Rudolf Friml

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Rudolf Friml, 1905
Friml's signature
Friml's signature

Charles Rudolf Friml

musicals, songs and piano pieces, as well as a pianist. After musical training and a brief performing career in his native Prague, Friml moved to the United States, where he became a composer. His best-known works are Rose-Marie and The Vagabond King, each of which enjoyed success on Broadway
and in London and were adapted for film.

Early life

Friml was born Rudolf Antonín Frymel on December 2, 1879, in

Kostel svatého Jiljí.[2] Friml showed aptitude for music at an early age. He entered the Prague Conservatory in 1895, where he studied the piano and composition with Antonín Dvořák.[3] Friml was expelled from the conservatory in 1901 for performing without permission.[4]
In Prague and soon afterwards in America he composed and published songs, piano pieces and other music, including the prize-winning set of songs, Písně Závišovy. The last of these, Za tichých nocí, later became the basis for a famous film in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1941.

After the conservatory, Friml took a position as

New York Symphony, under the baton of Walter Damrosch, in a concert that also included Friml playing his own Etude de concert, Op. 4, Smetana's "Am Seegestade", Liszt's Liebesträume No. 3, the Grieg A minor piano concerto with the orchestra, and a solo improvisation.[5] He later settled for a brief time in Los Angeles where he married Mathilde Baruch (1909). They had two children, Charles Rudolf (Jr.) (1910) and Marie Lucille (1911).[1] His second marriage was to Blanch Betters, an actress who had appeared in the chorus of Friml's musical Katinka; his third was to actress Elsie Lawson (who played the maid in Friml's Glorianna, and by whom he had a son, William); and his fourth and final marriage was to Kay Wong Ling. The first three marriages ended in divorce.[6]

The Firefly and early operettas

One of the most popular theatrical forms in the early decades of the 20th century in

encore, an enraged Herbert stormed out of the orchestra pit
refusing any further work with Trentini.

musical
in 1915 entitled The Peasant Girl.

Trentini was named as a co-respondent in Friml's divorce from his first wife in 1915, and evidence was introduced that they were having an affair.[1] Another show, Sometime, written with Rida Johnson Young and starring Ed Wynn and Mae West, ran well on Broadway in 1918–1919.[9]

Success

Friml wrote his most successful operettas in the 1920s. In 1924, he wrote

lyricists Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach and co-composer Herbert Stothart, was a hit worldwide, and a few of the songs from it also became hits including "The Mounties" and "Indian Love Call
". The use of murder as part of the plot was ground-breaking among operettas and musical theatre pieces at the time.

After Rose-Marie's success came two other hit operettas, The Vagabond King in 1925, with lyrics by Brian Hooker and William H. Post, and The Three Musketeers in 1928, with lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse and Clifford Grey, based on Alexandre Dumas's famous swashbuckling novel. In addition, Friml contributed to the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921 and 1923.

Friml wrote music for many films during the 1930s, often songs adapted from previous work. The Vagabond King, Rose-Marie and The Firefly were all made into films and included at least some of Friml's music. His operetta version of The Three Musketeers was never filmed. In 1930, he wrote a new operetta score for film, The Lottery Bride. Like his contemporary, Ivor Novello, Friml was sometimes ridiculed for the sentimental and insubstantial nature of his compositions and was often called trite. Friml was also criticized for the old-fashioned, Old World sentiments found in his works. Friml's last stage musical was Music Hath Charms in 1934. During the 1930s, Friml's music fell out of fashion on Broadway and in Hollywood.[10]

Later years and legacy

Rather than trying to adapt to popular taste, Friml decided to focus on playing the piano in concert and composing art music, which he did into his nineties.

The Donkey Serenade
" from the film version of The Firefly, "The Mounties" and "Indian Love Call" are still frequently heard, often in romantic parody or comic situations. His piano music is also often performed.

In 1967, Friml performed in a special concert at the

Songwriter's Hall of Fame.[10]

His two sons also worked as musicians. Rudolf Jr. was a big band leader in the 1930s and 1940s, and William, a son from Friml's third marriage, was a composer and arranger in Hollywood. William married Shelby Payne after her divorce from actor Douglas Fowley.[12][page needed] In 1969, Friml was celebrated by Ogden Nash on the occasion of his 90th birthday in a couplet which ended: "I trust your conclusion and mine are similar: 'Twould be a happier world if it were Frimler." Similarly, satiric songwriter Tom Lehrer made a reference to Friml on his first album, Songs by Tom Lehrer (1953). The song "The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz" includes the lyric, "Your lips were like wine (if you'll pardon the simile) / The music was lovely, and quite Rudolf Friml-y." Near the end of the 1957 musical The Music Man, Harold Hill lies to Marian Paroo: "I'm expecting a telegram from Rudy Friml, and this could be it."[13]

Friml died in

Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. On August 18, 2007, a death notice in the San Francisco Chronicle
reported that Kay Wong Ling Friml (born March 16, 1913), Friml's last wife, died on August 9, 2007, and would be buried with him in Forest Lawn.

Works

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Mrs. Rudolf Friml to Receive Divorce". The New York Times, July 25, 1915, p. 15
  2. ^ "The Catalogue". katalog.ahmp.cz. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  3. ^ Everett, p. 3
  4. ^ Everett, p. 4
  5. ^ "1904 Nov 17 / Special / Damrosch", New York Philharmonic, accessed June 14, 2020
  6. ^ Everett, pp. 93–94
  7. ISBN 0-415-93704-3
  8. ^ Cummings, Robert. The Firefly, All Music Guide
  9. ISBN 0199729700
  10. ^ a b c Program notes, Rose Marie, Light Opera of New York, Landmark on the Park theatre, February 2012
  11. ^ "Rudolf Friml", Internet Movie Database, accessed July 27, 2017
  12. ^ McDonnell, Evelyn, Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways (2013).
  13. ISBN 1617746002
  14. ^ Vocal score for High Jinks
  15. ^ Vocal score for You're in Love

References

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rudolf_Friml&oldid=1218348008"