WORKS CITED

"Musik." Winterthurer Bilbliotheken. Informatiske, n.d. Web. 1 Mar 2012. <http://bibliotheken.winterthur.ch/home/?no_cache=1.com>.

"Forschungsprojekt." Werner Reinhart ch.. Musikwissenschaftleiches Institute, 02 14 12. Web. 1 Mar 2012. <http://www.werner-reinhart.ch.com/>.

"Art between world wars." Live Real. N.p., 2005. Web. 1 Mar 2012. <http://www.livereal.org/Art-between-World-Wars.html>.

Guess Who is Coming to Dinner Interview

1.      Interviewer: Can you please tell us a little bit about where you are from?

Werner Reinhart: I was born 19 March, 1884. I was born in Arveyes Switzerland. During the time I was in Switzerland industrialization was sprouting all around me. There was a short civil war just a few years before that as well as the second French Revolution. I lived in a small house, but the house was big enough for me and my family.

Interviewer: Can you tell us about your family and friends?

Werner Reinhart: I have a sister and her name is Alice. She is my little sister and my only sister. My parents have passed on. I also have five ex wives that I had to share my inheritance with. I have four very good friends. They are Igor Stravinsky, Rainer Maria Rilke, Oskar Kokoschka, and Herman Scherchen. I have assisted them in composing, and I have taught them my style of going about conducting and composing (Winterthur.com).

2.      Interviewer: What events in your early life made you get interested in the arts?

Werner Reinhart: When I was young, my father and mother played a lot of music. I always heard the clarinet and thought it was beautiful. I then pursed to play it. As I got older, I found more interest in conducting and composing. A lot of my idols were conductors. I also wanted to be a composer because I wanted to be famous as any kid does (Winterthur.com).

    Another event that made me interested in the arts was the Volkart family. I inherited my wealth from their family business because my family was close to their family. Even though their business was located in the Winterthur, I was not very interested in running the business. The Winterthur was a place where groups of people could come and meet and have their own villas. Since I was interested in the clarinet, I wanted to form my own villa for musicians to meet to introduce new styles and techniques of music (Winterthur.com).

3.      Interviewer: What role did mentors play in helping get to where you are today?

Werner Reinhart: If it wasn’t for my mentors I would not be a musician today. I would be working in the Volkart family business. My father is my greatest mentor. He is the one who played the music. He is the one who told me to follow my dreams.  The Volkart family tried to get me to work for their business (They had always considered me to be family). If my father would not have approved of me being a conductor I would be working in their business (Winterthur.com).

    My other mentor or idol was Charles Griffes. He inspired me with his music to be a musician. His music was very exotic and mysterious. I actually got to meet him shortly before he passed away. I had loved his music ever since I was a little boy. The way he had used the clarinet made his music spectacular (Werner-reinhart.ch.com).

4. Interviewer: What was the world of art like in your field when you entered it?

Werner Reinhart: The art world was very interesting I guess you could say. Art was like a bunch of different forms, and styles, and techniques all coming together in a time of despair and a time of hurt (livereal.org). Art was a activity that people could do to make them happy and take their minds off of what was going on. Art was a type of transformation from ugly to beautiful. Everybody made art in the way they felt. Some art was beautiful and happy and some art was very sad (winterthur.com).

    Art never went away. Art was always there. It was just expressed in different ways. All of the different movements, and styles resulted on different forms of art. Whether it was dancing, music, painting, or writing, everyone expressed it differently (Werner-reinhart.ch.com). there was classical, jazz, and eventually contemporary. There was ballet, and exotic dancing. And every painters art was a different style.

5.      Interviewer: How did the cultural, economic, and political situations of the time impact your work?

Werner Reinhart: As far as culture, that did not affect me that much. I made my music and compositions the way I wanted them to be. I did not base my art off of what other peoples art was like or what cultural differences were present. I was called the Man with the golden hands for a reason. I did things in my own style and people respected me for that.

    The economy affected me in the way of money. Sometimes I did not have enough money to make a new composition because it cost a lot of money to get the music published and printed. Also because other people did not have any money to buy my music, so there for I did not make any money myself.

    Politically, I did not let it affect me. There were so many different political views and different parties being brought up. There was the liberals trying to take over, and the non liberals trying to get rid of the liberals. I stuck to what I thought and did what I did and that is all.

6.      Interviewer: What were your major accomplishments?

Werner Reinhart: My biggest accomplishment would have to be my creation of the villa in the Winterthur. I created a villa in the Winterthur for all musicians to come and meet to discuss whatever they wanted to discuss. I feel as though my accomplishment not only helped me out but it also helped out others (Winterthur.com).

Interviewer: What methods did you use in your music?

Werner Reinhart: I never really had a fixed method. The only method I really stuck with all the time was practice. Other than that I really just wrote what came to my mind, and as far as conducting I just conducted the way my heart told me to (Winterthur.com).

7.      Interviewer: What were your main opportunities that led to turning points in your art and life?

Werner Reinhart: Key things in my life would be the fact that I had such accepting parents. My parents made the decision on whether I could be a musician or not. I have a friend Igor Stravinsky who had to fight to be a musician because his parents did not approve. I was a lucky one (Winterthur.com).

    In my music, the main opportunity was having the opportunity to converse with a bunch of well know artists and having many friends who were artists. That way I was able to get my name out (Winterthur.com).

8.      Interviewer: What roadblocks did you face when becoming a musician?

Werner Reinhart: My biggest roadblock was figuring out what exactly I wanted to be as a musician. I could not decide whether I wanted to be a performer or to be a conductor. I was actually held up for a year or so due to that issue. When I decided to be a conductor and a composer I progressed rather well (Werner-reinhart.ch.com).

    My other roadblock was getting people to listen to my music. There were already so many great musicians that everyone listened to them and not my music. For example Dmitri Shostakovich.  Once I started to talk with well known people I got my name out and people gradually started to listen (Werner-reinhart.ch.com).

9.      Interviewer: Who inspires you and why?

Werner Reinhart: I really liked Gustave Kerker and John Phillip Sousa. I really liked the way they used the different instruments to make different sounds and techniques. I also really liked the way the music sounded (Winterthur.com).

    They inspired me because I wanted to be a musician but I didn’t know where to start. When I heard their music it made me realize that you have to just write down what comes to your mind. You can’t plan out exactly what you plan to do in music; it just comes to you naturally

(Werner-reinhart.ch.com).

10.   Interviewer: What personal stories illustrate how you became successful?

Werner Reinhart: I will tell you the story about when I received the okay to create a villa in the Winterthur. When I heard about the Winterthur I never really knew what it was. As I got older I found out what it was and that you could create your own villa. I automatically wanted to create one. I didn’t know what I wanted to make it for though. When got a little older and I got more and more interested in music I decided to make a villa for musician (Werner-reinhart.ch.com).

    I knew that I would never get the okay from my parents to do so, so I put off asking for a while. When I finally built up the guts to ask my parents, they replied, do you think this is what’s best for you. I, of course, said yes. I then proceeded to find who I needed to talk to, to get the okay to do so. I got the okay and I told all of my friends to tell all of their friends and so on. Eventually people started coming to the villa. I was a success (Werner-reinhart.ch.com).