Victor Herbert

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Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor who is best known for his many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway. He was prominent among the tin pan alley composers and later a founder of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). A prolific composer, Herbert produced two operas, a cantata, 43 operettas, incidental music to 10 plays, 31 compositions for orchestra, nine band compositions, nine cello compositions and 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, Austria and Stuttgart, Germany, during which he began to compose orchestral music. Herbert and his opera singer wife, Therese Foerster, moved to the U.S. in 1886 when both were engaged by the Metropolitan Opera. In the U.S., Herbert continued his performing career, while also teaching the National Conservatory of Music, conducting and composing, most notably 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 (1897) and The Fortune Teller (1898). Even more successful were Babes in Toyland (1903), Mlle. Modiste (1905), The Red Mill (1906), Naughty Marietta (1910), Sweethearts (1913) and Eileen (1917). After World War I, with the change of popular musical tastes, Herbert began to compose musicals and contributed music to other composers' shows, but while some of these were successful, he never again achieved the level of success that he had enjoyed with his most popular operettas.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life and education 1.2 Early career and the move to the U.S. 1.3 Initial musical life in New York City 1.4 Work as a conductor 1.5 Activist for the legal rights of composers 1.6 Operetta, opera and musical theatre 2 Works 2.1 Operettas and other stage music 2.2 Herbert's style 2.3 Operas 2.4 Instrumental music 3 Recordings 4 Bibliography 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life and education

Herbert was born in Dublin, Ireland to Edward Herbert (d. 1861) and Fanny Herbert (née Lover). At age three and a half, shortly after the death of his father, young Herbert 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 and composer Samuel Lover. The Lovers welcomed a steady flow of musicians, writers, and artists to their home. Herbert re-joined his mother in Stuttgart, Germany in 1867, a year after his mother had married a German physician, Carl Schmidt of Langenargen. In Stuttgart he received a strong liberal education at the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium, which included musical training.^[1]

Herbert initially planned to pursue a career as a medical doctor. Although his stepfather was connected 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 turned instead to music. He initially studied the piano, flute and piccolo but ultimately settled on the cello, beginning studies on that instrument with Bernhard Cossmann at the age of fifteen.^[2] At this point, Herbert embarked on a performing career and did not pursue more formal studies until the early 1880s, when he attended the Stuttgart Conservatory, studying cello, music theory and composition under Max Seifritz.graduating in 1879.^[3][4]

[edit] Early career and the move to the U.S.

Even before studying with Crossman, Herbert was engaged professionally as a player in concerts in Stuttgart. His first orchestra position was as a flute and piccolo player, but he soon focused solely on the cello. By the time he was 19, Herbert received engagements as a soloist with several major German orchestras.^[5] He played in the orchestra 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 in Vienna. Herbert joined the court orchestra in Stuttgart in 1881, where he remained for the next five years. There he appeared as a soloist in the orchestra and composed his first pieces of music, consisting of instrumental music. He played the solos in the premieres of his first two large-scale works, the Suite for cello and orchestra, Op. 3, and the Cello Concerto No. 1, Op. 8.^[3] Herbert was honored to be selected by Johannes Brahms in 1883 to play in a special chamber orchestra for the celebration of the life of Franz Liszt, then 72 years old.^[6]

In 1885 Herbert became romantically involved with Therese Förster (1861–1927), a soprano 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 sailed for the United States, as they both had been hired by Walter Damrosch and Anton Seidl to join the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Herbert was engaged as the opera orchestra's principal cellist, and Foerster sang several roles with the company, including the title role in the U.S. premiere of Verdi's Aida, the title role of the Queen of Sheba in Goldmark's Die Königin von Saba, and three roles in operas by Wagner. Happy in New York, Herbert and Foerster decided to remain in America and became citizens.^[7]

[edit] Initial musical life in New York City

During the voyage to America, Herbert and his wife became friends with their fellow passenger and future conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, Anton Seidl (1850-1898). The voyage was plagued by bad weather, so the couple, Seidl, and other recent hirees at the Met spent time together in close quarters below deck. Seidl remained at the Metropolitan Opera until he was appointed conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1891. He became an important mentor and friend to Herbert until Seidl's death in 1898.^[8] Seidl took a particular interest in fostering Herbert's skills as a conductor.^[9] Upon arriving in New York, Herbert and Förster became a part of New York's German music community, socializing at the cafes Luchow's, Lienau, Billy Mould's and Werle's. 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.^[10]

Herbert quickly became an important part of New York City's musical scene as not only a cello soloist but also as a founding member of the New York String Quartet. He made his first American solo appearance on the cello in a performance of his own Suite for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 3. with Walter Damrosch conducting the Symphony Society of New York at the Metropolitan Opera House on 8 January 1887. The New York Herald said of the event, "[Herbert's] style is infinitely more easy and graceful than that of most cello players".^{[citation needed]} This warm reception quickly led to more solo engagements that year, including performances of his own Berceuse and Polonais. Herbert would continue to appear as a cello soloist with major American orchestras into the 1910s. In the fall of 1887, Herbert formed his own 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. More successful was the New York String Quartet, which Herbert founded along with violinists Sam 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, earning consistent praise.^[11]

[edit] Work as a conductor

During the Summer of 1888, Herbert became the assistant conductor to Siedl for the New York Philharmonic's summer concerts at Brighton Beach. He conducted the orchestra in lighter works paired with more serious repertoire at summer concerts and festivals over the next few years.^[12] These mixed programs of lighter and serious music served as a model for concerts that Herbert would produce years later with the Victor Herbert Orchestra.^[3] 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 1889, Herbert became the conductor for the Worcester Music Festival, where he returned repeatedly through the 1890s. In 1890 he was appointed the conductor of the Boston Festival Orchestra, serving there through 1893.^[13]

In the autumn of 1889, Herbert joined the faculty of the National Conservatory of Music, where he taught cello and music composition for several years. During this time, he continued to compose orchestral music, writing one his finest works, the Second Cello Concerto op. 30, which premiered in 1894. In 1893, he became director of the 22nd Regimental Band of the New York National Guard, succeeding its founder, Patrick Gilmore. The following year he took over leadership of Gilmore’s civilian band following Gilmore’s death. Herbert toured widely with the 22nd Regimental Band up through 1900, performing both original band compositions and works from the orchestral repertory that were transcibed for the band.^[14]

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. 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's Auditorium Theatre in 1901. After a disagreement with the management of the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1904, Herbert founded the Victor Herbert Orchestra and conducted programs of light orchestral music on tours and at summer resorts for most of the rest of his life. His orchestra made a series of acoustical recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company, and Herbert was a cello soloist in several Victor recordings as well.^[15]

[edit] 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. His testimony before the United States Congress in 1909 had an impact on the formation and development of the Copyright Act of 1909 which, among other provisions, secured composers' rights to the royalties on the sales of sound recordings.^[3]

Herbert also worked closely with John Philip Sousa, Irving Berlin and others in founding the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (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, carried to the United States Supreme Court, which gave composers the right to collect performance fees (through ASCAP) for the public performance of their work.^[3]

[edit] Operetta, opera and musical theatre

In 1894 Herbert composed his first operetta, Prince Ananias, for a popular troupe known as The Bostonians. As he continued to do with many of his later operettas, Herbert adapted portions of his music from Prince Ananias to be used as band marches. This first operetta was well received, and Herbert soon composed three more operettas for Broadway, The Wizard of the Nile (1895), The Serenade (1897), which achieved international success, and The Fortune Teller (1898), starring Alice Nielsen. Although these were successful, Herbert did not produce any more stage works for several years, focusing on his work with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Just before leaving that orchestra, he returned to Broadway with his first major hit, Babes in Toyland (1903). Two more successes followed, Mlle. Modiste (1905) and The Red Mill (1906), which solidified Herbert as one of the best-known figures in American music. In 1908 he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters.^[16]

Although Herbert's reputation lies with his more than 40 operettas, he also composed two operas. After several years of searching for a serious opera libretto that appealed to him, Herbert composed Natoma in 1909-1910. The work premiered in Philadelphia on 25 February 1911 with soprano Mary Garden in the title role and the young Irish tenor John McCormack in his opera debut, creating the role of the American seaman, Paul. A success, the opera remained part of the company's repertory for 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, was a much lighter work in one act. It had its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on 24 January 1914 but was not revived beyond that season.^[17]

While composing his two operas, Herbert continued to work on more operettas, producing two of his most successful works, Naughty Marietta (1910) and Sweethearts (1913). Another operetta, Eileen (1917, originally entitled Hearts of Erin), was the fullfillment of Herbert's longstanding desire to compose an Irish-themed operetta. The libretto concerns the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and boasts a rich score, but it marked the end of Herbert's greatest period of producing full scores for operettas.^[3]

By the end of World War I, Herbert had switched to writing musical comedies with simpler songs and much less elaborate ensembles instead of the European-style operettas that had dominated his earlier career. This change was largely practical, as he had to adapt to changing musical styles in the popular theatre. These new works did not require singers who were as highly trained, as the music was less challenging. Also during this time, Herbert was frequently asked to compose ballet music for the elaborate production numbers in Broadway revues and shows by such composers as Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern, among others. He was also a contributor to the Ziegfeld Follies every year from 1917 to 1924.^[18]

A healthy man throughout his life, Herbert died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 65 on 26 May 1924 shortly after his final show, The Dream Girl, began its pre-Broadway run in New Haven, Connecticut.^[19] He was survived by his wife and two children, Ella and Gilbert.^[20]

[edit] Works

Herbert was a prolific composer, producing two operas, one cantata, 43 operettas, incidental music 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, 54 songs not including those from other works, 12 choral compositions, and numerous orchestrations of works by other composers, among other compositions. He also composed one of the first original orchestral scores for a full-length film, The Fall of a Nation (1916). Long thought to be lost, the score was rediscovered in the film-music collection of the Library of Congress and recorded in 1987.^[21]

As a composer, Herbert is chiefly remembered for his operettas, a handful of which have remained consistently within the repertoire of light opera companies. Recently, some of the less frequently performed Herbert operettas have enjoyed revivals, albeit with substantially re-written librettos. Of his instrumental works, only a few works 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.^[22]

[edit] Operettas and other stage music

Herbert often worked on as many as four different stage works at the same time.^{[citation needed]} Although consistently praised for his music, many of Herbert’s operettas were criticized by theatre critics for their weak librettos and conventional lyrics. This weakness has hindered the revival of a number of his works after his death.^{[citation needed]} However, a vogue for reviving Herbert operettas with heavily rewritten librettos began in the 1970s by companies like the Light Opera of Manhattan and continues to today. Besides those mentioned above, other Herbert operettas with particularly strong scores are Cyrano de Bergerac (1899), The Singing Girl (1899), The Enchantress (1911),^[23] The Madcap Duchess (1913), and The Only Girl (1914).^[24] Other shows that were popularly successful include It Happened in Nordland (1904),^[25][26] Miss Dolly Dollars (1905),^[27][28] Dream City (1906),^[29][30] The Magic Knight (1906), Little Nemo (1908),^[31] The Lady of the Slipper (1912),^[32][33] The Princess Pat (1915) and My Golden Girl (1920)^[34] to name just a few. In addition to the more than 50 full scores he composed for the stage, Herbert produced a considerable body of musical numbers for variety shows such as the Ziegfeld Follies and the sophisticated private entertainments at the Lambs theatrical club.^[35]

Herbert’s theatre composing career spanned from 1894 to 1924, during which time a great number of changes occurred within not only the style of popular musical shows but the way in which shows were produced. His earliest works for the stage were widely dispersed through travelling companies that commissioned shows and produced them in their home base. Though these productions usually included a stop in New York City, at this point a long run on Broadway was not essential for a touring production to achieve success. Nevertheless, success in New York naturally helped to publicize a particular show and would therefore generally improve ticket sales elsewhere. This gradually changed during Herbert's career, as Broadway increasingly became the focus of American theatrical life, causing him to craft shows to appeal specifically to New York sensibilities.^[3]

[edit] Herbert's style

During the late nineteenth century, American musical theatre composers tended to imitate either Viennese operetta or the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. This was not surprising, as many American theatrical companies, such as The Bostonians, were founded for the purpose of performing works like Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, Karl Millöcker's Der Bettelstudent, and Franz von Suppé's Boccaccio, all of which became popular in America. Herbert's background of German education and experience working in Vienna made him intimately familiar with the Viennese style of operetta. For example, a number of the waltz tunes in his operettas display an evident familiarity with the Viennese lilt. Indeed, the most characteristic Herbert song was the waltz, and many of his waltzes became highly popular in spite of their often complicated musical structure.^[36]

Another speciality of Herbert's in the Viennese style was the variation song which consisted either of a series of refrains in different styles, or was an actual variations of the same tune. For example, "Serenades of All Nations" from The Fortune Teller is sung and danced by a ballerina who demonstrates different serenades made by her admirers from Ireland, Spain, China, Italy, France and Haiti. Another example would be "The Song of the Poet" from Babes in Toyland, which turns the well known lullaby "Rock-a-bye Baby" first into a brassy march, then a Neapolitan song, and finally a ragtime song. Also in keeping with the Viennese tradition, Herbert displayed a strong preference for trained singers within his music over music for comedians who sang. He often wrote his operettas with a particular singer in mind, such as The Fortune Teller for Alice Nielsen, Mlle Modiste for Fritzi Scheff and Naughty Marietta for Emma Trentini. His works also placed high musical demands on the chorus and orchestra in addition to the principals.^[3]

Although Herbert's operettas are more closely tied to the Viennese tradition, he was capable of writing in the Gilbert and Sullivan tradition as well. He was not exposed to Gilbert and Sullivan before his arrival in the U.S. in 1886, but soon he began to attend performances of their works and other Savoy operas. This exposure led him to adopt some of Gilbert and Sullivan's musical and dramatic sensibilities, the quintet "Cleopatra’s Wedding Day" from The Wizard of the Nile being one good example. One of his early successes, The Serenade, largely consists of situations taken from The Gondoliers and The Pirates of Penzance that were reassembled effectively into a unified comedic plot structure. Indeed, the work's librettist, Harry B. Smith, went on to steal more Gilbertian ideas for future operettas with Herbert, who often would compliment the stolen ideas with music reminiscent of Sullivan. For example, The Singing Girl includes within its plot an Austrian minister of police named Aufpassen who enforces a dreaded law against kissing without a licence, a plot situation lifted from The Mikado.^[37]

Herbert tended to use a slightly larger orchestra than Sullivan, often utilizing more types of percussion and adding instruments like the harp for the purposes of colorful effect. For the most part, he wrote his own orchestrations which consistently garnered high praise from music critics and his fellow composers. These orchestrations, however, have tended to fall by the wayside with modern revivals, which have often added saxophones and more brass to Herbert's string-dominated orchestrations. In fact, the only Herbert operetta that has been recorded with its original orchestration intact is Naughty Marietta.^[3]

Herbert also frequently incorporated compelling imitations of traditional music and music from exotic places within his operettas. For example, he utilized elements of Spanish music in The Serenade, Italian music in Naughty Marietta, Austrian music 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 a particularly exciting Hungarian csárdás. He also frequently used Irish-style songs in his operettas which, with the except of those in Eileen, were mostly incidental to the plot.^[38]

By the end of World War I, musical tastes had shifted in America, and Herbert, moving with the times, spent his last decade composing music in a much simpler musical style. Many of these later works, such as The Velvet Lady and Angel Face (both 1919), imitated popular new song-types like the foxtrot, ragtime and the tango.^[39][40] 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 with Irving Berlin in The Century Girl (1916), was his first work to fully display this much simpler style. Although these later shows do contain some memorable numbers, they did not experience the enduring popularity of his earlier more elaborate operettas. The most successful work of his later career was Orange Blossoms (1921),^[41][42] which included the highly popular waltz song, "A Kiss in the Dark".^[3]

[edit] Operas

Although most successful in operetta, Herbert aspired to compose serious operas. Approached by Oscar Hammerstein I to produce a grand opera, Herbert jumped at the chance, and Hammerstein announced a $1,000 prize in the April 13, 1907 issue of Musical America for the person who could provide a libretto for Herbert's first serious opera. The prospect of an opera by Herbert caught the imagination of the American public, and a great deal of enthusiasm and speculation began even before the work was composed. The American press followed the prossess of selecting the libretto and wrote about the progress Herbert made during the composition of his first opera, Natoma. Although Natoma was put together with great care and had a distinguished cast, the première in Philadelphia in 1911 was only a moderate success. Critics praised the music, which effectively intermingled colorful and melodious vocal lines with leitmotif construction in a continuing orchestral counterpoint. However, the opera critics complained about the weaknesses in the libretto by Joseph Redding and the use of foreign singers in what was supposed to be an "American opera" set in California during the 1820s.^[43]

Herbert’s only other opera, Madeleine, was based on a French play and told the story of an operatic prima donna. The work was in one act and premièred in 1914 in a double bill with Pagliacci. Although the opera featured Enrico Caruso in the principal tenor role, it failed to make an impression and received only six performances. Madeleine is written in a conversational style that is complemented by continuing motivic commentary from the orchestra. The one real aria, "A Perfect Day", was added at the last moment upon the insistence of Frances Alda, who would not sing the title role without it. Although not the success that Herbert hoped for, G. Schirmer published the work in full score, which at that time was unusual for an opera by an American composer.^[3]

[edit] Instrumental music

After Herbert's death, most of his instrumental music fell out of favor, and it has only been within the last couple of decades that his serious music has begun to enjoy revivals in concert and recordings. One notable exception is his Cello Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 30, which was first performed by the New York Philharmonic with Herbert as the soloist and Anton Seidl conducting in 1894. The concerto shows obvious influences of Liszt in terms of its employment of thorough-going thematic transformation in all three movements. Received enthusiastically at its premiere, the work is one of Herbert's only compositions to remain consistently within the instrumental repertory.^[3] Antonín Dvořák, a colleague of Herbert's at the National Conservatory, was inspired to compose his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B minor, Op. 104 after hearing its premiere.^[44] The concerto has been recorded by cellists such as Yo-Yo Ma (with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic), Lynn Harrell (with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields), Julian Lloyd Webber (with Sir Charles Mackerras and the London Symphony Orchestra), and an early rare recording by Bernard Greenhouse (with Max Schönherr and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra).^{[citation needed]}

More recently, two of Herbert's earlier compositions for cello and orchestra have regained a place in the concert repertory. The Suite for Cello and Orchestra, op. 3 (1884), which, despite its designation as op. 3 is his earliest known composition, has been performed by several ensembles in recent years. The work foreshadows the light music of Herbert's later compositions, particularly in the varied instrumentation of the fourth movement. The finale of the work is characterized by virtuoso runs in octaves which reflect the exceptional technical abilities that Herbert had on the cello. The other work which has enjoyed recent revivals is his Cello Concerto no. 1, which was first performed by the composer in Stuttgart shortly before he came to the U.S. For many years, the work was unpublished and survived only in manuscript form, evidently unperformed. The work was revived and recorded for the first time in 1986 and has since been published. The composition is admired for achieving an effective balance between its virtuosic elements and its lyricism.^[3]

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 in its use of thematic transformations and its programmatic outline. The Tristanesque climax of the ‘storm’ music that brings about Leander’s death at the end is also highly Wagnerian in its sensibility. 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 Hebert composed.^[45]

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 compositions under the pseudonym Noble MacClure.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[3] On February 12, 1924, Herbert was one of the featured composers at New York's Aeolian Hall, in an evening entitled An Experiment in Modern Music that included the world premiere of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue by the Paul Whiteman orchestra.^[46][47] Herbert's contibution for the evening, A Suite of Serenades, was the last new work of his to premiere with him in attendance. The suite was written in an exotic style and, while not exactly modern, it had interesting characterization in the musical line. Herbert recorded both Rhapsody in Blue and his new suite with the Victor Herbert Orchestra shortly after the concert and not long before his death.^[48]

[edit] Recordings

• Music of Victor Herbert, conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret with soloists, chorus, and orchestra, RCA Victor, 1939.
• The Music of Victor Herbert, recorded by Beverly Sills, soprano, and Andre Kostelanetz, conducting, on Angel records SFO-37160 (1976)
• Cello Concerto no. 2, recorded by Julian Lloyd Webber with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras 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 Marriner on Decca 417 672-2
• Victor Herbert Eileen Romantic Comic Opera in Three Acts (1917) recorded in 1998 by the Ohio Light Opera, 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 recorded in 2001 by Ohio Light Opera; L. Lynn Thompson, Conductor; Steven Daigle, Artistic Director; Albany Records (Troy 492/493).
• Stereo recordings of four Herbert operettas were made by Reader's Digest 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 Maazel. (March 22, 1994) Sony SK52491
• Columbus Suite / Irish Rhapsody, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Brion, Keith. (September 2000) Naxos 8.559027

[edit] Bibliography

• American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Victor Herbert. A bibliography of his recordings, compositions, operettas, instrumental, choral and other works. New York, 1959.
• Herbert, Victor (1927). Victor Herbert Song Album (Vol. 1 ed.). New York: M. Witmark & Sons. OCLC 8022756. 
• Herbert, Victor (1938). Victor Herbert Song Album (Vol. 2 ed.). New York: M. Witmark & Sons. OCLC 38229555. 
• Herbert, Victor (1976). The Music of Victor Herbert. New York: Warner Bros. Publications. OCLC 3551867. 

[edit] See also

• List of compositions by Victor Herbert

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Barnes, Edwin N. C. Near Immortals: Stephen Foster, Edward MacDowell, Victor Herbert. Washington, D.C.: Music Education Publications, c1940.
• Bordman, Gerald. American Operetta. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
• Bordman, Gerald. American Musical Theatre: a Chronicle (New York, 1978; 2nd Ed 1986)
• Crouse, Russel. The Great Victor Herbert. Hollywood, 1939.
• Debus, Allen G. "The Early Victor Herbert", Music of Victor Herbert, Smithsonian Collection DMP30366 (1979; disc notes)
• Forbes, Douglas L. Some Serious Compositions of Victor Herbert. A study in musical style. 1957. (Dissertation)
• Ganzl, Kurt. The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre (3 Volumes). New York: Schirmer Books 2001
• Gould, Neil (2008). Victor Herbert: A Theatrical Life. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0823228713. 
• Hamm, C. Yesterdays: Popular Song in America (New York, 1979)
• Kaye, Joseph (1931). Victor Herbert: The Biography of America's Greatest Composer of Romantic Music. New York: G. Howard Watt. OCLC 871263. 
• Ledbetter, Steven. Herbert, Victor (August), Phonoarchive.org at Grove, accessed March 24, 2008
• Purdy, Claire Lee (1944). Victor Herbert: American Music Master. New York: Julian Messner, Inc.. OCLC 3898217. 
• Schmalz, R. F. "Paur and the Pittsburgh: Requiem for an Orchestra", American Music, xii/2 (1994), pp. 125–47
• Shirley, W. "A Bugle Call to Arms for National Defense! Victor Herbert and his Score for The Fall of a Nation", Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, xl (1983), pp. 26–47
• Smith, H. B. First Nights and First Editions (Boston, 1931)
• Studwell W. E. "Foreigners and Patriots: the American Musical, 1890–1927: an Essay and Bibliography", Music Reference Services Quarterly, iii/1 (1994–5), pp. 1–10
• Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983
• Waters, Edward N. (1955). Victor Herbert: A Life in Music. New York: Macmillan. OCLC 1293405.  (reprinted in 1978 by Da Capo Press)
• Wood, Ean (1996). George Gershwin: His Life and Music. Sanctuary Publishing. ISBN 1-86074-174-6

[edit] External links

• Victor Herbert at Allmusic
• Victor Herbert at the Internet Broadway Database
• Free scores by Victor Herbert in the International Music Score Library Project
• Contains extensive bibliography and biography, links, etc.
• Detailed biography of Herbert
• Victor Herbert profile
• Chronological description of Herbert's compositions by genre
• Edwardian light opera site, containing MIDI files, cast lists and other information for over 20 Herbert works
• Vocal score for Sweet Sixteen
• Vocal score for Madeleine, adapted from the French of Decourcelles & Thibaut by Grant Stewart.
• Vocal score for Hearts of Erin, book and lyrics by Henry Blossom
• Links to several Victor Herbert piano-vocal scores
• Ed Glazier's Victor Herbert site. Contains extensive discography and information
• Herbert Cello Concerto No 2 First Movement at YouTube by Julian Lloyd Webber and Charles Mackerras
• Herbert Cello Concerto no 2 review

v • d • e Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Music Directors and Artistic Leaders Frederic Archer (1895; Lead Conductor) · Victor Herbert (1898) · Emil Paur (1904) · Antonio Modarelli (1930) · Otto Klemperer (1937; Guest Conductor) · Fritz Reiner (1938) · Victor de Sabata (1948; Guest Conductor) · William Steinberg (1952) · André Previn (1976) · Lorin Maazel (1984) · Mariss Jansons (1996) · Andrew Davis (2005; Artistic Advisor) · Manfred Honeck (2008)