Gaston Borch
Gaston Louis Christopher Borch (8 March 1871 – 14 February 1926)
Early life
Borch was born in
Career
Borch played the cello. He studied for three years with Massenet
Between 1898 and 1906 he worked as a musician and conductor in the USA. He was engaged as a cellist with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in 1899,[4] worked with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra[6] and Syracuse University, and was principal cello of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra 1903–1906, under Victor Herbert and Emil Paur.[6] In 1901 Borch's patent application for a device to amplify the vibrations from a piano[7] indicates he was living at the time in Duluth, Minnesota. He spent some time in Europe in 1906 as conductor of the Lausanne Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the Grieg Jubilee Concerts in New York in 1907.[6] He was for a time a faculty member of the Pennsylvania College of Music.
Between 1916 and his death Borch was a prolific composer of photoplay music; short, stock pieces designed to evoke a particular mood. These were then selected and combined by musicians to create an appropriate scene-by-scene score for the silent films, or "photoplays", they accompanied live. In 1918 he published his Practical Manual of Instrumentation, a technical manual for musicians which included several chapters on the adaptation of works written for larger orchestras to smaller ensembles, such as those working in picture houses.[8] By 1925 he was sufficiently prominent in the field to be described as one of "the three 'B's' of picture music", along with Maurice Baron and Irénée Bergé—"a formidable trio of expert writers".[9]
In 1920 Borch was reported as attempting to establish a grand opera company in Boston, Massachusetts.[10] Borch returned to Europe in 1921, settling in Sweden, where he was an arranger and musical contributor to the score of The Saga of Gosta Berling (1924), starring Greta Garbo.[11] On 1 January 1925, the first day of radio broadcasting in Sweden, Borch led the Skandia Cinema Orchestra in Sweden's first broadcast of orchestral music.[12]
Personal life
Borch married Rose Alice Gluckauf in July 1900 in
Gaston Borch died in Stockholm in 1926.[1]
Selected works
Opera
- Silvio (1897), a one-act opera premiered on 7 March 1898, with libretto by Borch and O. A. Smith—a sequel to
- Ostenfor Sol, a "fairy opera"[4]
- Geneviève de Paris (1906)
Photoplay music
- Incidental Symphonies – Used in the scores of The Cat and the Canary (1927) and White Zombie (1932)
- Misterioso Infernale (1916) – "Gruesome" section used in the score of Tarzan's Revenge (1938)
- Poeme Symphonique – Used as the theme for the 1920 silent film Madame X[19]
Publications
- Practical Manual of Instrumentation. The Boston Music Company, 1918.
References
- ^ a b c "Composers biography – Bm-Bo". Dolmetsch online. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
- ^ a b "1976. AXEL TÖRNEMAN, 1880–1925, Vid pianot, Signerad". Stockholms Auktionsverk. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
- ^ "L'enseignement de la musique". Les Archives du Pas-de-Calais. archivespasdecalais.fr. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
- ^ a b c d Who's Who in Music and Drama 1914, H.P.Hannaford and Hines, D.(eds) New York, H.P. Hannaford, p.47
- ^ a b Mason, Daniel G. (1917). The Art of Music : a comprehensive library of information for music lovers and musicians, Volume 11. New York: The National Society of Music. p. 58.
- ^ a b c d "A listing of all the musicians in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra". stowkowski.org. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
- ^ "Piano attachment – Patent 700726". United States Patent Office. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
- ISBN 0-231-11662-4.
- ^ "World of Music". Brooklyn Standard Union. 5 April 1925. p.12
- ^ "The World of Music". The Etude Magazine. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
- ^ "Gösta Berlings saga/del I". Swedish film database. Swedish Film Institute. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
- ^ "Historia: Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester". Sveriges Radios. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
- ^ St Paul Globe, Minnesota, 6 July 1900 p 10.
- ^ Millidek Yearbook: Class of 1920. Millikin University. 1920.. Cited at www.e-yearbook.com.
- ^ "Faculty List". Millikin University. Archived from the original on 6 January 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
- ^ Decatur Review. Decatur, Illinois. 11 January 1922.
- ^ San Francisco Call. April 1 1898, p.6 Accessed 19 October 2013
- ISBN 9780313296628.
- ^ "News Notes of Theaters". The Duluth Herald. 30 October 1920. p. 18.
External links
- Works by or about Gaston Borch at Internet Archive
- Borch's biography at the Mont-Alto Motion Picture Orchestra website
- Gaston Borch at IMDb
- Practical Manual of Instrumentation – available online from the University of Rochester Libraries
- Discography of UCSBwebsite
- Free scores by Gaston Borch at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)