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Prof. Wolfgang Schuster
SOUND AND COMPOSER
A Symposium of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Joint event with the Institute for Music Science of the University of Vienna
June 5th - 12th, 1990
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra celebrated its 150-Year-Anniversary in 1992. In
the course of the preparation of this event a symposium was held, of which the results
were written down in a substantial report ( "Sound and Composer", published
by Schneider / Tutzing).
During the quest of a leitmotiv for this anniversary, it was decided upon the close
relationship of the numerous composers of the Wiener Klassik, Wiener Romantik and
Wiener Schule who had lived in Vienna with this orchestra.
It is a general assumption that some composers were influenced in their work by
the sound of the Vienna Pphilharmonic Orchestra. In the search for proof by facts,
the discovery was made that no scientifically relevant evidence to this phenomenon
was to be found.
Starting off point to these ideas was the well-known experiment of the Emperor Friedrich
II. to find the human original language: he had new-born orphans be brought up separated
from any environment and ordered that nobody talk to them. The children, they were
seven or eight, never learned to speak properly and died - the oldest at the age
of three. Thus in order to speak it seems necessary to have experienced language
first. Analogous to this it could now be assumed that in order to make and create
music, music had to be heard first.
Contrary to the period of the 18th century, where the expression in music was basically
influenced by the idea of "musical speach" (Nikolaus Harnoncourt), the
composer of the 19th century wanted to express himself to a bigger extent through
the sound. Here the specific sound of the periods of time in which the composers
made their listening experiences is if great importance.
In these symposiums articles were presented about the special and specific sound
of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on the one hand, and on the other about how
much the composers living in Vienna were influenced by the sound prevailing in Vienna
which was above all made by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra or their immediate
predecessors.
The symposium comprised:
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A historical sociological part
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Reports and documentation about instruments used in Vienna and the surveying of
their sound by the Institute for Wiener Klangstil under Prof. Mag. Gregor Widholm
at the University of Music in Vienna.
This research is being continued to this day on a large scale.
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Speaches about the Viennese style of intrumentation by members of the Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra
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The examination of the personal relationship of the composer with this orchestra
and
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A section that dealt with experiments in the field of listening, the psychology
of listening, the physiology of listening and the various physical aspects in this
field.
This section was basically covered by speakers of the Faculty of Medicine at the
University of Vienna.
It would be highly interesting to apply this research also to other countries and
their national styles of making music (here France would be especially interesting).
This was the first time that institutions as different as the University for Music,
the Institute for Music Science and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of
Vienna worked on one project together with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
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