Alma Mahler facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alma Mahler
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Alma Mahler in 1909
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| Born |
Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler
31 August 1879 |
| Died | 11 December 1964 (aged 85) New York City, New York, U.S.
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| Burial place | Grinzing Cemetery, Vienna |
| Nationality | Austrian, American |
| Occupation | Composer, socialite, author, editor |
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Alma Maria Mahler Gropius Werfel (born Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler; 31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964) was an Austrian composer, author, editor, and socialite. At 15, she was mentored by Max Burckhard. Musically active from her early years, she was the composer of nearly fifty songs for voice and piano, and works in other genres as well. Only 17 songs are known to survive.
Contents
Early years
Alma Maria Schindler was born on 31 August 1879 in Vienna, Austria (then Austria-Hungary) to the famous landscape painter Emil Jakob Schindler and his wife Anna Sofie. She was tutored at home and brought up in the Catholic Church. In 1886, Crown Prince Rudolf found interest in Emil Jakob Schindler's paintings and commissioned Schindler to take a trip with his family to the Adriatic coast to produce landscape paintings. In 1892, the family also traveled to the North Sea island of Sylt, where Emil Schindler died.
After her father's death, Alma focused on the piano. She studied composition and counterpoint with Josef Labor, a blind organist who introduced her to a "great deal of literature". At 15, she was sent to school but attended for only a few months. As she grew older, a case of childhood measles left her with decreased hearing. Max Burckhard, friend of Emil Schindler and director of Vienna's Burgtheater theater, became Alma's mentor. On Alma's 17th birthday, Burckhard gave her two laundry baskets full of books. In 1895, Anna Schindler, Alma's mother, married Carl Moll, Emil Schindler's student. In 1899 they had a daughter together named Maria.
Alma met Gustav Klimt through Carl Moll. Moll and Klimt were both founding members of the Vienna Secession, "a group organized for the purpose of breaking with Vienna's tradition-bound Imperial Academy of the visual arts". Klimt fell in love with Alma. While she initially was interested in Klimt, her desire cooled soon after. Klimt and Alma were friends until Klimt's death. In fall 1900, Alma began studying composition with Alexander von Zemlinsky.
Personal life
In her early years, she was romantically involved with composer and conductor Alexander von Zemlinsky, but their relationship did not last long. She became the wife of composer Gustav Mahler, who was not interested in her compositions. Eventually she fell into depression from being artistically stifled. After Gustav's death, Alma married Walter Gropius in 1915 and the couple had a daughter together, Manon Gropius. Her last marriage was to Franz Werfel.
In 1938, after the Anschluss, Werfel and Alma were forced to flee Austria as it was unsafe for Jews. Eventually the couple settled in Los Angeles. In later years, her salon became part of the artistic scene, first in Vienna, then in Los Angeles and in New York.
Cultural icon in the U.S.
In 1946, Mahler-Werfel became a U.S. citizen. Several years later she moved to New York City, where she remained a cultural figure. Leonard Bernstein, who was a champion of Gustav Mahler's music, stated in his Charles Eliot Norton lectures of 1973 that Mahler-Werfel had attended some of his rehearsals. Benjamin Britten, considering her to be a "living" link to both Mahler and Alban Berg, dedicated his Nocturne for Tenor and Small Orchestra to her.
Death
Alma Mahler-Werfel died 11 December 1964 in New York City. She was buried on 8 February 1965 in the Grinzing Cemetery of Vienna in the same grave as her daughter Manon Gropius and a few steps away from Gustav Mahler.
As a composer
Alma played the piano from childhood and in her memoirs ("Mein Leben"), reports that she first attempted composing in the beginning of 1888 on the Greek island of Corfu. She studied composition with Josef Labor beginning in 1894 or 1895 and until 1901. She met Alexander von Zemlinsky in early 1900, began composition lessons with him that fall, and continued as his student until her engagement to Gustav Mahler in December 1901, after which she ceased composing. Until this time, she had composed or sketched mostly Lieder, but around 20 piano pieces and a small number of chamber music works, and a scene from an opera. She briefly resumed composing in 1910, but stopped in 1915. The chronology of her compositions is difficult to establish because she did not date her manuscripts and destroyed many of them herself. Attempts to establish a chronological list of her works have been made by Susanne Rode-Breymann in 1999 and 2014, and by Knud Martner in 2018.
A total of 17 songs by her survive. Fourteen were published during her lifetime in three publications dated 1910, 1915, and 1924. The first two volumes appeared under the name Alma Maria Schindler-Mahler, and the last volume was published as "Fünf Gesänge" by Alma Maria Mahler; the cover of the 1915 set was illustrated by Oskar Kokoschka. Three additional songs were discovered in manuscript posthumously; two of them were published in the year 2000, edited by Dr. Susan M. Filler, and one published in 2018, edited by Barry Millington. Her personal papers, including music manuscripts, are held at the University of Pennsylvania, the Austrian National Library in Vienna, and the Bavarian State Library in Munich. These songs have been performed and recorded regularly since the 1980s. Orchestral versions of the accompaniments have been produced. Seven songs were orchestrated by David and Colin Matthews (published by Universal Edition), and all 17 songs were orchestrated by Julian Reynolds, and by Jorma Panula.
Works
Compositions cited from Mahler, A Complete Songs unless otherwise noted.
- Five Songs for voice and piano (published in January 1911)
- (i) Die stille Stadt (The Quiet Town; Richard Dehmel)
- (ii) In meines Vaters Garten (In My Father's Garden; Erich Otto Hartleben)
Note: The original poem is entitled Französisches Wiegenlied or Volkslied, and was composed between May and August 1899. - (iii) Laue Sommernacht (Mild Summer's Night; Bierbaum)
Note: The original title of the poem is Gefunden. - (iv) Bei dir ist es traut (With You It Is Pleasant; Rilke)
- (v) Ich wandle unter Blumen (I Stroll Among Flowers; Heine)
- Four Songs for voice and piano (published in June 1915)
- (i) Licht in der Nacht (Light in the Night; Bierbaum)
- (ii) Waldseligkeit (Woodland Bliss; Dehmel)
- (iii) Ansturm (Storm; Dehmel)
- (iv) Erntelied (Harvest Song; Gustav Falke)The original title is Gesang am Morgen (Song at Dawn).
- Five Songs for voice and piano (published in April 1924)
Posthumously published
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- Leise weht ein erstes Blühn (Softly Drifts a First Blossom; Rilke), for voice and piano (published 2000 by Susan M. Filler)
- Kennst du meine Nächte? (Do You Know My Nights?; Leo Greiner), for voice and piano (published 2000 by Susan M. Filler)
- Einsamer Gang (Lonely Walk, Leo Greiner), for voice and piano (published London 2018 by Barry Millington)
Images for kids
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House of Franz Werfel and Alma Mahler in Sanary-sur-Mer
See also
In Spanish: Alma Mahler para niños
