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Alma Mahler Ties As Well: from Troublesome and Domineering ‘Hang- Birth Name: Alma Maria Schindler On’ to Refined Seductress, to Femme Fatale Personified

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Alma Mahler Ties As Well: from Troublesome and Domineering ‘Hang- Birth Name: Alma Maria Schindler On’ to Refined Seductress, to Femme Fatale Personified Mahler, Alma Alma Mahler ties as well: from troublesome and domineering ‘hang- Birth name: Alma Maria Schindler on’ to refined seductress, to femme fatale personified. Merried name: Alma Maria Mahler-Werfel Her influence on music and culture at the turn of the cen- * 31 August 1879 in Vienna, Austria tury was enormous. She promoted numerous artists (al- † 11 December 1964 in New York, USA so financially) including Alban Berg and Arnold Schön- berg, and her salon (in Vienna and later in the USA) was Composer, Salonière, Muse an established meeting place for many intellectuals and artists. “An imposing figure in the strongest sense of the word, Alma Mahler-Werfel, widow of the great composer, wife Her own creative contribution to this intense artistic life, to the great poet, connected to the glory of Austria either however, remained small. Although she composed nume- by marriage or some form of romantic involvement. Su- rous songs, especially before 1901, and was considered to ch women are a rarity in our times; this vitality and dyna- be highly talented, witty and musical. her creativity, even mism, this combination of artistic sensibility and social in the early years, stood in opposition to her own percep- ambition come from a different, more glamorous era.” tion of herself as a woman in an artistic, bourgeois socie- ty. The young Alma Schindler could not shake self-doubt (Klaus Mann, 1949, from Der Wendepunkt, Reinbek over her ability, as a woman, to be creatively active as a 1984) composer. Profile As such, the potential partnership of composing and mar- Muse to renowned artists, supporter of new music, pub- riage was a difficult question for her. Certainly by the ti- lisher of Gustav Mahler’s letters, author of autobiographi- me her younger sister Grete had married, she herself lon- cal works. ged for marriage – not least to get away from the influen- ce of her unloved mother. Her diaries tell of numerous The tiresome problem of her name speaks volumes: Al- marriage proposals, which the young Alma Schindler al- ma Schindler, Alma Schindler-Mahler, Alma Mahler, Al- ways considered according whether or not her potential ma Mahler-Werfel, Alma Gropius (which she never cal- husband would allow her enough room to compose. led herself personally), Alma Werfel? Or simply Alma? She appears under various names in encyclopaedias and The idea of marriage and composing coexisting fell away, publications, often as the composer Alma Schindler-Mah- however, upon meeting Gustav Mahler, who soon asked ler, a name which she never officially took but which ta- for her hand in marriage. In a letter, which later became kes into account the situation: that she composed prima- famous, Gustav Mahler called upon his young bride to de- rily as Alma Schindler before her marriage to Mahler, cide either to marry him and give up composing, or to dis- and then in 1910 – no longer Alma Mahler – first publis- solve the engagement and thereby retain her creative hed songs. She herself went mostly by the name Alma freedom. The letter was the determining factor in Alma Mahler, and following her marriage to Franz Werfel, Al- Schindler’s decision to give up composing (at the time, ma Mahler-Werfel. for good): she chose to marry the considerably older court opera director. The contemporary image of feminin- Alma Mahler-Werfel gained certain and controversial no- ity had won the upper hand, but doubt and the desire for toriety primarily as the woman beside famous artists. her own creative output remained. She was married to Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel, had relationships with Alexander von Zem- Gustav Mahler, for his part, showed no interest in his wi- linsky and Oskar Kokoschka, and was rumoured to have fe’s early compositions – at least until 1910, the year that had romantic liaisons with others. Alma Mahler-Werfel threw the marriage into crisis. It was then that he ope- became the epitome of a muse - a distinctively limiting ned her portfolio for the first time and recognised the tru- title that she initiated and promoted herself, but under th behind her claims. He encouraged Alma Mahler to pu- which she also suffered. She undoubtedly knew how to in- blish her songs, which she did, reluctantly. spire and motivate artists but possessed negative quali- – 1 – Mahler, Alma The extent to which Alma Mahler-Werfel composed after ted the publication of some of her songs in the Universal the death of Gustav Mahler (1911) is not clear. Certainly, Edition. it must have been difficult for her to revitalise and build upon her composition studies, which had been comple- From 1912 to 1915 she was romantically involved with Os- ted 10 years prior. However there is now evidence that kar Kokoschka. She met Walter Gropius once again in she made contact with her former composition teacher, 1915, married him, and their daughter Manon was born Alexander Zemlinsky, in order to resume her studies wi- in 1916. She met Franz Werfel for the first time in 1917, th him. whose poem Der Erkennende she had already set in 1915, and started an affaire with him after just a few Her comprehensive and decidedly formative self-portra- months. In 1918 a son Martin was born. Gropius tolera- yal and the image of ‘Alma the Muse’ evidenced in nume- ted the fact the child’s father was Werfel, but since the rous autobiographical writings, makes it difficult to as- child was premature and weak, he died after just nine sess her actual work as a composer. months. More on Profile The couple divorced in 1920. Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel married in 1929 and from then on she called her- self Alma Mahler-Werfel. Her daughter, Manon, died of Cities an countries polio in 1935. After the annexation of Austria into Nazi Grew up in Vienna, later living in Venice and Berlin. Emi- Germany, the Mahler-Werfels immigrated to the USA grated via Holland, France, Spain and Portugal to the and settled in Los Angeles, where they made contact wi- USA, where she lived on the West Coast and in New th other exiles. Franz Werfel died in 1945. In 1952 Alma York. Mahler-Werfel moved to New York, where she died in 1964. Biography Alma Schindler grew up in the musical circles of Vienna. Following the early death of her beloved and highly re- In Vienna on 31 August 1879, Alma Maria Schindler ca- spected father Emil Schindler (1892), her mother mar- me into the world: daughter to Viennese painter Emil Ja- ried a friend and student of Emil’s, Carl Moll. The relati- kob Schindler and singer Anna Sofie (nee Bergen). Two onship between mother and daughter remained strained, years later her half-sister, Grete, was born. After the dea- not least because of this marriage. th of her father in 1892, the young Alma oriented herself to the numerous artists that she encountered within the Alma Schindler’s significant musical talent was encoura- large circle of acquaintances that surrounded her mother ged. She received piano as well as composition lessons and Carl Moll, whom she had married in 1897. Her most and, from 1900, studied with the renowned composition important supporters included Max Burckhard, the direc- teacher Alexander Zemlinksy. However, her marriage to tor of the Wiener Burgtheater and a close friendship and Gustav Mahler soon brought an end to her ambitions as even dalliance developed in 1898/99 with Gustav Klimt. a composer. Mahler demanded that she give up her mu- The period also saw her first composition lessons with sic and she languished under this ‘ban on composing’ un- the blind organist Josef Labor. Although her parents’ til 1910. Whether or not she somehow circumvented this household was devoted primarily to the visual arts, Alma prohibition is not yet entirely clear. Schindler immersed herself in the music of her time: she went to the opera and to concerts, played the piano, sang The marriage to Mahler produced two daughters, Maria and began to compose. She was especially enthusiastic Anna and Anna Justine, although Maria Anna died at the about the music dramas of Richard Wagner. age of four. In 1910 Alma Mahler started an affaire with Walter Gropius, which threw Gustav Mahler into an exis- Around the turn of the century, she began to take compo- tential crisis. Mahler tried to win his wife back and, in sition lessons with Alexander Zemlinsky, who recognised the course of the crisis, came to the realisation that his in- her talent as a composer and encouraged her. The les- sistence on Alma Mahler abandoning her musical creati- sons continued even as their teacher-student relati- vity had contributed to the conflict. Accordingly, he initia- onship quickly developed into mutual feelings of love. – 2 – Mahler, Alma In 1912 she began a 3-year relationship with the painter On 7 November 1901, Alma Schindler met the director of Oskar Kokoschka. She met Walter Gropius again in Ber- the court opera, Gustav Mahler, at a soirée held by Berta lin in 1915 and they married on 18 August of the same ye- Zuckerkandl. Just a few days later, on 21 November, he ar. 1915 also saw the publication of Vier Lieder (Licht der asked for her hand in marriage. Before the wedding on Nacht, Waldseligikeit, Ansturm, and Erntelied). On 5 Oc- the 9 March 1902, Gustav Mahler issued his fiancée with tober 1916 a daughter, Manon Gropius, was born. Alma a lengthy letter, forcing her to make a choice: a future to- Gropius (a name she never called herself) met Frank Wer- gether with ‘his’ music, or a future with her music but ‘wi- fel for the first time in 1917 and began an affaire.
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