Alexander von Zemlinsky

Alexander von Zemlinsky or Alexander Zemlinsky, (October 14, 1871 - March 15, 1942) was an Austrian composer of classical music, a conductor and a teacher.

Work

Zemlinsky's best known work is probably the Lyric Symphony (1923), a seven movement work for orchestra, soprano and baritone soloists on poems by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore (in German translation), which Zemlinsky compared in a letter to his publisher to Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. The work was an influence on Alban Berg's Lyric Suite, which quotes it and is dedicated to Zemlinsky.

Related Topics:
Soprano - Baritone - Bengal - Rabindranath Tagore - Das Lied von der Erde - Alban Berg - Lyric Suite

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Other orchestral works include the symphonic poem Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid), premiered in the same concert as Schoenberg's Pelleas and Melisande (in Vienna, 1905) and a late three-movement Sinfonietta (1934, admired by Schoenberg and written in a style comparable to Kurt Weill's and Dmitri Shostakovich's symphonic works from the same time). Further parts of his output include chamber music, notably four string quartets and a series of operas, including Eine Florentinische Tragödie (1915-16) after Oscar Wilde, and the ballet Der Triumph der Zeit (1901).

Related Topics:
Symphonic poem - Schoenberg's - Kurt Weill - Dmitri Shostakovich - Oscar Wilde - Ballet

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The influence of Brahms can been seen in Zemlinsky's early works (the ones that prompted encouragement from Brahms himself), while later works adopted the kinds of extended harmonies that Richard Wagner had employed, drawing influence also from Mahler. In contrast to his friend Schoenberg, he never wrote atonal music, and never used the twelve-tone technique.

Related Topics:
Harmonies - Richard Wagner - Atonal - Twelve-tone technique

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As a conductor, Zemlinsky was admired by composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Kurt Weill for his perfomances of Mozart but also of new music.

Related Topics:
Igor Stravinsky - Kurt Weill - Mozart

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