Comedian Harmonists

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (April 2007)

Comedian Harmonists (from left: Robert Biberti, Erich Collin, Erwin Bootz, Roman Cycowski, Harry Frommermann, Ari Leschnikoff)

The Comedian Harmonists was an internationally famous, all-male German close harmony ensemble (5 singers plus pianist) that operated between 1927 and 1934. They were one of the most successful 20th century musical groups in Europe before World War II and were noted for using their voices to imitate musical instruments. The Comedian Harmonists were founded in Berlin-Friedenau in the flat of Harry Frommermann (Stubenrauchstraße 47). Today a commemorative plaque marks the spot.

The hallmark of the Comedian Harmonists was the unusual extent to which the members were able, whilst having different vocal qualities one from another, to blend very accurately and subtly so that the individual singers could appear and disappear back into the vocal texture with almost effortless skill.

The choice of repertoire was wide, ranging from folksong and classical numbers (usually arranged by the energetic and sensitive Frommermann) to the attractive and witty popular songs of the day by such writers as Peter Igelhoff, Werner Heymann and Paul Abraham.

Supported by Bootz, who had trained as a concert pianist, each member had something unique to contribute. Frommermann himself was a capable tenor, with a mellifluous speaking voice which he used very effectively and confidentially from time to time; he also supplied most of the bizarre vocal interjections (and stage antics) that decorated the more lively songs. Robert Biberti, Frommermann's first recruit, had an extremely flexible and, from time to time, comically communicative, dark bass voice, which the group frequently used in solo work beneath a flowing accompaniment by the others. The baritone Roman Cycowski's operatically powerful and melodically pleasing timbre provided essentially the heart of the Comedian Harmonists' unique sound. Erich Collin, who joined the group in 1929 as a replacement for the original second tenor Walter Nüssbaum, besides acting as the secretary of the group (he spoke seven languages), had a musicianship, which allowed him to secure the most awkward and crucial harmonic moments with complete accuracy, whilst the silver-voiced Ari Leschnikoff quickly became a household name for his ability to sing a top part out of the reach of most comparable tenors: he was said to be able to sing a top F on the treble stave without using any falsetto.

1 History
2 Members
3 Popular songs
4 External links

[edit] History

In 1927, unemployed actor Harry Frommermann was inspired by The Revelers, a United States jazz-influenced popular vocal group, and wished to create a German group of the same format. Frommermann held auditions for parts, and once the group was assembled, quickly began rehearsal. After some initial failures, the Harmonists soon found success, becoming popular throughout Europe. They also toured the United States and starred in 12 films.

The Comedian Harmonists were heavily influenced by U.S. hot pop music and jazz, with the influence of early Mills Brothers being particularly strong in many of their recordings.

Their success continued into the early 1930s, but they eventually ran into trouble with the newly-risen Nazi regime. Half the group members -- Frommermann, Collin, and Cycowski -- were either Jewish or of Jewish descent, and Bootz had a Jewish wife. Initially they were only forbidden from performing pieces by Jewish composers. Eventually, though, they were officially banned from performing in public. They gave their last concert in Munich on March 25, 1934. The three Jewish members subsequently fled Germany. The remaining members then replaced their counterparts and performed as separate groups, but were never able to regain their original success.

After the group broke up under Nazi pressure, its three Jewish members, Frommermann, Cycowski and Collin, left Germany to form an emigrant group, the Comedy Harmonists, finding a new pianist, bass and high tenor. From his spacious flat in Berlin, Robert Biberti took charge of a successor group in Germany, the Meistersextett, with Bootz, Leschnikoff and three new members. By 1941, both groups had disbanded, essentially because Biberti was conscripted and Cycowski lost all desire to continue. Each successor group lacked something vital from the original formation. The Meistersextett perhaps sounds thin and cold without Cycowski; conversely, the Comedy Harmonists clearly lack Biberti and the stratospheric Leschnikoff.

However, the emigrant group, which performed under the names "Comedian Harmonists" and "Comedy Harmonists", enjoyed extensive success in Australia throughout the 1930s. In 1940, the group traveled to the United States for a tour, and, due to unsafe waters, were unable to return to Australia. German performers were unpopular in the United States during the war, and the group was not able to get a lot of work, disbanding in 1941.

The German group, which was forced to rename themselves "Das Meistersextett", as not to have an English-language name, did not fare as well as the emigrants. Frequent political in-fighting and heavy censorship crippled their act. Members were drafted into the German army, and finally, they, too, disbanded in 1941.

The group was largely forgotten until filmmaker Eberhard Fechner created a four-hour black and white television documentary, interviewing the surviving group members. The documentary aired over two nights in German in 1975, and caused a resurgence of interest in the music of the Comedian Harmonists. Their old records were released on vinyl, and sold well. Royalties from these record sales provided some much-needed income for the aging Harmonists, who were then scattered throughout the world. Since then, their reputation has continued to grow unabated; of the original six, only Roman Cycowski lived to see just how great that reputation had become by the century's end.

The King's Singers recorded their music in the 1980s "A Tribute To The Comedian Harmonists". In 1997, a German biopic, Comedian Harmonists (The Harmonists in the United States) was released. The musical scores in the movie were all original recordings, lip synched by the actors.

When the British vocal ensemble Cantabile - The London Quartet first visited Austria in the late 1970s, they were compared to The Comedian Harmonists. Cantabile have recorded two albums to honour them:" A Tribute To Yesterday" [1986] and "Cantabile…On the Tracks of The Comedian Harmonists" [1999].