Gisella Selden-Goth

Gisella Selden-Goth (6 June 1884 – 5 September 1975)^[1] was a Hungarian author, composer^[2] and musicologist who became an American citizen in 1939.^[3] She composed at least four string quartets^[4] and donated her large collection of original music manuscripts to the Library of Congress.^[5]

Biography

Selden-Goth was born in Budapest to Michael and Rosalia Schlesinger.^[6] Her music teachers included Béla Bartók, Ferruccio Busoni, and István Thomán.^[4][7] Her set of piano compositions, Vier Präludien, was one of 10 winners (out of 874 submissions) in the 1910 Signale für die musikalische Welt competition in Germany.^[8] She married Ernst Goth and they had a daughter, Trudy Goth, who became a dancer and journalist.^[9]

Selden-Goth lived in Berlin and Florence, Italy, before emigrating to America in 1938. She returned to Florence in 1950 and remained there until her death in 1975. She served as a music critic for newspapers in Berlin, Prague, Switzerland, and Budapest, most notably for Prager Tagblatt, a German newspaper in Prague.^[7] She also wrote books about Busoni and Arturo Toscanini and edited a collection of Felix Mendelssohn's letters.^[4][10] She maintained a lengthy correspondence with the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, often discussing their mutual interest in collecting original music scores. After Zweig's suicide, Selden-Goth commented that, "A chamber group in a house or the opportunity to hear a good orchestra might have relieved the tension of that mind tortured by personal forebodings and by the vision of mankind in agony."^[7] She also corresponded with composer Ernest Bloch and musicologist Hans Moldenhauer.^[11]

Selden-Goth's music is published today by Universal Edition.^[4] Her prose works and musical compositions include:

Selected literary publications

Articles

• "A New Collection of Music Manuscripts in the United States", The Musical Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 2, April 1940^[12]
• "Neue Wege der musikalischen Erziehung" [New Ways in Music Education], Die Musik, vol. 16, 1924^[13]

Bibliography

• Arturo Toscanini (edited by Selden-Goth)^[10]
• Felix Mendelssohn: Letters (edited by Selden-Goth)^[14]
• Ferruccio Busoni: Der Versuch eines Porträts [Ferruccio Busoni: An Attempt at a Portrait]^[15]
• Quattro Brevi Studi per la Mano Sinistra, Four Short Studies for the Left Hand (c.1958) Israeli Music Publications Ltd., Tel Aviv 1958

Selected music works

Chamber music

• Quintet, Op. 35 (for strings)^[16]
• String Quartets No. 1, 2, 3, and 4^[4]
• String Trio^[4]
• Suite for Violin and Piano^[4]

Piano

• Prelude and Fugue for Two Pianos (1956)^[4]
• Vier Präludien, Signale competition winner (1910)^[8]

Vocal music

• Vom mönchischen Leben [Of Monastic Life], Op. 44, song cycle (text from The Book of Hours by Rainer Maria Rilke)^[16]
• Cantata^[4]
• Songs^[4]
• The Pilgrim (baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra)^[4]