Julius Zellner Born 18.5.1832 Vienna Died 28.7.1900 Murzzuschlag, Austria
He initially trained as a 'technologist' and soon abandoned this to become a merchant. He spent most of his life in Vienna as a teacher and composer. In 1887 he won the Prestigious Vienna Composers Prize and in 1889 the Beethoven Prize. Francois Pougin described him as 'a composer of originality and melodic charm'.
Orchestral
Symphony in F major Op.7
Symphony in B flat Op.44
Symphonietta in A major Op.26
'Melusine' symphonic suite five movements Op.10
Piano Concerto in E flat major Op.12
Hochzeitsmarsch in F minor Op.31 1881
Chamber
Ten works for cello and piano Op.1 1864
Piano Quartet in C minor Op.23 1880 pub. by Brockhaus
Piano Trio in B minor Op.5 1870 pub. by Doblinger
Piano Trio in F Op.25 1881 pub. by Brockhaus
Piano Trio in C sharp minor Op.46 1890 pub. by Brockhaus
Sextet for two violins, two violas and two cellos in E major Op.32
String Quartet in G minor Op.14 1872 pub. by Doblinger
String Quartet in D minor Op.34 1886
Variations on a theme by J S Bach for string quartet Op.33 1882
String Trio in C minor Op.36 1881
Violin Sonata in D Op.20 1877 pub. by Cranz
Violin Sonata in F Op.30 1881 pub. by Brockhaus
Cello Sonata Op.11 1872 pub. by Doblinger
Cello Sonata in G Op.22 1880 pub. by Brockhaus
Piano
Five Characterstucke Op.2
Six Characterstucke Op.3
Suite for piano Op.4
Fantasie on old German folk songs Op.6
Adagio and Allegro appasionata Op.8
Three pieces Op.9
Three pieces - Andante, Scherzo, Finale. Op.13
Eight pieces Op.15
Two country style pieces Op.17
Eighteen easy pieces 1880 Op.18
Two small suites Op.19
Two Impromptus Op.21
Three pieces, Notturno, Capriccio and Intermezzo Op.27 1880
Twelve pieces Op.35 1882
Piano Sonatina in C Op.37/1
Piano Sonatina in E minor Op.37/2
Three German dances for piano four hands Op.39
Sonatine Op.45
Vocal
'The Waterfall' for chorus and orchestra Op.24 1880
Four Lieder: No.1 I saw three birds fly, No.2 The hide in the forest, No.3 Spring, No.4 Good Night! Op.29 1881
The Piano Concerto is Op.12 and is in E flat major.
Thal
From Hofmeister (which is tolerably complete):
Opp. with dates of publication
Chamber
1 10 stucke for piano and cello 1864
11 Cello Sonata No. 1 1872
22 Cello Sonata No. 2 in G 1880
23 Piano Quartet in c minor 1880
5 Piano Trio No. 1 in b minor 1870
25 Piano Trio No. 2 in F 1881
46 Piano Trio No. 3 in c# minor 1890
14 String Quartet No. 1 in g minor
33 Variationen über ein Thema J.S. Bach's f. 2 V., Vla u. Vcello 1882
34 String Quartet No. 2 in d minor 1886
String Sextet in E
20 Violin Sonata No. 1 in D 1877
30 Violin Sonata No. 2 in d minor 1881
Orchestral
12 Piano Concerto in Eb
10 Melusine. 5 sinfonische Stücke f. Orch. 1872
7 Symphony in F 1871
26 Sinfonietta in A 1880
44 Symphony in Bb
31 Hochzeitsmarsch f. gr. Orch. 1881
Piano
15 8 Klavierstucke
45 Sonatine
2 5 Charakterstücke. 1869
3 6 Charakterstucke
4 Suite
6 Fantasie (D) über ein altdeutsches Volkslied in Form von Variationen 1870
8 Adagio u. Allegro appassionato. 1872
9 3 Stücke 1872
13 3 Stucke (Andante, Scherzo, Finale)
17 2 ländliche Stücke f. Pfte. 1875
18 18 leichte Stücke f. Pfte 1880
19 2 kleine Suiten
21 Impromptus f. Pfte. No. 1 (Des) Mk 1,50. No. 2 (Cism.) 1876
27 3 Stücke f. Pfte. (Notturno. Capriccio. Intermezzo.) 1880
35 12 Klavierstücke. 1882
37.1 Piano Sonatina in C
37.2 Piano Sonatina in e minor 1882
39 3 deutsche Tänze f. Pfte zu 4 Hdn. 1882
Vocal
29 4 Lieder f. gem. Chor. (No. 1. Volksweise: ,,Drei Vöglein sah ich fliegen". No. 2. Reigen: ,,Die Haid' und der Wald". No. 3. Frühling: ,,Viel tausend Stimmen tönen auf zum Himmel". No. 4. Gute Nacht: ,,Ueberall Stille und Ruh'".) 1881
24 Die Wasserfee: ,,Endlos über Wasser hauchen Nebel", f. gem. Chor m. Orch. Klavier-Auszug u. Singst. [Harfe od. 2. Pfte ad lib.) 1880
Not sure why the date gaps in your list; they seem mostly easily filled. Hofmeister also gives opp. 3 and 4 also published 1869 (http://hofmeister.rhul.ac.uk/2008/content/monatshefte/1869_09.html (http://hofmeister.rhul.ac.uk/2008/content/monatshefte/1869_09.html#hofm_1869_09_0156_14)) for example.
Because when I searched for "Zellner", nothing showed up for those missing opera. I then searched the PDF version (which has no dates, and sometimes has more detail on instrumentation).
Briefly put, that is -not- how to use hofmeister.rhul.ac.uk. Use it by understanding how its search engine operates (and what it is, and is not). Shall I elaborate? (And "the PDF version" is a different thing and ... agh. There are three, four or five or six or... being conflated here into one single "Hofmeister", but are actually slightly to entirely separate things! Gah, that almost deserves a thread to itself, and a page on IMSLP too, since this happens so often there.)
At the least, always, and I mean always, use those "view transcription" and "view facsimile" links to make sure you get everything. Transcription because it's easier to search, facsimile because OCRs get things wrong.
(Also, just go to here (http://hofmeister.rhul.ac.uk/2008/content/about/about.html) and read their own introduction to the project at length. That should be better than any description I can give you of what it is.)
No, actually, I'm good with my search methods (at Hofmeister and other sites I've used for the past several years). I use advanced search - which can vary based on spelling errors, etc. And for precision, the 'pdf' is:
Verlag des Universal - Handbuch der Musikliteratur (The Universal Handbook of Musical Literature), edited by Pazdirek., Vienna.
Perhaps 'slightly to entirely separate things', however, the wording for each music entry is (for most) nearly identical, and for purposes of list compilation, perfectly adequate.
Is anything known about his life, I could find very little. I have to say that is the beauty of this forum, one has only to post the scantest of information and the dots are joined!
Slightly to entirely separate things-
(1) Hofmeister Monatsberichte, the publication itself, released from about 1829 to the mid-1940s.
(2) the scans of that publication at the Austrian National Library (ÖNB).
(3) the searchable and browsable transcribed database of optical-character-recognition text versions of those ÖNB scans from 1829 to 1900 (but no further) at Royal Holloway, University of London (rhul.ac.uk).
(4) Other publications by Whistling and Hofmeister - Whistling and Hofmeister's Handbuch der musikalischen Literatur and similar publications released every few years in two volumes from 1818? until the early years, I think, of the middle of the 20th century.
(5) entirely separate (no related corporate ownership, only tenuous at best related history, etc.) : e.g. Pazdirek (which you refer to, Balapoel) and the Challier publications (Challier is somewhat analogous to "Hofmeister" being itself, like Hofmeister, a publisher releasing a journal of publications and information and advertisements useful to the industry, but Challier is lieder/song-focused) ; the French and Belgian Bibliographie publications (necessary often because Hofmeister usually only catches first German/Russian/sometimes English publications and often plain misses French-orbit ones; if one wants to be more sure relatively of -first- publication dates, especially for a French composer but sometimes for others too e.g. Rosenhain whose publications appeared in both spheres, one needs both sources very much...) British publications like the Musical Times and others via Google and Archive.org etc. help here too also, and AMZ for earlier German publications esp. by Breitkopf.
The thing with a composer search, or any search on RHUL (type 3), is that it will get any line in which the composer/search term is mentioned, but not any in which the composer/search term was mentioned in the line above and is taken "as read" because they were mentioned in the lines above (in the case of a publisher, is mentioned as "Ebend."/the same). Like I said, use "view transcription" and "view facsimile". Or be stubborn because I said so and you just don't wanna. (Sheesh.)
Thanks to Cypressdome over @ IMSLP for pulling together much of this information (though in a much friendlier form) with (when IMSLP is working, which is not today) uploadable forms of a number of these, like the French Bibliographie, etc.)
Realisation of 1st Symphony 4th movement
A very well crafted movement. Dvorak anyone??
LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTxVxex49Rs
This is an effective and enjoyable mid-romantic era piece, which certainly whets the appetite for the three preceding movements. Thanks Reverie for shining a light on it, you've done a great job, I truly admire you and our other members who slog away so diligently to produce such convincing and enlightening results.
With its publication date of 1871, its symphonic contemporaries would include Raff 4, with Dvorak 3 receiving its first performance in 1874. Personally, I can't hear much Dvorak in Zellner - merely an extension of the broad classical Austro-German symphonic tradition before it is enriched by Brahms. However, what I can hear is a magnificent movement, thoroughly worthy of this excellent realisation.
Thank you, Reverie, for shining further light on the extraordinary breadth and depth of symphonic writing in the 19th century. If you have the time, might the other movements emerge from your computer programme at some point...?
Thank you very much, Reverie. I enjoyed listening to this.
I have been able to find out a few bits of information about his life:
He was meant to embark on a career first in the technical and then the commercial field, but he didn't fancy doing that and, having been drawn to music from early age, decided to devote himself entirely to it in 1851. In 1870 his Symphony in F Major was performed with great success by Dessoff, a year later (other sources say 1875) his tone poem "Melusine" in five movements followed and also became very popular. A symphony in E Flat Major followed later as well as the choral work "Im Hochgebirge". In 1887 he received the Beethoven Prize from the "Tonkünstlerverein". His Symphony in B-flat major was very successfully performed in Munich.
Apparently he lived a modest and quiet life in the midst of a large family.
I am intrigued by the Piano Concerto. The only copy of the score I can find listed is in NYPL (283 pages on microfiche), I hope one day I may get to see it.
The Austrian National Library also has the score (http://data.onb.ac.at/rec/AC09146167) of the piano concerto.
I did not know that the British Library digitized things (for general display, not just for one specific customer), or I forgot. Zellner's Op.10 "Melusine" is available for viewing (and possibly download?).
Interesting, Eric. I didn't know that either. I hope this continues with other scores they have. It's about time they made some of their vast holdings available to a wider public.
QuoteThe Austrian National Library also has the score of the piano concerto.
Of course, Eric. I should have known to look there first. And thank you for the link to the record.
Here is the whole symphony. It's just over half an hour in total. Good solid stuff!
Symphony No. 1 by Julius Zellner (1871)
Allegro
Andante 8' 30''
Scherzo 16' 34''
Finale 24' 52''
TT 32' 25"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMC_l1mEii0
Thanks!!
Seconded!! You'll note that I've added the exact total timing for information purposes - hope that's OK, Martin.
Well, this is a very fine symphony, beautifully fashioned and balanced overall. So, why shouldn't it be played today? I can't think of a reason, except for the obsession with the received 'standard' repertoire. OK, there may be symphonic 'peaks' higher than Zellner 1, but the highest peaks are only there because of the lower peaks that surround them.
I thoroughly enjoyed this extremely well-written work. Thanks, Martin, for enriching our musical experience!
By the way there does seem to be a 2nd symphony, at least according to IMSLP. Maybe at some point the performing material will be available for that.
Thanks again!
It really is quite marvellous to have the opportunity now to experience such convincing realisations of major works like this, which otherwise would have continued to gather dust unheard. Thank you so much Martin, the music world owes a lot to you and your colleagues doing this work . I wonder, could I suggest Julius Otto Grimm's Symphony (https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_in_D_minor%2C_Op.19_(Grimm%2C_Julius_Otto)) as a suitable project? Christopher Fifield, in his survey of the German symphony, regards it as potentially one of the most influential works of the romantic era. It would be wonderful to hear it.
Mark's suggestion of Grimm's Symphony is one I'd thoroughly endorse. I also have the score, if that would help...
Thank you all.
I have a considerable number of on-going projects most of which have been started with good intent but as of yet remain unfinished. This is not through a lack of discipline but more a case of spreading my time and enthusiasm over a broader canvas so to speak. It's refreshing to leave one work for a while and revisit another. I limit myself to a few hours a day.
Mark, the Grimm symphony attracted me a few years ago. I have worked on a good half of the first movement probably as far as the recapitulation. It is a long movement and it's quite eccentric. Not thematically very strong. To my ears it's reminds me of Bruckner without the heavy brass but then others might hear Brahms of cousre? I haven't really looked at the other movements enough to make a judgement. I'll complete the 1st mov. in a few weeks hopefully or earlier if I pull my finger out.
Lots of other stuff to come though ... as and when. :)
That's more than I dared hope for. The first movement of the Grimm would make for a fascinating listen - and, of course, we look forward to hearing whatever other projects you have on the go. Thanks again.
The score of the Grimm is also, I think, available at IMSLP (though not parts.)
My post above links to the score at IMSLP. Thanks, Martin, for at least looking at the Grimm first movement, that would be a real bonus. I very much look forward to the fruits of your other projects. :)
Recently I've gotten involved with this sort of activity myself using the Sibelius/Noteperformer combo (can't afford Dorico, alas). And it has given me a renewed and increased respect for those who are so prolific in bringing us these works. The beautiful thing is that in the future, the results will only get better.
Now, on with Dopper's Fourth...
I have become very fond of this finely crafted and memorable symphony over recent weeks. This is a composer clearly working in the great classical tradition: there are no frills - everything works together to form a hugely satisfying whole. It's maddening to think that such superb music has been lost in the tides of fashion. Grateful thanks once again to Reverie for fabulous work in recreating this unjustly forgotten symphony.
Zellner's Symphony No.1 prompts a thought which has been going round in my mind, namely this: as the nineteenth century progressed, symphonic writing tended to become more and more extended and symphonic allegros ever slower - to the extent, for example, that one of the greatest composers of the second half of the century, Bruckner, turned out to be in incapable of writing a symphonic allegro at all. And I would contend that even Brahms succumbed to the same problem, with only 2/IV and 3/IV really qualifying among his symphonies.
As I have got older I have become less tolerant of the flabby tendencies of later romantic symphonists, finding greater pleasure in composers such as Raff and Zellner who, it seems to me, preserve much more successfully the dynamism of the tradition. This may have something to do with an over-exposure in my earlier years to Bruckner and Mahler (who were just becoming known at that point), but now I even find that, for example, Brahms 1/I lumbers along - but I seem to be a lone voice.
So, it must be me...
I couldn´t agree more, and I´m glad to find I´m not alone in this. Fleetness of foot, with the possible exception of some of the Russian composers (and,even there, there is melancholy and angst), seems to be a dying art as the century progresses. Contrast the early symphony of Bizet, with that of, say, Dukas, when it comes to the allegro.
Alan makes an interesting observation with which, by and large, I must agree - but the matter has not been helped by the tendency of many conductors sometimes to ignore metronome markings and adopt a slower, and hence flabbier, tempo than was the composer's intention. Consider how Jarvi's Raff 5 opened our ears to how thrilling that already exciting symphony could be. I am sure I am not alone in wishing he had recorded 3 & 4 (as Chandos originally announced).
Dvorak could write a good symphonic allegro.
Yes, Dvorak could indeed. I thought that too - after I had finished my earlier post!
I'd even stick my neck out for the first movement of (probably the obvious) one of Brahms' 4 symphonies in this regard (not that symphonies were their only attempts at symphonic allegros - viz. also overtures, sections of symphonic poems, etc.) (And maybe the first of Fuchs' 3 symphonies too.)
(Apparently, according to Edition Silvertrust, Zellner's 2nd string quartet was a prize-recipient from a jury with Fuchs and Brahms on the latter, which I did not know. Something of this is also mentioned in the media announcement (https://www.bradley.edu/offices/communications/pr/releases/article.dot?id=1cacce0b-c5b9-4e00-b134-867e1fbafebb) for February's performance of Zellner's string trio op.36 (by the Concordia Trio which has also recorded it) at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, too.)