David Josef Bach

David Josef Bach (Lemberg (now Lviv), Ukraine, August 13, 1874 – London, UK, January 30, 1947) was an important and influential figure in the cultural life of early twentieth-century Vienna.

As a boy, Bach was a close friend of the young Arnold Schoenberg, who later named him as one of the three friends (the other two were Oskar Adler and Alexander von Zemlinsky) who greatly influenced him in his youthful explorations of music and literature. Describing him as "A linguist, a philosopher, a connoisseur of literature, and a mathematician" as well as "a good musician", Schoenberg paid tribute to his friend by claiming that it was D.J. Bach who furnished his character with "the ethical and moral power needed to withstand vulgarity and commonplace popularity" ('My Evolution', 1949).

After studying Natural Sciences at the University of Vienna, where he was influenced by Ernst Mach, D.J. Bach became a journalist, being appointed as music critic of the Arbeiter-Zeitung ('Worker's Newspaper') in 1904 after the death of Josef Scheu (1841–1904). As a loyal supporter of Schoenberg and of the slightly older Gustav Mahler he supported contemporary music in a city where performances of 'modern' works would sometimes be disrupted by noisy protests.

An active socialist dedicated to making the arts accessible to the working classes, it was D.J. Bach who instituted the Arbeiter-Symphonie-Konzerte ('Workers' Symphony Concerts') in Vienna in 1905. His wide-ranging activities earned him the hostility of right-wing groups, who denounced his artistic programme as part of a 'Jewish conspiracy' to undermine traditional Austrian culture. Such accusations were all the more vehement because D.J. Bach was also one of the earliest members of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Association which met under the aegis of Sigmund Freud and whose members were mostly Jewish.

...
Wikipedia