Please note that this transcript is being made available for research purposes only and may not be reproduced or disseminated in any way. Should you determine you want to quote from the transcript, you must seek written permission from the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research: UCLA Center for Oral History Research Room 21564 Charles E. Young Research Library Box 951575 Los Angeles, California 90095-1575 oral-history@library. ucla. edu ALIOS EHLERS: HARPSICHORDIST Completed under the auspices of the Oral History Program University of California Los Angeles 1968 Copyright © The Regents of the University of California This manuscript Is hereby made available for research purposes only* All literary rights in the manuscript^ including the right to publications, are reserved to the University Library of the University of California at Los Angeles• No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the University Librarian of the University of California at Los Angeles• TABLE OF CONTENTS Illustrations vi Introduction vli Interview History xi Tape Number: I, Sides One and Two (October 20 and October 30, 19^5) Vienna—Berlin and Landowska—Association with Hindemith—Development of concert career—England and America—Russian tour Tape Number: II, Side One (October 30, 1965) 59 Russian tour—European tours—Israel tours—Association with Schweitzer Tape Number: II, Side Two (November 15> 19^5) 86 Harpsichords owned by Mme. Ehlers—Israel tours—Vienna, England and Scotland Tape Number: III, Sides One and Two (November 22, 1965) 117 Association with Schweitzer—On teaching— Wolfgang Graeser and the Art of the Fugue Tape Number: IV, Side One (November 29, 1965) 153 South American tour—Commentary on language—Life in Italy and Berlin— Landowska—America—USC appointment Tape Number: IV, Side Two (December 6, 1965) 184 Teaching at USC Tape Number: V, Side One (December 13, 19&5) Teaching at USC—Performance in Europe and America—Early training Tape Numbers V, Side Two (December 20, 1365) Teaching baroque style—Commentary on harpsichords Tape Numbers VI, Side One (January 3* 19^6) Discussion of Eachfs Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue Tape Number: VI, Side Two (January 10, 1966) Program building—Teaching baroque style and the harpsichord—Performance in Europe and America Tape Number: VII, Side One (February 23, 1966) Performance in Europe and America Tape Number: VIII, Side One (May 16, 1966) Interview with Alice Ehlers and Malcolm Hamilton Addenda Schweitzer Ehlers correspondence— Ehlers1 notes on Schweltzer-Wauchope meeting Index Errata: There are no pages 95 or 3^* ILLUSTRATIONS Alice Ehlers, 1962 „ Frontispiece Alice Ehlers and Marietta and Marta Amstad, Pitti Palace, Florence, late 1920fs..following page 4l Alice Ehlers and Albert Schweitzer 131 Rehearsal at Idyllwild Music School, c. 1964; Alice Ehlers at the harpsichord; Michael Thomas, far right ......... .206 Alice Ehlers> late 1940fs 300 Citation from Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors 4o4 INTRODUCTION Alice Ehlers, concert harpsichordist and baroque music specialist, was born in Vienna on April 16, 1887, the daughter of Ignatz and Caroline Pulay. There, in the rich musical environment of Vienna at the turn of the century, she studied piano with the well-known teachers Richard Robert and Theodor Leschetlzky and harmony in the class of Arnold Schoenberg. While still very young she felt herself particularly drawn to the music of Bach, an affinity which did not .find full expression until some years after her enrollment as a student at the Hochschule fUr Muslk in Berlin in 1909* In 1913> Wanda Landowska joined the faculty of the Hochschule and thus Mme. Ehlers heard, for the first time, the keyboard music of the baroque played on the instrument for which it was composed, the harpsichord• From that time forward she devoted herself to its study under Mme. Landowska, while other classes at the Hochschule under such professors as Curt Sachs and Johannes Wolf continued to increase her understanding of eighteenth century style. This manuscript, a transcription of tape recordings made by the UCLA Oral History Program with Mme. Ehlers, is a description in the artistfs own words of the development of the career which grew out of these early and formative viii associations. Mme. Landowska left Berlin in 1918, bringing to an end Mme. Ehlers1 period of apprenticeship as her student• As Mme. Ehlers1 repertoire and reputation grew she became widely known throughout Europe as a concert harpsichordist, her tours also taking her to Palestine, Russia, the British Isles, and South America. With composer Paul HIndemith she performed many of the BIber Biblical Sonatas for which Hindemith had realized the figured bass. Some years later, in 1936, she played for the first time in the United States at the Library of Congress. One of the important relationships in Mme. Ehlers1 life, greatly Influencing the growth of her understanding of baroque music, was her close friendship with Albert Schweitzer who introduced her to a new concept of articulation and phrasing in the performance of Bach. There were many meetings between them at Dr. Schweitzerfs home in Gunsbach, which became a frequently visited haven for Mme. Ehlers after she permanently left Nazi Germany in 1933* For five years she lived in London, playing concerts and teaching, and continuing to visit the home in Gunsbach even when Dr. Schweitzer himself was in Lambarene. Through the years there was a considerable corres- pondence between the two; Mme. Ehlers has kindly allowed much of it to be photographed and housed in the UCLA Library1s Department of Special Collections. A sampling from it is contained, in translation, in the addenda to this manuscript. ix In 1907* shortly after moving to Berlin, Mme* Ehlers married Alfred Ehlers, an artist and sculptor. Of their two daughters, Maria and Christina, Christina had already moved to the United States and become established in the Los Angeles area at the time when Mme. Ehlers came to teach a summer class at Juilliard in 1938. Continuing to the West Coast to visit, it became apparent to her that with the deterioration of world conditions she would be unable to return to Europe and so, inadvertently, this journey became a permanent move. Southern California has remained Mme, Ehlers1 home since that time. The harpsichord was then virtually unknown as a concert instrument in this area, and her performances and teaching have contributed greatly to the renaissance of interest in it and the music of its period. In 19^0 she joined the faculty of the University of Southern California's School of Music where she has remained active to the present date as Professor of Music Emeritus, teaching classes in the history and the interpretation of baroque music, as well as working with many individual students in harpsichord technique* Among the honors and awards received by Mtoe. Ehlers are the following: Mendelssohn Prize, Berlin; Honorary Doctor of Music degree from Lewis and Clark College, 19^9j Walker Ames Professorship, University of Washington, 195^> Honorary Doctor of Law degree, University of Cincinnati, 1958; and the first Brlttingham rrofessorship of Music, University of X Wisconsin, 1961. In 19^7> the year of her eightieth birthday, she received a merit citation from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors; a special merit award from the University of Southern California School of Music Alumni Association; and the distinguished service medal of the German Republic, which was presented in Los Angeles by the German Consul• In addition, the Alice Ehlers Young Musicians Performance Fund was established under the auspices of the South Bay Chamber Music Association* All of these aspects of her career — her memories of those people most formative in her life; her comments on Bach, the music of the baroque period and the Instruments on which it is performed; her opinions on the art of teaching and performing — are given by Mme. Ehlers in the following pages* Her views have been further expanded by the Inclusion of an Interview with one of her former students, Malcolm Hamilton* who discusses with her their mutual experiences In the student-teacher relationship and as co-performers in works for two harpsichords. Records relating to this series of Interviews are located in the office of the UCLA Oral History Program, INTERVIEW HISTORY INTERVIEWER: Adelaide G. Tusler, Oral History Program, UCLA. Age, 42. BA, Music and History, UCLA; MLS, UCLA. Graduate work toward the MA In Music, UCLA. TIME AND SETTING OP INTERVIEWS: Place: Mme. Ehlers1 home, 4l6 Calle Mayor, Redondo Beach, California. The Interview including Malcolm Hamilton was held at Mr. Hamilton's home, Garden Grove, California. Dates: Prom October 20, 1965 to February 28* 1966; at basically one-week intervals, occasionally longer Intervals. The Ehlers-Hamilton interview was added May 16, 1966. Lengjh and total number of recording sessions: Each session produced one hour of recorded tape with the exception of the second session in which two hours were recorded and the fourth session, one and one-half hours. The manuscript represents a total of thirteen and one-half hours of recording time. Persons present during Interview: Ehlers and Tusler; Ehlers, Hamilton and Tusler in the last session, CONDUCT OF INTERVIEW: The interviewer encouraged an autobiographical approach within a chronological frame- work, introducing questions freely. The general topic of each session was planned in advance but detailed preparation was impossible because of the lack of written records, and chronology is frequently interrupted. The sessions were usually preceded by some discussion though, generally speaking, the accounts given on the tape by Mme, Ehlers had not been previously narrated to the interviewer. The atmosphere of the sessions was informal and often conversational, EDITING: A verbatim transcript of the tapes was edited by the interviewer, who primarily introduced punctuation and proper spelling ahd slightly emended syntax.