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Franz Schreker

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Franz Schreker, c. 1911

Franz Schreker (March 23, 1878 – March 21, 1934) was an Austrian composer and conductor. His oeuvre, consisting mainly of operas, is characterized by aesthetic plurality (a mixture of Romanticism, Naturalism, Symbolism, Impressionism, Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit), timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and conception of total music theatre into the narrative of 20th-century music.

Biography

Schreker was the oldest son of the Jewish court photographer Ignaz Schrecker and his wife Eleonore von Clossmann, who was a member of the Catholic aristocracy of Styria. He grew up during travels across half of Europe and after his father's death the family moved from Linz to Vienna (1888) where in 1892, with the help of a scholarship, Schreker entered the Conservatory. Starting with violin studies he moved into the composition class given by Robert Fuchs and finally graduated as a composer in 1900. Schreker had begun conducting in 1895, when he had founded the Verein der Musikfreunde Döbling. After graduating from the conservatory he spent several years taking various bread-and-butter jobs. In 1907 he formed the Philharmonic Chorus, which he conducted until 1920, and among its many premières were Zemlinsky's Psalm XXIII and Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden and Gurre-Lieder.

The success of his "pantomime", Der Geburtstag der Infantin, commissioned by Grete Wiesenthal for the opening of the 1908 Kunstschau, first called attention to his development as a composer. In 1912, the performance of the opera Der ferne Klang overnight established his fame and the same year Schreker was appointed as a professor at the Music Academy in Vienna. This breakthrough heralds a decade of great success for the composer. His next opera, Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin, which was given simultaneous premières in Frankfurt and Vienna (15 March 1913) was less well received, but the scandal which this opera caused in Vienna, made Schreker's name widely known.

The outbreak of World War I interrupted for some years the composer's success but with the première of his opera Die Gezeichneten (Frankfurt, 25 April 1918) Schreker moved to the front ranks of contemporary opera composers. The first performance of Der Schatzgräber (Frankfurt, 21 January 1920) was the highpoint of his career, and in March that year he was appointed director of the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. Between 1920 and 1932 he gave extensive musical tuition in a variety of subjects with Alois Hába, Jascha Horenstein, Ernst Krenek, Artur Rodziński, Stefan Wolpe, and Grete von Zieritz being among his students.

Schreker's fame and influence were at their peak during the early years of the Weimar Republic. The decline of his artistic fortunes began with the failure of Der singende Teufel (Berlin, 1928). Political developments and the spread of anti-Semitism were also contributory factors, both of which heralded the end of Schreker's career. Right-wing demonstrations marred the première of Der Schmied von Gent (Berlin, 1932), and National Socialist pressure forced the cancellation of the scheduled Freiburg première of Christophorus. Finally, in June 1932, Schreker lost his position as Director of the Musikhochschule in Berlin and, the following year, also his post as professor of composition at the Akademie der Künste. After suffering from a stroke in December 1933, he died on March 21, two days before his 56th birthday.

Works

Schreker was primarily a composer of works for the stage. Although he has been influenced by a number of other composers such as Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, his mature style shows a very individual harmonic language, characterized by combination of tonal with chromatic and polytonal passages.

Operas

  • Flammen (1901/02)
  • Der ferne Klang (1903-1910)
  • Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin (1908; 1909-1912)
  • Das Spielwerk (1915)
  • Die Gezeichneten (1911; 1913-1915)
  • Der Schatzgräber (1915-1918)
  • Irrelohe (1919-1922)
  • Der singende Teufel (1924; 1927-1928)
  • Christophorus oder Die Vision einer Oper (1924-1928)
  • Der singende Teufel (1927-1928)
  • Der Schmied von Gent (1929-1932)

Orchestral works

  • 1896: Liebeslied für Streichorchester und Harfe
  • 1899: Scherzo
  • 1899: Symphonie a-moll op.1
  • 1900: Scherzo für Streichorchester
  • 1900: Intermezzo - Satz für Streichorchester op.8
  • 1902-1903: Ekkehard, symphonische Ouvertüre für großes Orchester und Orgel op.12
  • 1903: Romantische Suite op.14
  • 1904: Phantastische Ouvertüre op.15
  • 1908: Der Geburtstag der Infantin, nach dem gleichnamigen Märchen von Oscar Wilde
  • 1908: Festwalzer und Walzerintermezzo
  • 1908: Valse lente
  • 1908-1909: Ein Tanzspiel
  • 1913: Vorspiel zu einem Drama (ursprünglich vorgesehen für Die Gezeichneten)
  • 1916: Kammersymphonie
  • 1928: Kleine Suite für Kammerorchester
  • 1929-1930: Vier kleine Stücke für großes Orchester
  • 1932-1933: Das Weib des Intaphernes - Melodram
  • 1933: Vorspiel zu einer großen Oper

Sonstige Werke

  • Tanzspiele
  • Lieder
  • Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 2 (1896)
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