Erwin Schulhoff
A brilliant, genre-defying composer whose vibrant music was silenced by the Nazis, only to be rediscovered decades later.
1894–1942 (age 48)·Czech composer and pianist·Birthday: June 8·The Lost Generation
Biography
Erwin Schulhoff’s story is one of dazzling talent and tragic interruption. A piano prodigy encouraged by Dvořák, he dove headlong into the avant-garde ferment of 1920s Europe. His music was a thrilling, restless synthesis—infusing classical forms with jazz rhythms, Dadaist irony, and raw expressionist power. He composed everything from fiery concertos to a ballet for typewriters and sirens. A communist sympathizer, he saw his works banned as 'degenerate' after the Nazi rise to power. Stuck in Czechoslovakia, his applications for Soviet citizenship delayed, he was arrested after the German invasion. Deported to the Wülzburg concentration camp in Bavaria, he died of tuberculosis in 1942, a forgotten man. His rich catalogue, spanning neoclassicism to early atonality, lay dormant until the late 20th century, when musicians finally began to uncover the lost voice of a major modernist.
The Lost Generation
1883–1900
Came of age during World War I. Disillusioned by the carnage, they rejected the certainties of the Victorian era and built modernism from the wreckage — in art, literature, and politics.
Erwin was born in 1894, placing them squarely in The Lost Generation. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Erwin Was Born
The biggest hits of 1894
Erwin's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1894Born
President: Grover Cleveland
1899Started school
President: William McKinley
1907Became a teenager
Financial panic grips Wall Street
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1910Could drive
Halley's Comet makes its closest approach
President: William Howard Taft
1912Could vote
Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage
President: William Howard Taft
1915Turned 21
The Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat
President: Woodrow Wilson
1924Turned 30
First Winter Olympics held in Chamonix, France
President: Calvin Coolidge"It Had to Be You" — Isham Jones
1934Turned 40
Gas: $0.19/galPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Stars Fell on Alabama" — Jack TeagardenBest Picture: It Happened One Night
1942Died at 48
Battle of Midway turns the tide in the Pacific
Gas: $0.20/galHome: $3,175Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"White Christmas" — Bing CrosbyBest Picture: Mrs. Miniver
Key Achievements
- Composed a vast and varied catalogue including symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and jazz-inspired works.
- His piano works, like the "Suite dansante en jazz," are celebrated for their innovative fusion of classical and jazz idioms.
- Was one of the first composers to set Marxist texts to music, as in his "Communist Manifesto" for chorus.
Did You Know?
He won the Mendelssohn Prize for piano in 1918 and again for composition in 1923.
Schulhoff dedicated his 1925 "Jazz Etudes" to Paul Whiteman and George Gershwin.
He performed the European premiere of Alois Hába's quarter-tone piano music.
His final composition, a symphony, was written while he was in a Nazi camp.
“I am swimming in the direction of the new world, and I will reach the shore even if I have to sacrifice my life in the attempt.”
