Zemlinsky's The Chalk Circle: Artifice, Fairy-tale and Humanity

This study is primarily concerned with the background to "DerKreidekreis", Zemlinsky's setting of a Chinese drama by Alfred Henschke (pen name 'Klabund', 1890-1928). This was the last of Zemlinsky's stage works to be performed during his lifetime. Indeed, it was the last to be performed anywhere (apart from a solitary production at Nuremberg in 1955) until the slow revival of interest in his music. In terms of scholarship, Horst Weber's monograph, published in 1974, was the first landmark in this process, as well as the first-ever biography and academic study of Zemlinsky in any language. Unlike Schreker, who benefitedfrom three biographies by the time he was 43, Zemlinsky was given only a special issue of the Prague music journal Auftakt for his fiftieth birthday in 1921. A year later the Universal Edition house journal Ausbruch published three short tributes to Zemlinsky as composer (by Franz Werfel) as conductor (by Heinrich Jalowetz) and as teacher (by Erich Korngold) - certainly a distinguished trio. But the general accounts of contemporary music of the time, such as those by Rudolf Louis, Oscar Bie, H. J. Moser and Adolf Weissmann either refer fleetingly to Zemlinsky or ignore him altogether

"A Superabundance of Music": Reflections on Vienna, Italy and German Opera, 1912-1918

In the decade 1912-22, the rising stars of Gernan opera were both Austrians: Franz Schreker, born in 1878, and the very young Erich Korngold, born in 1897. It is Christopher Hailey's new biographical study of Schreker which prompts this essay. I shall be looking here at a group of works that belong to the dying years of the "Italian Renaissance" or "Renaissanceism" boom on the German stage, a fashion dating back to the 1870s

The use of myth in German opera 1912-33 with special reference to the Austrian contribution

The subject of myth in German opera: from the years just before 1914 to the end of the Weimar Republic is developed here on three fronts. "These are, firstly, the notion of myth as historical ‘Bild’ or image; secondly, myth in its vernacular guise of folktale and the motifs associated with Märchen and Saze; thirdly, myth in its more traditional, sense in connection with Hellenism and. the classical heritage. The works discussed are illustrated by music examples in Appendix D. Part One consists: of a brief introductory chapter on the period, followed by a: more substantial one outlining- the three meanings of the word 'myth' as used here. Chapter 3 offers a necessary and relevant view, of the connection between opera and certain literary movements and figures of the period 1912-35 in Germany and Austria. Part Two, 'History, Fiction and Myth’ opens with a chapter on the impact of literary ‘Renaissanceism’ (the Nietzsche-Giobineau view of the Italian Renaissance) on opera, during World War One. The works concerned are Schillings’ Mona Lisa, Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten, Korngold’s Violanta and Zemlinsky's Eine florentinische Tragȍdie. Chapter 5 pursues the historical 'Bild' into the area of the Protestant Reformation and its consequences, especially the ‘image’ of Luther. This is seen through certain operas, discussed solely or largely in terms of their texts, principally Pfitsner's Palestrina and Busoni's Doktor Faust, but also two now forgotten works, Kaminski's Jűrg; Jenatsch and Klenau's Michael Kohlhaas, Parts Three (Chapters 5 and 7) and Four (Chapter 8) form the main, detailed part of this, study. Chapter 6 pursues the development of the; folktale or Märchen idea in Austrian opera (Gál, Wellesz, Zemlinsky, Krenek) and certain German works, while Chapter 7 follows the Märchen and Sage motif in Schreksr, notably Das Spielwerk, Der Schatzzräber and Der Schmied von Gent. Finally, Chapter 8 (Part 4) develops the theme of classical myth as it appears in Heger's Der Bettler uamenlos, then, more fully, in Wellesz’s Alkestis and Die Bakchantinnen and in Krenek's Orpheus und Eurydike and Leben des Orest. The three textual appendices are: (A) a chronological checklist of first performances 1895-1955 (B) A note on publishers (C) Schreker and Paul Bekker. Part One is preceded by a preamble setting out the line decent from Wagner to Strauss and, in another direction, to Mahler and Schnenberg. Part Four is followed by a retrospective conclusion