Letter S: Franz Schreker
MaestroDJS
Monaco is a French-speaking principality on the Mediterranean coast of
southeast France. It has 25,000 people and an area of only 149 hectares (368
acres). The land has belonged to the Genoese family of Grimaldi since 1215.
Monaco derives most of its revenue from the Casino at Monte Carlo and from
tourism.
Many composers have spent their entire creative careers in obscurity, and have
gained recognition only after their deaths. Few fates, however, are more cruel
than for a composer to enjoy wide renown for much of his career and then suffer
waning popularity and ultimate rejection of his creative efforts during his
lifetime.
Franz Schreker was born to Austrian parents in Monaco on March 23, 1878. His
father was a court photographer, and upon his death in 1888 the family
resettled in Vienna. Schreker's gifts were soon recognized, and he won a
scholarship to the Vienna Konservatorium. His career was slow to develop until
1908, when he composed 3 ballets that brought him fame. In 1907 he founded the
Vienna Philharmonic Choir and in 1912 he became teacher of composition at the
Vienna Akademie der Tonkunst.
Schreker's 1st serious opera, _Der ferne Klang_, was well-received at its
première in Frankfurt in 1912. It was soon followed by 3 other operas: _Das
Spielwerk_, _Die Gezeichneten_, and _Der Schatzgräber_. Schreker wrote his own
libretti for all of his operas. During and just after World War I he was
recognized as the leader of the progressive faction in Vienna. The sensual,
highly experimental and technically advanced atmosphere of his operas appealed
to wide audiences. The success of his operas led to his appointment in 1920 as
director of the Berliner Hochschule für Musik, a post he held until 1932. Many
of his pupils followed him to Berlin, which then came to rival Vienna as a
leading musical center.
In his operas, Schreker was influenced by German late Romanticism, French
impressionism and Italian verism. His harmonies were surprisingly novel and
daring, and he used a huge orchestra to produce exotic instrumental colors.
However, in his concert works he was a pioneer of the 20th Century chamber
orchestra. The masterful _Kammersinfonie_ in 1 movement of 1916 produces a
wealth of melodies, harmonies and tone colors with only 23 instruments: 7
winds, 11 strings, piano, harp, céleste, harmonium and percussion.
Schreker's fortunes changed soon after 1920, when the neoclassical movement
developed, and a reaction set in against the post-impressionist Romanticism of
his music. His later operas met with less and less success, and younger
musicians began to ignore him. His position in music became weakened, and in
1932 he was forced to resign from the Berliner Hochschule für Musik. With the
rise of Nazism, Schreker was completely cut off from German musical life. This
turn of fortune undermined his health and he suffered a stroke near the end of
1933. Schreker died a few months later in almost complete obscurity on March
21, 1934.
David Stybr
Chicago, Illinois, USA