{"id":86023,"date":"2021-01-06T17:36:26","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T15:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=86023"},"modified":"2021-01-06T17:36:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T15:36:26","slug":"wagnerian-leitmotifs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wagnerian-leitmotifs\/","title":{"rendered":"Wagnerian Leitmotifs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942), Psalm 83<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jewish composer Alexander Zemlinsky was known primarily as the teacher of Arnold Schoenberg, and his brother-in-law. His compositions greatly influenced the development of Viennese modernism at the beginning of the 20th century. Even though he received encouragement from Brahms and Mahler, he did not become a well-known composer in his day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent decades, appreciation for his work has grown, and he is now considered one of the most important composers of his period. Testimony to this is Psalm 83 for a choir of soloists and orchestra that Zemlinsky composed in 1900, though the work was only published in 1987. Zemlinsky\u2019s compositions have a dramatic quality, and lyric power, showing influence of Richard Wagner, and similar to the works of two more famous Viennese Jews – Gustav Mahler, and Schoenberg.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1900, Zemlinsky converted to Christianity, experienced unrequited affections for Alma Schindler (soon to be Mrs. Mahler), and experienced the painful loss of his father. He chose one of the darker chapters of Psalms, Psalm 83, and composed a great symphonic-choral work, in German, based on verses 2-4 and 14-19. The choice preserves the spirit of the psalm, and skips over the Biblical events that are mentioned. A great deal of the music is reminiscent of Wagnerian opera, together with more traditional choral music (such as canons and fugues).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are \u201cleitmotifs\u201d in the work that are connected to motifs in the text, and solo parts that vie with the power of the orchestra. The opening is slow and painful, with the air of a dirge. The work continues as the music grows in strength as the fury and the cries for revenge grow, to the conclusion, which ends with the praise of God. The final verse (at 9:32 in the video, when the soloists stand up) opens with an orchestral transition, similar to that in Wagner\u2019s Ring of the Nibelungen, and it is designed as a catharsis, involving all the powers of the orchestra and the choir,\u00a0 in a complex weave of vocal and instrumental fugues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Nazis came to power in Germany, Zemlinsky was working in Berlin as a composer and conductor. He escaped, first to Vienna, and with the Anschluss, fled to the United States, where he did not succeed in getting an appointment as a teacher or composer. He died from illness in 1942.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alexander von Zemlinsky, 83. Psalm f\u00fcr Soli, Chor und Orchester (1900; UA Wien 1987)
\n<\/span>July 20, 2014, Neubaukirche, W\u00fcrzburg, Germany<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/C1jZnNYZ08c","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"The Psalms In Classical Music","main_caption":"Wagnerian Leitmotifs","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"A new series - this time: Alexander Zemlinsky ","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/C1jZnNYZ08c","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86023"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86150,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86023\/revisions\/86150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}