Zemlinsky [Zemlinszky], Alexander (von)

(b Vienna, 14 Oct 1871; d Larchmont, NY, 15 March 1942). Austrian composer and conductor. Although closely linked to the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg was his pupil), Zemlinsky was no outright revolutionary. While undisputedly a conductor of the first rank and an interpreter of integrity, he lacked 'star quality' and was overshadowed by more domineering personalities. His music is distinguished by an almost overpowering emotional intensity. It took several decades before it became known and began to be appreciated.

1. Life.
2. Works.
WORKS
BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANTONY BEAUMONT
 

1. Life.

His father, born in Vienna of Slovakian Catholic descent, converted to Judaism in 1870; his mother, born in Sarajevo, was the daughter of a mixed Sephardi-Muslim marriage. At the age of four he showed aptitude at the piano, and after completing his regular schooling in 1886 he enrolled at the Vienna Conservatory, studying the piano with Door, harmony and counterpoint with Krenn and Robert Fuchs (1888­90), and composition (1890­92) with the latter's brother, J.N. Fuchs. From 1893 onwards his first chamber compositions were performed at the Wiener Tonkünstlerverein, in whose concerts he also often appeared as pianist and conductor. Brahms was impressed by his work and recommended him to Simrock. In 1895­6 Zemlinsky conducted an amateur orchestra, the Polyhymnia, in which Schoenberg played the cello. Their friendship, initially an informal teacher-pupil relationship, became close: Schoenberg composed his D major Quartet under Zemlinsky's supervision, and his op.1 lieder are dedicated in gratitude to his ëteacher and friendí. Also in 1896, with the opera Sarema (for which Schoenberg had prepared much of the vocal score), Zemlinsky won the Luitpold Prize in Munich; in 1900 Mahler gave the première of his second opera, Es war einmal Ö, at the Vienna Hofoper. In 1901 Schoenberg married his sister, Mathilde, and between April and November of that year Zemlinsky himself became passionately involved with his pupil Alma Schindler. She taunted him with his diminutive stature and unattractive appearance, however, and ultimately rejected him in favour of Mahler.

From 1903 Zemlinsky taught orchestration at the Schwarzwald school, where his pupils included Berg, Horwitz, Jalowetz, Erwin Stein and Webern (a later, private composition pupil was Korngold). In 1904, with Mahler's support, he and Schoenberg founded the Vereinigung Schaffender Tonkünstler to promote new music in Vienna. But from 1900, due to the early death of his father, he was also obliged to seek regular paid employment. Until 1903 he was Kapellmeister at the Carltheater, and from 1903 at the Theater an der Wien (both operetta houses). In 1904 he was appointed chief conductor at the Volksoper, where the repertory extended to Mozart and Wagner (and, in 1906, to the Viennese première of Salome). In 1907 he joined Mahler at the Hofoper; after the latter's resignation he was engaged at Mannheim, but the contract was not implemented. In 1908, returning to the Volksoper, he conducted the influential Viennese première of Dukas' Ariane et Barbe-bleue; his own Kleider machen Leute followed in 1910.

The acclaim with which each new work of his had been greeted gradually abated, and in 1911 he acepted the musical directorship of the Neues Deutsches Theater in Prague. Although the theatre schedule allowed little time for composition, his finest works ­ the Maeterlinck songs, the Second Quartet, the Lyrische Symphonie, Eine florentinische Tragödie and Der Zwerg ­ date from his Prague period. His assistants included Kleiber (1911­12), Webern (1917­18) and Szell (1919­20), and Viktor Ullmann as chorus master (1921­7). With the founding of the Czech Republic in 1918, the position of the German minority became precarious, but Zemlinsky proved an able diplomat and succeeded in securing the future of the Deutsches Landestheater, as it was now renamed. In 1920 he was appointed rector of the Deutsche Akademie für Musik und Bildende Kunst, where his pupils in his composition masterclass included Krása. From 1923 he was a frequent guest conductor with the Czech PO, playing a key role in establishing that orchestra's Mahler tradition; abroad he became a champion of Czech music, conducting notable premières of Smetana, Janác*ek and Suk. As an opera conductor he cultivated ensemble theatre at a high level and was particularly admired for his Mozart and Strauss: Stravinsky recalled Figaro in Prague as the most satisfying opera performance opera he had ever heard. In 1924 Zemlinsky conducted the world première of Schoenberg's Erwartung at the Prague ISCM Festival, but relations with his brother-in-law subsquently deteriorated ­ partly for personal reasons, partly due to disagreement over the technique of 12-note composition. When Schoenberg reverted to Judaism in 1933, Zemlinsky failed to follow suit: the rift was complete. While he continued to support the music of Schoenberg, and particularly of Berg, whose Wozzeck fragments he performed in 1925, his interest in other recent developments led him also to champion the music of Hindemith, Krenek, Schulhoff, Stravinsky and Weill.
 

Despite the stability of his Prague existence, he made several attempts to return to Vienna or further his career in Germany. In 1923 Max von Schillings offered him the post of Generalmusikdirektor at the Staatsoper in Berlin; his refusal, prompted by the galloping inflation then prevailing in Germany, proved to be a serious miscalculation. The advent of Hans Wilhelm Steinberg as first Kapellmeister in Prague caused an uneasy rivalry, nurtured by the press, and in 1927 Zemlinsky accepted Klemperer's invitation to Berlin, in a subordinate position at the Kroll Oper. When the theatre was closed in 1931, Zemlinsky was offered the position of Generalmusikdirektor at Wiesbaden, but he chose to remain in Berlin, teaching score-reading at the Musikhochschule and expanding his activities as guest conductor to France, Italy, Russia and Spain. In December of that year he conducted the first Berlin production of Weill's Mahagonny. His setting of Klabund's Kreidekreis, completed in 1932, reflects a certain influence of Weill, but also of Krenek's Johnny spielt auf.

With the highly acclaimed Zürich world première of Der Kreidekreis in 1933 Zemlinsky broke a creative silence of some six years. Forced to leave Germany earlier that year (although his music continued to be performed there until 1935), he returned to Vienna and concentrated his energies on composition. He completed the short score of Der König Kandaules in 1936 but was obliged to abandon the orchestration at the time of the Anschluss, in March 1938. In September he fled with his wife and daughter via Prague to New York. Bodanzky had promised to perform Kandaules at the Metropolitan Opera, but the libretto was deemed unsuitable and the score set aside. Obliged to compose school pieces and other trivia in order to eke out a living, Zemlinsky started work on a new opera, Circe, but in the autumn of 1939 he was crippled by a stroke. Partial reconciliation with Schoenberg and a nationwide NBC broadcast of the Sinfonietta under Mitropoulos could only momentarily alleviate the gloom of his final years. Although the New York Times published an obituary, in Europe his death went virtually unnoticed.

2. Works.

Following the example of Brahms and Robert Fuchs, Zemlinsky adopted and refined the technique of developing variation (maximal exploitation, modification and transmutation of minimal thematic particles). His textures are predominantly polyphonic; the tradition of ëViennese espressivoí determines the inflections of his melodic line; in his harmony, which upholds longstanding Austro-German conventions of key symbolism, Zemlinsky seeks innovatory solutions but eschews the furthest extremes of dissonance. ëA great artist, who possesses everything needed to express the essentials, must respect the boundaries of beauty, even if he extends them far further than hithertoí (letter to Schoenberg, 18 February 1902). He remained true to this credo throughout his creative life: ultimately, the breach with Schoenberg was inevitable. Although his music demonstrates strong emotional affinity with that of Berg, Zemlinsky never entirely crossed the threshold of atonality; and where Berg sought the most logical solution to each structural problem, Zemlinsky delighted in asymmetry, in the subtle aberration of logical processes. Craftsmanship of a consistently high level is coupled in his music with a sure instinct for vocal writing and a precise ear for instrumental sonority.

In his earlier works Zemlinsky steered a middle course between the antipodes of Wagner and Brahms. Yet Sarema and Es war einmal Ö , despite their indebtedness to the former, demonstrate an individual talent for colour and dramatic pacing. The First Quartet and the Clarinet Trio, overtly Brahmsian in form and content, possess a nervous intensity typical of the fin-de-siècle artist and far removed from the objectivity of their classical models. The outcome of the Alma Schindler affair changed Zemlinsky radically. In Die Seejungfrau, his first musical reaction to this personal debacle, emotional intensity often rises to fever pitch. Despite an incohesive libretto, in which Alma is indirectly depicted both as fairy princess and outcast woman, Der Traumgörge contains some of his finest music. With the large-scale free forms of the two Oscar Wilde operas Zemlinsky achieved a striking integration of music and drama, a ëseismographic reactivity to the many stimuli with which he permeated himselfí (Adorno, 1963). Der Zwerg is the catharsis of his Alma-instilled idée fixe, the ëtragedy of an ugly maní. The early Symphonies in D minor and B major had shown that techniques of developing variation were ultimately incompatible with traditional sonata form. Applied to developing variation and every other musical parameter, ëseismographicí structure enabled Zemlinsky to generate tightly argued large-scale forms within a symphonic outer framework. The most striking examples of this art are the Second Quartet (also notable for its exploitation of polyrhythm) and the Lyrische Symphonie (1922­3).

In 1924 the Third Quartet, with its angular lines, irregular rhythms, astringent harmonies and spare textures, abruptly ushered in a new style. The ensuing five years were almost barren (an operatic project, Der heilige Vitalis, and a six-movement string quartet were abandoned), but the Symphonische Gesänge and Der Kreidekreis consolidated the process of rejuvenation. The Fourth Quartet (written on the death of Berg) and the lieder opp.22 and 27 carry the terse, pessimistic manner of the preceding works to its logical conclusion, while the Sinfonietta, Psalm xiii and Der König Kandaules move freely between the composer's older and newer styles.

Among his smaller works, Zemlinsky's lieder stand out as models of craftsmanship and artistic sensibility. He possessed an instinctive empathy for verse wide ranging in style and origin, from Wunderhorn poetry to Franco-Belgian symbolism, from the erotic intensity of Dehmel to the wry humour of the Überbrettl. The Maeterlinck songs (1910­13) are arguably his masterpiece in this field, but earlier collections, particularly opp.7, 8 and 10, are also very fine.

Had Zemlinsky outlived the war, he would, like Korngold, Wellesz and Hans Gál, have experienced his eclipse by the post-Webernian serialists. Together with Schreker, to whom he has often been likened, he all but vanished from concert and opera programmes until the later 1960s. Thereafter, in the wake of the rehabilitation of Mahler, his music experienced a renaissance. Major works, such as the Fourth Quartet and Psalm xiii, which had neither been published nor performed during his lifetime, were discovered among his posthumous papers; Die Seejungfrau, which had not been performed since 1908, was reassembled from separate manuscripts in Vienna and Washington; Der Traumgörge, scheduled for perfomance by Mahler in 1907 but cancelled by Weingartner, finally received its world première in 1980.
 
 

WORKS

stage
op.
ó Sarema (op, 2, ?Adolph von Zemlinszky, after R. von Gottschall: Die Rose vom Kaukasus), 1893­5; Munich, Hof, 10 Oct 1897
ó Es war einmal Ö (op, prelude, 3, M. Singer, after H. Drachmann), 1897­9; Vienna, Hof, 22 Jan 1900
ó Der Triumph der Zeit (ballet, 3, H. von Hofmannsthal), 1901, inc.; act 2 separated as Ein Tanzpoem, 1901­4; Zürich, 19 Jan 1992
ó Ein Lichtstrahl (mime drama with pf, 1, O. Geller), 1901
ó Der Traumgörge (op, 3, L. Feld), 1904­6; Nuremberg, 11 Oct 1980
ó Kleider machen Leute (comic op, prelude, 3, L. Feld, after G. Keller), 1907­9; Vienna, Volksoper, 2 Dec 1910; rev. 1922 (prelude, 2), Prague, Deutsches Landestheater, 20 April 1922
ó Cymbeline (incid. music, W. Shakespeare), 1913­15
16 Eine florentinische Tragödie (op, 1, O. Wilde, trans. M. Meyerfeld), 1915­16; Stuttgart, Hof, 30 Jan 1917
17 Der Zwerg (op, 1, G.C. Klaren, after Wilde: The Birthday of the Infanta), 1920­21; Cologne, Neues, 28 May 1922
ó Der Kreidekreis (op, 3, after Klabund), 1930­32; Zürich, Stadt, 14 Oct 1933
ó Der König Kandaules (op, 3, A. Gide, trans. F. Blei), 1935­8, orchestration completed A. Beaumont, 1993; Hamburg, Staatsoper, 6 Oct 1996

choral
ó Minnelied (H. Heine), TTBB, 2 fl, 2 hn, hp, c1895
ó Frühlingsglaube (L. Uhland), SATB, str, 1896
ó Geheimnis (unidentified), SATB, str, 1896
ó Hochzeitsgesang (Jewish liturgy), cantor (T), SATB, org, 1896
ó Frühlingsbegräbnis (P. Heyse), S, Bar, SATB, orch, 1896, rev. c1903
ó Psalm lxxxiii, S, A, T, B, SATB, orch, 1900
14 Psalm xxiii, SATB, orch, 1910
ó Aurikelchen (R. Dehmel), SSAA, c1920
24 Psalm xiii, SATB, orch, 1935

orchestral
ó Symphony [no.1], e, c1891, fragment
ó Symphony [no.2], d, 1892­3
ó Lustspielouvertüre, 1895
ó Suite, c1895
ó Symphony [no.3], B[], 1897
ó Drei Ballettstücke, from Der Triumph der Zeit, 1901
ó Die Seejungfrau, symph. fantasy after H.C. Andersen, 1902­3
18 Lyrische Symphonie (R. Tagore), S, Bar, orch, 1922­3
23 Sinfonietta, 1934

chamber and solo instrumental
ó Romanze, D[], vn, pf, 1889
ó Terzet, str trio, 1892
ó String Quartet, e, c1893
ó String Quintet, d, 2 vn, 2 va, vc, 1894­6, movts 2­3 lost
 
ó Suite, A, vn, pf, 1895
3 Trio, d, cl/vn, vc, pf, 1896
4 String Quartet no.1, A, 1896
15 String Quartet no.2, 1913­15
19 String Quartet no.3, 1924
ó Zwei Sätze, str qt, 1927
25 String Quartet no.4 (Suite), 1936
ó Hunting Piece, 2 hn, pf, 1939
ó Humoreske, wind qnt, 1939

piano
ó Sonata [no.1], G, 1887
ó Sonata [no.2], c, 1890
ó Nocturnes, D, E, 1889
ó Scherzo, 1889
ó Vier Miniaturen, c1891
ó Drei Stücke, 1891
ó Zwei Stücke, 1891
ó Drei leichte Stücke, 1891
ó Zwei Stücke, 4 hands, 1891
1 Ländliche Tänze, 1892
ó Vier Balladen, c1893
ó Albumblatt, 1895
ó Skizze, 1896
9 Fantasien über Gedichte von Richard Dehmel, 1898
ó Menuett, pf, 1901
ó Drei Stücke, 4 hands, 1903

songs
for 1v, pf unless otherwise stated
ó 17 early songs, 1889­1895
ó Orientalisches Sonett (H. Grasberger), 1895
ó Waldgespräch (J.F. von Eichendorff), S, 2 hn, hp, str, 1896
ó Nun schwillt der See so bang (P. Wertheimer), 1896
ó Süsse, süsse Sommernacht (A. Lynx), 1896
ó Der Tag wird kühl (P. Heyse), 1897
2 Lieder (Heyse, T. Storm, J.W. von Goethe and others), 2 vols., 1895­6
5 Gesänge (Heyse, D. von Liliencron and others), 2 vols., 1896­7
6 Walzer-Gesänge nach toskanischen Volksliedern (Gregorovius), 1898
7 Irmelin Rose und andere Gesänge (C. Morgenstern, Dehmel, J.P. Jacobsen, P. Wertheimer), 1898­9
8 Turmwächterlied und andere Gesänge (Jacobsen, Liliencron), 1899
10 Ehetanzlied und andere Gesänge (O. Bierbaum, Morgenstern and others), 1900­01
ó In der Sonnesgasse (A. Holz), 1901
ó Herr Bombardil (R.A. Schröder), 1901
ó Maiblumen blühten überall (Dehmel), S, 2 vn, 2 va, 2 vc, c1903
ó Es war ein alter König (H. Heine), 1903
ó Mädel, kommst du mit zum Tanz? (Feld), c1904
ó Über eine Wiege (D. von Liliencron), 1904
ó Schlummerlied (R. Beer-Hofmann), 1905
ó Zwei Balladen (V. Klemperer, H. Amann), 1907
ó Fünf Lieder (Dehmel), 1907
13 [6] Gesänge (M. Maeterlinck), Mez/Bar, pf, 1910­13, orchd 1913, 1922
ó Noch spür ich ihren Atem (Hofmannsthal), 1916
ó Hörtest du denn nicht hinein (Hofmannsthal), 1916
ó Die Beiden (Hofmannsthal), 1916
ó Harmonie des Abends (C. Baudelaire, trans. A. Englert), 1916
20 Symphonische Gesänge (L. Hughes, C. Cullen and others, trans. H. Kesser and others), Mez/Bar, orch, 1929
ó Und einmal gehst du (Eigner), 1933
22 Sechs Lieder (Morgenstern, Goethe and others), 1934
ó Das bucklichte Männlein (Des Knaben Wunderhorn), 1934
ó Ahnung Beatricens (F. Werfel), 1935
27 Zwölf Lieder (S. George, Kalidasa, Goethe and others), 1937
ó Three Songs (I. Stein-Firner, trans. A. Matullath), 1939
MSS in US-Wc, NYp, A-Wn, Wst, Wgm
Principal publishers: Universal, Ricordi

BIBLIOGRAPHY

letters, source material
A. Zemlinsky: ëBrahms und die neuere Generation: persönliche Erinnerungení, Musikblätter des Anbruch, iv (1922), 69­70; repr. in Brahms and His World, ed. W.M. Frisch (Princeton, NJ, 1990), 205­10
A. Zemlinsky: ëLyrische Symphonieí, Pult und Taktstock, i (1924), 10­11
A. Zemlinsky: ëEinige Worte über das Studium von Schönbergs Erwartungí, Pult und Taktstock, iv (1927), 44­5
A. Zemlinsky: ëJugenderinnerungení, Arnold Schönberg zum 60. Geburtstag(Vienna, 1934), 33­5
A. Beaumont, ed.: ëAlexander Zemlinsky: Der Triumph der Zeit ­ Drei Ballettstücke ­ Ein Tanzpoem, eine Dokumentationí, Über Musiktheater, eine Festschrift, ed. S. Harpner and B. Gotzes (Munich, 1992), 13­31
H. Weber, ed.: Briefwechsel mit Arnold Schönberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg und Franz Schreker (Darmstadt, 1995)
A. Beaumont and S. Rode-Breymann, eds.: Alma Mahler-Werfel: Tagebuch-Suiten 1898­1902 (Frankfurt, 1997; Eng. trans., 1988)

biographical, analytical studies
R. Heuberger: Im Foyer: gesammelte Essays über das Opernrepertoire der Gegenwart (Leipzig, 1901)
R. Specht: ëDie Jungwiener Tondichterí, Die Musik, ix/2 [no.7] (1909­10), 3­16, esp. 9­12
R.S. Hoffmann: ëAlexander von Zemlinskyí, Der Merker, ii (1910­11), 193­7
Der Auftakt, nos.14­15 i (1920­21), 197­240 [Zemlinsky issue]
P. Stefan: ëZemlinskyí, Musikblätter des Anbruch, vii (1932), 126­7
T.W. Adorno: ëZemlinskyí, Quasi una fantasia: musikalische Schriften II (Frankfurt, 1963; Eng. trans., 1992), 155­80
H. Weber: ëZemlinsky in Wien 1871­1911í, AMw, xxviii (1971), 77­96
O. Kolleritsch, ed.: Alexander Zemlinsky: Tradition in Umkreis der Wiener Schule, Studien zur Wertungsforschung, vii (Graz, 1976)
H. Weber: Alexander Zemlinsky, Österreichische Komponisten des XX. Jahrhunderts, xxiii (Vienna, 1977)
L.A. Oncley: ëThe Works of Alexander Zemlinsky: a Chronological Listí, Notes, xxxiv (1977­8), 291­302
R. Stephan: Alexander Zemlinsky: ein unbekannter Meister der Wiener Schule (Kiel, 1978)
A. Clayton: ëBrahms und Zemlinskyí, Brahms Congress: Vienna 1983, 81­93
W. Loll: Zwischen Tradition und Avantgarde: die Kammermusik Alexander Zemlinskys, Kieler Schriften zur Musikwissenschaft, xxxiv (Kassel, 1990)
ÖMz, iv/4 (1992) [special number]
O. Biba: Alexander Zemlinsky: bin ich kein Wiener? (Vienna, 1992) [exhibition catalogue]
H. Krones, ed.: Alexander Zemlinsky: Ästhetik, Stil und Umfeld, Wiener Schriften zur Stilkunde und Aufführungspraxis, i (Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 1995)
U. Sommer: Alexander Zemlinsky: Der König Kandaules, Musik-Konzepte, xcii­xciv (Munich, 1996)