Florizel von Reuter was an American-born violinist and composer, a child prodigy who went on to an adult career, mainly in Germany, as distinguished soloist and teacher of violin. He was also a psychic and medium and the author of several books on his alleged mediumistic communications with deceased musicians, and other works.
Early life
Born on 21 January 1890, Florizel Reuter at Davenport, Iowa, U.S., he was the son of Jacob and Grace Reuter. His father was a musician and minor composer. Florizel had his first violin lessons with his mother. He showed extraordinary talent at a very young age, and went to London to study in 1899. He was taught by Max Bendix, Emile Sauret, César Thomson and Henri Marteau. In 1901 he graduated from the Geneva Conservatory, where there was a debate as to whether he should be allowed to graduate. Several teachers refused to graduate any other pupils unless he was approved, and so the matter was settled. His first professional concert was at La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland in 1900. After giving 30 concerts in that country he began to tour in America, where he was introduced as a protégé of Joseph Joachim's. However, much of his early career was spent performing and teaching in Europe.
Young adulthood
The name "von Reuter" was adopted in connection with his European career, as a significator of German aristocracy. In c 1916–1917 he became Director of the Zurich Music Academy. He retained his U.S. citizenship despite spending much of the following two decades in Europe. He published a useful introduction to the study and analysis of solo violin music, Führer durch die solo-Violinmusik, eine Skizze ihrer Entstehung und Entwicklung mit kritischer Betrachtung ihrer Hauptwerke.
Psychic messages
During the 1920s his mother, Grace Reuter, developed apparent psychic powers by receiving supposed spirit messages through automatic writing. Florizel became closely involved with this and acted as a medium and as recorder of the findings, which were first described in The Psychic Experiences of a Musician — with a foreword by writer Arthur Conan Doyle — and in its sequel The Consoling Angel. These in particular described conversations with famous deceased musicians. His first important claimed contacts were Paganini and Pablo de Sarasate, and also the late Professor Heinrich Barth of Berlin. Messages were delivered through a type of planchette called an "Additor", used originally by his mother, and many of them were spelled out backwards. He contributed an essay on "Nature Spirits" to the 1928 revised edition of Arthur Conan Doyle'sThe Coming of the Fairies, p. 156–157, and was associated with Baron von Schrenck-Notzing in a series of experiments with the Schneider brothers. Other messages followed claiming to be from Giuseppe Tartini, Pietro Locatelli, Karol Lipiński, Pierre Baillot, Charles Auguste de Bériot, Henri Vieuxtemps, Joseph Joachim, Ferdinand Hérold, Édouard Lalo, Max Reger, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Edvard Grieg. While rehearsing particularly difficult Paganini études Florizel found he was compelled to adopt entirely new fingerings as if guided by an external intelligence. His philosophical exchanges with the spirits are described in his book A Musician's Talks with Unseen Friends.
Performance, teaching and recordings
From 1931 to 1933 he was professor of violin at the Vienna Music Academy. Through the 1930s he maintained a teaching and performance career, mainly in Germany and principally at Munich. He made various solo recordings for Polydor Records, and also chamber ensemble works with Elly Ney, Max Strub, Walter Trampler, Ludwig Hoelscher, and under the direction of Willem van Hoogstraten, husband of Elly Ney. It was in this period, at Munich, that he taught the young Walter Barylli, whom he invited into his own home as a resident guest so that he could afford to receive violin instruction. Von Reuter also composed more than 50 original works of music, including scores, tone poems, and four operas.
Later career
Von Reuter remained in Germany during the War and until the late 1940s, when he returned to the U.S. He settled in Waukesha, Wisconsin and became Concertmaster of the WaukeshaSymphony Orchestra, still teaching into the early 1980s. During the 1970s and 1980s he gave many "farewell performances." Von Reuter died in his sleep on May 10, 1985.
