Max Graf (1 October 1873 – 24 June 1958) was an Austrian music historian and critic. He was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, 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 ...

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 Si ...

, 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 pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...

. 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 ...

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-Ger ...

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

References

1873 births 1958 deaths Austrian male composers Austrian composers Austrian music critics Austrian musicologists Analysands of Sigmund Freud {{Musicologist-stub

Career

Works

See also

References