Ludwig Schmidseder (24 August 1904, in

Passau Passau (; bar, label=Central Bavarian, Båssa) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") as the river Danube is joined by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's popu ...

– 21 June 1971, in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

) was a German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

of the "Light Muse". Several of his Schlager compositions are still popular tunes today. The young Schmidseder followed his father's wishes and trained as a

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

, whilst taking

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 ...

lessons in secret. He furthered his musical education at the Munich Conservatorium, then left for

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

in 1926, ending up in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. Starting out as a

dishwasher A dishwasher is a machine that is used to clean dishware, cookware, and cutlery automatically. Unlike manual dishwashing, which relies heavily on physical scrubbing to remove soiling, the mechanical dishwasher cleans by spraying hot water, ...

, he went on to become an

entertainer An entertainer is someone who provides entertainment in various different forms. Types of entertainers * Acrobat * Actor * Archimime * Athlete * Barker * Beatboxer * Benshi * Bouffon * Circus performer * Clown * Club Hostess/Host * Comed ...

and play in a trio on ocean cruises. Schmidseder composed music for the trio, and developed into a virtuoso piano player. From 1930 he worked in Berlin, composing film music, creating operettas and writing more than 500 songs, some of which became much-loved hits. He moved from being a bar pianist (until 1936) to being the house composer at the old Berlin Metropol-Theatre. His operetta ''Die Oder Keine'' (''That One or No One'') was performed more than 600 times. Schmidseder joined the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

on 1 May 1933. Fred K. Prieberg: ''Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945''. Kiel 2004, S. 6182 (CD-ROM-Lexikon) After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Schmidseder continued to compose film music and appear in films. The corpulent cook would later become famous as a TV cook and produced a book of recipes.

Selected works

Operettas

*1938 - ''Melodie der Nacht'' (''Melody of the Night'') *1939 - ''Die oder keine'' (''That One or No One'') (premiered on 20 March 1939, in the Berlin Metropol Theatre) *1940 - ''Frauen im Metropol'' (''Women in the Metropol'') (premiered on 27 September 1940, in the Berlin Metropol Theatre) *1944 – ''Linzer Torte'' (premiered on 26 May 1944 in the Landestheater

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...

) *1949 - '' Abschiedswalzer'' (''Farewell Waltzes'') (premiered on 8 September 1949, 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 ...

;

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

Hubert Marischka Hubert Marischka (27 August 1882 – 4 December 1959), brother of Ernst Marischka, was an Austrian operetta tenor, actor, film director and screenwriter. Career Marischka was born in Brunn am Gebirge, the son of Jiří (or Johann) Marisch ...

and Rudolf Österreicher)

Schlager

*''Gitarren spielt auf'' (1934, text by Ralph Maria Siegel) (''Strike Up Guitars'') *''Ich trink den Wein nicht gern allein'' (''I Prefer Not To Drink Wine Alone'') *''I hab die schönen Maderln net erfunden'' (1938, text by Theo Prosel) (''I Did Not Invent Pretty Girls'') *''Komm doch in meine Arme'' (''Come To My Arms'') *''Ein kleines weißes Haus'' (''A Small White House'') *''Tango Marina''

Films

* '' The Country Schoolmaster'' (1933) * '' Dream of the Rhine'' (1933) * '' Left of the Isar, Right of the Spree'' (1940) * ''

A Salzburg Comedy ''A Salzburg Comedy'' or ''Little Border Traffic'' (german: Der kleine Grenzverkehr) is a 1943 German comedy film directed by Hans Deppe and starring Willy Fritsch, Hertha Feiler and Heinz Salfner.Rentschler p. 380 Erich Kästner wrote the sc ...

'' (1943) * '' The War of the Oxen'' (1943) * ''

Why Are You Lying, Elisabeth? ''Why Are You Lying, Elisabeth?'' (German: ''Warum lügst Du, Elisabeth?'') is a 1944 German comedy film directed by Fritz Kirchhoff and starring Carola Höhn, Paul Richter and Annie Rosar.Klaus p.119 It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berli ...

'' (1944) * '' Friday the Thirteenth'' (1949) * '' No Sin on the Alpine Pastures'' (1950) * '' The Lady in Black'' (1951) * '' The Landlady of Maria Wörth'' (1952) * ''

The Inn on the Lahn ''The Inn on the Lahn'' or ''The Hostess of the Lahn'' (German: ''Die Wirtin an der Lahn'') is a 1955 West German comedy film directed by Johann Alexander Hübler-Kahla and starring Dorit Kreysler, Oskar Sima and Ingrid Pan. Klossner p.180 The f ...

'' (1955)

References

Sources

Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent German-language Wikipedia article (retrieved September, 2007).

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidseder, Ludwig 1904 births 1971 deaths People from Passau German male classical composers German film score composers Male film score composers German opera composers Male opera composers 20th-century classical composers 20th-century German composers 20th-century German male musicians