Eusebius Mandyczewski

Family and friends

Eusebius Mandyczewski was born in the village of Molodiya (then Austria-Hungary; now Ukraine, Hlyboka Raion) on 18 August 1857. His father was a priest and his mother, Veronica, born Popovici, was the sister of Eusebiu Popovici, erudite professor of History at the University of Cernauti and the father of the Bucovinian poet Gheorghe Popovici (known under the pen name of T. Robeanu). His origin according to the father has Slavic affiliations; according to his mother the origin is Romanian. Eusebius had two brothers (Georgiy and Prof.Kostiantyn) and one sister (Kateryna). Kostiantyn was a secondary school teacher, member of the regional School Council and later Head of the Chernivtsi Library. Kateryna Mandychevs'ka was a school teacher. Georgiy was also a composer of choral music.

He finished his secondary studies at the upper school of Chernivtsi and simultaneously studied music under Sydir Vorobkevych. He began studies at the University of Chernivtsi, then moved to the Vienna Conservatory in 1875 and studied music history under Eduard Hanslick, music theory under Martin Gustav Nottebohm and Robert Fuchs. Beginning in 1879, he became a close and lifelong friend of Johannes Brahms and a prominent member of the 'Brahms circle' (who aided Brahms in teaching Gustav Jenner). Johannes Brahms supported the young composer and appointed him as curator of his estate.

In 1901, he married Albine von Vest, a Lieder singer and singing teacher.

Career

From 1879 to 1881, Mandyczewski was the conductor of the Vienna Singakademie. From 1887 to 1929, he was the archivist and librarian of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. In 1892 he became director of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde orchestra.

The decade 1887–97 saw the appearance of Mandyczewski’s work on the Schubert Gesamtausgabe. His name is particularly associated with the ten volumes of songs, which he edited meticulously, sometimes printing as many as three or four variants of individual songs; in recognition of his editorship he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Leipzig in 1897. A gifted philologist as well as musician, he was widely respected both for his scholarship and for his generosity to inquiring scholars; Grove was indebted to him for his help in the writing of his book on Beethoven’s symphonies. Mandyczewski also brought out a second volume of Nottebohm’s Beethoveniana, a series of pioneering essays in Beethoven scholarship that had been partly published in series in the Musikalisches Wochenblatt and partly left in manuscript.

In 1897 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Leipzig. Later, in 1897, he began teaching at the Vienna Conservatory as Professor of Music History and Musical Instruments. In 1916 he was made a Privy Councillor.

Mandyczewski edited the complete edition of Franz Schubert's works, began a complete edition of Joseph Haydn's and, together with his pupil Hans Gál, edited Brahms's complete works.

For many years in the early part of the century he was the Viennese correspondent to the Musical Times. He was joint editor of the Brahms Gesamtausgabe with Hans Gál, and organized the Schubert exhibition of 1922 and the International Schubert Congress (1928); this last function greatly overtaxed his strength, and he died before the proceedings of the congress were published.

Mandyczewski composed music to the words of poets such as Taras Shevchenko, Yurii Fedkovych, Vasile Alecsandri, Mihai Eminescu, Heinrich Heine. He arranged compositions based on many Ukrainian, Romanian, German, and Hungarian folk songs.

Mandyczewski died in Sulz near Vienna, Austria on 13 August 1929.

Writings

Editions