Erich Zeisl (May 18, 1905 – February 18, 1959) (often spelled Eric) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

composer.

Life and music

Born to a middle class

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish family in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, then capital of the

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

empire, Zeisl was the son of Kamilla (Feitler) and Siegmund Zeisl. His musical precocity enabled him to gain a place at the Vienna State Academy (against the wishes of his family) when he was 14, at which age his first song was published. While there, he studied with Richard Stöhr,

Joseph Marx Joseph Rupert Rudolf Marx (11 May 1882 – 3 September 1964) was an Austrian composer, teacher and critic. Life and career Marx was born in Graz and pursued studies in philosophy, art history, German studies, and music at Graz University, earni ...

and

Hugo Kauder Hugo Kauder (9 June 188822 July 1972) was an Austrian-Jewish composer, pedagogue, and music theorist. He defied the atonal trend of his generation with his uniquely harmonic, contrapuntal style. His legacy of over 300 works, many yet to be publish ...

. He won a state prize for a setting of the

Requiem mass A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

in 1934, but his Jewish background made it difficult to obtain work and publication. After the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

in 1938, he fled first to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where he began work on an opera based on

Joseph Roth Moses Joseph Roth (2 September 1894 – 27 May 1939) was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga ''Radetzky March'' (1932), about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, his novel of Jewish life ''Job'' ( ...

's ''

Job Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that contr ...

'', and then to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Eventually he went to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

, where he worked on film music but increasingly felt isolated and ill at ease with the production-line demands of his employers. Among the films for which he wrote music were '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' (1946), and '' Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man'' (1951). Zeisl's style was essentially tonal, and conservative compared to contemporaries such as

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

, and thus not totally unsuited to film music composition. But his heart lay elsewhere. At one stage he was employed to arrange the music for a highly inaccurate stage show about the life of

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

, ''Song without Words''. His anguish about his reduction to such work (together with the straits to which other émigré composers in America were reduced at the time) is evident in a letter written to a friend in 1945:

'Even
Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...
,
Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...
, Tansman are struggling.
Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...
died in New York of hunger! ..Last year I orchestrated a Tchaikowsky operetta which provided living for 8 months, but why does Tchaikowsky have to be put into an operetta? ..No composer is important here'.

Nonetheless Zeisl was able eventually to find academic appointments and time to compose in his own style. These works included a variety of

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

, a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...

, a concerto for

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

(written for

Gregor Piatigorsky Gregor Piatigorsky (, ''Grigoriy Pavlovich Pyatigorskiy''; August 6, 1976) was a Russian Empire-born American cellist. Biography Early life Gregor Piatigorsky was born in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. As a child, ...

), and a setting for choir, soloists, and orchestra of

Psalm The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

92 in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, which he titled ''Requiem Ebraico'' (Hebrew Requiem), written in 1944–5 in memory of his father. A work of variations for orchestra was based on the Christmas carol "

It Came Upon A Midnight Clear "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear", sometimes rendered as "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear", is an 1849 poem and Christmas carol written by Edmund Sears, pastor of the Unitarian Church in Wayland, Massachusetts. In 1850, Sears' lyrics were set ...

." His opera ''Hiob'' (Job) was never completed. Zeisl was married to Gertrud Susanne (Jellinek). His daughter Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg married Ronald Schoenberg, the son of the composer

. His grandson is lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg. Zeisl died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

while teaching in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Zeisl's music was banned under the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

regime, which has been one element in a revival of interest in his music, some of which is now available on CD. The premiere performance of the ''Requiem Ebraico'' was held in Los Angeles in the Hollywood First Methodist Church on April 8, 1945 by Hugo Strelitzer conducting the Fairfax Temple Choir.

Selected works

;Ballets *''Pierrot in der Flasche'' (1929; after

Gustav Meyrink Gustav Meyrink (19 January 1868 – 4 December 1932) was the pseudonym of Gustav Meyer, an Austrian author, novelist, dramatist, translator, and banker, most famous for his novel '' The Golem''. He has been described as the "most respected Germa ...

's ''Der Mann auf der Flasche''; only a five-movement orchestral suite was performed in 1935) *''Uranium 235'' *''Naboth's Vinyard'' *''Jacob und Rachel'' ;Choral *''Afrika singt'' *''Requiem Concertante'' *''Requiem Ebraico'' ;Operas *''Leonce und Lena'' *'' Hiob'' (unfinished) ;Chamber *Sonata for cello and piano (1950) * Piano trio suite op 8 (1923–24) * Second string quartet (1953) * "Arrowhead" trio for flute, viola and harp (1956) ;Songs *"Liebeslied" *"Mondbilder" (Text by

Christian Morgenstern Christian Otto Josef Wolfgang Morgenstern (6 May 1871 – 31 March 1914) was a German author and poet from Munich. Morgenstern married Margareta Gosebruch von Liechtenstern on 7 March 1910. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin ...

) *"Harlemer Nachtlied" for Soprano, Tenor and Choir ;Orchestral *''Scherzo und Fuge für Streichorchester'' *''Passacaglia-Fantasie für Orchester'' *''Kleine Symphonie'' *''Piano Concerto'' (1951/1952, first performed 2005 with Daniel Glover, piano and Jason Klein conducting the Saratoga Symphony) *''Variations Based on "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" for Orchestra''

Sources

*Malcolm S. Cole and Barbara Barclay, ''Armseelchen. The Life and Music of Eric Zeisl'', 1984

External links

Eric Zeisl web site
contains articles, photographs and

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

s of some of his music.
Website of Zeisl's daughter Dr. Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg
with additional photographs of, and information about, Zeisl.
The OREL Foundation- Eric Zeisl's biography and links to bibliography, discography and media.Interview of Gertrude S. Zeisl, including many details about Erich Zeisl's life and work
Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles.
Essay on Erich Zeisl on his 50th Death Anniversary
on the website of WETA 90.9 FM.
‘Ernest Bloch and Eric Zeisl: Fifty Years Later’ honors L.A.'s Jewish artists
in ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' *
Erich Zeisl (1905-1959)
videos compiled by Randol Schoenberg on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeisl, Erich 1905 births 1959 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American Jews 20th-century classical composers American film score composers American male film score composers American opera composers Austrian classical composers Austrian opera composers Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Jewish American classical composers Jewish classical musicians Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United States after the Anschluss Male opera composers Musicians from Vienna