Viktor Ullmann

Viktor Ullmann

Viktor Ullmann (b. 1 January 1898 in Teschen, Austro-Hungarian Empire, now divided between Cieszyn in Poland and Český Těšín in the Czech Republic; d. 18 October 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau) was an Austrian composer, conductor and pianist.

Biography
Viktor Ullmann was born on 1 January 1898 in Teschen, the modern Cieszyn or Cesky Tesin. Both his parents were from families of Jewish descent, but had converted to Roman Catholicism before Viktor's birth. His father, Maximilian, was able as an assimilated Jew to pursue the career of a professional officer in the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; in World War I he was promoted to colonel and ennobled.

From 1909 Viktor attended a grammar school (Gymnasium) in Vienna. His musical talents and inclinations soon gave him access to Arnold Schönberg and his circle of pupils. As soon as he had finished school he volunteered for military service.

After deployment on the Italian Front, at Isonzo, he was granted study leave, which he used to obtain an introduction to the study of law at Vienna University. At the beginning of 1918 he was also accepted in Schönberg's composition seminar. With Schönberg himself he studied the theory of form, counterpoint and orchestration. Ullmann was an excellent pianist, although he had no ambitions for a career as a soloist.

In May 1919 he broke off both courses of study and left Vienna in order to devote himself fully to music in Prague. His mentor was now Alexander von Zemlinsky, under whose direction he was conductor at the New German Theatre of Prague (now the Prague State Opera) until 1927. (In the following season, 1927-28, he was appointed head of the opera company in Aussig an der Elbe (Ústí nad Labem), but his repertoire (including operas by Richard Strauss, Krenek and others) was too advanced for local tastes, and the appointment was terminated).

In 1923 with the Sieben Lieder mit Klavier (7 Songs with Piano) there began a series of successful performances of his works, which lasted until the beginning of the 1930s ("Sieben Serenaden"). At the Geneva music festival of the International Society for New Music in 1929, his "Schönberg Variations", a piano cycle on a theme by his teacher in Vienna, caused something of a stir. Five years later, for the orchestral arrangement of this work, he was awarded the Hertzka Prize (named in honour of the former director of Universal Editions). In the meantime he had been appointed conductor in Zürich for two years. As a result of his interest in anthroposophy (founded by Rudolf Steiner) he spent another two years as a bookseller in Stuttgart, but was forced to flee in mid-1933 and returned to Prague as a music teacher and journalist.

During this period he worked with the department of music in Czechoslovak Radio, wrote book and music reviews for various magazines, was employed as a critic for the Bohemia newspaper, lectured to educational groups, gave private lessons and was actively involved in the programme of the Czechoslovak Society for Music Education. At about that time Ullmann made friends with the composer Alois Hába, whom he had known for some time. Ullmann enrolled in Hába's department of quarter-tone music at the Prague Conservatoire, where he studied for two years (1935-1937).

If the works of the 1920s still clearly show the influence of Schönberg's atonal phase (especially the Chamber Symphony Op. 9, the George Songs Op. 15 and "Pierrot Lunaire", Op. 21), the compositions from 1935 onwards are distinguished by independent development of the inspirations received from Schönberg (String Quartet No. 2, Piano Sonata No. 1) and of the controversial issues raised by Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck (the opera Fall of the Antichrist). Dissonant harmonics, highly charged musical expression and masterly control of the formal structure are characteristic of Ullmann's new and from now on unmistakable personal style.

On 8 September 1942 he was deported to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt. Up to his deportation his list of works had totalled 41 opus numbers and contained inter alia a further three piano sonatas, song cycles from various poets, operas and the piano concerto Op. 25, which he finished in December 1939, that is, nine months after the entry of German troops into Prague. Most of these works are missing; the manuscripts presumably disappeared during the occupation. There survive however 13 printed items, which Ullmann published privately and entrusted to a friend for safekeeping.

The particular nature of the camp at Theresienstadt enabled Ullmann to remain active musically: he was a piano accompanist, organised concerts ("Collegium musicum", "Studio for New Music"), wrote critiques of musical events and composed, as part of a cultural circle including Karel Ančerl, Rafael Schachter, Gideon Klein, Hans Krása and other prominent musicians also imprisoned there.

On 16 October 1944 he was deported to the camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where on 18 October 1944 he was killed in the gas chambers.

The work he left in Theresienstadt was almost entirely preserved, and comprises - apart from choral works, song cycles and a quantity of stage music - such significant works as the last three piano sonatas, the Third String Quartet, the melodrama based on Rilke's Cornet poem and the chamber opera The Emperor of Atlantis, or The Refusal of Death, first produced in 1975 (the original premier was due to have been held in the autumn of 1944 at Terezin , conducted by Rafael Schachter, but the SS commander noticed the similarities between the lead character and Hitler, and the work was banned). It has been shown in full on BBC television in Britain, and there have been a number of productions in several countries; important productions took place in Bremen and Stuttgart in 1990. It was written on the back of scrap concentration camp records, which were used in the first performance—the performers found this very affecting.

In these works, and particularly in the Emperor and the Cornet, he was concerned with the fundamental questions of his artistic Weltanschauung, now of course having to accommodate the realities of the living conditions in a Nazi concentration camp; the aesthetic problem of transforming already existing material into artistic shape; and the ethical problem of the continuous conflict between spirit and matter.

The most concrete formulation of this discourse, in terms of content, occurs in the "Emperor" opera, with the parable of the Emperor's game with Death for Life. The "game", which concerns nothing less than the total destruction of all human life planned by the Emperor and Death's thwarting of this insane purpose, ends with the ruin of the Emperor and with the vision of a new understanding between life and death.

With the musical formulation of this subject, presumably connected to the contemporary situation, Viktor Ullmann created a timeless paradigm of how through the positive powers of humankind the inhumanity of every tyrannical regime can be overcome.

Chronology
1898 Born in Teschen (in Austrian Silesia) on 1 January
1909-16 Attended school in Vienna
1916-18 Military service as a volunteer; service at the Front; promotion to Lieutenant
1918 Attended the University of Vienna, studying law and attending Arnold Schönberg's "composition seminar"
1920 autumn: Choirmaster and co-repetiteur under Alexander von Zemlinsky in the New German Theatre in Prague; later (1922-27) conductor
1925 Composition of the "Schönberg Variations" for piano (first performance 1926 in Prague)
1927-1928 Director of Opera in Aussig an der Elbe (Ústí nad Labem); afterwards back in Prague without a position
1929 Success of the "Schönberg Variations" at the music festival of the International Society for New Music (Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik; IGNM) in Geneva
1929-1931 Composer and conductor for stage music in the theatre at Zürich
1931-1933 Bookdealer in Stuttgart (proprietor of the anthroposophical Novalis-Bücherstube)
1933 Flight from Stuttgart; return to Prague
1934 Hertzka Prize for the orchestral arrangement of the "Schönberg Variations" (Op. 3b)
1935-1937 Instruction in composition from Alois Hába
1936 Hertzka Prize for the opera "The Fall of the Antichrist" (Op. 9)
1938 After the performance of the Second String Quartet at the IGMN Festival in London Ullmann stays for about two months in Dornach near Basle
1939 Beginning of the persecution of the Jews in the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia"
1942, 8 September Deportation to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp; active as composer, conductor, pianist, organiser, teacher and music critic. Most important compositions preserved in manuscript: 3 piano sonatas; piano sonatas; songs; opera "The Emperor of Atlantis"; melodrama "The Manner of Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke"
1944, 16 October Transfer to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was murdered in the gas chambers on 18 October 1944

List of the Prague and Theresienstadt works
In the middle of 1942, shortly before his deportation to Theresienstadt concentration camp, Ullmann drew up a comprehensive list of his compositions to that point. This list was preserved in a London library as part of a letter to a correspondent whom it has not hitherto been possible to identify. In contrast to earlier lists of works, the London list is distinguished by an unbroken sequence of opus numbers (1-41) and the unmistakable incorporation of works or titles already known. Ullmann's list of works is of incalculable value in the light of the lost or missing compositions, although it makes clear the full extent of the loss caused by persecution and war.

In the following summary Ullmann's opus numbering has been used, and extended for the opus numbers given to works composed in Theresienstadt. The order of titles is essentially chronological and takes account both of compositions known from earlier lists of works as well as of those bibliographically recorded. Uncertain dating is indicated by (?). Traces of an earlier numeration derive from the list of works from the 1920s (Riemann Musiklexikon 11/1929). These references occur only in connection with the "Schönberg Variations", which in relation to the opus numeration and to the chronology cut across the principle of arrangement used.

Prague works
Work Year Previous Numeration Notes
Three Choruses for Male Voices a cappella 1919 Opus 1
Songs with Orchestra 1921 Opus 2
Abendlied (Evening Song) (Claudius) for Choir, Soloists and Orchestra 1922 Opus 3
Music for a Play from a Christmas Tale "Wie Klein Else das Christkindlein suchen ging" (How Little Else Went to Look for the Christ Child) 1922 First performance Prague 1922
Seven Songs with Piano 1923 Opus 4 First performance Prague 1923, IGNM music festival Prague 1924
Opus 1 - 1st String Quartet 1923 Opus 5 First performance Prague 1927
Seven Songs with Chamber Orchestra 1924 Opus 6 First performance Prague 1924
Symphonic Fantasy (also known as "Solo Cantata for Tenor and Orchestra" 1924 Opus 7 First performance Prague 1925
Incidental music for "Der Kreidekreis" (The Chalk Circle) (Klabund) 1924 First performance Prague 1925
(21) Variations and Double Fugue on a Small Piano Piece by Schönberg (Op. 19, 4) 1925 Opus 9 First performance Prague 1926
Opus 2 - Octet (also known as "Oktettino") 1924 Opus 8 First performance Prague 1926
Trio for Woodwind 1926 Opus 10
Opus 4 - Concerto for Orchestra (also known as "First Symphony" and "Symphonietta") 1928 Opus 11 First performance Prague 1929
(5) Variations and Double Fugue on a Small Piece by Schönberg (for Piano) 1929 Variations and Double Fugue on a Small Piano Piece by Schönberg 1929. A transcript by a Prague copyist was preserved. IGNM music festival, Geneva 1929.
Opus 5 - Seven Small Serenades for Voice and 12 Instruments (text also by Ullmann) 1929 First performance Frankfurt am Main 1931.
Opus 6 - Peer Gynt (Ibsen). Opera 1927-29 Completed after 1938.
Opus 3 a - (9) Variations and Double Fugue on a Theme by Schönberg for Piano 1933/34 Self-published Prague 1939.
Opus 3 b - Variations, Fantasy and Double Fugue on a Small Piano Piece by Schönberg, for Orchestra 1933/34 Hertzka Prize 1934. First performance Prague 1938. A set of orchestral parts was preserved in transcripts by two Prague copyists.
Opus 7 - 2nd String Quartet 1935 First performance Prague 1936. IGNM music festival London 1938.
Opus 8 - (Seven) Elegies for Soprano and Orchestra 1935 First performance Prague 1936 (3 pieces). Opus 8, 2 was preserved as a holograph: "Schwer ist's das Schöne zu lassen" (It Is Difficult to Leave the Beautiful) (Steffen).
Opus 9 - Der Sturz des Antichrist (The Fall of the Antichrist), play for a stage dedication in 3 Acts (Steffen) 1935 Hertzka Prize 1936. The score and a part-written piano arrangement, both holographs, were preserved.
Opus 10 - 1st Piano Sonata 1936 Self-published Prague 1936. UA Prag 1936. IGNM music festival New York 1941.
Opus 11 - Chinese Melodramas (also known as "Galgenlieder" or Gallows Songs) 1936 First performance Prague 1936 (4 pieces).
Opus 12 - Huttens letzte Tage (Hutten's Last Days) (C.F. Meyer), lyrical symphony for tenor, baritone und orchestra 1936/37 (?).
Opus 13 - Missa Symphonica for choir, soloists, orchestra and organ ("in honour of the Archangel Michael") 1936
Opus 14 - Three Choruses a cappella (also known as "Rosenkreuzer Cantata") 1936
Opus 15 - Easter Cantata (also known as "Chamber Cantata") for small mixed choir and 6 instruments 1936
Opus 16 - Sonata for Quarter-tone Clarinet and Quarter-tone Piano 1936 First performance Prague 1937. Only the clarinet part is preserved, as a holograph.
Opus 17 - Six Songs (Steffen) for soprano and piano 1937 Self-published Prague 1937. First performance Prague 1937.
Opus 18 - Songs (Kraus, Goethe, Novalis) (also known as "Song Cycle II") 1937 (?).
Opus 19 - 2nd Piano Sonata 1938/39 Self-published Prague 1939. First performance Prague 1940.
Opus 3 c - Variations and Double Fugue on a Theme by Arnold Schönberg 1939 Preserved as a photocopy of the holograph.
Opus 20 - Spiritual Songs for High Voice and Piano 1939/40 Self-published Prague 1940. First performance Prague 1940.
Opus 21 - Songs (Brezina) 1929/39 (?).
Opus 22 - Children's Songs 1939/40 (?).
Opus 23 - Der Gott und die Bajadere (The God and the Bayadere) (Goethe) for baritone and piano 1940 (?) First performance Prague 1940.
Opus 24 - Slavic Rhapsody for orchestra and obligato saxophone 1939/40 Self-published Prague 1940 (printed as "Opus 23").
Opus 25 - Piano Concerto 1939 Preserved as a holograph; self-published Prague 1940.
Opus 26 - Five Love Songs (Huch) for soprano and piano 1939 Self-published Prague 1939.
Opus 27 - Lieder des Prinzen Vogelfrei (Songs of Prince Vogelfrei) (Nietzsche) 1940
Opus 28 - 3rd Piano Sonata 1940 Self-published Prague 1940 (printed as "Opus 26")
Opus 29 - Three Sonnets from the Portuguese (Elizabeth Barrett Browning, transl. Rilke) for soprano and piano 1940 Self-published Prague 1940. First performance Prague 1940.
Opus 30 - Songbook of Hafiz for bass and piano 1940 Self-published Prague 1940. First performance Prague 1940. Based on Hans Bethge's "Nachdichtungen der Lieder und Gesänge des Hafis", vol 2 (first published 1910 by Insel-Verlag, Leipzig; new edition by YinYang-Media Verlag October 2004 ISBN 3-935727-03-8).
Opus 31 - Nachlese (Gleanings). Songs 1940 (?)
Opus 32 - Krieg (War). Cantata for Baritone 1940 (?)
Opus 33 - Die Heimkehr des Odysseus (The Homecoming of Odysseus). Opera 1940/41 (?)
Opus 34 - Six Sonnets (Labé) for soprano and piano 1941 Self-published Prague 1941.
Opus 35 - Six Songs for Alto or Baritone and Piano 1941 (?)
Opus 36 - Der zerbrochene Krug (The Broken Jug) (Kleist). Opera 1941/42 Self-published 1942.
Opus 37 - Three Songs (C.F. Meyer) for baritone and piano 1942 Preserved as holograph ("renewed in Theresienstadt"). First performance Theresienstadt 1943.
Opus 38 - 4th Piano Sonata 1941 Self-published Prague 1941.
Opus 39 - Sonata for Violin and Piano 1937 (?) Only a transcription of the violin part is preserved. First performance planned Prague 1938.
Opus 40 - Concert Aria (from Goethe's "Iphigenie") 1942 (?)
Opus 41 - Six Songs (H.G. Adler) 1942 (?).

Theresienstadt works

Three Songs for Baritone (C.F. Meyer) 1942 cf. Opus 37. Not later than 4 November 1942.
3rd String Quartet 1943 Preserved as a copy of the holograph. Counted as Opus 46. Not later than 23 January 1943.
Autumn (Trakl) for soprano and string trio 1943 Preserved as a holograph. Not later than 24 January 1943.
(2) Songs of Consolation (Steffen) for deep voice and string trio 1943 Preserved as a holograph.
Ten Yiddish and Hebrew Choruses Zehn (women's, men's and mixed choir) 1943 Preserved as transcripts by Theresienstadt copyists.
Incidental music for a play by Francois Villon 1943 First performance Theresienstadt 20 July 1943.
Wendla in the Garden (Wedekind) for voice and piano 1943 Preserved as a holograph. Not later than 1 July 1943.
5th Piano Sonata 1943 Preserved as a holograph. Counted as Opus 45. Not later than 27 June 1943.
(2) Hölderlin Songs for voice and piano 1943/44 Preserved as a holograph.
Immer inmitten (Always in the midst) (H.G. Adler). Cantata for mezzo-soprano and piano 1943 Two songs preserved as holographs. First performance Theresienstadt 30 October 1943.
6th Piano Sonata 1943 Preserved as holograph. Counted as Opus 49 (cf "Kaiser von Atlantis"). Not later than 1 August 1943. First performance Theresienstadt before 30 October 1943.
Der Mensch und sein Tag (Man and his Day) (H.G. Adler). 12 Songs for Voice and Piano 1943 Preserved as a holograph. Counted as Opus 47. Not later than 4 September 1943.
"Chansons des enfants francaises" [sic] for voice and piano 1943 One song ("Little Cakewalk") preserved as a holograph. Date of dedication: 27 September 1943.
Three Chinese Songs for Voice and Piano 1943 Two songs preserved as holographs. Not later than October 1943.
Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder die Tod-Verweigerung (The Emperor of Atlantis, or The Refusal of Death). Play in one act (Kien) 1943/44 Preserved as a holograph.
Counted as Opus 49 (cf 6th piano). Composition begun June/July 1943; finished 13 January 1944. Revision ("Wahnsinns-Terzett" / Madness tercet) August 1944.

Don Quixote. Overture for piano (draft score) 1943 Preserved as a holograph. Not later than 21 March 1944.
30th May 1431. Libretto for a "Joan of Arc" opera in 2 Acts 1944 Preserved as a holograph. Date of preface 16 May 1943.
Three Yiddish Songs for Voice and Piano 1944 Preserved as a holograph. Counted as Opus 53. First Song dated 25 May 1944.
Die Weise der Liebe und des Todes. (The Manner of Love and Death) (Rilke). 12 pieces for spoken voice and orchestra or piano (draft score) 1944 Preserved as a holograph. First performance before 28 September 1944. Not later than 12 July 1944.
7th Piano Sonata 1944 Preserved as a holograph. Dated on title page 22 August 1944.
Abendphantasie (Evening Fantasy) (Hölderlin) for voice and piano 1944 Preserved as a holograph.
Cadenzas to Beethoven's Piano Concertos (Nos 1 und 3) 1944 Preserved as a holograph. Counted as Opus 54.
Three Hebrew Boys' Choruses (a cappella) 1944 Preserved as a transcript by a Theresienstadt copyist.