Alma Mahler

Biography

Alma Mahler-Werfel (born Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler; 31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964) was an Austrian composer, author, editor, and socialite. Musically active from her early years, she became a fixture of Vienna's fin de siècle cultural scene, and struck up friendships and relationships with a number of notable artists and composers. Alma was trained in composition by Max Burckhard, but ceased her compositional activity in 1902, when she married composer Gustav Mahler, who died in 1911. Between 1911 and 1914 she had a passionate affair with Oskar Kokoschka. In 1915, Alma married Walter Gropius, and they had a daughter, Manon Gropius. Throughout her marriage to Gropius, Alma engaged in an affair with Franz Werfel. Following her separation from Gropius, Alma and Werfel eventually married. In 1938, after Nazi Germany annexed Austria, Werfel and Alma fled to France, as it was unsafe for the Jewish Werfel in Austria. In 1940, they escaped via Spain and Portugal to the US. Eventually, the couple settled in Los Angeles. In later years, her salon became part of the artistic scene (as before in Vienna), first in Los Angeles, then in New York.

== 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, a 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 autumn 1900, Alma began studying composition with Alexander von Zemlinsky. Zemlinsky and Alma fell in love and kept their relationship a secret.

Alma teased Zemlinsky about what she thought were his ugly features, saying she could easily have "ten others" to replace him. She also noted that to marry Zemlinsky would mean she would "bring short, degenerate Jew-children into the world". As the relationship grew strained, Zemlinsky visited her less and less. On 7 November 1901, she attended Zuckerkandl's salon where she began a flirtation with Gustav Mahler. In the month of November, while still in a relationship with Zemlinsky, she started an affair with Mahler. By 8 December, Mahler and Alma secretly were engaged; however, it was not until 12 December that she wrote to Zemlinsky about her engagement. The engagement was formally announced on 23 December.

== As a composer == Alma played the piano from childhood and in her memoir (Mein Leben), reports that she first attempted composing at age eight 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 manuscripts posthumously; two of them were published in the year 2000, edited by 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. In recent decades, Mahler's compositions have received renewed scholarly attention, particularly through feminist musicology.

== 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) (i) Hymne (Hymn; Novalis) (ii) Ekstase (Ecstasy; Bierbaum) (iii) Der Erkennende (The Recognizer; Werfel) (iv) Lobgesang (Song of Praise; Dehmel) (v) Hymne an die Nacht (Hymn to the Night; Novalis) Posthumously published

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)

== Marriage to Gustav Mahler ==