Werner Janssen

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For the philosopher, see Werner Janssen (philosopher).
Werner Janssen (1937)

Werner Janssen (born Werner Alexander Oscar Janssen;[1] June 1, 1899 – September 19, 1990) was an American composer and conductor of classical music and film scores. He was the first New York-born conductor to lead the New York Philharmonic. For his film work he was nominated for six Academy Awards.

Formative influences and career

Werner Alexander Oscar Janssen was born in New York City on June 1, 1899 to August Louis Janssen and Alice Bianca E. (née Von Boeckmann) Janssen.[1] His father was a New York restaurateur, founder of the Janssen Hof Brau Haus on Broadway. The family lived in Great Neck on King's Point Road next door to musician George M. Cohan. It was Cohan who encouraged young Werner to continue to play piano and explore his passion for music. Cohan described the interplay of the families as he states, "I'll hold to my dying day that Werner became a musician because his dad made him practice the piano all day to keep me awake, just to get even with me for playing all night and keeping him awake."[2] Werner recounted that his first two music students were the daughters of George M. Cohan, whom he taught in their home. As a teenager Werner remembers hearing the first renditions of "Over there" from across the fence between the houses. Cohan reflected on those days, writing to Werner's father, "those were golden days when you were singing songs and I was trying to write them down next door — they were in fact the happiest of all any days as I look back on them now."[3]

August strongly encouraged Werner to enter the family business, opposing the son's desire for a musical career. After Werner completed secondary school (graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy) he had to support his own musical education at Dartmouth College. He did this by being a waiter, performing in cabarets and theaters, and selling his own popular compositions. At the New England Conservatory of Music he studied with the composers George Chadwick and Frederick Converse. He studied piano with Arthur Friedheim, a pupil of Franz Liszt.[citation needed]

Janssen entered the US military (infantry) in World War I. After the war he returned to his studies and earned a bachelor's degree in music at Dartmouth College in 1921. He began to compose jazz songs for Tin Pan Alley. He made recordings as a pianist of two of his popular songs in 1920. He composed for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1925 and 1926 and wrote several songs which became national hits. This helped finance his conducting studies with Felix Weingartner in Basel, Switzerland (1920–21) and with Hermann Scherchen in Strasbourg, France (1921–25). He also received a Juilliard Fellowship and the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome[4][failed verification] for his tone poem for large orchestra in a jazz idiom New Year's Eve in New York. That composition received its premiere from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Howard Hanson on May 8, 1929. In 1930, it was performed by the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Nikolai Sokoloff, and was recorded in 1929 by the Victor Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Nathaniel Shilkret. Shilkret and Janssen were later (1945) to exchange roles, with Janssen and his Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles conducting the Genesis Suite, which was conceived and coauthored by Shilkret.[5]

In 1927, he was hired by

Order of the White Rose on March 8, 1936, from the government of Finland for his contribution to Finnish music.[citation needed
]

He was appointed associate conductor of the

Captain Kidd (1945), A Night in Casablanca (1946), Ruthless (1948), and Uncle Vanya (1957), starring and co-directed by Franchot Tone
. He was also responsible for the score for the 1966 German television production Robin Hood, der edle Ritter (Robin Hood, the Noble Knight). He continued to write non-film compositions too, including the Foster Suite (1937), the String Quartet No. 2 (1938), the Octet for Five (1965), and the Quintet for 10 Instruments (1968).

In 1940, he formed the Janssen Symphony in Los Angeles, which became a rival organization to the

War and Peace
. He returned to the U.S. in the early 1970s.

Shilkret,[5] described Arthur Judson as being the leading person for choosing symphony conductors, and he quotes Crawford[6] as quoting Hart:[7] "All agree that from 1915 to 1956, at least, Arthur Judson exercised a power and influence in the symphony and concert affairs of this country without equal then or at any other time." Shilkret[5] says that "Werner Janssen tells, in his unpublished autobiography (referenced as 'Janssen, Werner and D. Bruce Lockerbee, ca 1980, While the Music Lasts, unpublished, 261 double-spaced typed pages'), of unintentionally bypassing Judson and later being forced to pay Judson a commission on all of his (Janssen's) performance fees, without getting a single booking from Judson in return."

Personal life

Janssen was married three times, to:

  • Elsa Schmidt, an Indianapolis brewery heiress, by whom he had two children, Werner Jr. (1924–2012) and Alice (1923–2011, later Krelle). They divorced in 1937.[8]
  • Ann Harding, the Hollywood actress, whom he married in 1937.[9] Their marriage ended in divorce in 1962.[10] By this marriage he had a stepdaughter, Jane Harding.
  • Christina Heintzmann, by whom he had a daughter, Jennifer.

Death

Janssen died on September 19, 1990, aged 91, in Stony Brook, New York.[11]

Awards and honours

References

  1. ^ a b Werner Alexander Oscar Janssen in the New York, New York, U.S., Birth Certificate Number: 22344, ancestry.com. Accessed November 26, 2022.
  2. ^ Democrat and Chronicle, January 17, 1937.[full citation needed]
  3. ^ Cohan, 1934 letter to August Janssen.[full citation needed]
  4. ^ "Answers - the Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions". Answers.com.
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-8108-5128-8
    , pp. 91, 104, 196–200, 313.
  6. ISBN 0-520-07764-4
  7. ^ Hart, Philip, Orpheus in the New World: The Symphony Orchestras as an American Cultural Institution (New York: W. W. Norton, 1973): [page needed].
  8. ^ "Werner Janssen Obituary (2012) - Pittsfield, MA - The Berkshire Eagle". Legacy.com.
  9. ISSN 0040-781X
    . Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  10. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  11. ^ John Rockwell, "Led Philharmonic in New York in 30's", New York Times (September 21, 1990): B6.

Sources

  • Composers of Today, 2nd Edition (1936)
  • Living Musicians 1st Supplement; Living Musicians (1940)
  • Who Was Who in America, 10th ed., Chicago: Marquis (1993)

External links

Cultural offices
Preceded by Conductor, Portland Symphony Orchestra
1947–1949 		Succeeded by
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