Performance Practice of Viennese Modernism
Collaboration in Composing and Conducting at the Turn of the Century
2024–2025
RFD19
The source material for this project is drawn from a collection of manuscripts by composers and conductors associated with Viennese Modernism. These manuscripts are not mentioned in prior publications, leaving a significant gap in the academic literature on the topic of performance practice of Viennese Modernism. The contents of these manuscripts allow new insights into an important collaborative network between individuals invested in both musical composition and performance during the early 20th century.
This project looks at the performance material of composers and conductors such as Gustav Mahler, Alexander Zemlinsky, Franz Schreker, Erich Korngold, Artur Bodanzky, Otto Klemperer, Anton Webern, and Arnold Schönberg. It is worth noting that these figures comprised a collaborative network in which composition and performance manuscripts were not only produced by the composers themselves but they were also actively discussed in letters between collaborating conductors and composers. Furthermore, these performance materials never remained in one place. They were reused for later performances by different conductors in new places so that each revision and addition created a performance layer inscribed atop the composer’s autograph. Indeed, these compositions were ‘works-in-progress’, and the composer might add to his own ‘authorised version’ over time either by inscribing the revisions into the autograph or by confirming with the conductor through correspondence. Therefore, it is important to consider not only the composer’s material as a principal source, but also the performance scores and the exchange between the composer and the conductor. In this way we can better understand composition and decisision-making processes. This leads to questions such as: How did this practice change the hierarchy between composing and conducting? Does it constitute a new understanding of performance in the beginning of the 20th century? These questions are especially relevant because the annotation and revision practices that were adopted by the Viennese Modernists led to one of the most important changes in performance history: the rise of the conductor as a standalone figure in the music industry. This research project investigates how collaborative practice could be implemented in edition work as well as how such practices still affect our current understanding of performance. Indeed, it seems that such ideals and their influence on the individual aesthetic approach in conducting and performing are still prevalent in performance practice today.
People
Project lead: Laura-Maxine Kalbow