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‘…my duty to defend the truth’: Erich Schmid in Schoenberg's Berlin Composition Class

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2009

Chris Walton
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Extract

The student of Swiss music history cannot but notice certain parallels in the lives of that country's finest composers – parallels that seem, at first glance, to explain why the student of Swiss music history is such a rare creature. Theodor Fröhlich (1803–1836) left Switzerland to study with Zelter in Berlin. Instead of staying to seek fame and fortune in the Prussian metropolis thereafter, he returned to his native Aarau, where he was forced to earn his keep by conducting assorted amateur choirs and ensembles. Johann Carl Eschmann (1826–1882) studied with Mendelssohn in Leipzig, began a promising career by experimenting with modernistic cyclic structures, but then relegated himself to conducting amateur choirs in darkest Canton Schaffhausen. Othmar Schoeck (1886–1957) studied in Leipzig with Reger, but he too soon returned home to tread in his forebears' footsteps. Numerous others followed the same path. It is as if the culprit were a common genetic trait, some strand of DNA that led generations of Swiss composers briefly to the Teutonic north before compelling them to plunge back into Helvetic obscurity. Or perhaps the yearning to hear cowbells tinkle and see the twinkle of brightly polished doorknobs on distant Alpine chalets is so overwhelming as to propel homewards any Swiss musician sojourning abroad for more than a few months. The cynic may scoff; but the present writer, in voluntary exile from his erstwhile Helvetic homeland, can vouch for the attraction of both.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 218 , October 2001 , pp. 15 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

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References

1 The following is an abridged translation by the present writer of Schmid's reminiscences as published in the July/August number of Melos in 1974, pp. 190–203, and as contained in his unpublished memoirs. Occasional discrepancies between the two are noted below. Thanks are due to the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik for permission to quote from Melos, and to Martha and Martin Schmid for permission to quote from that source and for providing a copy of the appropriate chapter from Schmid's memoirs. Schmid's archives are held today by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich.

2 In his memoirs, Schmid writes that the first lesson took place in ‘mid-October’.

3 Schoenberg, discusses this in his ‘Composition with Twelve Tones’, in Stein, Leonard (ed.), Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg (London, Faber, 1975), pp. 222–3Google Scholar .

4 Schmid met Webern in Winterthur in 1940, when the composer attended a performance of his Passacaglia op.l given by the Winterthur City Orchestra under Schmid's baton.

5 Schoenberg was indeed sketching tonal works at this time. A fragment exists of a piece for violin and piano in D major from 1930. For further information on Schoenberg's late tonal works, see e.g. the chapter by Maegaard, Jan in Bailey, Walter B., ed., The Arnold Schoenberg Companion (Greenwood Press, Westport, 1998)Google Scholar .

6 The Theme and Variations in G minor exist in a version each for wind band (op. 43a) and for orchestra (op. 43b). The work is not dodecaphonic.

7 Schmid, refers to the evergreen Der Contrapunct by Bellermann, Johann (1832–1903)Google Scholar, who was a sort of Ebenezer Proutcum-R.O. Morris of the German academic scene.

8 Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E Flat Major, BWV 552, arranged by Schoenberg for orchestra in 1928.

9 In conversation with the present writer, Schmid quoted Schoenberg thus: ‘Well, then you'll have to change the row, won't you.’

10 Held today by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich.

11 von Fischer, Kurt quotes various reviews of Schmid's conducting exploits in his short biography Erich Schmid (Hug, Zurich, 1992), pp. 20–22 Google Scholar .

122 One of Schmid's last performances in England was with the University of Cambridge First Orchestra in 1984, when the present writer narrowly missed playing under his baton – a matter of regret to him ever since.

13 See von Fischer, , Erich Schmid, p. 22 Google Scholar .