A Not So Grave Matter

Before or after?  Should you read about a piece of music before or after you listen to it?  Either way, you eventually learn something interesting about it

I wasn’t looking for program notes on a famous work by Franz Schubert when I just happened to come upon an article which German composer Robert Schumann had written about a visit to Vienna in 1838. Charmed by the festive city, he remembered that the Währing cemetery was close by, with the graves of Beethoven and Schubert steps apart. He never had the chance to meet either composer.  And he wished he could speak with someone there who had known the composers.

Remembering that Schubert’s brother Ferdinand was still alive, he paid him a visit. Ferdinand knew of Schumann’s reputation and of his admiration of his brother’s works. He showed Schumann unpublished manuscripts of Franz Schubert’s music, including the symphony we know as the Symphony No. 9, which Schumann praised in his article as a truly original composition. He noted that many composers of the time, intimidated by the symphonies of Beethoven, had been unable to write their own.  Others simply imitated Beethoven. He recommended that Ferdinand send his brother’s symphony to Leipzig. It was performed by the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig in 1839, under the direction of Felix Mendelssohn. 

I passed that story along on Classic Mornings before playing the exciting scherzo from Schubert’s symphony. Afterwards, I recalled Schumann’s comment that Schubert’s grave was unadorned at the time of his visit. It made be wonder if any changes had been made in the cemetery over the centuries.

I learned that the Währing cemetery no longer exists, and that the graves of a number of famous composers are now in the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) in Vienna.  Beethoven and Schubert’s graves were moved there.  And close by are those of Johannes Brahms, Antonio Salieri, Christoph Willibald Gluck, members of the Johann Strauss family, and Arnold Schönberg.

There’s a memorial to Mozart in the cemetery, but he’s not buried there. At a website called Visiting Vienna, Mark Brownlow provides a detailed account of Mozart’s burial in the St. Marx cemetery, which is now a public park. He explains that Mozart had been buried in an unmarked plot, something which was common at the time. Efforts were made to determine the actual location of the grave in the 1800s.  He says there’s a highly visible memorial to Mozart at the park, though it may be only in the general area of where Mozart was buried. 

Antonio Vivaldi died in Vienna in 1741. Curious about his grave, I learned from a website called concert- vienna.info that he was buried in the cemetery near the Karlskirche, the "Spittaler Gottesacker," which was abandoned in the 18th century. Today, the Technical University Vienna is located on the site. The place of Vivaldi's death has not been preserved. And a simple stone plaque serves as a reminder of the composer.

I’m sure that tourists have visited these places as recently as the past few months. And maybe they’ve noticed here and there the flowers known as buttercups.  A website called bugwomanlondon.com observed in London that “in the spring the cemetery is positively awash with buttercups of all kinds. But by the autumn, only a few creeping buttercups are left, and are all the more precious for their rarity.” 

I came upon that in anticipation of playing a piano miniature by Swedish composer William Seymer titled Solöga, which is the Swedish word for buttercup. Literally, it means “sun eye.”  It’s also the name of a Swedish delicacy, prepared by turning a glass upside down and placing around it rings of chopped anchovies, onions, capers, pickled beets, and parsley. Then, the glass is removed, and a raw egg is placed in the middle. It’s an interesting variation on the more familiar “sunny side up” breakfast option.

There are at least a few options when listening to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita in E major. I’ve played selections from the original version for unaccompanied violin, from Sergei Rachmaninov’s piano transcription, and, recently, Tommy Reilly’s solo harmonica version of the “Gavotte en rondeau” from the Partita. That was on August 21, Reilly’s birthday anniversary (1919-2000). 

Curious about whether harmonicas are still popular, I did a quick search. Oh, they’re still being made and still being sold. And if you go looking for actual numbers of harmonicas out there, you come upon discussions of millions and billions of them. Given that, I would have expected to hear someone take one out and play it now and then. Only once did that happen. But that was decades ago. 

If you have one, play it! But between the hours of 9 & noon Monday through Friday, join us for Classic Mornings on Illinois Classical, WILL-FM 90.9 or online at will.illinois.edu.