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Wilhelm Grosz (11 August 1894 – 10 December 1939) (sometimes credited as Hugh Williams) was an
Wilhelm Grosz (11 August 1894 – 10 December 1939) (sometimes credited as Hugh Williams) was an Austrian
Austrian may refer to:
* Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent
** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law
* Austrian German dialect
* Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...
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 ...
, 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 ...
, and conductor.
Wilhelm Grosz was born in Vienna
en, Viennese
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. He studied music with Richard Robert Richard Robert (25 March 1861 1 February 1924 in Kaltenleutgeben)
Retrieved 28 August 2013 ...
, Retrieved 28 August 2013 ...
Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker (originally ''Schrecker''; 23 March 1878 – 21 March 1934) was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and administrator. Primarily a composer of operas, Schreker developed a style characterized by aesthetic plurality (a mixture ...
and Guido Adler
Guido Adler (1 November 1855, Ivančice (Eibenschütz), Moravia – 15 February 1941, Vienna) was a Bohemian-Austrian musicologist and writer.
Biography
Early life and education
Adler was born at Eibenschütz in Moravia in 1855. He moved ...
. In 1921 he was appointed conductor of the Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
Opera, but returned to Vienna in 1922, where he worked as a pianist and composer. From 1927 he was the artistic manager of the Ultraphone Gramophone company in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. In 1933 he became conductor of the Kammerspiele Theater in Vienna.
Forced to flee his native land because of the Nazi takeover, Grosz resettled in England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1934. However, he found little interest there for his avant garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...
musical style. He was able to apply a considerable melodic gift to setting the lyrics of popular songs, some of which became international successes. Most of his most popular titles were written with lyricist Jimmy Kennedy
James Kennedy (20 July 1902 – 6 April 1984) was a Northern Irish songwriter. He was predominantly a lyricist, putting words to existing music such as "Teddy Bears' Picnic" and "My Prayer" or co-writing with composers like Michael Carr, Wi ...
: " Harbour Lights", " Red Sails in the Sunset", "When Budapest Was Young", and " Isle of Capri".
Grosz's classical compositions include three opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
s, two ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
s, incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...
for three plays, scores for a number of films, orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
l works, a ''Symphonic Dance'' for 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 ...
and orchestra, 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 ...
, piano pieces and songs.
'' Afrika-Songs'', a song cycle for two vocal soloists and chamber ensemble, was first performed in 1930. It utilizes texts by Afro-American poets, mainly Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...
, and a strongly blues-flavored sound. Both ''Afrika-Songs'' and a selection of the pop tunes, along with other of Grosz's works, were recorded in the mid-1990s by Decca Records, as part of their series called '' Entartete Musik'' (subtitled "Music Suppressed By the Third Reich").
He died in 1939 in 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 ...
.
Selected filmography
* ''Who Takes Love Seriously?
''Who Takes Love Seriously?'' (german: Wer nimmt die Liebe ernst...) is a 1931 German romantic comedy film directed by Erich Engel and starring Max Hansen, Jenny Jugo, and Otto Wallburg. It was shot at the Marienfelde Studios of Terra Film in Be ...
'' (1931)
* ''His Majesty and Company
''His Majesty and Company'' or ''His Majesty and Co'' is a 1935 British musical film directed by Anthony Kimmins and starring John Garrick, Barbara Waring, and Morton Selten. It was made at Wembley Studios by the British subsidiary of the Fox ...
'' (1935)
Sources
*''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians,'' 5th ed. 1954External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grosz 1894 births 1939 deaths Austrian classical pianists Male classical pianists Male conductors (music) Austrian Jews Jewish classical composers Musicians from Vienna Austrian refugees Jews who immigrated to the United Kingdom to escape Nazism Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Austrian male classical composers Austrian classical composers 20th-century Austrian conductors (music) 20th-century Austrian male musicians 20th-century classical composers 20th-century classical pianists