Roderich Mojsisovics

Roderich Edmund Ladislaus Anton Julius Mojsisovics von Mojsvar was born on 10 May 1877 in Graz (Austria-Hungary). He came from an educated Austrian family with strong intellectual interests: his father, Felix Georg Hermann August Mojsisovics, was a university professor of zoology, and his maternal grandfather was the literary scholar Karl Julius Schröer.
After completing his schooling, Roderich Mojsisovics began studying law, which he successfully completed in 1900 with a doctoral degree. Alongside these studies, he also studied music theory and composition at the Schule des Musikvereins für Steiermark under Erich Wolf Degner. After 1900, he continued his musical education at the Conservatory in Cologne under Franz Wüllner and Friedrich Klauwell and later pursued advanced composition studies in Munich with Ludwig Thuille.
Roderich Mojsisovics began his professional career as conductor of a choral society in Brno between 1903 and 1907 and later worked as a teacher and musical administrator at various Austrian institutions. His most influential appointment came in 1912, when he became director of the Steiermärkischer Musikverein in Graz. Under his leadership, the institution underwent substantial development and was transformed into a conservatory in 1920, an institution that ultimately evolved into today’s musical institutions in Graz, including the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and the Johann Joseph Fux Conservatory. He remained director until 1931 and established himself as one of the central figures of musical life in Styria.
Alongside his administrative and conducting activities, Mojsisovics became increasingly active as a teacher, lecturer, and writer on music. From 1932 to 1935, he lectured in music history at the University of Graz. He subsequently taught and lectured in Munich and later at the Hochschule für Musik in Mannheim before returning to Graz after the Second World War, where he continued teaching until the late 1940s. Among his students were several later notable musicians and composers, including Otto Siegl, Grete von Zieritz, Ernst Ludwig Uray, Alois Pachernegg, and Alfons Vodosek. He also published musicological writings and essays, including studies on Hans Pfitzner, Max Reger, Bach, and questions of musical dramaturgy and criticism.
As a composer, Roderich Mojsisovics’s output included operas, orchestral music, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, organ works, choral compositions, songs, and piano music. Among his larger-scale works are several symphonies, including the Symphony in G minor “Deutschland”, the symphonic poem Stella, a Violin Concerto, multiple string quartets, operas such as Die roten Dominos, Der Zauberer, Anno Domini, and Viel Lärm um nichts, as well as numerous vocal and organ compositions. His catalogue comprises around 180 documented works.
Roderich Mojsisovics von Mojsvar died on 30 March 1953 in Bruck an der Mur (Austria).

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the composition "Buntes Allerlei" op. 16 by Roderich Mojsisovics. The work consists of ten short piano pieces composed between 1903 and 1905. The full title and subtitle read: "Buntes Allerlei – aus meinem Skizzenbuche / Zehn leichte und mittelschwere Miniaturen für Klavier zu zwei Händen". The set includes the following titles:

  1. Kleiner Marsch im Biedermayerstile
  2. Frühlingsmorgen
  3. Vineta - Ein Traum
  4. Mondnacht-Stille
  5. Kleine Melodie
  6. Kleiner Walzer
  7. Walzer für Kinder
  8. Moment musical
  9. Walzer
  10. Im Konzertsaal (Miniatur-Scherzo)

The complete set remained unpublished, only the composition No.7 was published as "Kleiner Walzer" as a supplement of the Neue Musikzeitung in 1906.