Franz Mittler

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Franz Mittler (born April 14, 1893 in Vienna ; † December 27, 1970 in Munich ) was a musician (composer, pianist and conductor) popular in Vienna in the 1920s and 1930s, but also appeared as a writer that is still known today and popular rhymes .

Life

Franz Mittler came from an Austrian Jewish entrepreneurial family. His parents were Josef (d. 1937) and Rosalie ("Lilly") Mittler, née Biach (1867–1939), who had a total of five children (Stephan, Georg, Trude, Otto and Franz).

He received his musical training at the kk Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Theodor Leschetizky (piano) and Richard Heuberger and Carl Prohaska (composition) and at the Cologne Conservatory with Fritz Steinbach and Carl Friedberg (orchestra direction).

Franz Mittler made his concert debut as a violinist in 1902, when he performed together with the seven-year-old Clara Haskil . From 1904 he concentrated on playing the piano. At a young age he mainly composed chamber music, his three string quartets are now counted among his most important compositional achievements. After completing his training, he was Kapellmeister at the Reussisches Theater in Gera from 1919 to 1921 .

From 1921 he worked as a song accompanist on the piano and performed alongside well-known vocal soloists such as Leo Slezak , Franz Steiner or Elise Elizza and Marie Gutheil-Schoder .

A particularly close collaboration was established with Karl Kraus . As a reciter from 1930 to 1936, he relied on the strong improvisation and quick-witted mediator, who gave him a feeling of security during his readings. In addition to the musical accompaniment of these evenings, Mittler also created numerous arrangements for Kraus' Offenbach arrangements. And like Karl Kraus, Franz Mittler also had an extraordinary feeling for language, paired with great musicality. He referred to this in the foreword to his first edition of his Schüttelreime, which was published in 1938, when he spoke of a “diverse analogy to the field of counterpoints, canons and fugues”.

After Austria's annexation on March 12, 1938, Franz Mittler emigrated, who neither saw himself in the role of victim nor wanted to be maneuvered into one. Via the French city of Le Havre he came to the USA in New York , where he gave a concert with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 .

On December 9, 1940, he married his former student Regina Schilling (born February 2, 1910 in Lemberg) in New York, who had also fled Vienna. Best man was Eric Zeisl . Daughter Diana Mittler-Battipaglia walked out of this marriage in 1941, the pianist and ensemble director and at Lehman College of the City University of New York taught.

In the USA, Franz Mittler and David Hirschberg ran the Musicord publishing house , for which he wrote compositions and arrangements, which he also performed from 1943 to 1963 as a member of the “First Piano Quartet”. The best-known example is the “one-finger polka” for Groucho Marx .

In 1964 he returned to Europe and settled in Siegsdorf . From 1965 to 1967 he appeared as a companion at the Salzburg Summer Academy , but otherwise devoted himself more to his work as a poet.

Works

Musical

  • Stage works:
    • Raffaella , opera (1930)
    • The Horned Siegfried , Opera (1926–1963)
  • Chamber music
    • Sonata for violoncello and piano
    • Violin Sonata in D major
    • Suite for violoncello solo
    • Humoresque for 2 violins .
    • Trio in A minor for piano, violin and violoncello . 1909
    • Trio in G major for piano, violin and violoncello , op.3 (1911)
    • String Quartet No. 1 in F major (1909)
    • String Quartet No. 2 in E minor (1910–1911)
    • String Quartet No. 3 in D minor (From the Wandering Time) (1915–1918)
  • Piano music
    • Two funny piano pieces , op. 2.
      No. 1. Humoresque . For Hilde Holger. No. 2. Little Nana's music box . (1926)
    • Little Waltz for piano for two hands , op. 4.
      No. 1. The Sensitive . No. 2. The affectionate . No. 3. Farmer's Ball . No. 4. The old fathers . No. 5. In Grinzing . No. 6. Farewell to Vienna (1919)
    • Fantasy piece for piano, op.5 (1912)
    • Chaconne for violin solo , op.10 (1926)
    • Congratulatory waltz . Dedicated with sincere admiration to Director Emil Hertzka by FM (1926).
    • Bolero in blue . Piano solo (around 1943).
    • Suite in 3/4 Time (around 1945)
    • Manhattan Suite (1947)
  • Songs
    • Text by Karl Kraus on a fold .
    • The wandering and the brook . Duet for soprano and alto with piano accompaniment, text by Martin Greif.
    • Five gypsy songs based on poems by ME delle Grazie and translated from Hungarian.
    • Lodoletta ( Little Lark ), Per Canto e Pianoforte. (Parole di Guglielmo Knepler ; Italian and German), Bologna 1938.
  • Arrangements, arrangements and accompanying music for Karl Kraus
    (in the chronological order of their performances)
    • The last days of humanity . (Stage version, 1930)
    • The Bridge of Sighs ( Le Pont des Soupirs ). Operetta in two acts (4 pictures) by Jacques Offenbach . Text based on Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy by Karl Treumann , edited by Karl Kraus. (1930)
    • The winter fairy tale . Play in five acts arranged by Shakespeare based on the translation by Dorothea Tieck and partly edited by Karl Kraus. Music by Franz Mittler. (1930)
    • The babbler of Saragossa by Jacques Offenbach. Text after Ch. Nuitter by Karl Treumann , edited and provided with time stanzas by Karl Kraus. (1930)
    • Helena, Faust, the tragedy part two, III. Act . (1930)
    • Perichole . Operetta in three acts (five sections) by Jacques Offenbach. New text (based on two versions by Henry Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy) by Karl Kraus. (1931)
    • The Alpine King and the Misanthrope by Ferdinand Raimund . (1931)
    • Hannele Mattern's Ascension from the drama by Gerhart Hauptmann . (1931)
    • The two night walkers by Johann Nestroy . (1931)
    • Dream theater by Karl Kraus. (1931)
    • Dream piece by Karl Kraus. (1931)
    • Vert-Vert . Comic opera in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. New text (based on Henry Meilhac and Charles Nuitter) by Karl Kraus. (1931)
    • The Taming of the Shrew . Comedy in five acts (with a framework story) by Shakespeare. According to Wolf Graf v. Baudissin edited and supplemented by Karl Kraus. Accompaniment: Franz Mittler using the music by Hermann Goetz . (1935)
    • Railway marriages or Vienna, Neustadt, Brno . Posse with singing in three acts (based on the vaudeville "Paris, Orléans et Rouen" by Bayard and Varin) by Johann Nestroy, based on the Schroll edition by Karl Kraus, with improvised music by Franz Mittler. (1935)
    • Johann Nestroy's talisman . Music by Adolf Müller senior and Franz Mittler. (1935)
    • King Lear . Tragedy in five acts by Shakespeare based on Wolf Graf v. Baudissin edited by Karl Kraus. Overture and music from Franz Mittler's tent scene. (1935)
    • The Creolin . Operetta in three acts by Jacques Offenbach. Text by Albert Millaud, adapted from the original and the translation by J. Hopp by Karl Kraus. Musical equipment and accompaniment: Franz Mittler. (1935)

Literary

  • Do you make the thirds out of lime ...? . Rhymes. Verlag der neue Galerie, Vienna 1938.
  • Collected rhymes . Edited by Friedrich Torberg . Gardena, Vienna 1969;
    New editions: Brandstätter, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-85447-378-8 and Piper, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-49211-642-6 .

Discography

  • Shaking rhymes spoken by Helmut Qualtinger (Preiser, LP 1978).
  • Trio in G major and songs with texts by Karl Kraus, Rainer Maria Rilke, Johann Nestroy, Wilhelm Busch; Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone, and Ryan Russell, piano (Preiser PR90567, CD 2004). review
  • String Quartet No. 1 in F major (1909) and String Quartet No. 3 in D minor (1915-18); Hugo Wolf Quartet (CPO 777 329-2, CD 2007)
  • String Quartet No. 2 in E minor and Four Chants for medium voice and string quartet ; Artis Quartet; Wolfgang Holzmair (ORF-CD3134, CD 2011)

A few rhymes by Franz Mittler

GI in Germany
He hangs
his underwearon Wotan's wonderash.
Pity!
The girl with the fancy scent
married the big scoundrel.
Just punishment
The kurti let a stinky blow,
so he has to stand in the window now!
Secret report (1687)
The Venetians build frigates
when they are not mating their wives.
Wagneriana
who yells to herself,
This is Brünnhild.
Franz Lehár
Sometimes you wrote bad crap, Franz!
But because it's from Lehár, you eat it!
Short trip
A little mosquito wanted to travel, then it
flew into a titmouse.
Despicable
One could
hunt me with the word "virtue" even in my youth !
Religious compensation
Every Sunday the Meine Choral sings.
During the week she has no morals.
The Fuehrer
Remember him, how loud he cried
When to the stupid crowd he lied!
Musically?
She doesn’t respect the rules of notes
and just jingles red nails!
Tertiary calcification
Do you make the thirds out of lime?
No, candles are made out of tallow!
So it's called: candy tallow?
No, my child: tertiary lime!

Quoted from Franz Mittler: Collected Schüttelreime . Edited by Friedrich Torberg, Brandstätter, Vienna 1991.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mittler, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian musician and writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1970
Place of death Munich