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Victor Herbert

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Victor Herbert was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish descent and with a German education. He was born in 1859 on Guernsey, grew up in Stuttgart and at first wanted to become a doctor, but chose music for lack of money. He studied cello with Bernhard Cossmann and at the Stuttgart Conservatoire, and by the age of nineteen was already playing as a soloist with major German orchestras. In 1886 he moved with his wife, the opera singer Therese Förster, to the United States, where both worked at the Metropolitan Opera.

Music and breakthrough

Herbert was a cello soloist, conductor and teacher, and also composed a great deal. His Cello Concerto No. 2 in E minor from 1894 entered the standard repertoire. From 1898 to 1904 he conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony, after which he founded the Victor Herbert Orchestra. He became best known for his operettas for Broadway, from 1894. Successes were The Serenade (1897), The Fortune Teller (1898), Babes in Toyland (1903), Mlle. Modiste (1905), The Red Mill (1906), Naughty Marietta (1910), Sweethearts (1913) and Eileen (1917). In total he wrote 43 operettas, two operas and a great deal of orchestral, cello and piano music.

Influence

He also belonged to the Tin Pan Alley composers and was one of the founders of ASCAP, the organisation that looks after composers' rights. After the First World War tastes changed and he wrote musicals, but he did not repeat his great successes. He died in 1924. Herbert brought the European operetta tradition to the American theatre.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a melody from Babes in Toyland and notice the light, danceable tone of the operetta. Which song stays in your head the longest?

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists