Petronella Göringaus modern

Petronella „Petra“ Paula Luise Göring (* 15 November 1906 in Vienna; † 21 January 1968 in Vienna) was an Austrian pianist and composer.

Life

Petronella Göring was the daughter of Peter Göring, a dentist from Volhynia, and Paula Theresia, née Sikor. She was musically educated from an early age, regularly attending concerts and opera performances with her mother and receiving her first piano lessons at the age of five. From 1918, she studied at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, initially for four years with Josef Hofmann, then with Alexander Manhart and Carl Prohaska and briefly with Viktor Ebenstein. In 1926, she was expelled from her studies for ‘unruly behaviour’. She then became a private pupil of Hans Gál, who taught her piano, harmony and counterpoint. She aspired to a career as a pianist and made her debut on 11 November 1929 in the Small Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, where she also performed two of her own compositions. From 1930 to 1934, she studied piano, counterpoint, composition and instrumentation with Josef Lechthaler, the most important representative of modern church music at the time. In 1932, she passed the state examination in piano, harmony and counterpoint. In 1941, the Mennonite converted to the Catholic faith.

Despite her training, Petronella Göring was unable to gain a foothold as a piano teacher. In 1941, she was offered a position at the Vienna Music School in the fifth district, which she lost in the same year due to ‘political unreliability’. In 1943/44 she taught briefly at the private music school Horak, and around 1960 she was a piano teacher at the Theresianum, which provided her with a modest living.

Adaptation and opportunism did not suit her, she found it difficult to deal with the existing structures and networks. Over time, she withdrew from what she perceived as a hostile environment and developed psychotic traits. She died in Vienna in 1968 after a long period of suffering.

Göring had been composing since her studies and her work encompassed all the main genres of classical music. She created masses, a requiem, string quartets, orchestral works, an opera and a singspiel as well as nine symphonies. Initially, she focussed on smaller genres, often for the piano. From around 1934, influenced by Josef Lechthaler, she focussed on church music. Her compositions remained consciously committed to the classical and romantic periods; she rejected the new, avant-garde musical trends that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century as fads. Contemporaries accused her of ‘writing like Josef Haydn’. She also had little success as a composer; despite countless attempts, she rarely managed to take part in artistic performances. She was awarded the Composition Prize of the Vienna Music History Society twice. Some of her works were performed several times, but none were printed. The first recording of one of her works was not made until 2023. She bequeathed her estate of over 350 music manuscripts to the music collection of the Austrian National Library.

Source Wiki: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronella_Göring