Schönherr, Max
Schönherr, Max
Schönherr, Max, Austrian conductor, musicologist, and composer; b. Marburg an der Drau, Nov. 23, 1903; d. Mödling, near Vienna, Dec. 13, 1984. He studied with Hermann Frisch in Marburg and Roderich von Mojsisovics at the Graz Cons., and later studied musicology at the Univ. of Vienna (Ph.D., 1970). After conducting at the Graz Landestheater (1924–28), he settled in Vienna as a conductor with the Theater an der Wien and Stadttheater (1929–33), the Volksoper (1933–38), and the Austrian Radio (1931–68), where he won distinction for his idiomatic readings of light Viennese scores. He composed much light music in a stylish manner, and also made effective arrangements of scores by the Viennese Strausses et al. He publ. Carl Michael Ziehrer: Sein Werk, sein Leben, seine Zeit (Vienna, 1974), Lanner, Strauss, Ziehrer: Synoptic Handbook of the Dances and Marches (Vienna, 1982), and with E. Brixel, Karl Komzâk: Vater, Sohn, Enkel: Ein Beitrag zur Rezeptionsgeschichte der Österreichischen Popularmusik (Vienna, 1989). A Lamb ed. the vol. Unterhaltungsmusik aus Österreich: Max Schönherr in seinen Erinnerungen und Schriften (Light Music front Austria: Reminiscences and Writings of Max Schönherr) (in Ger. and Eng., N.Y., 1992).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire