Philippine Schickaus expressionism + modern

Philippine Schick (* 9 February 1893 in Bonn; † 13 January 1970 in Munich) was a German composer and university lecturer.

Life

Philippine Schick was the daughter of Joseph Schick, professor of English in Munich from 1897, and his wife Mary Butcher, who was from England. She grew up bilingual, took piano lessons from the age of eight and then violin lessons. At the age of thirteen, she tried her hand at writing and composed her first songs and piano pieces. In 1910, after graduating from girls’ school, she passed her teaching exam and began her studies. Her father refused to finance her studies in composition, as he did not believe a girl had any chance of success. Schick, who had a keen interest in languages, initially studied ancient languages and literature as well as mathematics at the University of Munich. She also learned Chinese characters and Egyptian hieroglyphics.

When her father was drafted into military service at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, she enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music in Munich without his permission. Her teachers included Friedrich Klose, August Schmid-Lindner, Hermann Zilcher and Wolfgang Ruoff. She was also able to convince her father of her progress and passed her exams in 1918. She then approached Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen, to whom she presented her string quartet, whereupon he accepted her as a private student. She married him in 1927. The following year, she gave birth to their daughter Leonore (Lore). As Waltershausen did not allow her enough freedom for her own artistic work, but needed her as a cook and secretary, Schick divorced him in 1932.

From 1924 onwards, she was a music teacher herself. She was a co-founder of the music section of the Society of German and Austrian Women Artists (GEDOK).

During the Nazi era, she came to terms with the regime in order to be allowed to continue performing. An attempt to give a concert in April 1933 together with Lotte Leonard led to a scandal and she was expelled from GEDOK. After a year, however, Schick was able to rejoin and was no longer harassed; at the end of the 1930s, she even became a music advisor to the ReichsGEDOK. Schick was a member of the German Women’s Association, but stayed away from party events. The ‘apolitical artist’ rejected an approach by Mathilde Ludendorff, for example. She gave adult music courses, performed (in 1939, for example, on a tour of seven German cities) and trained as a conductor. In 1940, she wrote the appeal Führt unsere Komponistinnen auf (Perform our female composers) in order to gain recognition as an artist, which she succeeded in doing: alongside Grete von Zieritz, she was one of the best-known ‘serious composers’ during the Third Reich. Half of her compositions date from the period between 1933 and 1942; almost all of them were also performed. From 1941 to 1943, she published articles on women composers and emphasised her strict standards for composition.

From 1946 to 1956, she was a lecturer in music theory and English at the University of Munich. Her music students included Horst Leuchtmann and Rolf Agop. She was also acquainted with Aloys Fleischmann. She also published works on English studies.

Schick was characterised as a highly achievement-oriented personality who constantly drove herself to achieve success or surpass previous successes. After her death, her works were hardly ever performed.

Philippine-Schick-Allee in Munich was named in her honour.

Source Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Schick