Marcel Tyberg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marcel Tyberg (b. January 27, 1893 in Vienna, Austria; d. 1944) also known as Till Bergmar, was an accomplished composer, conductor and pianist. Notable conductors such as Rafael Kubelik and Rodolfo Lipizer premiered his pieces at venues in Prague and Italy. His eclectic composition style allowed him to compose popular dance music as well as enormous symphonies on the scale of Mahler. Unfortunately, due to the conditions of World War II, Tyberg, only 1/16 Jewish, was sent to his death and his musical career prematurely extinguished. For this reason, basic details about his life are still unknown.

In the Summer of 2005, Marcel Tyberg’s oeuvre, once remembered only in the hearts and minds of friends, emerged from Enrico Mihich’s Buffalo basement to be reintroduced to the musical community. Thus far, the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies, in conjunction with Dr. Mihich and JoAnn Falletta of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, has funded a performance of three lieder, two piano sonatas, and the copying of his Trio, Sextet and Third Symphony. These recent efforts make Marcel Tyberg the most recent rediscovered composer whose life and career was cut short by World War II.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Friends described him as a brilliant musician with an “all-embracing musical knowledge.” His unique appearance made him easily recognizable in his home of Abbazia. His “large dark eyes radiated gentleness and childlike joy.” They gave life to his whole face and filled it with a “clear dreamy gravity.” “He greatly resembled Beethoven, especially in his mouth and chin,” let alone within his musical creations. He was a “strange spiritual man” who seemed to “walk a step further on this earth than was granted to most humans.”

Tyberg was born in Vienna, Austria. His farther, Marcell Tyberg (Sr.), born in Oswiecim, Poland , was a prominent violinist. His mother, Wanda Paltinger Tybergova, was a pianist and colleague of Arthur Schnabel in the Leschetisky school. Because Tyberg was a well-known violinist in Vienna, Jan Kubelik, the famous violinist and musical patriarch, and his family became close to the Tybergs. Over the years, he became close to the Kubelik daughters and even composed many lieder to their dedication. Although twenty years stood between Tyberg and Rafael Kubelik, theirs was a friendship that would last to Tyberg’s death and beyond.

As of yet, little is known of his education and musical training. It is assumed not only that Tyberg received a musical education from his parents, but he also had formal training in the art of orchestration, counterpoint and harmony based on review of his works. His residence in Vienna and future friendship with violinist, conductor, and composition student Rodolfo Lipizner at the Vienna Musical Academy of State suggests that Tyberg was a colleague at the Academy, however no evidence has surfaced leaving us to believe he was privately tutored.

[edit] Move to Italy

In 1916, while Europe was in the midst of the “War to end all Wars,” the Tybergs moved from the crumbling Austrian Empire to a little resort town in, what was then Italy named Abbazia. It was only after this move and time of turmoil that Tyberg composed his "First Piano Sonata" (1920) and First Symphony (1924). Evidence found in his diaries suggests that he was extremely anti-war, possibly stemming from his parent’s liberal upraising. This may have been the reason for leaving the cultural center of Vienna.

In 1927, the Abbazia Symphony Orchestra appointed Lipizner as permanent conductor. Tyberg and his father and Jan Kubelik were later listed as two of the young conductor’s preferred soloists; perhaps in the case of the younger Tyberg, a section member. Upon the founding of the Gorizia Symphony Orchestra in 1930, Lipizer not only continued to invite Tyberg Jr. and Kubelik to perform as soloists, but also handed the baton of the Abbazia Symphony Orchestra over to Tyberg.

In 1927 , Marcell Tyberg Sr. died in Fiume, or modern day Rijeka, a major sea port near Abbazia. After the death of his father, Tyberg and his mother remained in their villa on the Adriatic Sea. As an article by friend Marion Schiffler explains, for the remainder of his life Tyberg “hung on his mother with the greatest love and reverence. She was described by all as an unusually generous gentle woman.” In Abbazia, with the help of his mother’s love and impeccable copying abilities, Marcel completed his "Scherzo and Finale" for Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony (1928), Second Symphony (1931), "Sextet" (1932), "First Mass" (1934), "Second Piano Sonata" (1935), "Trio" (1936), "Second Mass" (1941) and Third Symphony (1943).

For a living, Tyberg played the organ in local churches, taught harmony to young students, composed dance music under the pseudonym Till Bergmar (rumbas, tangos, slow waltzes, etc.) and performed his music with his inherited orchestra. To supplement the expenses, his mother, a well-known pianist whose playing was “especially moving,” taught piano and gave local concerts. Toward the end of his life, Schiffler wrote that Tyberg contentedly lived in “indescribable poverty and supported himself and his mother only through lessons.”

Schiffler praised his improvisations and compositions as “simply perfect.” His unique improvisatory ensemble of piano and voice evoked the sound of a commanding solo orchestra. When begged to publish his compositions he would always demur. According to Schiffler he had refused several offers. He did not thirst for fame nor earthly possessions. Satisfied with the little he owned he lived happily unknown. However, he was not entirely secluded from the outside world. As mentioned above, he sporadically performed as a soloist with the Gorizia Symphony Orchestra, performed his dance compositions with a small orchestra, conducted his Masses and Chamber works with the Abbazia Symphony Orchestra, and even called on his childhood friend Rafael Kubelik to premier his Second Symphony with the Czech Philharmonic sometime in the 1930s.

[edit] World War II

On July 25, 1943, Tyberg revealed his unrestrained piety in a performance of his Te Deum used to consecrate the enlarged Abbazian church. This historic date for Italy, on which the Italian Grand Council captured and dismissed Benito Mussolini as premier of Italy, occurred only weeks before Italy’s surrender to the Allies, an act that would seal Tyberg and his mother’s fate.

In anticipation of the Italian surrender, the Germans reorganized their military command in southeast Europe early in the summer of 1943 so that it would be ready to take over the Italian-held areas and defend them in the event of a Western Allied invasion. After moving many troops into the formerly Italian controlled lands on the north/north-west Adriatic Coast and Croatia, on September 7, 1943 Hitler issued Order No. 26, Improvement in the Defensive Power of Croatia. Its main objective was to bring about closer collaboration between the German, Italian and Croatian armed forces. In addition, Berlin assigned each German corps and divisional command a special Croatian delegate for civil affairs, whose German influence was necessary for the protection of military interests. Therefore, the Croatian and Italian governments enforced all Nazi laws pertaining to Jews in the Italian, Croatian and German controlled territories. One such Italian controlled territory was Abbazia (today Opatija). Eleven days later, Marcel completed his finale work, the Third Symphony. His mother died shortly before this completion.

“For Tyberg,” wrote Schiffler, “the death of his mother was a wound which never closed.” He now gave those who encountered him the impression of “a man who is not far from the end of his journey on earth and who, unknown perhaps to himself and us, has already raised his glance to that great unknowable which involuntarily frightens us.” On the back of the Third Symphony’s manuscript, Tyberg stated that he completed the work with tremendous difficulty and grief. Because he was creatively and emotionally exhausted, this work marked his compositional mortality.

On September 14th, 1943 the German government took control of Abbazia and was then privileged to the special censuses of Jews taken by the Constabulary of Fiume at Abbazia and Laurana. During such a census in 1939, Tyberg and his mother declared that they were religiously Catholic but, because Mrs. Tyberg's great-grandfather was Jewish, racially Jewish. Therefore, the Italian fascists basically handed over Marcel's death warrant to the German government in 1943 with the exchange of intelligence.

Knowing this, and in anticipation of his capture and possible deportation, Tyberg entrusted all compositions and personal writings to his friend Dr. Milan Mihich. In addition, he gave Dr. Mihich a document authorizing him to take any action deemed desirable to preserve his music. Only a few days before the Gestapo would take Tyberg in a night raid, he shared some of his compositions with his friends on the organ in the church of Volosca. Schiffler recalls:

Shuddering and shivering, we listened to the uninterrupted flow of sounds that ranged from cheerful pastoral tunes to the greatest Beethoven-like outbursts. His face shone transfigured and happily smiling out of the dimness. There was a childlike joy and tenderness in him that is only seen in great souls shortly before their return home. The tears ran down my cheeks. We all had the feeling that he will not be with us much longer. Perhaps he felt it himself, too; he hardly knew any more where he was and who we were. It seemed as if he had to fulfill some final task – to play for his friends – and then to part and never return. As he ended, we silently embraced the completely exhausted artist and only hesitantly did words of thanks pass across our lips. It was as if our thanks could wipe out this, his last gift. We shook his hand, one after the other. I was not able to utter a word. He, however, smiled, friendly and ingenuous, as if he wanted once more to let us take part in his unknown greatness. In that dark old church he stood like a saint in our midst – a strange ray of light – the first moonlight – fell at this moment through the high arched window on his quiet face.

Several months passed before rumors began to circulate of Tyberg’s suicide. They were, it seems, erroneous. Only recently has it been discovered that he was indeed sent to the extermination camps San Sabba and Auschwitz. His recorded date of death is December 31, 1944.

[edit] Legacy

In 1945, following the end of the War and the occupation of Fiume by the Communist Yugoslavians, Dr. Milan Mihich and his family fled Fiume to Milan. With him, he took only precious family possessions, including the entirety of Tyberg’s catalogue. In 1948, Dr. Mihich died and the music and related responsibilities were left to his son, and Tyberg’s former harmony student, Enrico Mihich, then a medical student at the University of Milan. Dr. Enrico Mihich later came to Buffalo and became a member of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Dr. Mihich to this day keeps Tyberg’s music safely secured in his home in Buffalo.

After nearly fifty years of ineffective attempts to have Buffalo Philharmonic conductors premiere the treasure trove of works and an aborted collaboration with Rafael Kubelik in the late 1980s, Mihich finally found the partner he sought in conductor JoAnn Falletta. In order to obtain the funds required to print the rough, hand written manuscripts for performance, Dr. Mihich and the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies in Buffalo, New York organized the Tyberg Musical Legacy fund.

Because of his persistence and respect for his former teacher, efforts are now underway to perform this forgotten oeuvre and reawaken the spirit of Tyberg so that all may be exposed to “great and immortal works” composed by a man “endowed by heaven.”

[edit] Works

  • "First Piano Sonata" 1914-1920
  • First Symphony
  • Scherzo and Finale for Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony 1927-1928
  • Second Symphony
  • '"Sextet 2 violin, 2 viola, cello, contrabass" 1931-1932
  • "First Mass Soprano, Contralto, Tenor, Basso and organ" 1933-1934
  • '"Second Piano Sonata" 1934-1935
  • "Trio Piano, violin and cello" 1935-1936
  • "Second Mass Soprano, Contralto, Tenor, Basso and organ" 1941
  • Third Symphony

[edit] Lieder

  • 21 Lieder on Heine’s lyric "Intermezzo"
  • 1 Lieder “Rache” on words by Poridzky
  • 5 Lieder on words by Daisy von Adelsfeld-Salghetti
  • 1 "Ave Maria"
  • 6 Lieder “Austrian” for small orchestra - 3 of them transcribed out of the Heine cycle
  • 4 Lieder in English on words by Moore and others
  • 4 Lieder without words

[edit] References

  1. Ballarini, Almeto and Sobolevski, Mihael. Le vittime di nazionalita italiana a Fiume e dintorni (1939-1947). Ministero per I beni e le attivita culturali. 2002
  2. Mihich, Enrico. "Marcel Tyberg". Unpublished Article 2005
  3. Schiffler, Marion. Tyberg Ein Musik Portrait, Der Standpunkt. January 30, 1948. Trans. Winters, Herbert. December 2005.
  4. Tomasevich, Jozo. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945. Standford University Press. 2001
  5. Rudolfo Lipizner. http://www.seta.it/lipizer/en/lipizer_bio.htm.