child musical prodigies : Alma Mahla








Child Musical Prodigies: Alma Mahler (Austria, 1879-1964)


Figure 1.--Here is Alma at 9-10 years old about 1889. She looks to be wearing a smock over her dress.

At HBC we have focused on boy prodigies. There were also girl prodigies, although relatively few. Here we are unsure if there are indeed fewer talented girls or if societal factors offered fewer opportunities for girls. Certainly 19th century and even early 20th century society limited the education of girls. This and other societal factors undoubtedly limited the ability of girls to persue their talents, whether this was the only factor we do not know. One girl prodigy that we know of is Alma Mahler. Alma was born in 1879. Her father was the noted Viennese landscape painter Emil Jakob Schindler. she had a privileged childhood and was expossed to the literati of late-19th century Vienna. Quite a number of the liminaries of Vienese culture took an interest in Alma. One such frequent visitor was Gustav Klimt, a co-founder of the Viennese »Sezession« and brilliant Jugendstil painter. Max Burckhard was the director of the Burgtheater. Burckhard played a role in developing Alma's interest in litrature. Composer Alexander Zemlinsky actually titored her in composition. Zemlinsky wanted to marry Alma, but instead at the age of 22 she married famed composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, 20 years her senior.

Girl Prodigies

At HBC we have focused on boy prodigies. There were also girl prodigies, although relatively few. Here we are unsure if there are indeed fewer talented girls or if societal factors offered fewer opportunities for girls. Certainly 19th century and even early 20th century society limited the education of girls. This and other societal factors undoubtedly limited the ability of girls to persue their talents, whether this was the only factor we do not know.

Parents

Her father was the noted Viennese landscape painter Emil Jakob Schindler. Her father became rich and was highly renowned. Alma loved him intensely and he became her mentor.

Childhood

Alma was born in 1879. she had a privileged childhood and was expossed to the literati of late-19th century Vienna. Quite a number of the liminaries of Vienese culture took an interest in Alma. One such frequent visitor was Gustav Klimt, a co-founder of the Viennese »Sezession« and brilliant Jugendstil painter. Max Burckhard was the director of the Burgtheater. Burckhard played a role in developing Alma's interest in litrature. Composer Alexander Zemlinsky actually titored her in composition.

Childhood Clothing

Here is Alma at 9-10 years old about 1889. She looks to be wearing a smock over her dress. This is interesting because we have relatively limited information on smocks in the 19th century. We have no other on Alma's chhildhood clothes. One HBC reader writes, "The photograph here is astonishing in that Alma who was 10 years old in 1889 is dressed like a girl in 1920s-40s."

Education

Alma never attended a formal school. She was very bright and schooled at home. She was reading Goethe at age 8 and at 17 she knew all the repertoire of Wagner's operas. Around that time, she was instructed by with Alexander Von Zemlinsky, the master of music of Arnold Schoenberg, She mastered rapidly every aspects of music compositions.

Prodigy

One girl prodigy that we know of is Alma Mahler. She was clearly a very talented little girl, and her talebts were nurtured by her parenrs and artistic friends and colleagues. I do not have any information, however, about her being promoted as a child prodigy. Given her father's success there was not need to use Alma's talent to earn money.

Personal Life

Alma was a beautiful and intelligent young lady and attracted many suitors. Zemlinsky wanted to marry Alma, but instead at the age of 22 she married famed composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, 20 years her senior (1902). The marriage did not work, in part because her husband wanted her to discontinue her artistic and musical work and be a traditional wife. Her husband was apparently jealous of his wife's talents. Meanwhile, she was a "muse" for Mahler and many other. Such a woman was able to give birth to genius and this is what happened with Mahler. Mahler forbade his wife to compose and it is just at the end of his life that he began to change his mind. He helped Alma in wriing 9 lied, the only opus known from her (1910). Her frustrating relationship with her husband proved so disturbing to her that she went to see Dr. Sigmund Freud for pssychanalisis. When her husband died, she married architect Walter Gropius (1911). The marriage had been described as tumultuous. They had a daughter, Manon, who eventually died of polio (1935). Composer Alban Berg wrote a Violin Concerto in memory of Manon. While married to Gropius, Alma had an affair with artist Oskar Kokoschka. She later married writer Franz Werfel (1929). They had a child, Martin, who was born prematurely. Medical procedures for dealing with premature births were still basic abd the boy died after only a few months. Tom Lehrer's song "Alma" makes fun of her private life and many marriages. As can be seen by the brief essay here, the people she associated with provide's a virtual encyclopedia of the artistic and literary world of late 19th and early 20th century Austria as well as many important figures in Europe as well.

Body of Work

Alma Mahler's musical competencies were useful in promoting Mahler's genius. She was very different from that standpoint of Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelsshohn. After having waited so long to compose, she needs some help from Mahler. Some people believed those songs from her where Mahler's! Maybe it is right because after her husband's death, she lived with visual artist.

Anchluss (1938)

Like all Austrian Jews, Mhler's life was changed dranatically with the NAZI Anchluss. The Wehrmact crossed the border and Hitler motored to Austria to proclaim the annexation of his homeland. The SS and Gestapo immediated began arresting prominenting anti-NAZIs and Jews. NAZI gangs terrorized Jews, breaking into their homes and dragging them into the streets to humiliate them. Shops and homes were vandalized. Alma and Werfel succeeded in fleeing to France. Austria Jews without money and internatioinal connections were unable to escape.

World War II and the Holocaust

NAZI Germany launched World War II by invading Poland (September 1939). The NAZIs launched their western offensive (My 1940) anf France fell (June). Again Mahler and her husband were in danger. Sympathetic Americans sponsored a effort to help noted Jews flee France. American journalist Varian Fry in Marseille assisted Mahler and others. They hiked accross the Pyrenees in a perilous journey evading NAZI patrols and reached the saftey of Spain. They went on to Portugal where they managed to get a ship to America. spain despite being a virtual NAZI ally played an important role in saving many Jews. Franco refused to turn over either Spanish or more importantly foreign Jews to the NAZIs. Readers may want to review the HBC Holocust pages on France, Spain, and Portugal to better understand what occurred.

Life in America

Mahler and Werfel eventually settled in Los Angeles. Werfel's Song of Bernadette was made into a well-received movie starring Jennifer Jones (1943). Werfel died (1945). Mahler moved to New York and was an active participant in the culturl life of the city. She died (1964).

NAZI Impact on Austria and Germany

Mhler was of course only one of many intensely talebted Austrians and Germans that made their way to America. The NAZi assault on Jews and free expression is usually addressed in terms of the horific impact on lives of Europopean Jews and others who opposed the NZIs. Less often addressed is the impact on Germany and Austria. German and Austria even after World War I were at the center of the world cultural and scientific life. Germany led the world in nobel prizes. This was especially true in areas like chemistry and physcics. But Grmany was also at the heart of modern architecture and art. This all changed with the NAZIs and World War II. America even New York was a backwater of both science and culture. Beginning with the arrival of refugeees, New York became a major cultural center. Also America began to emerge as not only an industrial powerhouse, but a scientific powerhouse as well. Since the War Germany and Austria hve played only a minor role in the scientific innovations (aomic power, space, transistors, computers, pharaceuticls, and nano-technology) that have made our modern world--a striking change from the role Germans and Austrians were playing in the early 20th century. Here the Manhattan Project is the best known example.

Movie

Bruce Beresford movie "Bride of the Wind" (2001) is a film biography of Mahler. Visconti's "Death in Venice" (based on the Thomas Mann book) relates the tumultuous union of Gustav Mahler with Alma. There is a very beautiful scene in the country on a lakeshore in the Alps where we see Mahler, Alma and their two young girls. You know the langstam from the Third Symphony ? An absolute in music. Hear this with Maureen Forrester and the Concertgebow of Amsterdam with Bernard Haitink.

Sources

Françoise, Giroud. Alma Mahler ou l'art d'être aimée (Paris; Laffont. 1988).









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Created: 8:07 PM 8/6/2004
Last updated: 8:07 PM 8/6/2004