• Marko Deisinger and Ian Bent

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    Carl Bamberger

    born Vienna, February 21, 1902; died New York, July 18, 1987

    Documents associated with this person:

    Conductor and writer on music. Born in Vienna; pupil of Schenker's.

    Career Summary

    The son of furniture manufacturer Gustav Bamberger and Melanie (née Prossnitz), Carl Bamberger embarked on study of musicology and philosophy at the University of Vienna and study with Schenker, both in Fall 1920, but abandoned these in 1924 to take up the position of repetiteur at the Danzig Stadttheater (1924-27), from where he moved to the Darmstadt Landestheater (1927-30) as second conductor, thereafter to Russia (1931-35). In 1936, he married the violinist Lotte (Marie Charlotte) Hammerschlag, who studied with Felix Salzer in the newly founded Schenker-Institut at the Neues Wiener Konservatorium in 1935/36.

    Bamberger emigrated to the USA in 1937, where he became director of the orchestral and opera departments of the David Mannes Music School, New York, from 1938 or 1939 (among others, Carl Schachter studied conducting with him there). His wife was professor of chamber music at the Mannes School, and his sister, Gerty Bamberger, who had also studied with Salzer at the Neues Wiener Konservatorium in 1935/36, and who was later to become the second wife of Viktor Zuckerkandl, taught ear-training there. Bamberger established himself as a conductor in the USA and Canada, and was also a notable photographer. After World War II, he conducted frequently in Europe, where he made many recordings of operatic and orchestral works with the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra and others.

    Bamberger and Schenker

    Bamberger studied with Schenker for four years, from October 1920 to June 1924, undertaking courses of study in counterpoint (1920/21) and thoroughbass (1921/22), and working analytically mostly on the orchestral repertory, also studying piano. In July 1933 Schenker appealed to Josef Marx (OeNB H Autogr.856/20/5) to intercede with Oswald Kabasta to have Bamberger’s performances relayed on Radio Wien, saying that Bamberger was already heard on the radio stations of Danzig, Königsberg and Darmstadt. Schenker drew attention to Bamberger’s performances of "early music." Bamberger kept in touch with Schenker until a few days before the latter’s death, visiting him when in Vienna.

    Correspondence with Schenker

    Twelve items of correspondence from Bamberger to Schenker exist in OJ 9/12 (1924-33: eight letters and one postcard) and OC 44/13, A/287, 297 (1934: 2 letters and one postcard).

    Bibliography:

    • "Das Schenker-Institut am Neuen Wiener Konservatorium", Anbruch 18/1 (1936), 7-8
    • "Zur Frage der Dirigentenerziehung", Der Dreiklang 4/5 (July/August 1937), 105-09
    • The Conductor's Art (New York; McGraw-Hill, 1965)

    Sources:

    • Baker's1971
    • Fink, Evelyn, ed., Rebell und Visionär (Vienna: Lafite, 2003), pp. 22-23
    • Eybl, Martin & Fink-Mennel, Evelyn, eds, Schenker Traditionen (Vienna: Bohlau, 2006), pp. 156, 238-9
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