Max Spicker

Background

Max was born on August 16, 1858 in Konigsberg, Germany(now Kaliningrad, Russia), the son of Alexander Spicker and his wife, Doris.

Education

He received his first musical instruction from Robert Schwalm and Louis Kohler. His parents were anxious that he become a physician, but the boy insisted on entering the Royal Conservatory at Leipzig, where, from 1877 to 1879. He studied piano with Karl Reinecke and Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel, and theory with Solomon Jadassohn. He also attended Oscar Paul's lectures on the history and esthetics of music.

Career

On completing his studies he was engaged for a concert tour of Germany and Russia with the violin virtuoso, Miska Hauser. Following this engagement, he started his career as a conductor, and on October 2, 1879, directed the performance of Beethoven's music to Goethe's Egmont at the Stadt-Theatre of Heidelberg.

Subsequently he appeared as conductor in the opera houses of Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Kiel, and at the royal theatres in Ghent, Belgium, and in Potsdam. His health, however, was not equal to the strenuous demands of the opera house, and, when he learned that the directorate of the New York Beethoven-Monnerchor was vacant, he applied for the post and received the appointment over 161 rivals. Possibly the enthusiastic recommendation of Anton Rubinstein helped to win him the position. He came to New York in 1882 and acted as conductor of the Beethoven-Monnerchor until 1888, conducting the silver jubilee concerts in 1884.

From 1895 to 1907 he was head of the theory department at the National Conservatory of Music in New York, and from May 1898 until 1910 he was music director of the Temple Emanu-El. He was also connected as a reader and editor with the G. Schirmer publishing company.

Spicker's published compositions include his incidental music to Schiller-Laube's Demetrius; Suite Moderne, for orchestra; an arrangement for men's chorus and orchestra of the first finale from Wagner's Rienzi; The Pilot, for men's chorus and orchestra; a Festival-Overture; and many songs and shorter choral works.

He died in 1912.

Achievements

• Max Spicker was sucessful director of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and shared the conductorship of the Brighton Beach orchestra concerts with Anton Seidl. While he was at the Brooklyn Conservatory he also conducted each winter a series of symphony concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, featuring such artists as Rafael Joseffy, Arthur Friedheim, and Lilli Lehmann. His work in Jewish liturgical music was also noteworty.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Songs of the British Isles: A Collection of Forty Popular English, Irish; Scotch and Welsh Songs, With Piano Accompaniment, Compiled MD Edited (Classic Reprint)

    (. (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and...)

  • Operatic Anthology: Celebrated Arias Selected From Operas by Old and Modern Composers; Vol. I, Soprano; Vol. II, Alto; Vol. III, Tenor; Vol. IV, Baritone; Vol. V, Bass (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Operatic Anthology: Celebrated Arias Selecte...)

  • Operatic Anthology, Celebrated Arias Selected from Operas, Volume II, Edited by Max Spicker

    (Great collection of opera arias for Mezzo-Soprano or Alto...)

  • Anthology of Modern French Song for Low Voice (Collection of 39 Songs with Piano Accompaniment, Lyrics in French and English)

    (Piano acccompaniment. By modern french composers. Collect...)

  • Anthology Of Sacred Song - Celebrated Arias Selected From Oratorios By Old And Modern Composers (Volume 4: BASS)

    ((Vocal Collection). Contents: Bach: Mighty Lord and King ...)

Membership

He was a member of the New York Musician's Club and an honorary member of the Society of American Cantors.

Personality

Spicker was a man of simple tastes, sincere and unaffected.

Quotes from others about the person

• An estimate of his place in American music was attempted by A. W. Kramer in an obituary article in Musical America, October 26, 1912: in all the many capacities in which he served a musical public " Spicker won the approval of musicians and music-lovers throughout the length and breadth of the land his compositions are not epoch-making in any sense, nor were they intended to be, but they show and show very conclusively that their creator was a musician of high rank, a man of culture and of deep and scholarly make-up. "

Connections

In 1899 he was married to Isabel Sternthal, who, with a son, survived him.

Father:

Alexander Spicker

Mother:

Doris Spicker

Spouse:

Isabel Sternthal

Partner:

Miska Hauser

teacher:

Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel

teacher:

Karl Reinecke