Paul Stefan Explained

Paul Stefan, born Paul Stefan Grünfeld (25 November 1879, in Brno – 12 November 1943, in New York City) was an Austrian music historian and critic.

Born into an assimilated Jewish family,^[1] Paul Stefan came to live in Vienna in 1898.^[2] He attended courses in law, philosophy and art history at the University of Vienna, before studying music theory with Hermann Graedener and possibly composition under Arnold Schoenberg.^[3] From 1922 to 1937 he edited the Austrian music journal Musikblätter des Anbruch (entitled simply Anbruch from 1929).^[4]

Works

• Gustav Mahler; eine studie über persönlichkeit und werk, Münich: R. Piper & Co., 1910. Translated to English as Gustav Mahler: a study of his personality and work, 1913.
• Arturo Toscanini, 1927
• Anton Dvořák, 1939
• Verdi, the man in his letters, 1942

Notes and References

1. Klara Moricz (ed.), Jewish Identities: Nationalism, Racism, and Utopianism in Twentieth-Century Music, University of California Press (2008), p. 6
2. Alfred Mathis-Rosenzweig, Gustav Mahler: new insights into his life, times and work, p. 31
3. Henry-Louis de La Grange, Gustav Mahler: A new life cut short (1907–1911), Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 781
4. http://www.ripm.org/journals/ANB.php Musikblätter des Anbruch (ANB)