Max Graf (1 October 1873 – 24 June 1958) was an Austrian music historian and critic.
He was born in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, the son of Josef and Regine (Lederer) Graf.
His father was a political writer and editor.
Max was described as the "dean of music critics in Vienna" in the first part of the 20th century.
Career
He is also notable for his role in the history of
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
as the father of
Little Hans
Herbert Graf (10 April 1903 – 5 April 1973) was an Austrian-American opera producer. Born in Vienna in 1903, he was the son of Max Graf (1873–1958), and Olga Hönig. His father was an Austrian author, critic, musicologist and member of Sig ...
, whose treatment was described by
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
.
Max's first wife and Little Hans' mother, Olga Hönig, was one of Freud's patients.
Graf's book ''Composer and Critic'' is noted for its amicable style with M. A. Schubart of the
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
stating, "Dr. Graf has written a charming, comprehensive, intelligent treatise on music criticism, drawing generously on his own large supply of knowledge and experience.... The only major issue which I cannot reach agreement with Dr. Graf is his manner. He is much too polite. No subject in the world deserves more rudeness than music criticism." Countering this impression, Graf published a deeply critical review of a Metropolitan Opera production produced by his son in 1946.
In the introduction to ''Composer and Critic'', Graf details his original interest in music criticism as having stemmed from attending the lectures of
Anton Bruckner
Josef Anton Bruckner (; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist best known for his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-Germ ...
in Vienna.
Max was Jewish and fled Vienna for the United States in 1938, where he taught at the New School for Social Research in New York City until 1947, when he returned to Vienna. He died there in 1958.
Works
* ''Wagner-Probleme, und andere Studien'', 1900
* ''Die Musik im Zeitalter der Renaissance'', 1905
* ''Die innere Werkstatt des Musikers'', 1910
* ''Richard Wagner im "Fliegenden Holländer": ein Beitrag zur Psychologie künstlerischen Schaffens'', 1911
* ''Legend of a musical city'', 1945
* ''Composer and critic: Two hundred years of musical criticism'', 1946
* ''Modern music: Composers and music of our time'', 1946
* ''From Beethoven to Shostakovich: The psychology of the composing process'', 1947
* ''Geschichte und Geist der modernen Musik'', 1953
* ''Die Wiener Oper'', 1955
See also
*
Psychoanalysis and music
Music has the ability to open doors, which allow us to see beyond a typical conversation or thought process. The artistic attributions that are involved in making and listening to music exist as a reliable source for investigating the unconscious m ...
References
1873 births
1958 deaths
Austrian male composers
Austrian composers
Austrian music critics
Austrian musicologists
Analysands of Sigmund Freud
{{Musicologist-stub