Erich Zeisl

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Erich Zeisl, (May 18, 1905 - February 18, 1959) was an Austrian composer.

[edit] Life and music

Born to a middle class family in Vienna, Zeisl's musical precocity enabled him to gain a place at the Vienna State Academy (against the wishes of his family) at the age of 14, at which age his first song was published. He won a state prize for a setting of the Requiem mass in 1934, but his Jewish background made it difficult to obtain work and publication. After the Anschluss in 1938 he fled, first to Paris, where he began work on an opera based on Joseph Roth's Job,and then to New York. Eventually he went to Hollywood where he worked on film music but increasingly felt isolated and ill-at-ease with the production-line demands of his employers. Amongst the films for which he wrote music were Lassie Come Home (1943), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951). He obtained success, (for which however he despised himself), with his music for a highly inaccurate stage show about the life of Tchaikovsky, Song without Words.

Nonetheless he was able eventually to find academic appointments and time to compose in his own style. These works included a variety of chamber music, a piano concerto, a concerto for cello (written for Gregor Piatigorsky) and a setting for choir, soloists and orchestra of Psalm 92 in Hebrew, which he entitled Requiem Ebraico, written in 1944-5 in memory of his father. His opera Job was never completed.

Zeisl died of a heart attack whilst teaching in Los Angeles.

Zeisl's style was essentially very conservative and he was perhaps rather better fitted for film music composition than he would have liked to believe. His status as a proscribed musician under the Nazi regime has led to a revival of interest in his music, some of which is now available on CD. Premiere performances of the Requiem Ebraico were held in Israel (under the baton of Zubin Mehta) and in London in 2006.

[edit] Works (selected)

• Songs
  • ”Liebeslied”
  • ”Mondbilder” (Text by Christian Morgenstern)
  • ”Harlemer Nachtlied” for Soprano, Tenor and Choir
• Ballet
  • ”Pierrot in der Flasche”
  • ”Uranium 235"
  • ”Naboth's Vinyard”
  • ”Jacob und Rachel”
• Choir
  • ”Afrika singt”
  • ”Requiem Concertante”
  • ”Requiem Ebraico”
  • "Scherzo und Fuge für Streichorchester”
  • ”Passacaglia-Fantasie für Orchester”
  • ”Kleine Symphonie"
• Opera
  • “Leonce und Lena”
  • ”Hiob” (unfinished)

[edit] External link

• Eric Zeisl web site contains articles, photographs and MP3s of some of his music.