Musicians - Hugo Wolf

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	Musicians - Hugo Wolf

Hugo Wolf (March 13, 1860 – February 22, 1903) was an Austrian composer of Slovene origin, particularly noted for his art songs, or Lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, somewhat related to that of the Second Viennese School in concision but utterly unrelated in technique.

Though he had several bursts of extraordinary productivity, particularly in 1888 and 1889, depression frequently interrupted his creative periods, and his last composition was written in 1898, before he died of syphilis.

Biography

Early life (1860 – 1887)

Wolf was born in Windischgraz (now Slovenj Gradec), part of a German-speaking enclave within Slovenia, to a Slovene mother (Katherina Orehovnik) and a Germanic father (Philipp Wolf). His family was originally named 'Vouks', but they changed the surname to the German form 'Wolf'. Hugo Wolf is regarded as an Austrian composer since he rejected his provincial or peasant origins and spent most of his life in Vienna, becoming a representative of "New German" trend in Lieder, a trend which followed from the expressive, chromatic, and dramatic musical innovations of Richard Wagner.

A child prodigy, Wolf was taught piano and violin by his father beginning at the age of four, and once in primary school studied piano and music theory with Sebastian Weixler. However, subjects other than music failed to hold his interest; he was dismissed from the first secondary school he attended as being "wholly inadequate", left another over his difficulties in the compulsory Latin studies, and after a falling-out with a professor who commented on his "damned music", quit the last. From there, he went to the Vienna Conservatory to the disappointment of his father, who had hoped Wolf would not try to make his living from music; again, however, he was dismissed for "breach of discipline", though the often-rebellious Wolf would claim he quit in frustration over the school's conservatism.

After eight months with his family, he returned to Vienna to teach music. Though his fiery temperament was not ideally suited to teaching, Wolf's musical gifts—as well as his personal charm—earned him attention and patronage. This support of his benefactors allowed him to make a living as a composer, and a family member of one of his greatest benefactors inspired him to write: Vally Franck was Wolf's first love, with whom he was involved for three years. During their relationship, hints of his mature style would become evident in his Lieder. Wolf was prone to depression and wide mood swings, which would affect him all through his life. When Franck left him just before his 21st birthday, he was despondent; he returned home, though his family relationships were also strained; his father remained convinced that Wolf was a ne'er-do-well. His brief and undistinguished tenure as second Kapellmeister at Salzburg only reinforced this opinion—Wolf had neither the temperament, the conducting technique, nor the affinity for the decidedly non-Wagnerian repertoire to be successful, and within a year had again returned to Vienna to teach in much the same circumstances as before.

Wagner's death was another tragic event in the life of the young composer. The song "Zur Ruh, zur Ruh" was composed shortly afterward and is considered to be the best of his early works; it is speculated that it was intended as an elegy for Wagner. Wolf often despaired of his own future in the years following, in a world from which his idol had gone, leaving tremendous footsteps to follow and no guidance on how to do so. This left him often extremely temperamental, alienating friends and patrons, though his charm helped him retain them more than his actions merited. His songs meanwhile had caught the attention of Franz Liszt, whom he respected greatly, and who like Wolf's previous mentors advised him to pursue larger forms; advice he this time followed with the symphonic tone poem on Penthesilea. Wolf's activities as a critic began to pick up; he was merciless in his criticism of the inferior works he saw taking over the musical atmosphere of the time (Anton Rubinstein in particular he considered odious) and fervent in his support of the genius of Liszt, Schubert, and Chopin. Known as "Wild Wolf" for the intensity and expressive strength of his convictions, his vitriol made him some enemies. Though he composed little during this time, what he did write he could not get performed: the Rosé Quartet would not even look at his work after being picked apart in a column, and the premiere of Penthesilea was met by the orchestra with nothing but derision for the man who had dared to criticize Brahms.

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