Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)

Tomorrow will be the 66th anniversary of the death of Czech-born musician Erwin Schulhoff, who died from tuberculosis in a Nazi concentration camp.

Last year I noted that Schulhoff had written a silent work that predated John Cage's 4'33", and I also drew attention to some of Schulhoff's excellent, crowd-pleasing string music.

This year I ask you to consider one of his more avant-garde works, Sonata Erotica (1919). Jeremy Eichler wittily called it "a sort of German Dadaist version of Meg Ryan's famous diner scene in 'When Harry Met Sally.'"

Here's a performance by Quirine Melssen, who does it from memory.



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And here's a different interpretation (especially in the last movement) by Helena Remeijers Moloek, who mostly reads off the (very cool-looking) score.



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ERWIN SCHULHOFF (1894-1942)

This is the 65th anniversary of the death of Czech composer and pianist Erwin Schulhoff. According to his current Wikipedia entry,

Born in Prague of Jewish-German origin, Schulhoff was one of the brightest figures in a generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany. The contributions made by many of these musicians, including Schulhoff, have largely languished in obscurity ever since, despite their pivotal importance to the development of classical music during the early 20th century.

John Cage is famous in part for writing the "silent" 4'33", but the Wikipedia entry notes that

During his Dadaist phase, Schulhoff composed a number of pieces with absurdist elements; notable among these is "In futurum" (from the Fünf Pittoresken for piano) -- a completely silent piece made up entirely of rests that anticipates John Cage's 4′33″ by over thirty years. (Schulhoff's work is itself predated by Alphonse Allais's Funeral March for the Obsequies of a Deaf Man, written in 1897; unlike Allais's and Cage's pieces, however, Schulhoff's composition is notated in great rhythmic detail, and employs bizarre time signatures and intricate, though silent, rhythmic patterns.)

I don't think I'd ever heard of Schulhoff until I heard his excellent 1925 Concertino for flute, viola and double bass performed earlier this year by the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra.

Here, from Schulhoff's Five Pieces for String Quartet, is "Alla Tango milonga" performed by the Cypress String Quartet. (Also, don't miss this lively tarantella, which for some reason can't be embedded here.)



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