Marcel H.S. Sulzberger

Biography

Composer Marcel H.S. Sulzberger was born in Frankfurt am Main to Swiss parents. Sulzberger invented many fantastic fabrications about his background, however it is clear that he began musical study at the Zurich Conservatory around 1900. Sulzberger later relocated to Paris, where he had contact with Claude Debussy and Charles-Marie Widor and may have studied with them. In 1910, Sulzberger decided to devote himself to philosophy, but afterward continued to work very actively in music, composing, playing concert engagements as a pianist, and writing music criticism. Sulzberger returned to Zurich from Paris just prior to World War I. He was no doubt surprised to see the city blossom into the cultural hub of Europe during the war. In 1915, Sulzberger met Ferruccio Busoni, an event that would have a crucial impact on all of his future endeavors in music. Sulzberger also served as the house pianist at many of the Dadaist functions held by Hugo Ball and Tristan Tzara in this period, although it is difficult to detect any openly Dada-related works among his list of extant compositions. After the war, Sulzberger remained in Zurich, but his music never caught on as the Swiss public simply didn't have an appetite for Sulzberger's uncompromising and avant garde style of composition. He did gain some attention as a pianist and participated in the European continent-wide observances of the 50th anniversary of Franz Liszt's death. Sulzberger was a profound Lisztian who also created his own editions of some of Liszt's piano works. Sulzberger's music was avant garde from practically the start of his career as a composer, and he achieved his first fully tonally decentralized composition by 1907, a year before Arnold Schoenberg is said to have "discovered atonality." His music, all unpublished and in manuscript, is at the Zentralbibliothek in Zurich. In terms of large concert works, Sulzberger has only one orchestral piece, an Elegie (1904), and a Ballade fantasque for piano and orchestra (1905). But Sulzberger did create a significant amount of chamber music, piano pieces, songs, and choral works that stretch from the turn of the century up to about 1937. Sulzberger stands -- like Charles Ives, Roslavets, and Fanelli -- as a figure outside the mainstream of the avant garde, yet who found his way there in any event, and earlier than most others. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis , Rovi