Leopold Spinner was an Austrian-born, British-domiciled composer and editor.
Biography
Spinner was born of Austrian parentage in Lemberg. From 1926 to 1930 he studied composition in Vienna with Paul Amadeus Pisk and afterwards began to attract international attention with works which were performed at the ISCM Festivals or awarded prizes. Nevertheless, from 1935 to 1938 he underwent a second period of study, as a pupil of Anton Webern. He may be regarded as a representative of the so-called Second Viennese School. In 1939 Spinner emigrated to England and spent the war years in Yorkshire, working part of the time as a lathe operator in a locomotive factory in Bradford. From 1947 he worked as a music-copyist and arranger for Boosey & Hawkes, moving to London in 1954. In 1958 he succeeded Erwin Stein as editor at Boosey & Hawkes, later becomingChief Editor. He remained with Boosey & Hawkes until his retirement in 1975. His skills and exactitude were highly praised by Stravinsky.
Compositions
From 1926 to his death in London in 1980 Spinner steadily and painstakingly built up an individual body of work, adapting and renewing classical forms along the lines that had been indicated by his teacher Webern. They include an early Symphony for small orchestra, an Ouvertüre in honour of Schoenberg's 70th birthday, a Piano Concerto, a Violin Concerto, Prelude and Variationsdedicated to Stravinsky, Ricercata for orchestra, Cantatas on poems of Nietzsche and on German folksong texts, string quartets, trios, works for violin and piano, solo piano pieces, several sets of songs and some arrangements of Irish folksongs. His last work was a Chamber Symphony.
Technique
Almost all Spinner's music was written according to the twelve-tone technique. His early works, up to and including the Zwei kleine Stücke, are clearly influenced by Berg and middle-period Schoenberg. From the mid-1930s the general idiom, expressive intensity, dramatic economy and impeccable craftsmanship bear witness to his admiration for his teacher Webern – and, through Webern, for the whole Austro-German tradition from Bach onwards. Spinner himself carried that tradition a stage further. While retaining the purity and thematically essentialized textures of Webern, his works show a concern for larger and bolder gestures than Webern's norm. In his later music, beginning with the sonatina for piano, the expressive pressure applied to strict motivic working results in a wholly individual style of almost explosive force.
