Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0023/00231.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 30KB | 481 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00231}
$Pretitle{376}
$Title{Austria
Chapter 6A.   Artistic and Intellectual Expression}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Susan H. Scurlock}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{music
vienna
opera
musical
austrian
court
arts
austria
baroque
artistic}
$Date{1976}
$Log{}
Country:     Austria
Book:        Austria, A Country Study
Author:      Susan H. Scurlock
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1976

Chapter 6A.   Artistic and Intellectual Expression

     The Austrian people have inherited one of the outstanding cultural
legacies of the Western world. The arts and sciences, especially music and the
theater, have been cultivated to the fullest extent. Scholarship and advanced
learning have been accorded the highest respect and encouragement. This
distinguished heritage has been at once a source of complacency and a spur to
further creativity; yet Austrian artistic expression has been difficult to
sustain on such a superior level. Modern contributions have seemed pale when
compared to the distinguished accomplishments of the past.

     From earliest times, at the ducal court of the Babenbergs in Vienna and
later when it became the imperial court of the Habsburgs, the arts were
carefully cultivated and patronized by the rulers. Under Habsburg patronage
art, music, the theater, and architecture developed to their finest heights. A
continuous tradition of excellence was initiated with the baroque period,
which began during the reign of Leopold I in 1657. Later the great age of
classical music from about 1770 to 1830 made Vienna the most important musical
center in Europe. A further flowering of Austrian culture occurred during the
reign of Franz Josef I in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
when Vienna was capital of a multinational empire that brought together
diverse peoples, ideas, and influences.

     In present-day Austria cultural appreciation is unusually high. Concert
and opera houses in Vienna and other cities play to capacity audiences
including people from all walks of life as well as foreign visitors.
Government support of the arts and sciences is particularly generous.
Festivals of music in Vienna, Salzburg, and other cities and towns around the
country draw thousands of people for celebrations of the many forms of
artistic endeavor. Music and the theater are more a part of life and tradition
in Austria than in most other countries. Children learn to play musical
instruments and have opportunities to attend cultural events in rural towns as
well as in the cities. Traditional brass bands and village celebrations
featuring folk music and dancing are popular forms of artistic expression.

     In the realm of scholarship, the University of Vienna, founded in 1365,
is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. The University of Graz
was founded in 1585. Students continue to come from many countries to these
and other Austrian universities to receive high-quality education. Scientific
research is liberally endowed and encouraged at these universities, and
scientific and intellectual endeavors are highly regarded and seriously
pursued.

     Despite the extent of cultural participation, including artistic and
scientific pursuits, there is a consensus among observers that there have been
few new contributions and innovations to equal those of the great eras in
Austrian history. Several reasons have been suggested for this dearth of
creativity. Most salient was the change in the status of Vienna at the end of
World War I from cosmopolitan capital of an empire of over 50 million people
to capital of one small country. Some also blame the Austrians' conservative
tastes, which are not receptive to the new and avant-garde. On concert and
theater programs the great operas, symphonies, and plays of the past are still
favored and are played over and over to delighted audiences. The comedies of
Ferdinand Raimund and Johann Nestroy, written in the 1820s and 1830s, are
still favorites, along with works of William Shakespeare and Franz Grillparzer
and other classics. Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio has been presented more
than 1,000 times in Vienna. Modern works are not neglected, but they are works
that have been internationally acclaimed, not tested for the first time on
Austrian audiences.

     Some blame the demise of the imperial court and noble patronage for the
ebb of new achievement. Since few people have great wealth, private support of
the arts is rare. Most of the funds for the arts and sciences have had to come
from government subsidy. Only the most accomplished, versatile, and talented
actors and musicians are employed. At the State Opera in Vienna, for example,
standards are so high that even small operatic parts are sung by virtuosos.
Without an appointment to one of the opera companies or orchestras, a musician
without private means could not devote all his time to music.

     With such new diversions as radio, television, and cinema and the
preoccupation with sports and recreation, the old life-styles that included
the customs of musical evenings and literary appreciation have nearly
disappeared. Some observers have blamed the experience of Anschluss (union
with Germany) and war and particularly Adolf Hitler's expulsion of the Jews,
who were seen as having been a great stimulus to creativity and intellectual
achievement.

     Jews had been active in the cultural effervescence that survived the end
of the Habsburgs and World War I. Stefan Zweig, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and
Arthur Schnitzler in literature, Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schonberg in music,
Max Reinhardt in the theater, Karl Kraus and Theodor Herzl in journalism,
Sigmund Freud in medicine and psychotherapy, and many others in the arts and
sciences were Jews or had some Jewish ancestry. The regime put an end to their
activity as well as to that of many purely German artists and scholars who
could not tolerate the nazi regime. After 1938 there was an exodus of artistic
and intellectual talent from Austria.

PAST ACHIEVEMENTS

     The first great era of artistic creativity dates back to the age of
medieval poetry connected to the Babenberg court in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. This was the age of the minnesingers, the wandering minstrels who
sang and recited at court and at noble estates. The German-language epic the
Nibelungenlied, by an unknown Austrian poet, was reportedly recited at the
wedding of Leopold VI in Vienna in 1203. Out of this tradition came the great
lyric poet Walther von der Vogelweide. He was also a musician, and his
performances are said to have been enjoyed by all classes of people, not just
the court and the nobility. Already love of the arts had made Vienna a popular
destination and meeting place for traveling poets and players.

     Vienna again came to the forefront as a center of European culture in the
early sixteenth century after Maximillian I founded an imperial court
orchestra and choir. The Habsburg emperors were ethusiastic lovers of music
and collectors of art. Much of the credit for the artistic effervescence of
baroque Austria must go to them for their support of musicians, poets,
artists, and architects.

     The artistic fervor under the Habsburgs was particularly remarkable in
that the emperors themselves composed music and conducted their own orchestras
and opera companies. The nobility took pride in singing and dancing like
professionals; even military field marshals acted in plays. Members of court
were qualified musicians and actors, and the best recommendation for a servant
was that he could play an instrument. This love and understanding of the arts
was an immense stimulus to creativity.

     The close association of the Habsburg court with the Vatican and with
Roman Catholicism had a significant effect on artistic and intellectual
development in Austria. In 1551 the pope authorized Spanish Jesuits to come to
Austria to train priests and to establish schools. The Jesuits exerted a
strong influence on intellectual life a