Top 100 Composers: Erwin Schulhoff

I think I probably 1st encountered Schulhoff's music as it's presented in "The Music Survives!", a combination VHS documentary & CD compilation:

I was interested in any music suppressed by the nazis, especially music that might've been overtly political or musically adventurous. I didn't neecessarily find the brief excerpt from Schulhoff to be either but I was glad to be introduced to his work. The nazis suppressed music influenced by jazz & I like jazz so Schulhoff's jazz-inflected pieces interested me.

Later, I learned that Schulhoff composed an oratorio on The Communist Manifesto & this pleased me immensely & increased my curiosity about his music considerably. Adding even more to things is that he's sometimes called a "dadaist" composer. I love dada. E.G.: He has a piece called "Cloud-Pump" (1922) based on poems by Hans Arp & another piece called "Soanata erotica" (1919) where a woman vocally simulates an orgasm. In other words, my kind of guy.

His notated piece for all rests/silences is pretty fantastic too & it predates Cage's considerably more famous "4'33"" aka The Silent Sonata:

&, yes, there are preformances of the above online. Thanks to Thierry Castro fot directing me to this one: https://youtu.be/3c5lRRaW4Jw & to Reinhardt U. Sevöl for directing me to this one: https://youtu.be/FBfOG0D39eo .

Alas, I don't have any recordings of the wilder stuff but it's all pretty interesting to me - especially the concertos & the piano music & the aforementioned Communist Manifesto. Naturally, the fact that he was snuffed out by being in a prison camp by nazis is a tragedy to me. Whenever I read about such things I imagine what great work the victims might've made if they hadn't been murdered. He was only in his late '40s when he died from TB in a camp.

- tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE; March 22, 2018E.V.

 

Erwin Schulhoff Retrospective

 

Volume 1 of 6:

Side 1 of a 90 minute tape:

01. "Jazz Studies" (1910-20 or 1926?) - 12:30 - record

02. "Sonata for Violin" (1903/13 or 1927?) - CD

 

Side 2 of a 90 minute tape:

03. "Five Grotesques" Op. 21 - 21:31 - CD

04. "Five Burlesques" Op. 23 - 20:19 - CD

 

Volume 2 of 6:

Side 1 of a 90 minute tape:

05. "String Quartet" Op. 25 (1918?) - CD

 

Side 2 of a 90 minute tape:

06. "Five Picturesques" Op. 31 - 18:10 - CD

07. "Six Ironies" Op. 34 - 12:15 - CD

 

Volume 3 of 6:

Side 1 of a 90 minute tape:

08. "Suite" Op. 37 (1921-22) - 16:58 - CD

09. "Concerto for piano and small orchestra" Op. 43 (1923) - 18:14 - CD

 

Side 2 of a 90 minute tape:

10. "Sextett" (1920-24) - 22:48 - record

10. "String Sextet" (1920-24) - CD

 

Volume 4 of 6:

Side 1 of a 90 minute tape:

11. "Piano Sonata No. 1, devoted to Thomas Mann" (1924) - 15:22 - CD

13. "Duo for Violin and Cello" (1925) - 17:23 - record

 

Side 2 of a 90 minute tape:

12. "Ogelala "Balletmysterium"" Op. 53 (1922-24 or 25) - 35:39 - CD

 

Volume 5 of 6:

Side 1 of a 90 minute tape:

13. "Duo for Violin and Cello" (1925) - CD

14. "Piano Sonata No. 3" (1927) - 17:46 - CD

16. "Flammen - Introduzione-Karnivalsnacht" - 1929 - 8:33 - CD

 

Side 2 of a 90 minute tape:

15. "Concerto Doppio for flute and piano, string orchestra and 2 horns" (1927) - 19:06 - CD

17. "Concerto for string orchestra and wind ensemble" (1930) - 22:04 - CD

 

Volume 6 of 6:

Side 1 of a 90 minute tape:

18. "Jazz Improvisations" (1931 or later?) - 28:05 - CD

19. "Symphony No. 2" (1932) - 17:44 - CD

 

Side 2 of a 90 minute tape:

20. "The Communist Manifesto" (1931-33) - 36:45 - record

21. Orchestration of Beethoven's "Rondo and Capriccio" (1940) - 6:40 - CD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, in today's anti-racist context, black-face is a very uncomfortable thing. As I understand the above, this is how the performers looked in Ernst Krenek's opera Jonny spielt auf which exemplified for the nazis "Entartete Musik" ('Degenerate Music'). Hence, the context puts a different spin on it than one might expect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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