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Johanna Műller-Hermann

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Violin Sonata in d minor, Op.5

Johanna Műller-Hermann (1868-1941) was born in Vienna as Johanna Hermann. She received violin and piano lessons at an early age and wished to become a musician but due to circumstances of the time this was not possible and she entered a teacher training school and subsequently taught at a Vienna primary school to support herself until she was able to marry, which allowed her to quit teach and study music. She continued her violin and piano lessons and studied composition with several prominent composers including Joseph Labor, Guido Adler, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Franz Schmidt and Alexander Zemlinsky. In 1918, she succeeded Foerster as Professor of Music Theory at the New Vienna Conservatory. She wrote in most genres includng chamber music. During her lifetime, she was considered one of the leading women composers in the German speaking world.

Her Violin Sonata in e minor dates from 1907 and shows the influece of the teachers she had studied with before she came under the influence of Zemlinsky, specifically, Labor, Adler and Foerster. None of the edginess one finds in the later works she produced while or after studying with Zemlinsky are to be heard in this late Romantic almost Schubertian work. The opening movement, Moderato serioso, is darkly subdued and leisurely. The second movement, Adagio molto cantabile, begins with a piano introduction. The main theme sounds like something that Schumann or Mendelssohn might have written. It is a lovely and very romantic lied. The charming Allegro con brio which comes next is a cross between a scherzo and an intermezzo. It is lilting and dance-like. The finale, Allegretto amabile, begins rather slowly and has the highly-romantic mood of an art song. The hand of Schumann rests heavily upon the composer and the creation of this beautiful, gentle music.

A historically important work because very few Austrian women were writing music of this type and quality from this period. This is a lovely work from start to finish

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