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      CommentAuthorWilliam
    • CommentTimeJan 20th 2012
    For you classical music buffs out there, I recently read online that Korngold played a composition for Gustav Mahler when he was quite young, being referred to by Mahler at that point as a "genius."
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      CommentAuthorSteven
    • CommentTimeJan 21st 2012
    Seems legit.
    • CommentAuthormarkrayen
    • CommentTimeJan 21st 2012
    Yes, that seems to be a well-documented claim. The story is that Mahler, probably invited by Zemlinsky who was Korngold's teacher, listened to the 11 year old perform some of his earliest piano compositions. He then suggested that Korngold should compile the pieces in a certain way, apparantly resulting in what became the first piano sonata (ca. 1908). I also read that Mahler invited Korngold as a child to visit Paul Dukas (composer of the famous "sorceror's apprentice" used in Disney's Fantasia) when the latter was in Austria, and the report claimed that the elder composer was impressed.

    The only issue is the actual relationship Korngold had with Mahler. Of course, at the time his father Julius (the famous, influentual critic) used the connection to promote his son and impose his early productions on the Viennese musical life - an obvious exploitation given the position Mahler had at the time as a famous conductor and for the success of his symphonies. Sometimes Mahler is reported to have been Korngold's teacher, but that was Zemlinsky - not Mahler.

    The most famous documentation of the reception of Korngold's prodigious early work was a letter from Richard Strauss, after recieving scores of the young composer's work through mail. He writes:

    "To learn that this music was composed by an eleven-year-old boy fills me with
    shock and fear and I do hope that even such a mature young genius will be able to
    develop normally, as one would wish him to. His confident style, his knowledge of
    form, his unusual expression (especially in the piano sonata) – it is really
    extraordinary (...)


    A question raised years later by several musicologists is whether Julius Korngold's wreckless advertising and early exposure of his son's talents preventing him from developing "normally" as Strauss worded it.
  1. What were the issues with Korngold's development?
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    • CommentAuthormarkrayen
    • CommentTimeJan 21st 2012 edited
    "Normally" in my case refers to the kind of music he was expected to deliver: the pre-established forms he would renew and traditions he would continue. As an adult he for many years refused to write any concert music and would only write film scores, something his wife, Luzi, wrote about in her book after his death. She suggested it may have been due to his strong feelings of resentment towards the horrors of the second world war, but it could perhaps also be related to the pressure placed on him by the adult musicians that surrounded him starting in early childhood.

    Its hard to imagine the influence such pressure might have on his development, perhaps he felt compelled to abandon the Viennese traditions and discover his own path elsewhere? He didn't procuce much more than 40 works, which is a surprisingly moderate output considering how he composed with such ease and rapidity in childhood. A lot of his later work was based on, and partly "borrowed" from compositions he had composed in his teens.

    For certain periods of his career, he seemed at least partly devoid of intention and the will to accomplish. This is fascinating since throughout his output the talent and potential is consequently extraordinary. Perhaps the answers are rooted in childhood?

    The only large scale concert work besides the 5 operas (only two of them composed in adulthood) and few concertos he composed sporadically, is the majestic Symphony (opus 40), which is an outstanding work.

    So instead of composing grand masterpieces in the pre-established forms that were expected of him by the forces of the Viennese musical life, he involved himself with light music and operettas before moving to California in the 1930's. The same can be said of Schoenberg. The expectations to what he and Korngold would achieve were greatly dictated by the achievments of past masters: that these new composers would renew and continue their cherished traditions. Schoenberg famously withdrew from the late-romantic symphonic genre and labeled it an "exhausted idiom", and moved his activities as composer and lecturer to Berlin after turning down a prestigious teaching post in Vienna. Stravinsky had this to say of the Viennese who seemed inherently resitant towards modernity and change:

    The Viennese are barbarians. Their orchestral musicians
    could not play my Petrushka. They hardly know Debussy there, and they chased
    Schoenberg away to Berlin. Now Schoenberg is one of the greatest creative spirits
    of our era.
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      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeJan 21st 2012
    I'm having a listen to his fine Symphony this morning.
    Tom
    listen to more classical music!
    • CommentAuthormarkrayen
    • CommentTimeJan 22nd 2012
    Great, I will too!
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      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeJan 22nd 2012
    Got your message. Thanks
    listen to more classical music!
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      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeJan 23rd 2012
    http://sdtom.wordpress.com/wp-admin/pos … ostpost=v2

    This may have appeal to a few of you.
    Thomas
    listen to more classical music!
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      CommentAuthorWilliam
    • CommentTimeJan 23rd 2012
    sdtom wrote
    http://sdtom.wordpress.com/wp-admin/pos … ostpost=v2

    This may have appeal to a few of you.
    Thomas


    Great review, Tom, though I think the link you posted above may be incorrect. I actually never knew that Shostakovich wrote film scores, as well! Very cool.
  2. Yeah, he did a few.

    Stravinsky was hired for a Hollywood film score too, but rejected. I've read that the problem was that Stravinsky didn't at all adapt to the scoring system at the time and started to write whatever he wants before the shooting was completed. Do I remember it right, Tom?
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeJan 23rd 2012
    PawelStroinski wrote
    Yeah, he did a few.

    Stravinsky was hired for a Hollywood film score too, but rejected. I've read that the problem was that Stravinsky didn't at all adapt to the scoring system at the time and started to write whatever he wants before the shooting was completed. Do I remember it right, Tom?


    I believe it was that he wanted far too much time to write it.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeJan 24th 2012
    Timmer wrote
    PawelStroinski wrote
    Yeah, he did a few.

    Stravinsky was hired for a Hollywood film score too, but rejected. I've read that the problem was that Stravinsky didn't at all adapt to the scoring system at the time and started to write whatever he wants before the shooting was completed. Do I remember it right, Tom?


    I believe it was that he wanted far too much time to write it.


    Yes, I think that's how the story goes.
    I am extremely serious.
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      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeJan 24th 2012
    William wrote
    sdtom wrote
    http://sdtom.wordpress.com/wp-admin/pos … ostpost=v2

    This may have appeal to a few of you.
    Thomas


    Great review, Tom, though I think the link you posted above may be incorrect. I actually never knew that Shostakovich wrote film scores, as well! Very cool.


    Dimitri wrote over 50 scores for films. His first was for a silent film New Babylon in 1929. Of possible interest to you William might be Gadfly and Hamlet. These are both available on Naxos at a reasonable price. As far as I know about Stravinsky he wanted far too much money. Shostakovich was strictly Russian material.
    Tom
    listen to more classical music!
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      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeJan 27th 2012
    http://delosmusic.com/2012/01/film-musi … s+Music%29

    My agreement with Delos is beginning to pay off.
    Tom
    listen to more classical music!
  3. Well done, Tom.
    The views expressed in this post are entirely my own and do not reflect the opinions of maintitles.net, or for that matter, anyone else. http://www.racksandtags.com/falkirkbairn