Schulhoff, Erwin (1894-1941): String Quartet No. 1

I.Presto con fuoco II.Allegretto con moto e con maliconia grotesca III.Alla Slovacca IV.Finale

Erwin Schulhoff was born on June 8, 1894 to a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Recognized as a child prodigy by none other than Dvořák, he was admitted to the Prague Conservatory to study piano (1902-04). He continued his studies at the Vienna Conservatory (1904-08), after which he studied with Max Reger at the Leipzig Conservatory (1908-10), followed by a course of study at the Cologne Conservatory (1910-14), as well as some lessons from Debussy. His early compositions showed the influences of the German and Czech Romantics, as well as the French Impressionists and late- Romantic and early modern composers, such as Richard Strauss and Scriabin. The First World War, however, had a profound impact on his personal, political and artistic ideals. He became a committed socialist and began to explore the avant- garde in music and art, especially the aesthetics of Atonality and Expressionism. At this time he also became acquainted with the Berlin Dadaists, specifically with the painter George Grosz, who was among the first German collectors of recordings of contemporary American jazz. Schuloff was enthusiastic about this new musical phenomenon and recognized that it could assist his new revolutionary spirit. Such were the influences in his second creative period. At the end of 1923 he returned to Prague and came into contact again with the music of his compatriot, Janáček. So began Schulhoff’s third creative stage lasting until the beginning of the 1930s, in which he combined his avant-garde style with mainstream European tradition. Czech music, which had retained its ties with native folklore, gave Schulhoff an invigorating source of musical inspiration. Slavonic folksong and dance elements with lively syncopated rhythms and minor modes, mainly originating from the eastern regions of between-the-wars Czechoslovakia, appear in a series of compositions, especially in his chamber music.

Schulhoff’s String Quartet No. 1 was composed in 1924, during his third creative period. It is a relatively brief work, which deviates from the typical four-movement format in that the slow movement is the finale. The Quartet opens with a ‘Presto con fuoco’ movement that is dominated by the vigorous rhythms often associated with the music of Stravinsky and Bartók. The second movement, ‘Allegretto con moto e con maliconia grotesca’, is fanciful in nature and expresses a mock sentimentality featuring the lower strings along with some wonderfully colourful sonorities through special effects including pizzicato, glissando and ponticello. The third movement, marked “alla Slovacca”, is a rhythmically driven folk dance. After this movement, the pathos of the finale comes as a stark contrast. Slow, ponderous, and full of unresolved tension, it reflects Schulhoff’s familiarity with the second Viennese school of Schoenberg and Webern. Late romantic and expressionistic elements create an eerie atmosphere of suspense dissolving into a cryptic hush. There is in this finale a foreboding of things to come. While attempting to emigrate in 1941, Schulhoff was arrested by the Nazis and deported to a concentration camp in Wülzburg, Bavaria, where he died eight months later.

Elizabeth Dalton, 2015