"Notation, the writing out of compositions, is primarily an ingenious expedient
for catching an inspiration, with the purpose of exploiting it later. But notation
is to improvisation as the portrait to the living model. It is for the interpreter
to resolve the rigidity of the signs into primitive emotion."
Ferruccio Busoni in Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music
Busoni is probably the most important composer/musician of the 20th century: besides
composing and performing, his ideas on music caused a heated discussion that divided
the classical music schools in two camps: the conservatives (
Strauss and
Pfitzner) and
the progressives (
Schoenberg, Busoni and
Schreker). The deeply personalized fights
between those camps were fought in Germany, on the shaky foundations of the
Weimar Republic
and affected art, architecture, literature and even
politics.
Busoni was born in
Empoli, Italy, on April the first in the year of 1866. Both
his parents were musicians: father Ferdinando was a
clarinettist, his half-German
mother Anna Weiss was a pianist.
His (musical) gifts, initially taught by his parents, were soon to be recognized by
other famous musicians and composers. His first concert (age 8) was given in
Trieste and
after a concert in Vienna a music critic said that Busoni's playing and
compositions revealed 'no precocious sentimentality or studied eccentricity, but
a naive pleasure in music'.
Soon the family moved to
Graz where Busoni studied with
Wilhelm Mayer (who at
that time was a prominent composer under the pseudonym of 'A. Remy'). Busoni dedicated
some of his pieces to his teacher. At age twelve Busoni conducted his own
'
Stabat Mater', which unfortunately got lost. At the age of fifteen he was elected
to the
Reale Accademio Filarmonica of Bologna, where the first performance of
his Leopardi oratorio '
Il sabato del villaggio' took place in the year of 1883.
Busoni decides to move to the north again, to Vienna where he meets
Brahms. On his
recommendation he moves to
Leipzig to study with
Reinecke. His time in Leipzig becomes one of
his most inspiring periods. He makes acquintance with composers like
Tchaikovsky,
Grieg,
Sinding,
Mahler and
Delius, but again on someone's recommendation,
he sets forth to the Helsinki Conservatory where he meets with
Sibilius (1888/1889).
In 1890 he marries a daughter of a Swedish sculptor, Gerda Sjostrand, declines
an offer to be professor at a Moscow university and in 1894 (after pursuing a
a carreer as a pianist in New York and Boston) he finally settles in Berlin. In his Berlin
years he becomes a strong advocate for
Liszt's music, but, a litle bit contradicting,
also supports music from
Bartok,
Delius,
Sibelius,
Debussy,
Faure and
Franck,
either by conducting or performing their music.
In 1907, Busoni writes his most famous work: a book called 'Entwurf einer neuen Asthetik der Tonkunst'
(
Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music). In this book he foresees electronical instruments that
will make it possible to compose music using other tone systems (like the 'third note system').
His intellectual remarks are immediately attacked by
conservative composers, who don't want to see a future for modern music
in the German theatres.
In Berlin, Busoni (while starting Masterclasses at the Academy of Arts) guides composers like
Weill,
Wolpe
and
Vogel with his book and ideas.
Busoni, however, far advanced as he
was in his ideas, actually never performed the music ideas as he proposed (although he admired
the work of his students and the pupils of the
Schoenberg school).
After being the darling of the international concert public for many years, Busoni experiences growing
isolation at the period when he was describing and exploring his innovations. Only a group of pupils
(
Theophil Demetriescu,
Friedrich Schnapp,
Weill and
Jarnach) stood by him.
In 1922 he gives his last public performance, to die in 1924 (Berlin) at the age of 58. His
Doktor Faust,
which he started in 1914, was posthumously completed by his closest friend
Philipp Jarnach and
performed in
Dresden, 1925.
List of key works
Book:
Concertos:
- piano concerto
- violin concerto
- Divertimento for flute and orchestra
- Indianische Fantasie,
- Konzertstück and Romanza scherzosa for piano and orchestra
- clarinet concertino
orchestral music
- Berceuse élégiaque
- Lustspielouvertüre
- Nocturne symphonique
- Rondo Arlecchinesco
Operas:
- Arlecchino
- Die Brautwahl
- Doktor Faust
Sources:
J. Schebera's 'Kurt Weill - A biography'
Several classical music books/dictionaries