Victor Herbert
Encyclopedia
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
-born, German-raised American composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, cellist and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s that premiered on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
from the 1890s to World War I. He was also prominent among the tin pan alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
composers and was later a founder of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization that protects its members' musical copyrights by monitoring public performances of their music, whether via a broadcast or live performance, and compensating them...
(ASCAP). A prolific composer, Herbert produced two operas, a cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
, 43 operettas, incidental music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
to 10 plays, 31 compositions for orchestra, nine band compositions, nine cello compositions, five violin compositions with piano or orchestra, 22 piano compositions and numerous songs, choral compositions and orchestrations of works by other composers, among other music.
In the early 1880s, Herbert began a career as a cellist in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria, and Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Germany, during which he began to compose orchestral music. Herbert and his opera singer wife, Therese Förster, moved to the U.S. in 1886 when both were engaged by the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
. In the U.S., Herbert continued his performing career, while also teaching at the National Conservatory of Music
National Conservatory of Music of America
The National Conservatory of Music of America was an institution for higher education in music founded in 1885 in New York City by Jeannette Meyers Thurber...
, conducting and composing. His most notable instrumental compositions were his Cello Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 30 (1894), which entered the standard repertoire, and his Auditorium Festival March (1901). He led the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1898 to 1904 and then founded the Victor Herbert Orchestra, which he conducted throughout the rest of his life.
Herbert began to compose operettas in 1894, producing several successes, including The Serenade
The Serenade
The Serenade is an operetta with music and lyrics by Victor Herbert, and book by Harry B. Smith. Produced by a troupe called "The Bostonians", it premiered on Broadway on March 16, 1897 at the Knickerbocker Theatre and ran initially for 79 performances...
(1897) and The Fortune Teller
The Fortune Teller (operetta)
The Fortune Teller is an operetta in three acts written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Harry B. Smith. After a brief tryout in Toronto, it premiered on Broadway on September 26, 1898 at Wallack's Theatre and ran for 40 performances...
(1898). Even more successful were some of the operettas that he wrote after the turn of the 20th century: Babes in Toyland
Babes in Toyland (operetta)
Babes in Toyland is an operetta composed by Victor Herbert with a libretto by Glen MacDonough , which wove together various characters from Mother Goose nursery rhymes into a Christmas-themed musical extravaganza. The creators wanted to cash in on the extraordinary success of The Wizard of Oz,...
(1903), Mlle. Modiste
Mlle. Modiste
Mlle. Modiste is an operetta in two acts written by Victor Herbert, libretto by Henry Blossom. It concerns hat shop girl Fifi, who longs to be an opera singer, but who is such a good hat seller that her employer, Mme. Cecil discourages her in her ambitions and exploits her commercial talents...
(1905), The Red Mill
The Red Mill
The Red Mill is an operetta written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Henry Blossom. It premiered on Broadway on September 24, 1906 at the Knickerbocker Theatre and ran for 274 performances, starring comedians Fred Stone and David Montgomery. It was revived on October 16, 1945, opening at the...
(1906), Naughty Marietta
Naughty Marietta (operetta)
Naughty Marietta is an operetta in two acts, with libretto by Rida Johnson Young and music by Victor Herbert. Set in New Orleans in 1780, it tells how Captain Richard Warrington is commissioned to unmask and capture a notorious French pirate calling himself "Bras Priqué" – and how he is helped and...
(1910), Sweethearts (1913) and Eileen
Eileen (musical)
Eileen is a comic opera with music by Victor Herbert and lyrics and book by Henry Blossom based loosely on the 1835 novel Rory O'Moore by Herbert's grandfather, Samuel Lover. Set in 1798, the story concerns an Irish revolutionary arrested by the British for treason...
(1917). After World War I, with the change of popular musical tastes, Herbert began to compose musicals
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
and contributed music to other composers' shows. While some of these were well-received, he never again achieved the level of success that he had enjoyed with his most popular operettas.
Early life and education
Herbert was born in Dublin, Ireland to ProtestantsChurch of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
Edward Herbert (d. 1861) and Fanny Herbert (née Lover). At age three and a half, shortly after the death of his father, young Herbert and his mother moved to live with his maternal grandparents in London, England, where he received encouragement in his creative endeavours. His grandfather was the Irish novelist, playwright, poet and composer Samuel Lover
Samuel Lover
Samuel Lover was an Anglo-Irish songwriter, novelist, as well as a painter of portraits, chiefly miniatures. He was the grandfather of Victor Herbert....
. The Lovers welcomed a steady flow of musicians, writers and artists to their home. Herbert joined his mother in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Germany in 1867, a year after she had married a German physician, Carl Schmidt of Langenargen
Langenargen
Langenargen is a town in the district of Bodensee in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.- Sports :Langenargen is an ideal venue for sports such as sailing. The town's location on the shores of Bodensee provides smooth waters even when windy. Langenargen is the host city of Match Race Germany part of the...
. In Stuttgart he received a strong liberal education at the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium
Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium
Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium is a gymnasium in Stuttgart established in 1686.-History:The school was established in 1686 as Gymnasium illustre. In 1881, during the reign of Charles I of Württemberg, because of overcrowding, the Karls-Gymnasium was established and took over 18 of its 39 classes...
, which included musical training.
Herbert initially planned to pursue a career as a medical doctor. Although his stepfather was related by blood to the German royal family, his financial situation was not good by the time Herbert was a teenager. Medical education in Germany was expensive, and so Herbert focused instead on music. He initially studied the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
and piccolo
Piccolo
The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
but ultimately settled on the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, beginning studies on that instrument with Bernhard Cossmann
Bernhard Cossmann
Bernhard Cossmann was a German cellist. Born in Dessau, he first studied under Theodore Muller. During his life, he worked for the Grand Opera in Paris and became acquainted with Franz Liszt, with whom he went to Weimar. In 1866, Cossmann was appointed professor of cello studies at the Moscow...
from age 15 to age 18. He then attended the Stuttgart Conservatory
State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart
The State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart is a professional school for musicians and performing artists in Stuttgart, Germany...
. After studying cello, music theory
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
and composition under Max Seifritz, Herbert graduated with a diploma in 1879.
Early career and the move to the U.S.
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
of the wealthy Russian Baron Paul von Derwies for a few years and, in 1880, was a soloist for a year in the orchestra of Eduard Strauss
Eduard Strauss
Eduard Strauss was an Austrian composer who, together with brothers Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss made up the Strauss musical dynasty. The family dominated the Viennese light music world for decades, creating many waltzes and polkas for many Austrian nobility as well as dance-music...
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. Herbert joined the court orchestra in Stuttgart in 1881, where he remained for the next five years. There he composed his first pieces of instrumental music, playing the solos in the premieres of his first two large-scale works, the Suite for cello and orchestra, Op. 3 (1893) and the Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 8. In 1883, Herbert was selected by Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
to play in a chamber orchestra for the celebration of the life of Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, then 72 years old, near Zurich.
In 1885 Herbert became romantically involved with Therese Förster (1861–1927), a soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
who had recently joined the court opera for which the court orchestra played. Förster sang several leading roles at the Stuttgart Opera in 1885 through the summer of 1886. After a year of courtship, the couple married on 14 August 1886. On 24 October 1886, they moved to the United States, as they both had been hired by Walter Damrosch and Anton Seidl
Anton Seidl
Anton Seidl was a Hungarian conductor.-Biography:He was born at Pest, Hungary. He began the study of music at a very early age, and when only seven years old could pick out at the piano melodies which he had heard at the theatre...
to join the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York City. Herbert was engaged as the opera orchestra's principal cellist, and Förster was engaged to sing principal roles with the Met. During the voyage to America, Herbert and his wife became friends with their fellow passenger and future conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, Anton Seidl, and other singers joining the Met.
Initial musical life in New York City
Seidl became an important mentor to Herbert and took a particular interest in fostering Herbert's skills as a conductor. Upon arriving in New York, Herbert and Förster became active members of New York's German music community, socializing and networking at cafes such as Luchow'sLuchow's
Lüchow's was a restaurant located at 110 East 14th Street at Irving Place near Union Square in Manhattan, New York City, with the property running clear through the block to 13th Street...
. At these cafes, Herbert handed out business cards saying, "solo cellist from the Royal Orchestra of his Majesty, the King of Wurtemberg. Instructor in cello, vocal music and harmony." Herbert hoped to pick up extra income teaching, since he was earning only $40 to $50 a week as a cellist in the Met pit.
Meanwhile, in her first season at the Met, 1886–87, Förster sang several roles in German, including the title role of the Queen of Sheba in Goldmark
Karl Goldmark
Karl Goldmark, also known originally as Károly Goldmark and later sometimes as Carl Goldmark; May 18, 1830, Keszthely – January 2, 1915, Vienna) was a Hungarian composer.- Life and career :...
's Die Königin von Saba
Die Königin von Saba
Die Königin von Saba is an opera in four acts by Karl Goldmark. The German libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal, sets a love triangle into the context of the Queen of Sheba's visit to the court of King Solomon, recorded in First Kings...
, Elsa in Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, Irene in Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Rienzi, the title role in the U.S. premiere of Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
and Elizabeth in Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
. She earned praise from critics and audiences alike and was featured on the cover of the Musical Courier
Musical Courier
The Musical Courier was a 19th and 20th century American music trade publication which began publication in 1880 and became noted as preeminent in its field....
, a major music magazine of the day. The next season, she repeated the role of Elsa but then left the Met and then sang with the German-language Thalia Theatre
Bowery Theatre
The Bowery Theatre was a playhouse in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City. Although it was founded by rich families to compete with the upscale Park Theatre, the Bowery saw its most successful period under the populist, pro-American management of Thomas Hamblin in the 1830s and 1840s...
, again earning good reviews. Although she sang for several more years, her career did not progress. Nevertheless, happy in New York, Herbert and Förster decided to remain in America after their first season at the Metropolitan Opera and eventually became citizens.
New York Symphony Orchestra
The New York Symphony Orchestra was founded as the New York Symphony Society in New York City by Leopold Damrosch in 1878. For many years it was a fierce rival to the older Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was supported by Andrew Carnegie who built Carnegie Hall expressly for the...
at the Metropolitan Opera House on 8 January 1887. The New York Herald
New York Herald
The New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835, and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., on May 6, 1835. By 1845 it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the UnitedStates...
said of the event, "[Herbert's] style is infinitely more easy and graceful than that of most cello players". This warm reception quickly led to more solo engagements that year, including performances of his own Berceuse and Polonais. Herbert continued to appear as a cello soloist with major American orchestras into the 1910s. In the fall of 1887, he formed his own 40-piece orchestra, the Majestic Orchestra Internationale, which he conducted and in which he served as cello soloist. Although the orchestra survived for only one season, it performed in several of New York's most important concert halls. The same year, he founded the New York String Quartet together with violinists Sam Franko
Sam Franko
Sam Franko was an American violinist and conductor. He was the brother of violinist, conductor and concert promoter Nahan Franko....
and Henry Boewig, and violist Ludwig Schenck. The group's first concert was on December 8, 1887, and it continued to give free-admittance concerts for several years at Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall
Steinway Hall is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and Steinway-Häuser are located in world cities such as New York City, London, Hamburg, Berlin,...
, earning enthusiastic critical praise.
During the Summer of 1888, Herbert became Siedl's assistant conductor for the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
's ten-week summer concert seasons on the Boardwalk at Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is an oceanside neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. As of 2000, it has a population of 75,692 with a total of 31,228 households.-Location:...
, a prestigious post. Siedl's concert seasons made Brighton Beach an important New York musical venue each summer. Herbert conducted the 80-piece orchestra in lighter works paired with more serious repertoire at summer concerts and festivals over the next few years. Herbert's association with the New York Philharmonic ended in 1898, after eleven seasons, serving variously as an assistant conductor, guest conductor and solo cellist. In Fall 1888, soprano Emma Juchs hired Herbert to music direct a "concert party" tour of cities and towns in the midwest that had seen little art music, presenting a quartet of singers in varied programs of songs, operatic scenes and arias to new audiences. The accompaniment was usually pianist Adele Aus de Ohe and Herbert at the cello. The group presented their concerts to wealthy patrons at fashionable private parties and at mostly smaller venues to local audiences, educating them about opera, art songs and contemporary music.
Conducting and composing successes
On December 1, 1888, Seidl programmed Herbert's Serenade for String Orchestra, Op. 12 as part of a concert at Steinway Hall, with the composer conducting. In January, Herbert and violinist Max BendixMax Bendix
Max Bendix was an American composer, conductor, and violinist; he worked for many years with Theodore Thomas, and served for a time as concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra. He wrote a number of works for orchestra and some incidental music as well as songs...
were the soloists in the American premiere of the challenging Double Concerto, Op. 102 for Violin, Cello and Orchestra by Brahms. Conductor Theodore Thomas then invited Herbert to conduct and perform with him in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. In 1889, Herbert formed the Metropolitan Trio Club with Bendix and pianist Reinhold L. Herman. The Musical Courier gave effusive praise to both Herbert's compositions ("refined taste, abundant melodic invention") and his playing: "As a violoncellist, Mr. Herbert ranks with the foremost alive". Seidl brought Herbert, Förster, Bendix, Juchs, Ohe and Lilli Lehmann
Lilli Lehmann
Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch was a German operatic soprano of phenomenal versatility...
, together with a large orchestra and 500-voice chorus, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
in May 1889 as part of a big music festival to celebrate the new Exposition Building.
Herbert also played and conducted for the Worcester Music Festival
Worcester Music Festival
Worcester Music Festival Is an annual music festival held in Worcester town centre during the 3rd week of August founded in 2008 by Chris Bennion as a platform to encourage live, local and original music in Worcester and the surrounding areas and is staged in over 30 pubs, clubs, cafes, and...
, where he returned repeatedly through the 1890s. In the autumn of 1889, Herbert also joined the faculty of the National Conservatory of Music
National Conservatory of Music of America
The National Conservatory of Music of America was an institution for higher education in music founded in 1885 in New York City by Jeannette Meyers Thurber...
, where he taught cello and music composition for several years. In 1890, he was appointed the conductor of the Boston Festival Orchestra, serving there in seasons through 1893, in addition to all of his conducting commitments elsewhere. In 1881, Herbert premiered an ambitious choral work, The Captive, for solo voices, chorus and full orchestra. His Irish Rhapsody (1892) enjoyed a brief but intense period of popularity.
He became director of the 22nd Regimental Band of the New York National Guard in 1893, succeeding its founder, Patrick Gilmore
Patrick Gilmore
Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore was an Irish-born composer and bandmaster who lived and worked in the United States after 1848. Whilst serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, Gilmore wrote the lyrics to the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", the tune he took from an old Irish antiwar folk...
. The following year he took over leadership of Gilmore's civilian band following Gilmore's death. Herbert toured widely with the 22nd Regimental Band through 1900, performing both his own band compositions and works from the orchestral repertory that he transcibed for the band. Beginning in 1894, when he began composing operettas, Herbert's band marches were sometimes derived from material from the operettas. Throughout his career, Herbert was well liked by orchestra players for his modesty and unpretentiousness. Herbert continued to compose orchestral music, writing one his finest works, the Cello Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 30, which premiered in 1894.
In 1898, Herbert became the principal conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony, a position he held until 1904. Under his leadership, the orchestra became a major American ensemble and was favorably compared by music critics with ensembles like the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
. The orchestra toured to several major cities during Herbert's years as conductor, notably premiering Herbert's Auditorium Festival March for the celebration of the twelfth anniversary of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
's Auditorium Theatre in 1901. After a disagreement with the management of the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1904, Herbert resigned, founding the Victor Herbert Orchestra. He conducted their programs of light orchestral music paired with more serious repertoire (as he had done earlier with the New York Philharmonic's summer concerts) at summer resorts and on tours for most of his remaining years. His orchestra made a series of acoustical recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....
, and Herbert was a cello soloist in several Victor recordings as well.
Activist for the legal rights of composers
In the early years of the twentieth century, Herbert championed the right of composers to profit from their works. In 1909, he testified before the United States CongressUnited States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
, influencing the formation and development of the Copyright Act of 1909
Copyright Act of 1909
The Copyright Act of 1909 was a landmark statute in United States statutory copyright law. It became Public Law number 60-349 on March 4, 1909 by the 60th United States Congress, and it went into effect on July 1, 1909...
. This law helped to secure the rights of composers to charge royalties on the sales of sound recordings.
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
, Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
and others in founding the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization that protects its members' musical copyrights by monitoring public performances of their music, whether via a broadcast or live performance, and compensating them...
(ASCAP) on February 13, 1914, becoming its vice-president and director until his death in 1924. The organization has historically worked to protect the rights of creative musicians and continues to do this work today. In 1917, Herbert won a landmark lawsuit before the United States Supreme Court that gave composers, through ASCAP, a right to charge performance fees for the public performance of their music. ASCAP commissioned a statue in Herbert's honor in New York City's Central Park, erected in 1927.
Operetta, opera and musical theatre
In 1894 Herbert composed his first operettaOperetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
, Prince Ananias
Prince Ananias
Prince Ananias was the first operetta composed by Victor Herbert, to a libretto by Francis Neilson. It was produced by a troupe called "The Bostonians" at The Broadway Theatre in 1894 and remained in their repertoire for three seasons and was given more than 300 performances in all.- References...
, for a popular troupe known as The Bostonians
The Bostonians
The Bostonians is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Century Magazine in 1885–1886 and then as a book in 1886. This bittersweet tragicomedy centers on an odd triangle of characters: Basil Ransom, a political conservative from Mississippi; Olive Chancellor, Ransom's cousin...
. The piece was well received, and Herbert soon composed three more operettas for Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, The Wizard of the Nile
The Wizard of the Nile
The Wizard of the Nile was a burlesque operetta in three acts, composed by Victor Herbert to a libretto by Harry B. Smith.Herbert's second operetta after Prince Ananias, The Wizard of the Nile was his first real success...
(1895), The Serenade
The Serenade
The Serenade is an operetta with music and lyrics by Victor Herbert, and book by Harry B. Smith. Produced by a troupe called "The Bostonians", it premiered on Broadway on March 16, 1897 at the Knickerbocker Theatre and ran initially for 79 performances...
(1897), which enjoyed international success, and The Fortune Teller
The Fortune Teller (operetta)
The Fortune Teller is an operetta in three acts written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Harry B. Smith. After a brief tryout in Toronto, it premiered on Broadway on September 26, 1898 at Wallack's Theatre and ran for 40 performances...
(1898), starring Alice Nielsen
Alice Nielsen
Alice Nielsen was a Broadway performer and operatic soprano who had her own opera company and starred in several Victor Herbert operettas.-Background:...
. Although these achieved popularity, Herbert did not produce any more stage works for several years, focusing on his work with the Pittsburgh Symphony until 1904. Just before leaving that orchestra, he returned to Broadway with his first major hit, Babes in Toyland
Babes in Toyland (operetta)
Babes in Toyland is an operetta composed by Victor Herbert with a libretto by Glen MacDonough , which wove together various characters from Mother Goose nursery rhymes into a Christmas-themed musical extravaganza. The creators wanted to cash in on the extraordinary success of The Wizard of Oz,...
(1903). Two more successes followed, Mlle. Modiste
Mlle. Modiste
Mlle. Modiste is an operetta in two acts written by Victor Herbert, libretto by Henry Blossom. It concerns hat shop girl Fifi, who longs to be an opera singer, but who is such a good hat seller that her employer, Mme. Cecil discourages her in her ambitions and exploits her commercial talents...
(1905) and The Red Mill
The Red Mill
The Red Mill is an operetta written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Henry Blossom. It premiered on Broadway on September 24, 1906 at the Knickerbocker Theatre and ran for 274 performances, starring comedians Fred Stone and David Montgomery. It was revived on October 16, 1945, opening at the...
(1906), which solidified Herbert as one of the best-known American composers. He was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1908.
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
s. He searched for several years for a libretto that appealed to him, finally finding one by Joseph D. Redding called Natoma that concerned a historical story set in California. He composed the work from 1909 to 1910, and it premiered in Philadelphia on 25 February 1911 with soprano Mary Garden
Mary Garden
Mary Garden , was a Scottish operatic soprano with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century...
in the title role and the young Irish tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
John McCormack in his opera debut. The opera was well-received and was repeated as part of the company's repertory during the next three seasons. It also enjoyed performances in New York City, making its debut there on February 28, 1911. Herbert's other opera, Madeleine
Madeleine (opera)
Madeleine is an opera in one act by Victor Herbert set to a libretto by Grant Stewart, after the French play Je dîne chez ma mère by Adrien Decourcelle and Lambert Thiboust...
, was a much lighter work in one act. On 24 January 1914, it had its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, but it was not revived beyond that season.
During this period, Herbert continued to compose operettas, producing two of his most successful works, Naughty Marietta
Naughty Marietta (operetta)
Naughty Marietta is an operetta in two acts, with libretto by Rida Johnson Young and music by Victor Herbert. Set in New Orleans in 1780, it tells how Captain Richard Warrington is commissioned to unmask and capture a notorious French pirate calling himself "Bras Priqué" – and how he is helped and...
(1910) and Sweethearts (1913). Another operetta, Eileen
Eileen (musical)
Eileen is a comic opera with music by Victor Herbert and lyrics and book by Henry Blossom based loosely on the 1835 novel Rory O'Moore by Herbert's grandfather, Samuel Lover. Set in 1798, the story concerns an Irish revolutionary arrested by the British for treason...
(1917, originally entitled Hearts of Erin), was the fulfillment of Herbert's desire to compose an Irish-themed operetta. The piece treats the Irish Rebellion of 1798
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 , also known as the United Irishmen Rebellion , was an uprising in 1798, lasting several months, against British rule in Ireland...
and boasts a rich score. This was the end of Herbert's greatest period of producing full scores for operettas.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
and new dance styles like the foxtrot and tango
Tango (ballroom)
Ballroom Tango is a ballroom dance that branched away from its original Argentine roots by allowing European, American, Hollywood, and competitive influences into the style and execution of the dance....
, Herbert reluctantly switched to writing musical comedies
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. These featured less elaborate ensembles and simpler songs for less classically-trained singers than the European-style operettas that had dominated his earlier career. Herbert, during the last years of his career, was frequently asked to compose ballet music for the elaborate production numbers in Broadway revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...
s and the shows of Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
and Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
, among others. He was also a contributor to the Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
every year from 1917 to 1924.
Death and legacy
A healthy man throughout his life, Herbert died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 65 on 26 May 1924 shortly after his final show, The Dream GirlThe Dream Girl
The Dream Girl is an operetta in three acts with music by Victor Herbert and book by Rida Johnson Young and Harold R. Atteridge. It is based on the 1906 play The Road to Yesterday by Beulah Marie Dix and Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland. Additional music was written by Sigmund Romberg...
, began its pre-Broadway run in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
. He was survived by his wife and two children, Ella Victoria Herbert Bartlett and Clifford Victor Herbert. His remains were buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York.
Herbert and his music are celebrated in the 1939 film The Great Victor Herbert
The Great Victor Herbert
-Cast:* Allan Jones as John Ramsey* Mary Martin as Louise Hall* Walter Connolly as Victor Herbert* Lee Bowman as Dr. Richard Moore* Susanna Foster as Peggy* Judith Barrett as Marie Clark* Jerome Cowan as Barney Harris* John Garrick as Warner Bryant...
, starring Mary Martin
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...
. Many of Herbert's own works were made into films, and his music has been used in numerous films and television shows. A Chicago elementary school is named for him.
Works
Herbert was a prolific composer, producing two operas, one cantataCantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
, 43 operettas, incidental music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
to 10 stage productions, 31 compositions for orchestra, nine band compositions, nine cello compositions, five violin compositions with piano or orchestra, 22 piano compositions, one flute and clarinet duet with orchestra, numerous songs, including many for the Ziegfeld Follies, and other works, 12 choral compositions, and numerous orchestrations of works by other composers, among other compositions. He also composed The Fall of a Nation
The Fall of a Nation
The Fall of a Nation was a 1916 American silent drama film directed by Thomas Dixon, Jr. It is a sequel to the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, which Dixon, Jr. co-wrote, in attempt in cash in on the success of the controversial first film. The Fall of a Nation is...
(1916), one of the first original orchestral scores for a full-length film. The score was thought to be lost, but it turned up in the film-music collection of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
. It was given a recording in 1987.
As a composer, Herbert is chiefly remembered for his operettas. Of his instrumental works, only a few remained consistently within the concert repertoire after Herbert's death. However, some of his forgotten works have enjoyed a resurgence of popularity within the last couple decades.
Operettas and other stage music
Miss Dolly Dollars
Miss Dolly Dollars is a musical comedy written in two acts with the book and lyrics by Harry B. Smith and music by Victor Herbert. The musical concerns a wealthy American girl in Europe, who is sought after by bankrupt aristocrats...
(1905), Dream City (1906), The Magic Knight
The Magic Knight
The Magic Knight is a one-act musical burlesque with music by Victor Herbert and a libretto by Edgar Smith. The piece parodies the Richard Wagner opera Lohengrin....
(1906), Little Nemo (1908), The Lady of the Slipper (1912), The Princess Pat
The Princess Pat
The Princess Pat is an operetta in three acts with music by Victor Herbert and book and lyrics by Henry Blossom. After an Atlantic City, New Jersey tryout in August 1915, it premiered on Broadway on September 29, 1915 at the Cort Theatre and ran for 158 performances...
(1915) and My Golden Girl (1920). In addition to composing about 55 full scores for stage works, Herbert produced a considerable body of musical numbers for variety shows such as the Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
and the sophisticated private entertainments for the Lambs theatrical club
The Lambs
The Lambs, Inc., is one of America's oldest theatrical organizations and is based in New York City.-History:The Lambs was originally founded in 1868 in London by actors, led by John Hare, the first Shepherd, looking to socialize with like-minded people...
.
Herbert's early shows toured widely, usually including a Broadway run to further publicize the tour. As Broadway increasingly became essential to commercial theatrical success, Herbert designed his shows to appeal specifically to New York sensibilities. Although consistently praised for his music, many of Herbert's operettas were criticized by theatre critics for their weak librettos and conventional lyrics. By the mid-20th century, revivals of Herbert's works were relatively rare. His shows were revived occasionally on Broadway until 1947, but not thereafter. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, the operettas began to be revived more frequently, albeit often with heavily rewritten librettos, by companies like the Light Opera of Manhattan
Light Opera of Manhattan
Light Opera of Manhattan, known as LOOM, was an Off-Broadway repertory theatre company that produced light operas, including the works of Gilbert and Sullivan and European and American operettas, 52 weeks per year, in New York City between 1968 and 1989....
and Ohio Light Opera
Ohio Light Opera
The Ohio Light Opera is a professional opera company based in Wooster, Ohio that performs the light opera repertory, including Gilbert and Sullivan, American, British and continental operettas, and other musical theatre works, especially of the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
, and revivals continue today.
Herbert's style
American musical theatre composers of the late nineteenth century tended to imitate either Viennese operetta or the works of Gilbert and SullivanGilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
. Many American theatre companies, such as The Bostonians, were established for the purpose of performing Gilbert and Sullivan's operas, such as H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
and The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
, and adaptations of Karl Millöcker
Karl Millöcker
Carl Joseph Millöcker , was an Austrian composer of operettas and a conductor.He was born in Vienna, where he studied the flute at the Vienna Conservatory. While holding various conducting posts in the city, he began to compose operettas...
's operettas, such as Der Bettelstudent
Der Bettelstudent
Der Bettelstudent is an operetta in three acts by Carl Millöcker with a German libretto by Camillo Walzel and Richard Genée, based on Les noces de Fernande by Victorien Sardou and The Lady of Lyons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton...
, or Franz von Suppé
Franz von Suppé
Franz von Suppé or Francesco Suppé Demelli was an Austrian composer of light operas who was born in what is now Croatia during the time his father was working in this outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire...
's Boccaccio, all of which became popular in America. Herbert tailored his operettas to be performed by companies that performed these works. His background made him intimately familiar with Viennese operetta. Indeed, the most characteristic Herbert song was the waltz, and many of his waltzes became highly popular in spite of their high musical demands.
Serenade
In music, a serenade is a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music.The word Serenade is derived from the Italian word sereno, which means calm....
s of All Nations" from The Fortune Teller demonstrates serenades from colourful national traditions, sung and danced by a ballerina
Ballerina
A ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...
. "The Song of the Poet" from Babes in Toyland provides variations on the lullaby "Rock-a-bye Baby
Rock-a-bye Baby
Rock-a-bye Baby is a nursery rhyme and lullaby. The melody is a variant of the English satirical ballad Lilliburlero. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 2768.-Lyrics:...
" by presenting it first as a brassy march, then in Neapolitan style, and finally as a cakewalk. The best of Herbert's operetta music is challenging, calling for trained singers. He often wrote his operettas with a particular singer in mind. During his career he had occasion to work with three great prima donnas: Alice Nielsen
Alice Nielsen
Alice Nielsen was a Broadway performer and operatic soprano who had her own opera company and starred in several Victor Herbert operettas.-Background:...
, Fritzi Scheff
Fritzi Scheff
Fritzi Scheff was an American actress and vocalist.-Biography:Born in Vienna, Austria, she studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt and made her début in Munich in the title röle of Martha...
, and Emma Trentini
Emma Trentini
Emma Trentini was an Italian soprano opera singer who came to the United States in December 1906.-Early life:She was from Mantova, Italy . Her parents were poor and could not afford to give her money to attain an operatic career. At the age of 12 she was welcomed into the church choir of Mantova...
. For them, he wrote leading parts in The Fortune Teller and The Singing Girl (Nielsen), Babette, Mlle. Modiste, The Prima Donna and Mlle Rosita (Scheff), and Naughty Marietta (Trentini). He would also write shows for popular comedians of the day or noted producers. Some of these were spectacular successes (The Red Mill
The Red Mill
The Red Mill is an operetta written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Henry Blossom. It premiered on Broadway on September 24, 1906 at the Knickerbocker Theatre and ran for 274 performances, starring comedians Fred Stone and David Montgomery. It was revived on October 16, 1945, opening at the...
, written for the comedy team of David C. Montgomery and Fred Stone
Fred Stone
Fred Andrew Stone was an American actor. Stone began his career as a performer in circuses and minstrel shows, went on to act on vaudeville, and became a star on Broadway and in feature films, which earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.-Biography:He was particularly famous for appearing...
, was Herbert's most financially successful show.), while others were dismal failures (When Sweet Sixteen, written for Joe Weber
Joe Weber (vaudevillian)
Joe Weber born Joseph Morris Weber was a vaudevillian who, along with Lew Fields, formed the comedy team of Weber and Fields....
, who pulled out of the production, which lasted only twelve performances on Broadway.).
Although Herbert had not been exposed to Gilbert and Sullivan before his arrival in the U.S. in 1886, their popularity led him to adopt some of their musical and dramatic sensibilities. An example of this is the quintet "Cleopatra's Wedding Day" from The Wizard of the Nile
The Wizard of the Nile
The Wizard of the Nile was a burlesque operetta in three acts, composed by Victor Herbert to a libretto by Harry B. Smith.Herbert's second operetta after Prince Ananias, The Wizard of the Nile was his first real success...
. One of his early successes, The Serenade
The Serenade
The Serenade is an operetta with music and lyrics by Victor Herbert, and book by Harry B. Smith. Produced by a troupe called "The Bostonians", it premiered on Broadway on March 16, 1897 at the Knickerbocker Theatre and ran initially for 79 performances...
, borrows many of its situations from Ruddigore
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
, Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
and The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
. The work's librettist, Harry B. Smith
Harry B. Smith
Harry Bache Smith was a writer, lyricist and composer. The most prolific of all American stage writers, he is said to have written over 300 librettos and more than 6000 lyrics. Some of his best-known works were librettos for the composer Victor Herbert...
, went on to steal more Gilbertian ideas for future operettas with Herbert, who often would complement these ideas with music reminiscent of Sullivan. For example, The Singing Girl, recalling The Mikado, includes the plot element of the fear of enforcement of a law against kissing without a licence.
Naughty Marietta (operetta)
Naughty Marietta is an operetta in two acts, with libretto by Rida Johnson Young and music by Victor Herbert. Set in New Orleans in 1780, it tells how Captain Richard Warrington is commissioned to unmask and capture a notorious French pirate calling himself "Bras Priqué" – and how he is helped and...
, produced by the Smithsonian in 1981. Only recently have more recordings of his operettas appeared with the original orchestrations intact. These include Naughty Marietta, Mlle. Modiste
Mlle. Modiste
Mlle. Modiste is an operetta in two acts written by Victor Herbert, libretto by Henry Blossom. It concerns hat shop girl Fifi, who longs to be an opera singer, but who is such a good hat seller that her employer, Mme. Cecil discourages her in her ambitions and exploits her commercial talents...
, Eileen
Eileen (musical)
Eileen is a comic opera with music by Victor Herbert and lyrics and book by Henry Blossom based loosely on the 1835 novel Rory O'Moore by Herbert's grandfather, Samuel Lover. Set in 1798, the story concerns an Irish revolutionary arrested by the British for treason...
, Sweethearts and The Red Mill by Ohio Light Opera
Ohio Light Opera
The Ohio Light Opera is a professional opera company based in Wooster, Ohio that performs the light opera repertory, including Gilbert and Sullivan, American, British and continental operettas, and other musical theatre works, especially of the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
and The Fortune Teller
The Fortune Teller (operetta)
The Fortune Teller is an operetta in three acts written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Harry B. Smith. After a brief tryout in Toronto, it premiered on Broadway on September 26, 1898 at Wallack's Theatre and ran for 40 performances...
by The Comic Opera Guild.
Like Sullivan, Herbert also frequently evokes and imitates music from distant places in his operettas. He uses elements of Spanish music
Music of Spain
The Music of Spain has a long history and has played an important part in the development of western music. It has had a particularly strong influence upon Latin American music. The music of Spain is often associated abroad with traditions like flamenco and the classical guitar but Spanish music...
in The Serenade, Italian music
Music of Italy
The music of Italy ranges across a broad spectrum of opera and instrumental classical music and a body of popular music drawn from both native and imported sources. Music has traditionally been one of the cultural markers of Italian national and ethnic identity and holds an important position in...
in Naughty Marietta, Austrian music
Music of Austria
Vienna has been an important center of musical innovation. 18th and 19th century composers were drawn to the city due to the patronage of the Habsburgs, and made Vienna the European capital of classical music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Strauss II, among others,...
in The Singing Girl and Eastern music in The Wizard of the Nile, The Idol's Eye, The Tattooed Man and other works set in places like Egypt and India. The Fortune Teller includes an energetic Hungarian csárdás
Csárdás
Csárdás is a traditional Hungarian folk dance, the name derived from csárda . It originated in Hungary and was popularized by Roma music bands in Hungary and neighboring lands of Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Burgenland, Croatia, Ukraine, Transylvania and Moravia, as well as among the Banat...
. He also frequently interpolated Irish-style songs into his operettas which, with the exception of those in Eileen, rarely advanced the plot.
By World War I, musical tastes were shifting in America, and Herbert was forced to compose in a simpler musical style. Many of his later works, such as The Velvet Lady and Angel Face (both 1919), imitated popular new song-types like the foxtrot, ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
and the tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
. Even in some of his earlier works, such as The Red Mill (1906), Herbert was already adopting elements that would later become associated with musical comedy in America. His collaboration on The Century Girl (1916) with Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
displayed this simpler style. Although these later shows introduced some memorable numbers, they did not enjoy the enduring popularity of his most popular operettas. The most successful work of his later career was Orange Blossoms (1921), which included the popular waltz song, "A Kiss in the Dark".
Operas
Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I was a businessman, theater impresario and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America...
to write a grand opera
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
, Herbert jumped at the chance. Hammerstein announced, in the April 13, 1907 issue of Musical America
Musical America
Musical America is the oldest American magazine on classical music. Presently it is a website with a weekly online magazine. It is currently published by UBM Global Trade.-History:...
, a $1,000 prize for the best libretto submitted, fueling public enthusiasm and high expectations. Joseph Redding's libretto for Natoma, set in 1820s California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, is a love story between an American naval officer and a Native American princess. The cast included such distinguished singers as John McCormack and Mary Garden
Mary Garden
Mary Garden , was a Scottish operatic soprano with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century...
, but the 1911 première in Philadelphia was only a moderate success. Critics praised the music, including its effective melodies and leitmotif
Leitmotif
A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
s set off by orchestral counterpoint. They complained, however, about the libretto and the casting of foreign singers in what was supposed to be an "American opera".
Madeleine
Madeleine (opera)
Madeleine is an opera in one act by Victor Herbert set to a libretto by Grant Stewart, after the French play Je dîne chez ma mère by Adrien Decourcelle and Lambert Thiboust...
, his only other opera, is based on a French play and tells the equable little story of an operatic prima donna whose friends and acquaintances, one by one, decline her invitation to dine with her on New Years Day. The work is in one act and premièred in 1914 in a double bill with Enrico Caruso in the leading tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
role in Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
. The opera featured Frances Alda
Frances Alda
Frances Alda was a New Zealand-born, Australian-raised operatic soprano. She achieved fame during the first three decades of the 20th century due to her outstanding singing voice, fine technique and colourful personality—and frequent onstage partnerships at the New York Metropolitan Opera with the...
in the title role. It failed to make an impression and received only six performances. Its conversational style is complemented by orchestral motivic commentary. Just before the work opened, Herbert added "A Perfect Day" at Alda's request. Although not a success, because of Herbert's popularity, G. Schirmer
G. Schirmer
G. Schirmer Inc. is an American classical music publishing company based in New York City, founded in 1861. It publishes sheet music for sale and rental, and represents some well-known European music publishers in North America, such as the Italian Ricordi, Music Sales Affiliates ChesterNovello,...
took the unprecedented step of publishing the work in full score.
Instrumental music
After Herbert's death, little of his instrumental music continued to be performed, but within the last couple of decades it has begun to enjoy revivals in concert and recordings. His Cello Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 30, is an exception to this. First performed in 1894, it was received enthusiastically at its premiere and shows the influence of Franz LisztFranz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
. Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
, a colleague of Herbert's at the National Conservatory, was inspired to compose his Cello Concerto in B minor
Cello Concerto (Dvorák)
The Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191, by Antonín Dvořák was the composer's last solo concerto, and was written in 1894–1895 for his friend, the cellist Hanuš Wihan, but premiered by the English cellist Leo Stern.- Structure :...
, Op. 104, after hearing its premiere. The concerto has been recorded by cellists such as Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...
(with Kurt Masur
Kurt Masur
Kurt Masur is a German conductor, particularly noted for his interpretation of German Romantic music.- Biography :Masur was born in Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany and studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig, Saxony. Masur has been married three times...
and the New York Philharmonic), Lynn Harrell
Lynn Harrell
Lynn Harrell is an American classical cellist.-Biography:Harrell was born in New York City of musician parents; his father was the baritone Mack Harrell and his mother, Marjorie Fulton, was a violinist. At the age of eight he decided to learn to play the cello. When Lynn was 12, his family moved...
(with Sir Neville Marriner
Neville Marriner
Sir Neville Marriner is an English conductor and violinist.-Biography:Marriner was born in Lincoln and studied at the Royal College of Music and the Paris Conservatoire. He played the violin in the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Martin String Quartet and London Symphony Orchestra, playing with the...
and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields), Julian Lloyd Webber
Julian Lloyd Webber
Julian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist who has been described as the "doyen of British cellists".-Early life:Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and his wife Jean Johnstone . He is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber...
(with Sir Charles Mackerras
Charles Mackerras
Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...
and the London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
), and an early rare recording by Bernard Greenhouse
Bernard Greenhouse
Bernard Greenhouse was an American cellist and one of the founding members of the Beaux Arts Trio.-Life:Greenhouse was born in Newark, New Jersey. He started his professional studies with Felix Salmond at the Juilliard School when he was eighteen...
(with Max Schönherr
Max Schönherr
Max Schönherr was an Austrian composer, arranger and conductor.-Biography:Schönherr studied in Graz and was a composer of light orchestral music in Vienna. Outside of his native country, Schönherr was best known for his Austrian dances. His Austrian Peasant Dances, Op 14, recorded in the 1940s,...
and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
-History:In 1900, Ferdinand Löwe founded the orchestra as the Wiener Concertverein . In 1913 it moved into the Konzerthaus, Vienna. In 1919 it merged with the Tonkünstler Orchestra. In 1933 it acquired its current name...
).
Of his large-scale orchestral works, Herbert's tone poem Hero and Leander (1901) is his most important. Composed for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra while Herbert was their conductor, the work displays an affinity with both Wagner and Liszt. Another important work that Herbert wrote for the PSO is Columbus, Op. 35, a four-movement programmatic suite. The first and final movements of the suite were composed in 1893 as part of a theatrical spectacle intended for the Colombian Exposition in Chicago. However, Herbert never completed that project, and the central two movements were not composed until 1902. The PSO premiered the work in 1903, and it was the last large-scale symphonic work that Herbert composed.
Herbert also composed a considerable body of smaller-scale works, often writing music for his own performance on the cello or producing individual songs for the Victor Herbert Orchestra. He published some of his dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
compositions under the pseudonym Noble MacClure. During the last decade of his life, he composed a number of overtures for feature films, although The Fall of a Nation was his only complete film score. On February 12, 1924, Herbert was one of the featured composers at New York's Aeolian Hall
Aeolian Hall (New York)
Aeolian Hall was a concert hall near Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City located on the third floor of 29-33 West 42nd Street across the street from Bryant Park. The Aeolian Building was built in 1912 for the Aeolian Company, which manufactured pianos...
, in an evening entitled An Experiment in Modern Music that included the world premiere of George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
's Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects....
by the Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
orchestra. Herbert's contribution for the evening, A Suite of Serenades, was his last work to premiere with him in attendance.
Recordings
The following is a list of some of the best-known recordings of Herbert's music.- The Music of Victor Herbert, Album C-1, conducted by Nathaniel ShilkretNathaniel ShilkretNathaniel Shilkret was an American composer, conductor, clarinetist, pianist, business executive, and music director born in New York City, New York to an Austrian immigrant family.-Early career:...
, Victor, 1927 - The Music of Victor Herbert, Album C-11, Victor Salon Group and Orchestra, conducted by Shilkret, RCA Victor, 1930
- The Music of Victor Herbert, C-33, RCA Victor, conducted by Shilkret with soloists, including Jan PeerceJan PeerceJan Peerce was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recording artist. He is the father of film director Larry Peerce....
, chorus, and orchestra, RCA Victor, 1939; this was recorded immediately after The Magic Key of RCAThe Magic Key of RCAThe Magic Key of RCA was an American variety radio show that featured an unusually large and broad range of entertainment stars and other noted personalities...
radio broadcast of the same music. - The Music of Victor Herbert, recorded by Beverly SillsBeverly SillsBeverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s. In her prime she was the only real rival to Joan Sutherland as the leading bel canto stylist...
, soprano, and Andre KostelanetzAndre KostelanetzAndré Kostelanetz was a popular orchestral music conductor and arranger, one of the pioneers of easy listening music.-Biography:...
, conducting, on Angel records SFO-37160 (1976) (Grammy AwardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
winner) - Cello Concerto no. 2, recorded by Julian Lloyd WebberJulian Lloyd WebberJulian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist who has been described as the "doyen of British cellists".-Early life:Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and his wife Jean Johnstone . He is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber...
, with the London Symphony OrchestraLondon Symphony OrchestraThe London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
, conducted by Sir Charles MackerrasCharles MackerrasSir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...
on EMI Classics 747 622-2 - Cello Concertos recorded by Lynn Harrell, with The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville MarrinerNeville MarrinerSir Neville Marriner is an English conductor and violinist.-Biography:Marriner was born in Lincoln and studied at the Royal College of Music and the Paris Conservatoire. He played the violin in the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Martin String Quartet and London Symphony Orchestra, playing with the...
on Decca 417 672-2 - Victor Herbert Eileen: Romantic Comic Opera in Three Acts (1998) Ohio Light OperaOhio Light OperaThe Ohio Light Opera is a professional opera company based in Wooster, Ohio that performs the light opera repertory, including Gilbert and Sullivan, American, British and continental operettas, and other musical theatre works, especially of the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
, James Stewart, Artistic Director; Newport Classic (NPD 85615/2) - Victor Herbert: Beloved Songs and Classic Miniatures (1999) recorded by Virginia Croskery, soprano, and Keith Brion conducting the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, on the Naxos CD 8.559.26
- The Red Mill: Romantic Opera in Two Acts by Victor Herbert (2001) Ohio Light OperaOhio Light OperaThe Ohio Light Opera is a professional opera company based in Wooster, Ohio that performs the light opera repertory, including Gilbert and Sullivan, American, British and continental operettas, and other musical theatre works, especially of the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
; L. Lynn Thompson, Conductor; Steven Daigle, Artistic Director; Albany Records (Troy 492/493). - Stereo recordings of four Herbert operettas were made by Reader's DigestReader's DigestReader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
for their 1963 album Treasury of Great Operettas. Each of the operettas in the set is condensed to fill one LP side. The four operettas in this set are Babes in Toyland, Mlle. Modiste, The Red Mill and Naughty Marietta. The Naughty Marietta selections have been re-released on CD. - Hero and Leander; Grofé: Grand Canyon Suite, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lorin MaazelLorin MaazelLorin Varencove Maazel is an American conductor, violinist and composer.- Early life :Maazel was born to Jewish-American parents in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. His father, Lincoln Maazel , was...
. (1994) Sony SK52491 - Columbus Suite / Irish Rhapsody, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Keith Brion (2000) Naxos 8.559027
- Victor Herbert: The Collection, Victor Herbert And His Orchestra. (2007) Syracuse University Recordings, SUR 1018
See also
- List of compositions by Victor Herbert
- Walter Van BruntWalter Van BruntWalter Van Brunt was an American tenor known initially for his recordings on Thomas Alva Edison's Blue Amberol Records and later for his rôle in a scandal involving a stage name and case of adultery....
- Lisa RomaLisa RomaLisa Roma was an American soprano who toured in the United States with composer Maurice Ravel in 1928. She was chair of grand opera in the College of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles beginning in 1930...
, soprano and music educator, debuted with Herbert in 1920
General
- Victor Herbert at the IMDB database
- Victor Herbert at the Songwriters Hall of Fame
- Ed Glazier's Victor Herbert site. Contains extensive discography and information
- Chronological description of Herbert's compositions by genre
- Edwardian light opera site, containing MIDI files, cast lists and other information for 30 Herbert works
- Performance of Cello Concerto no. 2
- Discography for Herbert's operas
- Review and recommendations of Victor Herbert recordings
- Listing of Herbert stage works with links
- Discography of Victor Herbert on Victor RecordsVictor Talking Machine CompanyThe Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....
from the Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR)
Photos, scores and libretti
- Photo of Herbert and wife at their wedding
- Image of Victor Herbert postage stamp
- Links to several Victor Herbert piano-vocal scores
- Vocal score for When Sweet Sixteen
- Vocal score for Hearts of Erin, book and lyrics by Henry Blossom (later re-titled as EileenEileen (musical)Eileen is a comic opera with music by Victor Herbert and lyrics and book by Henry Blossom based loosely on the 1835 novel Rory O'Moore by Herbert's grandfather, Samuel Lover. Set in 1798, the story concerns an Irish revolutionary arrested by the British for treason...
) - Sheet music for "The Only One", by Victor Herbert, lyrics by Glen MacDonough, M. Witmark & Sons, 1905.