Winkler, Gerhard J.

Joseph Joachim and Carl Goldmark: Two "Parallel" Curricula of Jewish Musicians from the Region of Historical Western Hungary
Gerhard Winkler

The composer Carl Goldmark (1830-1915) and the violin virtuoso, pedagogue and composer Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) are born nearly within one year's space and spent a part of their childhood in the region of former western Hungary (within the borders of today "Burgenland"). Both were German-speaking western Hungarians with Jewish origins, related to the famous "Seven holy Jewish communities" on the princely Esterházy territories. Their names are used to be mentioned when "Jewish" biographies coming out of the region are concerned. The study wants to trace out the parallels between both biographies; it points out the different contexts in which this topic has to be handled with: The "national" problem of German speaking Hungarians in Austrian monarchy, the interferences between the histories of "Austrian" and "German" music, the problems of Jewish acculturation in Vienna and Berlin, the tension between "multicultural" origin and the "monoculture" of German music culture etc.