Richard Goldner (23 June 1908 – 27 September 1991) was a Romanian-born,
Viennese Viennese may refer to:
* Vienna, the capital of Austria
* Viennese people, List of people from Vienna
* Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna
* Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city
* Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance
* V ...
-trained Australian
violist
; german: Bratsche
, alt=Viola shown from the front and the side
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, hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow
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*Violin family ...
, pedagogue and inventor. He founded
Musica Viva Australia
Musica Viva was founded in 1945 by Romanian-born violinist Richard Goldner, with the aim of bringing chamber music to Australia. The co-founder was a German-born musicologist, Walter Dullo. At its inception, Musica Viva was a string ensemble perf ...
in 1945, which became the world's largest entrepreneurial
chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...
organisation.
[Australian Jewish Historical Society – Victoria]
/ref> The Goldner String Quartet
The Goldner String Quartet is an Australian string quartet formed in 1995 in honour of Richard Goldner, the founder of Musica Viva Australia.
The Quartet consists of Dene Olding and Dimity Hall (violins), Irina Morozova (viola; an ex-pupil of ...
was named in his memory.
Biography
Richard Goldner was born in Craiova
Craiova (, also , ), is Romania's 6th Cities in Romania, largest city and capital of Dolj County, and situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximatel ...
, Romania in 1908. His father, Avram Beer Goldner, was a delicatessen owner, and his mother was Bertha (née Sachter). He grew up with an older brother, Gerard. His family moved to Vienna
en, Viennese
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when he was six months old.[National Library, Oral History and Folklore: Interview with Richard Goldner, 7 November 1966] He took up the violin at the age of four or five.[ After leaving school, Goldner studied architecture at ]Vienna Technical University
TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...
from 1925, but also enrolled at the New Vienna Conservatory (1927–30), where he studied under Simon Pullman
Simon Pullman (15 February 1890 in Warsaw – August 1942 in Treblinka) was a Polish violinist, conducting, conductor, music teacher and founder and Director of the Pullman Ensemble and Orchestra, and a seminal figure in the evolution of chambe ...
.[ He later received another diploma from the Academy of Music.][ He received instruction at master classes from ]Bronisław Huberman
Bronisław Huberman (19 December 1882 – 16 June 1947) was a Polish violinist. He was known for his individualistic interpretations and was praised for his tone color, expressiveness, and flexibility. The '' Gibson ex-Huberman Stradivarius'' ...
and other violinists.[ He played the ]viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
in the Simon Pullman Ensemble from 1931 to 1938,[ and became Pullman's assistant and closest friend.][ (Pullman was later to die in a Nazi extermination camp.)
Goldner and his wife, Marianne ''née'' Reiss, with his brother and sister-in-law, escaped the Nazi oppression of Jews in Austria and arrived in Australia on the ''Orama'' in March 1939, six months before the start of World War II.][Atkinson, Knight, McPhee: The Dictionary of Performing Arts in Australia]
/ref> There, although designated an enemy alien
In customary international law, an enemy alien is any native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and ...
[ he soon became involved in musical life in his new country.][Balmain Sinfonia]
/ref> He founded the Monomeeth String Quartet, basing its name on an indigenous word for peace and harmony.
However, because the Australian Musicians Union's restrictions on employing foreigners meant Goldner could not take up an offer of a position with an Australian Broadcasting Commission
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...
orchestra, he had to find other ways of making a living.[ He worked as a jeweller][Access my library]
/ref> with Gerard.[ They invented a new style of ]zipper
A zipper, zip, fly, or zip fastener, formerly known as a clasp locker, is a commonly used device for binding together two edges of textile, fabric or other flexible material. Used in clothing (e.g. jackets and jeans), luggage and other Bag, ba ...
that was resistant to sand and would not break under war-time conditions,[Elaine Thompson, Fair Enough]
/ref> and which was vitally needed for use in the manufacture of parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag or, in a ram-air parachute, aerodynamic lift. A major application is to support people, for recreation or as a safety device for aviators, who ...
s.[Australian Jewish News, May 2007]
/ref> For this, he was attached to the Army Inventions Directorate and the Royal Australian Air Force
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colours =
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.[ This invention made him a lot of money,][ and was acknowledged in the official history of Australia's war effort.][ In 2011, the Oscar-winning former film maker ]Suzanne Baker
Suzanne Dale Baker (born 1939) is an Australian film producer, print and television journalist, writer, historian and feminist. In 1977, she became the first Australian woman to win an Academy Award, winning for the animated short film ''Leisure ...
published ''Beethoven and the Zipper: The Astonishing Story of Musica Viva''.[ Steve Meacham, "Author plays score of life found in music", ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 27 April 2011]
Retrieved 14 March 2014
During the war, the then Minister for Immigration, Harold Holt
Harold Edward Holt (5 August 190817 December 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party.
Holt was born in S ...
, was personally very helpful in arranging passage for Richard Goldner's parents to Australia.[
]
Musica Viva
In 1945 he founded "Richard Goldner's Sydney Musica Viva", whose first concert was held at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music
The Sydney Conservatorium of Music (formerly the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music and known by the moniker "The Con") is a heritage-listed music school in Macquarie Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the ol ...
in Sydney on 8 December 1945,[ to an audience of over 1,000 people. The first item they played was ]Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
's ''Grosse Fuge
The ''Grosse Fuge'' (German spelling: ''Große'' ''Fuge'', also known in English as the ''Great Fugue'' or ''Grand Fugue''), Op. 133, is a single-movement composition for string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven. An immense double fugue, it was ...
'', Op. 133, in honour of his teacher Simon Pullman
Simon Pullman (15 February 1890 in Warsaw – August 1942 in Treblinka) was a Polish violinist, conducting, conductor, music teacher and founder and Director of the Pullman Ensemble and Orchestra, and a seminal figure in the evolution of chambe ...
. (Pullman's makeshift chamber ensemble had been playing the ''Grosse Fuge'' in the Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...
in August 1942 when they were rounded up and sent to Treblinka
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
, only one of them surviving.[) During Goldner's concert there was a power blackout, and car headlights, an Army generator and hurricane lamps were used for illumination.][ The success of the concert inspired Goldner to form an organisation for the promotion of chamber music in all its forms. In this he was supported by ]Hephzibah Menuhin
Hephzibah Menuhin (20 May 19201 January 1981) was an American-Australian pianist, writer, and human rights campaigner. She was sister to the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and to the pianist, painter, and poet Yaltah Menuhin. She was also a linguist ...
(then married to an Australian and living in Victoria) and assisted by a fellow refugee named Walter Dullo
Walter Andreas Dullo (26 November 1902 – 22 August 1978) was a German people, German musicologist and lawyer who migrated to Australia, where he became best known as a chocolate maker. He also continued his musical activities there, and was a c ...
, a German lawyer-turned-chocolate maker and musicologist. Together, Goldner and Dullo found 17 musicians (mostly also southern or central European refugees, and mostly Jewish) and formed them into four separate chamber groups under the name Musica Viva.[ The initial funding for the organisation came from Goldner himself, from the proceeds of the manufacture of his zipper.][ They developed a punishing playing schedule throughout Australia and ]New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, giving 170 concerts and travelling 50,000 miles a year.[ Although they were always financially successful, this schedule became exhausting. This, plus the fact that Goldner had injured the first finger of his left hand while making another invention,][ led to Goldner retiring from playing in 1952, and the group was disbanded, but it reformed in 1954.][
]
Later life
Goldner had always wanted to teach violin and viola, and to conduct young people's orchestras.[ In the early 1950s, Eugene Goossens, the Director of the NSW Conservatorium, approached him about teaching there, but he was far too busy with Musica Viva's playing schedule at that time.][ He was again approached in the early 1960s, this time by the new Director, Sir ]Bernard Heinze
Sir Bernard Thomas Heinze, AC (1 July 189410 June 1982) was an Australian conductor, academic, and Director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music.
He conducted all the orchestras run by the ABC, most particularly the Melbourne Sym ...
, and he was now in a position to accept a teaching position.[ He lectured in violin and viola.
In 1966 he moved to the United States with his former pupil ]Charmian Gadd
Charmian Gadd OAM (b.1942) is an Australian violinist and teacher.
Career
Gadd grew up in Ourimbah, New South Wales, and learned to play violin at three years old. Her family listened to Alfred Ernest Floyd's ''Music Lover’s Hour'' on ABC ...
. They taught at Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
and Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
(state). They married in 1970, when he was 62, and returned to Australia in 1981.[ Richard Goldner collected one of the most extensive chamber music libraries in Australia, which he donated to the NSW Conservatorium.][
He died in Balmain, Sydney on 27 September 1991, aged 83.
]
Honours
In June 1992, less than nine months after his death, a street in the Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
suburb of Melba was named Goldner Circuit.[ACT Gazette, 1 June 1992]
/ref>
The Richard Goldner Award was founded by the Balmain Sinfonia in 1993, and goes to the winner of a biennial concerto competition for the player of an orchestral string instrument.[ Charmian Gadd is the patron of the competition.
]
Goldner String Quartet
The Goldner String Quartet was formed in honour of Richard Goldner in 1995, and consists of Dene Olding
Dene Maxwell Olding (born 11 October 1956) is an Australian violinist. He has had a distinguished career as a soloist in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, performing over forty concertos in recent years, including many world premiere ...
and Dimity Hall (violins), Irina Morozova (viola; an ex-pupil of Goldner)Musica Viva: Irina Morozova
and Julian Smiles (cello).
Bibliography
* Suzanne Baker
Suzanne Dale Baker (born 1939) is an Australian film producer, print and television journalist, writer, historian and feminist. In 1977, she became the first Australian woman to win an Academy Award, winning for the animated short film ''Leisure ...
, ''Beethoven and the Zipper: The Astonishing Story of Musica Viva'', 2011[
]
References
External links
Article for Richard Goldner
in the ''Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit
The ''Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit'' (LexM) is an Online encyclopedia of the University of Hamburg, which has been developed as a work in progress since 2005.
Publication/contents
The editors today are Sophie Fetthau ...
''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldner, Richard
1908 births
1991 deaths
Jewish emigrants from Austria to Australia after the Anschluss
Australian classical violists
Sydney Conservatorium of Music faculty
20th-century Australian inventors
Romanian Jews
Romanian emigrants to Australia
Jewish Australian musicians
People from Craiova
20th-century classical musicians
20th-century violists