Ralph Benatzky was born in Moravské-Budejovice, Bohemia, on June 5, 1884. He acquired his musical training in Prague and with Felix Mottl in Munich, after which he devoted himself to light music by composing operettas. While residing at different periods in Vienna, Berlin, and Switzerland, he wrote the scores for over ninety operettas and 250 motion pictures, besides producing about five thousand songs. His most successful operettas were The Laughing Triple Alliance, My Sister and I, Love in the Snow, Axel at the Gates of Heaven, and The White Horse Inn. He came to live in the United States in 1940, but after World War II returned to Europe. He died in Zurich on October 17, 1957.
The White Horse Inn (Im weissen Roess’l) is not only Benatzky’s most celebrated operetta, but also one of the most successful produced in Europe between the two world wars, and possibly the last of the great European operettas. It was first performed in Berlin in 1930, after which it enjoyed over a thousand performances in Europe. Its première in America in 1936 (the book was adapted by David Freedman, lyrics were by Irving Caesar, William Gaxton and Kitty Carlisle starred) was only a moderate success. The operetta book of the original—freely adapted by Erik Charell and Hans Mueller, from a play by Blumenthal and Kadelburg—is set in the delightful resort of St. Wolfgang on Wolfgangsee in Austria, in the era just before World War I. Leopold, headwaiter of The White Horse Inn, is in love with its owner, Frau Josepha, who favors the lawyer, Siedler. In a fit of temper she fires Leopold, but upon learning that Emperor Franz Josef is about to pay the inn a visit, she prevails upon him to stay on. Leopold makes a welcoming speech to the Emperor, during which his bitter resentment against Frau Josepha gets the upper hand. Later on, when Frau Josepha confides to the Emperor that she is in love with Siedler, he urges her to consider Leopold for a husband. Leopold then comes to Josepha with a letter of resignation, which she accepts, but only because she is now ready to give him a new position, as her husband.
Selections from this tuneful operetta include the main love song, “Es muss ein wunderbares sein,” the ditty “Zuschau’n kann ich nicht,” and the lively waltz, “Im weissen Roess’l am Wolfgangsee.”
It is mainly the worldwide popularity of this operetta (even more than the natural beauty of Wolfgangsee) that brings tourists each year to the White Horse Inn at St. Wolfgang, for a sight of the operetta’s setting, and to partake of refreshments on the attractive veranda overlooking Wolfgangsee. The inn is now generously decorated with pictures in which the two main songs of the operetta are quoted, supplemented by a portrait of Benatzky. Souvenir ashtrays also carry musical quotations from the operetta.
Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Benjamin was born in Sydney, Australia, on September 18, 1893. His music study took place at the Royal College of Music in London. After serving in World War I, he became professor at the Sydney Conservatory, and in 1926 he assumed a similar post with the Royal College of Music in London. Meanwhile in 1924 he received the Carnegie Award for his Pastoral Fantasia, and in 1932 his first opera, The Devil Take Her, was produced in London. For five years, beginning with 1941, he was the conductor of the Vancouver Symphony. He has written notable concertos, a symphony, and other orchestral music, together with chamber works and several operas including A Tale of Two Cities which won the Festival of Britain Prize following its première in 1953. He also wrote a harmonica concerto for Larry Adler. Though many of his compositions are in an advanced style and technique, Benjamin was perhaps best known for his lighter pieces, particularly those in a popular South American idiom. He died in London on April 10, 1960.
The Cotillon (1939) is a suite of English dances derived from a medley entitled The Dancing School, published in London in 1719. Presented by Benjamin in contemporary harmonic and instrumental dress, these tunes—popular in England in the early 18th century—still retain their appeal. A short introduction, built from a basic motive from the first dance, leads to the following episodes with descriptive titles: “Lord Hereford’s Delight” for full orchestra; “Daphne’s Delight” for woodwind and strings; “Marlborough’s Victory,” for full orchestra; “Love’s Triumph” for strings; “Jig It A Foot” for full orchestra; “The Charmer” for small orchestra; “Nymph Divine” for small orchestra and harp solo; “The Tattler” for full orchestra; and “Argyll” for full orchestra. A figure from the final tune is given extended treatment in the coda.
Benjamin’s best known piece of music is the Jamaican Rumba (1942). This is the second number of Two Jamaican Pieces for orchestra. A light staccato accompaniment in rumba rhythm courses nimbly through the piece as the woodwinds present a saucy melody, and the strings a countersubject. Consecutive fifths in the harmony, a xylophone in the orchestration, and the changing meters created by novel arrangement of notes in each measure, provide particular interest. The Jamaican Rumba has been transcribed for various solo instruments and piano as well as for piano trio.
The North American Square Dances, for two pianos and orchestra (1955), is a delightful treatment of American folk idioms. The work comprises eight fiddle tunes played at old-time square dances. The native flavor is enhanced in the music by suggestions and simulations of feet-stamping, voice calling, and the plunking of a banjo. In the Introduction there appear fragments of the first dance; these same fragments return in the coda. There are eight sections: Introduction and “Heller’s Reel”; “The Old Plunk”; “The Bundle Straw”; “He Piped So Sweet”; “Fill the Bowl”; “Pigeon on the Pier”; “Calder Fair”; and “Salamanca” and “Coda.” The fourth and seventh dances are in slow tempo, while all others are fast.