Leopold Godowsky (Leopold Godowski) (February 13, 1870 – November 21, 1938), was a famed
PolishPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
-
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pianist, composer, and teacher. He has been described as "a pianist for pianists".
Life
Godowsky was born to
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish parents in
Żośle Žasliai is a small town in Kaunas County in central Lithuania. As of 2001 it had a population of 818.-References:*This article was initially translated from Lithuanian wikipedia...
, near
WilnoVilnius Vilnius Vilnius as of 2008. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the...
, in what was then
RussiaThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
n territory but is now part of
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
. He considered himself of Polish heritage. He became a naturalised
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He is therefore now considered to be "Polish-American."
As a child, he received some lessons in basic piano playing and music theory; at age fourteen, he entered the
Königliche Hochschule für Musik in BerlinThe Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK is a German university founded in 1975 with the merger of the Berlin State School of Fine Arts and the Berlin State School of Music and the Performing Arts. Its root institutions date back to the founding of the Akademie der Künste in 1696...
, where he studied under
Ernst RudorffErnst Friedrich Karl Rudorff was a German composer and music teacher.Born in Berlin, Rudorff studied piano under Woldemar Bargiel from 1852 to 1857, before enrolling at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1859, where he studied under Ignaz Moscheles, Louis Plaidy, and Julius Rietz. He was also a private...
, but left after three months. Otherwise, he was self-taught.
His career as a concert pianist, which eventually took him to every inhabited continent except
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, began at age ten. In 1886, after a tour of North America, he returned to Europe, intending to study with
Franz LisztFranz Liszt was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher....
in
WeimarWeimar is a city in Germany mostly known for its cultural heritage. It is located in the Bundesland of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
. Upon learning of Liszt's death shortly after his return, he traveled instead to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he was befriended by the composer and pianist
Camille Saint-SaënsCharles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, organist, conductor, and pianist, known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre, Samson and Delilah, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, and his Symphony No...
, who enabled him to make the acquaintance of many leading French musicians. Saint-Saëns even proposed to adopt Godowsky if he would take his surname, an offer which Godowsky declined, much to the older man's displeasure.
Godowsky's technique was such that
Arthur RubinsteinArthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-born American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers, and is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century.-Early life:Arthur Rubinstein was born on January 28, 1887, the...
wrote, "It would take me 500 years to get a mechanism like Godowsky's." However, like
Adolf von HenseltAdolf von Henselt , German composer and pianist, was born at Schwabach, in Bavaria.-Life:At the age of three he began to learn the violin, and at five the piano under Frau von Fladt...
, Godowsky was a virtuoso technician plagued by stage fright. Though he didn't avoid the concert platform altogether as Henselt had later done, it was acknowledged that Godowsky's best work was not in public or in the recording studio, but at home. After leaving Godowsky's home one night,
Józef HofmannJózef Kazimierz Hofmann was a Polish-American virtuoso pianist and composer. Many connoisseurs consider him one of the greatest pianists of all time.-Biography:...
told
Abram ChasinsAbram Chasins was an American composer and pianist.Born in New York, he studied at the Juilliard School of Music, Columbia University and Curtis Institute of Music, under teachers including Ernest Hutcheson, Rubin Goldmark and Józef Hofmann.Chasins' career as a pianist lasted from 1927 until 1947...
, "Never forget what you heard tonight; never lose the memory of that sound. There is nothing like it in the world. It is tragic that the world has never heard Popsy as only he can play."
Godowsky's pedagogical activity began in 1890 at the New York College of Music. While in
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
, he married Frieda Saxe and the next day became an American citizen. In 1894 he moved to the Broad Street Conservatory in Philadelphia, and again in 1895 to the Chicago Conservatory, where he headed the piano department.
Jan SmeterlinJan Smeterlin was a Polish concert pianist. He is especially known as an interpreter of Chopin and Karol Szymanowski.-Life:...
,
Issay DobrowenIssay Alexandrovich Dobrowen was a Russian-Norwegian pianist, composer and conductor.He was born Itschok Zorachovitch Barabeitchik in Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire. He left the Soviet Union in 1923, and became a Norwegian citizen in 1929.He once played Beethoven's Sonata Appassionata to...
and
Heinrich NeuhausHeinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus was a Soviet pianist and pedagogue of German extraction. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1922 to 1964. He was made a People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1956...
were among Godowsky's prominent students.
A successful European concert tour in 1900 landed him once again in Berlin, where he divided his time between performing and teaching. From 1909 to 1914 he taught master classes at the Vienna Academy of Music. The outbreak of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
drove him back to New York, where his home was frequented by many distinguished performers and celebrities of that day.
Sergei RachmaninoffSergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, the last great representative of Russian late Romanticism in classical music...
, a particular friend, dedicated his
Polka de W. R.Franz Behr was a prolific, but minor, and now almost forgotten, German composer of songs and salon pieces for piano.He was popular at one time, and many of his works were published . His works include names such as The Camp of the Gypsies, Will o’ the wisp, Valse des Elfes Franz Behr (1837–1898)...
to him.
He recorded many rolls for the
Duo-ArtDuo-Art was one of the leading reproducing piano technologies of the early 20th century, the others being American Piano Company introduced in 1913 too and Welte-Mignon in 1905...
reproducing pianoA player piano is a self-playing piano, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed music perforated paper, or in rare instances, metallic rolls...
s in the 1920s, the only reproducing piano mechanism which was available in concert grand Steinways. Godowsky also recorded a large number of piano rolls for the American Piano Company.
Godowsky was also a close friend of
Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
. There are various humorous anecdotes about his relationship with Einstein. In 1902, he was initiated as an honorary member of
Phi Mu Alpha SinfoniaPhi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is an American collegiate social fraternity for men who wish to devote themselves to the advancement of music in America and who wish to associate with others who share that interest...
, the national fraternity for men in music, at the Combs College of Music in Philadelphia.
After the war, Godowsky resumed touring, but a stroke he suffered on June 17, 1930, during a recording session in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, put an end to his public performances, and made it impossible for him to recoup the considerable financial loss he had suffered in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The only surviving recording from that historic session, unfortunately in very poor sound, is a rendition of the
Scherzo No. 4, Op. 54Frédéric Chopin composed his Scherzo No.4 in E major, Op. 54, the 4th and the last of his scherzos, in 1842.The scherzo was published in 1843. Unlike the preceding three scherzi , the E-major is generally calmer in temperament. It is in sonata rondo form. This ethereal composition is bathed in...
by
ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He was one of the great masters of Romantic music....
, which can be found in a 3-CD set devoted to Godowsky issued by Marston Records.
Family and final years
The suicide of his younger son in 1932 and the death of his wife in 1933, combined with his despair over the deteriorating political situation in Europe (his plans for a "World Synod of Music and Musicians" and an "International Master Institute of Music" came to nothing), cast an even deeper shadow over his last years, and he stopped composing. He died of stomach cancer in New York on November 21, 1938.
He was survived by his son
Leopold Godowsky, Jr.Leopold Godowsky, Jr. was an American violinist and chemist, who together with Leopold Mannes created the first practical color transparency film, Kodachrome.-Beginning:...
, the co-inventor (with
Leopold MannesLeopold Damrosch Mannes was a Jewish-American musician, born in New York City, who, together with Leopold Godowsky, Jr., created the first practical color transparency film, Kodachrome....
) of color photography, as well as a violinist. Leopold Jr. married
George GershwinGeorge Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are universally familiar....
's younger sister,
FrancesFrances "Frankie" Gershwin , was the younger sister of George, Ira and Arthur Gershwin. She was the first of the Gershwin family to perform as a child, and she brought home a good sum of money for the time.She married Leopold Godowsky, Jr. co-inventor of Kodachrome color photography...
, thus continuing the musical line.
He was also survived by his daughter, the actress
Dagmar GodowskyDagmar Godowsky was an American silent film actress born to Polish Jewish parents in Vilna, Lithuania. She was the daughter of the notable pianist and composer Leopold Godowsky.-Silent film actress:...
(1896-1975), who during the 1920s appeared as a co-lead in various Hollywood silent movies, including with
Rudolph ValentinoRudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, sex symbol, and early pop icon. Known as the "Latin Lover", he was one of the most popular stars of the 1920s, and one of the most recognized stars from the silent film era. He is best known for his work in The Sheik and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse...
. She was a popular socialite, and wrote a humorous autobiography
First Person Plural (New York 1958).
Compositions
As a composer, Godowsky has been best known for his paraphrases of piano pieces by other composers, which he enhanced with ingenious contrapuntal devices and rich chromatic harmonies. His most famous work in this genre are the
53 Studies on Chopin's ÉtudesThe Studies on Chopin's Études, by Leopold Godowsky, is a set of 53 arrangements of Chopin's études. . They are renowned for their technical difficulty: critic Harold C...
, in which he varies the already challenging original
étudeAn étude , is an instrumental musical composition, most commonly of considerable difficulty, usually designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular technical skill. The tradition of writing etudes emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popularity of the piano...
s by: introducing countermelodies; transferring the technically difficult passages from the right hand to the left; transcribing the entire étude for left hand solo; or interweaving two études, with the left hand playing one and the right hand the other (as impossible as this seems). These are so taxing, even for virtuosi, that only three pianists have ventured to record the entire set:
Geoffrey Douglas MadgeGeoffrey Douglas Madge is an Australian classical pianist.Madge often performs long and arduous works. He has twice recorded Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum, one of the longest and most difficult works ever written for the piano...
, Carlo Grante and
Marc-André HamelinMarc-André Hamelin, OC, CQ, is a French Canadian pianist and composer.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Marc-André Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five and was nine years old when he won the top prize in a Canadian music competition...
. Italian pianist Francesco Libetta has performed the complete études in concert and is to make a video recording of the set.
Godowsky also transcribed for the piano two sonatas and one partita for solo
violinThe violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
, and three suites for solo
celloThe cello is a bowed string instrument. The word derives from the Italian violoncello. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra...
by
Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organist whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, while highly embellishing them by the addition of complementary voices in contrapuntal manner. These have been recorded by Carlo Grante and
Konstantin ScherbakovKonstantin Scherbakov is a Russian pianist. He was the winner of the first Rachmaninov Competition in 1983...
.
The Piano Sonata in E minor, the
PassacagliaA passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. Its character is usually grave and it is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple-meter....
, and
TriakontameronThe Triakontameron is a suite of 30 pieces for piano composed in 1920 by Leopold Godowsky; each was written in a single day, and all are written in three-quarter time. The title was inspired by that of Boccaccio's Decameron. Among the best-known excerpts of the suite are Alt Wien, Nocturnal...
are some works of Godowsky that have become more well-known of recent times. The Passacaglia is based on a theme from
Franz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's
Unfinished SymphonyFranz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, commonly known as the Unfinished , was started in 1822 but left with only two movements known to be complete, even though Schubert would live for another six years. A scherzo, nearly completed in piano score but with only two pages orchestrated, also...
and has acquired a reputation for extreme difficulty. (
Vladimir HorowitzVladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was an Russian-American classical pianist and minor composer. His technique, use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were and remain legendary...
famously gave up on it, stating that it would require not two but six hands to perform. However, Horowitz was not a fan of Godowsky's work in general, and the reality is that there are more technically challenging works in the concert repertoire.) The Passacaglia has been recorded by Carlo Grante, Marc-André Hamelin (twice), Rian de Waal, Ian Hobson,
Antti SiiralaAntti Siirala is a Finnish pianist.Siirala is well known for his successes at the British scene, having won the 2000 London Competition and, most notably, the 2003 Leeds Competition. He had graduated at the Sibelius Academy soon before...
, David Stanhope and Konstantin Scherbakov, among others.
External links
Recordings