Gisella Selden-Goth
Hungarian composer and musicologist (1884–1975)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gisella Selden-Goth (6 June 1884 – 5 September 1975)[1] was a Hungarian author, composer[2] and musicologist who became an American citizen in 1939.[3] She composed at least four string quartets[4] and donated her large collection of original music manuscripts to the Library of Congress.[5]
Biography
Selden-Goth was born in Budapest to Michael and Rosalia Schlesinger.[6] Her music teachers included Béla Bartók, Ferruccio Busoni, and István Thomán.[4][7] Her set of piano compositions, Vier Präludien, was one of 10 winners (out of 874 submissions) in the 1910 Signale für die musikalische Welt competition in Germany.[8] She married Ernst Goth and they had a daughter, Trudy Goth, who became a dancer and journalist.[9]
Selden-Goth lived in Berlin and Florence, Italy, before emigrating to America in 1938. She returned to Florence in 1950 and remained there until her death in 1975. She served as a music critic for newspapers in Berlin, Prague, Switzerland, and Budapest, most notably for Prager Tagblatt, a German newspaper in Prague.[7] She also wrote books about Busoni and Arturo Toscanini and edited a collection of Felix Mendelssohn's letters.[4][10] She maintained a lengthy correspondence with the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, often discussing their mutual interest in collecting original music scores. After Zweig's suicide, Selden-Goth commented that, "A chamber group in a house or the opportunity to hear a good orchestra might have relieved the tension of that mind tortured by personal forebodings and by the vision of mankind in agony."[7] She also corresponded with composer Ernest Bloch and musicologist Hans Moldenhauer.[11]
Selden-Goth's music is published today by Universal Edition.[4] Her prose works and musical compositions include:
Selected literary publications
Articles
- "A New Collection of Music Manuscripts in the United States", The Musical Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 2, April 1940[12]
- "Neue Wege der musikalischen Erziehung" [New Ways in Music Education], Die Musik, vol. 16, 1924[13]
Bibliography
- Arturo Toscanini (edited by Selden-Goth)[10]
- Felix Mendelssohn: Letters (edited by Selden-Goth)[14]
- Ferruccio Busoni: Der Versuch eines Porträts [Ferruccio Busoni: An Attempt at a Portrait][15]
- Quattro Brevi Studi per la Mano Sinistra, Four Short Studies for the Left Hand (c.1958) Israeli Music Publications Ltd., Tel Aviv 1958
Selected music works
Chamber music
Piano
Vocal music
- Vom mönchischen Leben [Of Monastic Life], Op. 44, song cycle (text from The Book of Hours by Rainer Maria Rilke)[16]
- Cantata[4]
- Songs[4]
- The Pilgrim (baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra)[4]
