Johanna Müller-Hermann Essentials

Though she showed a gift for music from an early age, it was only after marriage that Johanna Müller-Hermann, born in Vienna 1878, was able to pursue her talent for composition. She studied under one of the most brilliant and most advanced teachers of composition, Alexander Zemlinsky, who had also taught Schoenberg. Later she took lessons from the great Czech teacher, Josef Foerster, succeeding him as professor of composition at the Neues Konservatorium in Vienna. Müller-Hermann’s music reveals a rich mixture of influences, including the expressive harmonies of Wagner, further enriched by the latest works of Richard Strauss and Zemlinsky. But there’s also lyrical gift here that recalls such great French song writers as Duparc and Fauré. She first made her reputation as a song writer—an early example is “Die stille Stadt,” her style developing further in the eerie yet beautiful “Wie Eine Vollmondnacht,” composed around 1910. Meanwhile, she demonstrated an equally melodious gift in such works as her Violin Sonata (1903)—try the Brahms-like second movement—and her String Quartet, Op. 6 (1910). Also, don’t miss her epic-style orchestral writing in the Heroische Ouverture and the Epilog zu einer Tragödie “Brand”.