The first stamps to feature composers is Austria
The first country to put a composer on its stamps was Austria. Given its musical heritage, that is probably not surprising. In April 1922 the new Republic of Austria released a set of stamps featuring seven of its greatest composers: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner, Strauss Jnr and Wolf. It makes great sense that Austria would celebrate its extraordinarily rich musical heritage. Vienna bears the nickname of the “City of Music.” Some of the greatest composers in all of western music made their home in Austria
The Stamps
The Austrian 1922 stamp series features seven composers: Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner, Johann Strauss Jr., and Hugo Wolf. These seven composers represent classical music stretching from the mid-eighteenth century to the twentieth century (Wolf lived until 1903). The first four stamps feature images from historic portraits, the last three are reproductions of photographs. The series was designed by Rudolf Junk (1880-1943), and produced by the master engraver Ferdinand Schirnböck (1859-1930)
One last interesting fact about these stamps is that they were charity stamps. Only 500,000 sets were made (at a time when stamps were often made in the tens of millions). They were sold for ten times their postage value, with the profits being used to fund needy musicians. A very noble idea!
They were produced in print runs of around 500,000 and only available for a month. This may seem a quite large number, but this was in an era when the more common stamps were produced in tens of millions. Nonetheless, the set is not especially valuable: Stanley Gibbons gives a price of £34 for a mint set, and £70 for a used one – clearly they found their way into collector’s albums more frequently than onto letters.
These stamps are known as charity stamps, where the normal postage cost was augmented by an extra charge used to raise money for various causes. This was common in a number of countries, such as France, Germany, Finland, Switzerland and New Zealand. These particular stamps were sold for ten times the value shown, the funds raised used for supporting needy musicians. What makes them unusual philatelically is that the charity amount is not shown on the stamp, only the amount of postage. For example, the Haydn sold for 25 kronen, 2½ of which was the postage, the balance for the charity. You will see the more usual approach, where both postage and charity charges are shown, in future issues of this series.
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) was born in Rohrau, Austria. He was one of the most important composers of the “classical” style of music. He is known for his contributions to the development of the symphony and the string quartet. The image on this stamp is from the Thomas Hardy portrait of the composer painted in 1792 and owned by the Royal College of Music.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
One of the most famous of all classical music composers is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Born in Salzburg, he gained international fame as a child prodigy who played for many of the crowned heads of Europe. He wrote a prodigious amount of music in his short life including symphonies, chamber music, and operas. The image on the stamp is from a ca. 1777 portrait painted by the painter Johann Heinrich Wilhhelm Tischbein.
Ludwig van Beethoven
The next composer in this series is Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). Although he was born in Bonn, he spent nearly all of his adult life living in Vienna. He first gained notoriety as an outstanding pianist, including for his ability to improvise. In his twenties, he began to lost his hearing, but that didn’t not keep him from becoming one of the most transformational composers to ever live. The image on the stamp is based on the drawing by August Karl Friedrich von Klöber in 1818.
Franz Schubert
Although he died young, Franz Schubert (1797–1828) wrote an enormous amount of music including more than six hundred songs, seven symphonies, and multiple pieces for piano solos and chamber ensembles. The young composer was a great admirer of Beethoven, and though they lived in the same city for most of their lives, there is little evidence that they actually met. The image of Schubert featured on the stamp was painted by Wilhelm August Rieder in 1825.
Anton Bruckner
Josef Anton Bruckner (1824–1896) was a well-known organist in addition to being one of the most famous Viennese composers of the late 19th century. Bruckner was known for his large scale symphonic and choral works, although he also wrote smaller pieces for chamber ensembles and solo instruments. He was famed for his organ improvisations, but strangely published few works for the instrument. The image used on the stamp is from a photograph taken around 1890 probably by the photographer Anton Huber.
Johann Strauss Jr.
Known as “The Waltz King,” Johann Strauss Jr. (1825–1899) was the son of composer Johann Strauss Sr. The younger composer eventually gained much greater fame wrote hundreds of waltzes, polkas, and other short dance pieces. He also wrote a handful of operettas, most famously Die Fledermaus. He is best remembered for his “Blue Danube” waltz. His music remains popular and is performed annually in the Vienna New Year’s Day concert.
Hugo Wolf
The least well-known of the composers in this series, Hugo Wolf (1860–1903), was also the only one to live into the twentieth century. Like Schubert, Wolf was best known for is lieder, of art songs. He wrote hundreds of such songs as well as three opera and choral works. He suffered from depression and wrote his music in short spurts. His last music was composed in 1898.
