Richard Fall (3 April 1882 – January 1945) was an Austrian composer and conductor of Jewish descent. One of his most famous compositions is the popular ''Was machst du mit dem Knie lieber Hans''.

Life

Born in

Jevíčko Jevíčko (; german: Gewitsch) is a town in Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,800 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. Administrat ...

, Österreich-Ungarn, Fall grew up in a family of musicians. His two brothers Leo and

Siegfried Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace". The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...

as well as his father were also composers and conductors. Fall worked as operettas conductor in Berlin and Vienna and as

film composer A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...

in Hollywood. 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 ...

(1938), he fled

National Socialism 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 Naz ...

to France. On 20 November 1943 he was deported from the

Drancy internment camp Drancy internment camp was an assembly and detention camp for confining Jews who were later deported to the extermination camps during the German occupation of France during World War II. Originally conceived and built as a modernist urban commu ...

to the

KZ Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, where he died early in January 1945, before the liberation of the concentration camp.

Works

Stage plays

*''Goldreifchen''. Fairy tale in 3 acts. Libretto: and Mia Ewers. UA 1909 Vienna *''Das Damenparadies''. Operetta in one act. Libretto: Julius Brammer and Alfred Grünwald. UA 1911 Vienna *''Wiener Fratz''. Operetta in one act. Libretto: Ernst Klein and . UA 1912 Vienna *''Arms and the Girl''. Operetta in 2 scenes, Libretto: Austen Hurgon. UA 1912 London *''Leute vom Stand''. Operetta in one act. Libretto:

Robert Bodanzky Robert Bodanzky, also known as Danton (born Isidor Bodanskie, 8 March 1879 – 2 November 1923), was an Austrian journalist, playwright, poet and artist. While he became famous for his apolitical poems before World War I, he turned an anarchist ...

and Fritz Grünbaum. UA 1913 Vienna *''Der Weltenbummler''. Operetta in one prelude and 2 acts. Libretto:

Fritz Löhner-Beda Fritz Löhner-Beda (24 June 1883 – 4 December 1942), born Bedřich Löwy, was an Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer. Once nearly forgotten, many of his songs and tunes remain popular today. He was murdered in Auschwitz III Monowitz concen ...

and

Karl Lindau Karl Lindau (also Carl Lindau, born Karl Gemperle; 26 November 1853 – 15 January 1934) was an Austrian actor and writer. He excelled in comic roles at the Theater an der Wien, and wrote several plays, librettos for operettas and songs. Career ...

. UA 1915 Berlin *''Die Dame von Welt''. Operetta in 3 acts. Libretto: Fritz Löhner-Beda and Hans Kottow. UA 1917 Vienna *''Die Puppenbaronessen''. Musical comedy in 2 acts. Libretto: Alexander Engel and Fritz Grünbaum. UA 1917 Vienna *''Großstadtmärchen''. Operetta in 3 acts. Libretto: and . UA 1920 Vienna *''Im Alpenhotel''. Operetta in one act. Libretto: Julius Horst and Ernst Wengraf. UA 1921 Vienna *''Der geizige Verschwender''. Operetta in 3 acts. Libretto: and . UA 1922 Berlin *''Apollo? Nur Apollo!'' Revue in 18 scenes (together with other composers). Libretto: Fritz Grünbaum, and Fritz Löhner-Beda. UA 1925 Vienna *''Hallo! Hier Grünbaum!'' Revue. Text: Fritz Grünbaum. UA 1927 Vienna

Songs

*''Junger Mann'', text: Arthur Rebner. 1923. Verlag Gabor Steiner, N.Y. *''Liebe Katharina, komm zu mir nach China!'' Lied and Foxtrot. Text:

. 1927. Wiener Bohême Verlag *''Meine Tante, deine Tante''. One-step, text: Fritz Löhner-Beda. 1925. Wiener Bohême Verlag *''Was machst du mit dem Knie, lieber Hans''. Pasodoble, text: Fritz Löhner-Beda. 1925. Wiener Bohême Verlag *''Wenn man’s noch nie gemacht''. Foxtrot, text: Arthur Rebner. 1923. Verlag Gabor Steiner, N.Y. *''Wo sind deine Haare, August?'' Foxtrot, text: Fritz Löhner-Beda

Bibliography

Kay Weniger Kay Weniger (born in Berlin in 1966) is an Austrian writer of books on media issues. He published an eight-volume encyclopaedia on international film people. Biography Weniger is the son of the German stage and film actress and the Austria ...

: ''Zwischen Bühne und Baracke. Lexikon der verfolgten Theater-, Film- und Musikkünstler 1933 bis 1945''.''Zwischen Bühne und Baracke. Lexikon der verfolgten Theater-, Film- und Musikkünstler 1933 bis 1945''
on Amazon With an introduction by

Paul Spiegel Paul Spiegel (31 December 1937, in Warendorf, Germany – 30 April 2006, in Düsseldorf, Germany) was leader of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland) and the main spokesman of the German Jews. He was widely ...

. Metropol, Berlin 2008, , .

References

External links

*
Richard Fall
on Lexm.uni-hamburg *

on musiques-regenerees.fr {{DEFAULTSORT:Fall, Richard 1882 births 1945 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century Austrian conductors (music) 20th-century Austrian male musicians Austrian film score composers Austrian operetta composers Austrian people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Male conductors (music) Male film score composers People from Jevíčko Austrian Jews who died in the Holocaust