Erwin Stein (7 November 188519 July 1958) was an Austrian musician and writer, prominent as a pupil and friend of

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

, with whom he studied between 1906 and 1910.Basil, Douglas. Obituary
''The Musical Times'', Vol. 99, No. 1387 (September, 1958), p. 501

Career

After studying at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, Stein was taught by Schoenberg from 1906. He subsequently worked as a conductor in the years before the First World War. In 1918 Schoenberg founded the

Society for Private Musical Performances The Society for Private Musical Performances (in German, the ) was an organization founded in Vienna in the autumn of 1918 by Arnold Schoenberg with the intention of making carefully rehearsed and comprehensible performances of newly composed musi ...

, which presented modern compositions (from

Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

to the present day) to Viennese audiences. Stein was one of his principal assistants in this project which ran for a few years until encountering financial problems. The works performed often needed arrangement for the reduced forces available to the Society. Stein undertook such

reductions Reductions (, also called ; ) were settlements established by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America, such reductions were also ...

, for example, in 1921 he arranged Mahler's Symphony No. 4 for 15 musicians. Also in 1921 he arranged

Anton Bruckner Joseph Anton Bruckner (; ; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer and organist best known for his Symphonies by Anton Bruckner, symphonies and sacred music, which includes List of masses by Anton Bruckner, Masses, Te Deum (Br ...

's Seventh Symphony for chamber ensemble, this time with

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was a German-Austrian composer. He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The ...

and

Karl Rankl Karl Rankl (1 October 1898 – 6 September 1968) was a British conductor and composer who was of Austrian birth. A pupil of the composers Schoenberg and Webern, he conducted at opera houses in Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia until fleeing f ...

. The Society closed down before it could be performed. In 1924 it was Stein to whom Schoenberg entrusted the delicate as well as important task of writing the first article – ''Neue Formprinzipien'' ('New Formal Principles') – on the gradual evolution of what was soon to be explicitly formulated as '

twelve-tone technique The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition. The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale ...

'.Erwin Stein on Schoenberg
extract from ''Orpheus in New Guises'' (1953), pp. 47–54 Until 1938 he lived in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, working for the

music publisher A music publisher is a type of publisher that specializes in distributing music. Music publishers originally published sheet music. When copyright became legally protected, music publishers began to play a role in the management of the intellectu ...

Universal Edition Universal Edition (UE) is an Austrian classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, it originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market. The firm soon expanded to become one of t ...

Erwin Stein at Universal Edition
/ref> and respected as a

music teacher Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origina ...

and conductor as well as a writer active on behalf of the music and composers he valued. At Universal one of his tasks was to complete a vocal score of the unfinished third act of

Alban Berg Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( ; ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...

’s ''

Lulu Lulu may refer to: Companies * LuLu, an early automobile manufacturer * Lulu.com, an online e-books and print self-publishing platform, distributor, and retailer * Lulu Hypermarket, a retail chain in Asia * Lululemon Athletica or simply Lulu, a C ...

''. After the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

during the course of

Aryanization Aryanization () was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis powers, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. It enta ...

, Stein was forced to sell his stockholdings in Universal Edition. He fled to London to escape the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

and worked for many years as an editor for the music publisher

Boosey & Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British Music publisher (sheet music), music publisher, purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass instrument, brass, string instru ...

. His focus was mainly on Mahler, Schoenberg and

Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

(all three of whom he knew personally) as well as his colleagues within the Schoenberg circle, Alban Berg and

Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...

Legacy

His books include ''Orpheus in New Guises'' (a collection of writings from the period 1924–1953) and ''Form and Performance'' (1962). He was the editor of the first collection of Schoenberg's letters (Germany 1958; UK 1964). He was also instrumental in setting up the modern music periodical ''Tempo'' in 1939.Harewood
Erwin Stein 1885–1958
''Tempo'', New Ser., No. 49 (Autumn, 1958), pp. 35–36. Stein's arrangement of Mahler's Symphony No. 4 is still used occasionally. In 2020 it was revived by the

Berlin Philharmonic The Berlin Philharmonic () is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. Throughout the 20th century, the orchestra was led by conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922� ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The orchestra was unable to play Mahler's original version, as had been scheduled, because of the restrictions of

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...

Discography

Stein's arrangement of Mahler's Symphony No. 4 was recorded by

Royal Northern Sinfonia Royal Northern Sinfonia is a British chamber orchestra, founded in Newcastle upon Tyne and currently based in Gateshead. For the first 46 years of its history the orchestra gave most of its concerts at the Newcastle City Hall. It also gave mont ...

in 1999.

Personal life

Stein married Sophie Bachmann (1882–1965), and their daughter, the pianist

Marion Stein Maria Donata Nanetta Paulina Gustava Erwina Wilhelmine Stein (18 October 19266 March 2014), known as Marion Stein, was an Austrian-born British concert pianist. During her marriage to George Lascelles, Earl of Harewood, she was known as Mario ...

, married successively

George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood George Henry Hubert Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood (7 February 1923 – 11 July 2011), styled The Honourable George Lascelles before 1929 and Viscount Lascelles between 1929 and 1947, was a British classical music administrator and author, and ...

and the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

politician

Jeremy Thorpe John Jeremy Thorpe (29 April 1929 – 4 December 2014) was a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament for North Devon from 1959 to 1979 and as leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976. In May 1979 he was tried at the Old ...

.Amis, John
Marion Thorpe obituary
''The Guardian'', 7 March 2014

References

External links

Universal Edition

Mahler, Symphony No. 4 in G major, arranged for chamber ensemble by Erwin Stein (1921)
Austrian male conductors (music) Austrian classical composers Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United Kingdom Second Viennese School 1885 births 1958 deaths Music publishers (people) Pupils of Arnold Schoenberg Austrian music arrangers 20th-century Austrian conductors (music) 20th-century Austrian male musicians Austrian emigrants to England {{Austria-composer-stub