Alma Examined
Alma Schindler was a female composer who grew up in fin-de-siècle Vienna surrounded by artistic circles. Her father, Emil Schindler was a famous landscape painter, her mother, Anna Schindler was a singer, and her stepfather, Carl Moll was involved in the Secessionist art movement. Alma herself took to the arts by beginning to compose music at a young age and is purported to have written hundreds of songs although only 16 survive to today. Due to the sheer number of famous men Alma interacted with, her life is often overshadowed and worse, characterized, by the men and not by her own achievements. This website seeks to re-center Alma in the narrative of her life.
Alma Mahler, original name Alma Maria Schindler, also called Alma Gropius and Alma Werfel, (born Aug. 31, 1879, Vienna, Austria-Hungary—died Dec. 11, 1964, New York, N.Y., U.S.), wife of Gustav Mahler, known for her relationships with celebrated men.
-Encyclopædia Britannica
Alma Mahler, née Schindler, the widow of Gustav Mahler, divorced wife of the architect Walter Gropius, and mistress of, successively, the painter Oskar Kokoschka and the writer Franz Werfel (47)
-Paul Hofmann, The Viennese: Splendor, Twilight, and Exile
Alma Mahler, née Schindler, widow of Mahler, divorced from Gropius, widow of Werfel, was, from early youth, an extraordinary woman, one who remains highly controversial to this day. For one camp she is the muse of the four arts; for the other an utterly domineering and sex-crazed Circe, who exploited her prominent husbands exclusively for her own purposes.
-Oliver Hilmes, Malevolent Muse
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In encyclopedias, in passing comments in scholarly articles about Vienna, and in Hilmes' biography of her, Alma is introduced through the men in her life. Having her name followed by the various men she was in relationships with, and no mention of her accomplishments, seems to have been Alma's fate in history. Even worse, the two biographies of her also refuse to give her the individuality she deserves. The first biography, pictured left, is titled Muse, Gattin, Witwe which translates to Muse, Wife, Widow. Before the reader even opens this book, Alma is distilled to these three words, all of which involve a relationship with someone else, in two of three cases, a man. The second biography, by Oliver Hilmes, is seen in its translated title Malevolent Muse. Once again, Alma is referred to as a muse, a title that implies her worth is defined by her usefulness to another person. This time, the highly prejudicial adjective malevolent is attached. The biographer does not even try to seem objective, a tendency evidenced in quotes featured on other pages of this website. Notably the original title of Hilmes' biography is Witwe in Wahn which again characterizes her by her dead husbands, witwe means widow, and the associated, wahn, translates to delusion or mania. If the biographers wanted to portray Alma as an individual it would have been easy enough to use titles such as "Alma Mahler-Werfel" or "The Life of Alma Mahler" without the catchy yet problematic subtitles. As described, if someone were to happen onto Alma's name, they would be much more likely to find out who she was married to than anything about her compositional prowess. This failure to allow Alma to have a life outside of her romantic relationships is shocking to feminist sensibilities.
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So Who Was Alma Really?
Alma Schindler was born to Emil and Anna Schindler on Sunday August 31, 1879. She was passionate about music from a young age and composed an indeterminate amount of music, of which 16 compositions have survived. She was married three times, birthed three girls, suffered the deaths of two of them, and fled Nazi occupied Austria. She moved to Los Angeles and then to New York City where she died on December 11, 1964. During her time in the US, she wrote a biography of Gustav Mahler titled Gustav Mahler: Erinnerungen und Briefe (Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters), and her autobiography, Mein Leben (My Life). She is buried in Grinzing Cemetery in Vienna.
Website Purpose
Throughout this website, I hope to present another view on Alma's life, one that gives more respect to her individuality as a fin-de-siècle woman and composer. As illustrated, above, her portrayal in modern scholarship erases her own professional goals and personal perspectives in favor of listing her romantic partners. In the section titled Family Life, I attempt to counterbalance the usual depiction of Alma's life, by excluding her romantic relationships and instead focusing on her parents and children. After providing a wider view on her personal life, I seek to highlight her musical/compositional aspirations in the page titled Composition because they often go overlooked. Hopefully, the focus on her familial personal life and her professional ambitions will help create a more balanced understanding of Alma.
NOTE. Throughout this website, I will refer to Alma Mahler-Werfel and others by their first and last names once per page. Afterward, I will refer to them only by their first names. This is not meant out of disrespect. I hope by doing this, Alma will be recognized as a person in her own right without identifying her through the last names of her father and husbands.