Marie Wurm – Piano Concerto B minor op. 21

[Wheesht]

The pdf file of the autograph/manuscript score of the B minor piano concerto by Marie Wurm, for which there was a link here, is no longer available.

More on the composer:

Marie Wurm's B minor piano concerto op21

The name is new to me, as it may be to others, so here is some background information -



Mary Josephine Agnes Wurm (Southampton, 1860 - Munich, 1938)

Wurm, Mary Josephine Agnes [Marie] (1860–1938), pianist and composer, was born on 18 May 1860 at 11 Windsor Terrace, Southampton, the first of the ten children of John Evangelist Wurm (c.1828–1892), formerly of Oberdorf, Bavaria, and his wife, (Marie) Sophie Niggl (c.1838–c.1883), daughter of a village schoolmaster from Denklingen. The couple, both music teachers, had emigrated to Southampton on the advice of one of Sophie's elder sisters, Josephine, herself a music teacher recently settled in the city, who was the wife of Lorenz Herkomer and mother of the artist Hubert Herkomer. The Wurms set up house next door to the Herkomers in Windsor Terrace, but soon moved to Portland Street. Besides teaching German and music peripatetically, J. E. Wurm was organist and choirmaster of St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Bugle Street, for more than thirty years. Sophie Wurm taught singing, the violin, the piano, and the zither. Ambitious and well organized, she took the major share in promoting her children's interests. All ten were said to be musical. In addition to Mary, Mathilde Verne (1865–1936), Alice Barbara Verne (1868–1958) and Adela Verne (1877–1952) had professional musical careers. These three changed their surname from Wurm to Verne late in 1893 and worked chiefly in England, whereas Mary, often known in English sources as Marie Wurm, lived and worked mainly in Germany.

Mary was taken by her mother to Stuttgart in 1869, becoming a pupil at the conservatory. After returning to London in 1878, she had lessons from visiting pianists including Anna Mehlig, Mary Krebs, Józef Wieniawski, and Caroline Montigny-Rémaury. In 1880 she went to Frankfurt to study with Clara Schumann and Joachim Raff; she eventually made her London début in 1882 at the Crystal Palace under August Manns, playing Robert Schumann's piano concerto. Two years later she appeared at the St James's Hall 'Popular' concerts (in a Haydn trio) and won the Mendelssohn scholarship, which provided for composition studies with Sir Arthur Sullivan, C. V. Stanford, and Frederick Bridge; in 1886 she studied with Carl Reinecke in Leipzig. From this period solo playing gave way to chamber music, at the Princes' Hall in London as well as in Vienna and Frankfurt. Mary Wurm 'assisted' at concerts of such leading performers as Sophie Löwe, Ben Davies, and Tivadar Nachez, often playing her own works. Meanwhile she established a teaching connection in Germany. Her most remarkable solo appearance was undoubtedly that at the Queen's Hall, London, on 21 February 1895—an entirely extempore programme based on musical themes supplied by the audience and in sealed envelopes from 'music professors'. Described as clever but musically dull, the occasion was not repeated, and she returned to composition and teaching in Germany, notably in Hanover, Berlin (from 1911), Munich (from 1925), and later Berlin again. From 1898 to 1900 she conducted and toured with a women's orchestra in Germany. She died in Munich on 21 January 1938.

Wurm was a fluent composer of parlour songs and light piano works, many of them dances or duets, as well as women's part-songs and children's pieces designed for ready markets in Germany and Britain. These included a children's operetta Prinzessin Lisa's Fee (given in Lübeck, 1890) and two didactic works, Das ABC der Musik (Leipzig, n.d.) and Praktische Vorschule zur Caland-Lehre (Hanover, 1914). She also wrote a piano concerto, a violin sonata (op. 17), a cello sonata, a string quartet (op. 40), works for string orchestra, and a one-act opera after Goethe's Die Mitschuldigen (given in Leipzig, 1921).

Leanne Langley (ODNB)

Grove gives a more detailed work-list:

Stage: Prinzessin Lisa's Fee (Japanese children's operetta, 2), Lübeck, Stadttheater, Jan 1890; Die Mitschuldigen (op, 1, after J.W. von Goethe), Leipzig, Stadttheater, spr. 1921

Orch and chamber: Lullaby, vn, pf/vc, pf (? Leipzig, 1887), also arr. pf; Meteor-Walzer, str orch, also as Empire Waltz, pf (Leipzig, 1887); Clotilde Kleeberg Gavotte, str orch/pf (1889); Str Qt, Bb, op.40, 1894; Estera Gavotte, str orch/pf (?1898), vn, pf (1898); Concert Ov., orch; Dalila's Traum, str orch; Pf Conc., b; Vc Sonata; Vn Sonata, op.17; other pieces, vn, pf

Pf: Empire Waltz (Leipzig, 1887); Lullaby, op.7 (Leipzig, 1887); Suite, op.8 (1887); Barcarolle, op.22 (1892); Sylph Dance, op.23 (1892); 4 Duets, op.24 (1892); Valse de concert, op.27 (1893); Tanzweisen, 4 hands, op.28 (Leipzig, 1892); Suite, op.40 (1894); Fairy Music, op.44 (1894); Sonata; other pieces, some pubd

Partsongs (4 female vv unless otherwise stated): 5 Trios (S. G. Franz), 3 female vv (1890); About the sweet bag of a bee (R. Herrick) (1892); Einst thät ein Lied erklingen (F. A. Leo), op.33 no.1 (1892); Gute Nacht (Leo) (1893); Under the greenwood tree (W. Shakespeare) (1893); Wo nur dem Leben Lust erblüht (A. Kurs) (1893); One by One (V.E.A.C.), male vv, op.45 (1894)

Other vocal: Mag auch heiss das Scheiden brennen, solo vv, women's chorus, str orch/pf, op.39; songs (lv, pf) incl. O let me bathe my heart (Franz) (1888), The Scots Guards' Band is playing (Cornwallis West) (1894), 9 Lieder, op.25, 3 Lieder, op.55

and Nigel Burton gives a brief assessment -

Wurm's earlier works fall into two distinct stylistic categories, English and German, which merge in later compositions. Her German vocal music is heavily indebted to Robert Schumann's choral style of the late 1840s, but her English vocal pieces simultaneously look backwards to the 18th-century glee tradition and forwards to Ivor Gurney and George Butterworth (the part-song Under the greenwood tree anticipates the modality of the post-World War I English folk music revival). Her mature style is English in its quasi-contrapuntal aspects and lightness of touch, and German in its harmonic basis. Her piano music exhibits a fondness for neo-classical pastiche: the Musette from the D minor Gavotte (Three Pieces, 1887) is prophetic of Béla Bartók in its high, tinkling treble over a drone bass.

 

[Mark Thomas]

Given her strong Raff and Stanford connections, I've always been intrigued by the prospect of Mary Wurm's music. Perhaps, Darrel, you could add her concerto to your, probably long, list of candidates for working your digitisation magic?

[eschiss1]

btw  we have an old thread about her here, too.

[Darrel Hoffman]

Oh good!  You mentioned this to me before.  This is definitely going on the list - near the top of it as well, since you're one of my sponsors, but also I've been trying (rather unsuccessfully) to feature more female composers.

So far I've managed only one (Julie Candeille), though I've got two others planned.  Signe Lund's isn't public domain until next year, and I have 3 from Caroline Boisier-Butini, but they're very difficult to read.

[eschiss1]

I was going to ask about Backer-Grøndahl's Andante quasi allegretto but I see there's already a video of it on YouTube ...

[Mark Thomas]

This is definitely going on the list - near the top of it as well

This is really good news. Thanks very much, Darrel.

[Wheesht]

Seconded! One of the reasons I decided to 'splash out' to get the scans was my hope that Darrel would take it on. There is also a (currently very slim) chance that there will be an actual performance next year...

[pianoconcerto]

It's great that Darrel is working on the Wurm pc.  The composition date is not cited in the Grove work list, but the pc was premiered by the composer on 5 Nov. 1887 in Berlin (see the concert program reproduced at https://www.overgrownpath.com/2018/06/first-woman-to-conduct-berlin.html).

[Darrel Hoffman]

Incidentally, where do we stand on "Mary" vs. "Marie"?  I've seen conflicting sources.  She was English by birth (where I'd expect the spelling "Mary" to be more common), but German by ancestry, and also lived in Germany for most of her career (where "Marie" or even "Maria" would be more likely), but apparently she was frequently referred to in England as "Marie", while that contemporaneous poster from Berlin lists her as "Mary".  I know also that her sisters anglicized their surname to "Verne", but she did not.  I'm curious which spelling she would have preferred so I can use that, but not sure if there's any way we can know for sure at this point.

(For that matter, do we think "Wurm" or Würm" would be preferable?  Without the umlaut seems more common, but it apparently can go either way as well.)

[eschiss1]

If there's surviving correspondence, etc. or even multiple holograph manuscripts by her, we stand a good chance of guessing how she wanted to be known, I suppose... I wouldn't think it an impossibility just because we can't ask her.

[Mark Thomas]

Most of the scores at IMSLP (both British and German) have her as Mary Wurm and there's not an umlaut amongst them. That also seems to be the way the great majority of online references to her spell her name. If it was me, I'd not complicate things and stick with that - it looks like she did, at least most of the time.

[Wheesht]

Agreed. The surname is surely Wurm, it is after all a not otherwise totally unknown name. She was referred to as both Mary and Marie in German newspapers of the time.

[Darrel Hoffman]

I'd guess that the "W" is pronounced as a "V" though, which would be more common in German, evidenced by the anglicization being to "Verne".  Not that it matters as I don't need to pronounce the name to make the simulation, but it does seem like it'd be wrong to say it the same as "worm".  I might make such a note in the description though.

[Darrel Hoffman]

My rendition is now public, there's a thread for it on the new board.