Our Goals

What the Joseph Marx Society wishes to achieve

The Joseph Marx Society owes its foundation to the activities of its founder, the Marx expert Berkant Haydin, who has done pioneering work on the composer's behalf with his Internet site, www.joseph-marx.org, available since the beginning of 2001; with the publicity he has conducted on his own since then; and with the CD recordings of several orchestral works he has initiated. Thus Berkant Haydin has seen to it that the memory of this artist, known throughout the world in his day, has returned to the consciousness of many, starting in the international musical world, and now in his Austrian homeland as well. The Society thus vouches for all of the content on Berkant Haydin's Internet site regarding Joseph Marx's life and works.

In this context we would also like to mention the services of the Bochum Symphony Orchestra and its conductor Steven Sloane, who are responsible for a magnificent first recording of orchestral works of the composer on 4 CDs, a project made possible by Berkant Haydin. Miguel Kertsman, the producer of this internationally successful CD series which received almost exclusively rave reviews (one of these discs even received a GRAMMY nomination), and the British label ASV, which released it, also merit the sincere thanks of all friends of Joseph Marx worldwide.

Credit for a further high point in the Marx Renaissance is due the Styriarte organisation (Mathis Huber), whose sponsorship of a splendid performance of the monumental Herbstsymphonie —the work's first performance in 80 years— on 24 and 25 October 2005 by the Large Orchestra of Graz (»Recreation«) under the direction of Michel Swierczewski serves as an impressive monument to the composer.

It is generally recognized that Joseph Marx was for many years the leading figure in Austrian tonal music and played a dominating role in its conflicts with the avant-garde. This music-aesthetic battle for dominance was conducted on many levels, but it is now a thing of the past. All that is important today is the music itself and its affect upon (and reception by) the public. One must therefore pose the following questions: Is the music of Joseph Marx —and not just his already quite popular songs— worth being rediscovered and presented to a public spoiled by sonic experience? Has Marx's music earned the right to be valued as highly as the works of many of his contemporaries, which are now unquestionably a part of the standard repertoire?

The Joseph Marx Society has answered these questions with an unambiguous yes. The time has arrived for a reevaluation of the works of Joseph Marx in the concert hall.

It is therefore the stated goal of the Society to anchor in the Austrian and international musical consciousness Joseph Marx's musical versatility and importance that currently —and completely unfairly— rests solely on the songs he composed in his youth, and to assure that Marx's gorgeous choral, orchestral and chamber works shall occupy the same firm place in the concert hall as the works of such other great late Romantic composers as Richard Strauss, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Franz Schreker, not least of all because Marx is in no way inferior to them musicologically or technically, or in terms of his music's effect on the listener.

One should also not forget that Marx had developed his refreshingly modern and yet voluptuously melodic style quite early on (around 1900). He had thus done so at a time when his tonalist contemporaries with whom he is readily compared were either still writing in the style of the previous century (e.g. Schreker) or had yet to compose anything at all (e.g. Korngold). Marx was thus a composer who had matured quite early, and whose style influenced many of his contemporaries in their subsequent development. He also had an enormous influence on the music of the Twentieth century in his decades-long activity as an internationally admired music pedagogue as well; he provided generations of musicians with a comprehensive musical education without, however, impressing upon them his own style. Many of his ca. 1,300 students later took quite different paths than did their teacher (atonality, film music, etc.)

The Joseph Marx Society is of the opinion that Joseph Marx, whose influence and competence as a music pedagogue was never questioned in his own time, is painfully underrated and underrecognized as a composer. Marx's scores satisfy the highest technical demands, and display exceptional features that lend the composer's music a highly personal and characteristic note. With an often overwhelming polyphonic sonic richness and a simply inexhaustible melodic variety, Joseph Marx developed a fresh, highly personal, and easily recognizable musical language that bridges the gap between tradition and musical modernism. This does not correspond in the least to the image of the archconservative that clings to him even today (see also the related discussion of Marx's compositional style).

The Society seeks the development and dissemination of Marx's work through the publication of his compositions and writings, through biographical and musicological publications, through performance engagements (concerts, symposia, recitals, etc.), by underwriting performances, radio broadcasts, and recordings as well as through collaborations with other organizations and establishments. The necessary funding will be supplied by private donations, grants, contributions, gifts, bequests, etc.

All music lovers who support this cause and wish to participate in the propagation of the euphonious music of Joseph Marx are called upon to take part by making a donation or long-term financial commitment. The success of the Joseph Marx Society depends above all on the support of members and other friends of music.

© Joseph Marx Society