Ansorge-Verein für Kunst und Kultur - Schenker Documents Online

Ansorge-Verein für Kunst und Kultur
Ansorge Society for Art and Culture
Documents associated with this :
Correspondence
Society founded in Vienna in 1903 by the music critic Paul Stefan (1879#1943) and
the writer and theater director Wilhelm von Wymetal (1862#1937), and continuing
independently until 1911.
The Society
Named after the composer and pianist Conrad Ansorge (1862#1930), a pupil of Liszt
and noted supporter of contemporary music and literature, the objective proclaimed
in its motto was to promote all great art, both old and new ("Jeder grosse Kunst alter
und neue zu pflegen"). Arnold Schoenberg's friend, teacher, and brother-in law
Alexander von Zemlinsky, who had joined the conducting team at the Theater an der
Wien in September 1903, and had become disillusioned with Vienna's relatively
conservative Tonkünstlerverein, was a founder member; according to Moskovitz "he
was recruited to serve as the organization's pianist."
Songs by both Zemlinsky and Schoenberg were performed at early concerts
sponsored by the Society, and a review of the Society's inaugural event on
November 29, 1903 praised Zemlinsky as "the excellent vocal accompanist" (Neue
musikalische Presse 13 (1904), No. 2, 29#30). The Society also arranged lectures,
given by such notable figures as Hermann Bahr, Adolf Loos and Franz Wedekind.
However, it soon became clear to Zemlinsky that the Ansorge-Verein was more
concerned to focus on poetry and literature than on music, and in 1904 he was
involved with Schoenberg, Franz Schmidt and others in forming the Vereinigung
schaffender Tonkünstler (Society for Creative Musicians). This was focused entirely
on modern music, and Mahler agreed to become its honorary president.
The Society was eventually merged in 1911 with the Akademischer Verband für
Kunst und Literatur (Academic Union for Art and Literature).
Ansorge-Verein and Schenker
The Ansorge-Verein is mentioned in two items of correspondence to Schenker: OJ
14/15, [8], January 1904, from Zemlinsky, Gutheil, and Schoenberg, citing the
Society as a model for establishing a new society for the promotion of new music;
and OJ 14/15, [9], an invitation to attend an event of the Ansorge-Verein, described
as an "Ansorge#Gruber#Schoenberg evening," on February 11, 1904, which
Schenker did not take up. (Schoenberg strove to involve Schenker in the planned
new society, but to no avail.)
Source:
Moskovitz, Marc D., Alexander Zemlinsky. A Lyric Symphony (Boydell
Press, 2010), p.90
Contributor:
Arnold Whittall
Correspondence
OJ 14/15, [8] Handwritten letter from Zemlinsky, Gutheil, and Schoenberg
to Schenker, dated January, 1904

Invitation to attend a meeting to discuss the promotion of new music in Vienna
through education and performance.
OJ 14/15, [9] Printed invitation with handwritten entries from the
Ansorge-Verein to Schenker, dated February 11, 1904
Invitation to an "Ansorge-Grube-Schönberg evening."