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The traditions of folk-music in Vienna provided a fertile ground for great Viennese composers such as Franz Schubert, for Johann Strauss and his sons, Josef Lanner, and not least for Alois Strohmayer and the Schrammel brothers. The city has long been famous for its music, noted in 1773 by the English scholar Dr. Burney, who reported that even the stone angels sang, and continuing through the changing circumstances of the times. In the many beer-gardens and taverns at the so-called Heurigen, when new wine is drunk, singers and musicians performed, among them Kaspar Schrammel, a clarinettist, and his wife Aloisia, a folk-singer, the parents of the famous Schrammel brothers.
The Schrammel
brothers Johann (1850 - 1893) and Josef (1852 - 1895) were born in Vienna
and grew up in the tradition of Viennese folk-music. The musical gifts acquired from their
father Kaspar were developed through lessons at the Vienna Conservatory with the director,
the violinist Joseph Hellmesberger (1828 - 1893). Thereafter the brothers went
their separate ways, Johann as an orchestral player and Josef as a folk-musician, but in
1878 they established a trio with the guitarist Draskovits, replaced the following
year by the best guitarist of the time, Anton Strohmayer (1848 -1937), a son of the
composer Alois Strohmayer. The trio took the name D'Nussdorfer after the
well known wine village Nussdorf, near Vienna, where they performed. Their combination of
perfect technique with musicianship rooted in folk tradition quickly won them an
extraordinary following. The family name of the Schrammel brothers became synonymous with
the stylistic excellence of performance of Viennese music.
In 1884 the eminent folk-clarinettist Georg Dänzer (1848 - 1890) joined the trio and this was the beginning of the Schrammelquartett, which worked together for only six years, establishing a world-wide reputation and giving this form of Viennese music its own name, Schrammelmusik. In this specific kind of chamber music the classical music meets the folk-music from Old Vienna.
The composition of
the quartet, with two violins, high clarinet and bass guitar, was not unusual in popular
Viennese music of the time, stemming from the tradition of the itinerant musicians, the
so-called Linzer Geiger, adopted by the Schrammel brothers and Alois Strohmayer. Unique,
however, was the application to folk-music of a high level of technical and compositional
skill, through which the Schrammels drew the particular attention of high society. Crown
Prince Rudolf was one of their most important supporters and contact with leading
artists of the time, such as Johannes
Brahms, Johann Strauss and Hans Makart, was reflected in their
music.
Johann Strauss described the work of the Schrammel brothers as characteristic of the peculiar poetry of Viennese folk-music, while Hans Richter, at the height of his fame as conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, could recommend to his players nothing better than the Schrammels, whose concerts Brahms too attended with enthusiasm.
The special musical quality of the compositions of the Schrammel brothers lies in its clever treatment of polyphony. The G clarinet plays either a characteristically interwoven part or a musical line parallel to the first violin, ensuring, through the careful interlacing of characteristic figures and trills, the particular qualities of the music, its cheerfuiness and boldness. The second violin accompanies or plays a counter-theme to the first violin or clarinet, and the bass guitar, a 13-string instrument with two necks, provides the harmonic and rhythmic foundation. This instrumentation, the combination of a G clarinet with strings, gives the music its special quality.
The countless
compositions of the Schrammel brothers for their own quartet were soon known throughout
Europe, dances, marches, waltzes, polkas and songs that are comparable to the music of the
Strauss brothers. Unfortunately many of them have only survived in arrangements. The
surviving manuscripts of the Schrammel brothers were discovered in 1963 by Professor Lois
Böck of Vienna. The Schrammel brothers also were famous for their interpretation of
the music of Joseph Lanner and the Strauss family. The Vienna Thalia Quartet
continues this tradition and performs many of these popular pieces such as the Blue Danube
Waltz, the Radetzky March and so on.
Alois Strohmayer was born in Vienna-Lichtenthal in 1822 and began writing music at the age of seventeen. At first he wrote little pieces for solo violin, turning soon to folk-music and the formation of various folk-music ensembles with well known musicians, among others Georg Dänzer and the Schrammel brothers, before the Schrammel Ouartet was established. In 1845 Strohmayer married and of his two sons, Karl and Anton, the latter became the guitarist of the Schrammel Ouartet. His compositions include waltzes, polkas, dances and marches and show the strong influence of Johann Strauss the elder and Josef Lanner, and also of Schubert, a fellow-student of his father Martin Strohmayer. Like the Schrammel brothers, he wrote principally for an ensemble of two violins, bass guitar and a woodwind instrument, flute or clarinet. His works some 200 compositions in the original manuscript, were first re-discovered by Professor Lois Böck in 1971 and are an important part of the repertoire of the Vienna Thalia Quartet.