg's student Max Deutsch . In this context he organized a large number of successful concert performances. Because of the inflation that broke out over Germany at the time, Steinbauer was forced to return to Vienna.

Between 1924 and 1928 he mainly gave music lessons (violin and theory) and dealt extensively with music theory problems. Around 1927 he wrote the music theory book Das Wesen der Tonalität , which was published by CH Beck in Munich in 1928 (reprint 2006). In this text, which is characterized by restorative tonality aesthetics, Steinbauer tries to find a philosophical justification for tonality on the basis of the idealistic holistic philosophy of Othmar Spann , whose teachings Steinbauer adhered particularly between 1925 and 1930.

In February 1928 Steinbauer founded the “Wiener Kammer Konzert Vereinigung”, a chamber orchestra that gave concerts under his direction for three years in Vienna and Germany. While at the beginning mainly pre-classical and early classical music was played, Steinbauer was soon asked to also perform new music. Steinbauer turned to Wiener Universal Edition , which was both the publisher of the Schönberg Circle and Josef Matthias Hauers , to obtain sheet music . However, when she only recommended sheet music from Schoenberg and his school, Steinbauer turned to Hauer personally. A friendship developed, an exchange of ideas about music theory and the premiere of Hauer's Symphonic Pieces Op. 49 (on March 7, 1930) by Steinbauer. Hauer instructed Steinbauer on the basis of his Divertimento for small orchestra op. 61, which is dedicated to him. Based on Hauer's findings, Steinbauer subsequently developed his own twelve-tone theory, the basics of which he summarized for the first time in an unfinished manuscript of a "Doctrine of Sound and Melos", which he wrote until 1934. The years 1930 to 1935 are mainly determined by the composition and the work on his new sentence theory, most of which Steinbauer developed at this time. It was not until the end of the 1950s that it was given the name " Sound Series Theory ".

In 1935 Steinbauer moved again to Berlin, where he got a small job as an "artistic and scientific assistant" at the State Institute for German Music Research . He worked there in the museum of old musical instruments, which was part of this institute. He also composed. When Gauleiter Odilo Globocnik , Vienna, ordered the establishment of a music school in the Gaustadt Vienna in 1938, he incorporated two branches for people and youth, one for the HJ under the direction of HJ follower Gottfried Preinfalk, who was also music advisor for area 27 Vienna and a second for the Deutsche Volksbildungswerk in the NSG “ Strength through Joy ”. The overall management was given to Steinbauer; By 1942, six more urban youth and folk music schools were connected in several parts of the city as far as Mödling: “The party has now intervened. In close cooperation with the municipality of Vienna, the prerequisites for a completely new type of school were created, through which the people, the youth, the working classes and the artistic selection are recorded and educated for music. " At the end of the war in 1945 Steinbauer was dismissed as director.

Since his dismissal as director in 1945, Steinbauer has mainly dealt with composition, music theory and the teaching of violin. He also worked on the construction of new violin-like string instruments for domestic music, which he called "Vielle" and for which he was granted a patent. From 1952 Steinbauer taught violin at the Vienna Music Academy and from 1959 until his retirement in 1961 the special course “Sound Series Composition”, which the following composers completed with diplomas: Erich Eder de Lastra , Kim Dal-Sung , Heinz Kratochwil , Hans Herbert Müller, Norbert Nowotny, Johann Sengstschmid , Otto Sulzer and Günther Theil. After his retirement in 1961, Steinbauer founded the “Seminar for Sound Series Composition in Vienna”, which he directed until his death in 1962. This seminar included a group of students, including Helmut Neumann , who z. Some of them today also teach sound series composition and compose according to this teaching. In the last year of his life, Steinbauer also worked as a violin teacher with the Vienna Boys' Choir.

Steinbauer died on September 5, 1962 during his summer stay in Altenburg (Lower Austria) in the Altenburg district. The textbook on sound series composition , which remained incomplete during his lifetime - a first part was self-published to students in 1961 - was completed by Steinbauer student Helmut Neumann and reissued in 2001.

He was buried in the Grinzinger Friedhof (20-5-4) in Vienna.

Othmar Steinbauer grave

Works

Of Steinbauer's compositional oeuvre, 34 works have been preserved, most of which consist of chamber and vocal music. All of these compositions are worked in accordance with the theory of sound series . From the time before 1930, a single work (without opus number) for violin and piano has been preserved, which was written in the twelve-tone technique after Arnold Schönberg . The counting of Steinbauer's works begins with the concert for orchestra from 1930. This work, dedicated to Josef Matthias Hauer, corresponds to a kind of school piece of Hauer's composition technique. Steinbauer's most successful compositions are the sonatas for piano (op. 17), for harpsichord (op. 16) and the first violin sonata (op. 15), all composed in the 1940s. Furthermore, the Ten Aphoristic Mirror Pieces, Op. 24, and the choral works deserve special mention .

  • Op. 1: Concerto for orchestra (composed in 1930; dedicated to Josef Matthias Hauer)
  • Op. 2: Sonata for solo violin
  • Op. 3: Suite for piano
  • Op. 4: Suite for recorder and strings
  • Op. 5: Three chants after F. Wolters for baritone and piano.
  • Op. 6: Chamber sonata for violin and viola
  • Op. 7: Heaven without pure round for four-part mixed choir
  • Op. 8: Stop where are you going ( Angelus Silesius ) for SATB choir
  • Op. 9: Chamber sonata for oboe and piano with obbligato cello
  • Op. 10: Chamber sonata for flute, oboe, horn and bassoon
  • Op. 11: To the dead . ( Stefan George ) for baritone and piano
  • Op. 12: Hymn for winds - little music for 2 trumpets, 2 trombones and bass tuba
  • Op. 13: O you dear, upside-down world song by Hedler for baritone and piano
  • Op. 14: Prelude and alternate fugue for organ
  • Op. 15: Sonata for violin and piano No. 1
  • Op. 16: Sonata for clavicembalo (published by Doblinger Verlag, Vienna)
  • Op. 17: Sonata for piano
  • Op. 18: bicinias for 2 recorders (also arranged by the composer for 2 cellos)
  • Op. 19: Tricinium Die Ros' is without why ( Angelus Silesius ) for three voices
  • Op. 20: Tricinium No. 1 for violin, viola and violoncello or 3 wind instruments
  • Op. 21: Tricinium No. 2
  • Op. 22: Time is Eternity ( Angelus Silesius ) for SATB choir
  • Op. 23: Three songs for Isolde Riehl
  • Op. 24: Ten aphoristic mirror pieces for piano
  • Op. 25: Sonata for violin and piano No. 2
  • Op. 26: Five pieces for string quartet
  • Op. 27: Seven tricinia
  • Op. 28: Five small piano pieces for Annerl Haberkalt
  • Op. 29: string quartet
  • Op. 30: Six tricinia for organ positive
  • Op. 31: Meet one of the settlers for male choir
  • Op. 32: Quartet movement for string quartet (opus posthumum)
  • Op. 33: Eight Violin Etudes (opus posthumum)
  • Op. 34th movement for string orchestra (opus posthumum)

student

Trivia

Adam Cathcart describes in an article a relationship between Othmar Steinbauer and Adolf Hitler , whereby Steinbauer is said to have had sympathy for Hitler. This statement would be doubtful, however, since Othmar Steinbauer's theory of sound series is considered " degenerate music " and would rather suggest a personal difference.

See also

literature

  • The sound series - Composition theory according to Othmar Steinbauer , (Ed.): Helmut Neumann, Peter Lang / European Publishing House of Science, Frankfurt am Main 2001, 2 volumes
  • The essence of tonality , (Eds.): Günther Friesinger, Ursula Petrik, Helmut Neumann and Dominik Sedivy, Edition mono, Vienna 2006
  • Serial Composition and Tonality. An Introduction to the Music of Hauer and Steinbauer , (Eds.): Günther Friesinger, Helmut Neumann and Dominik Sedivy, Edition mono, Vienna 2011

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nikolaus Fheodoroff u. a .: Josef Matthias Hauer: Writings, manifestos, documents. DVD-ROM. Lafite, Vienna 2007, p. 463f.
  2. ↑ Ibid., P. 465f.
  3. ↑ cf. Fred K. Prieberg: Music in the Nazi State , Frankfurt a. M. 1982 and music school of the Gaustadt Vienna. VB, Vienna edition, No. 148, August 12, 1938.
  4. ↑ Patent No. 2688270 from September 7, 1954, http://www.google.com/patents/US2688270
  5. ^ [1] Adam Cathcart Music and Politics in Hitler's Germany in Madison Historical Review 2006, page 7
personal data
SURNAME Steinbauer, Othmar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian composer and music theorist
DATE OF BIRTH November 6, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 5th September 1962
Place of death Altenburg (Lower Austria)