In the first two decades of the 20th century, Victor Herbert was America’s greatest composer of operetta and light classical music. He was also the first classically trained musician to become involved in popular music. With over 40 musicals to his credit, including the influential Babes in Toyland and Naughty Marietta, the Irish-American composer contributed enduring melodies to the musical theatre such as “The March of the Toys,” “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life,” and “Gypsy Love Song.”
Victor August Herbert was born on February 1, 1859, in Dublin, Ireland. His father died when he was just an infant, and after his mother married a German physician, the family settled in Stuttgart, where Victor studied the cello. Unable to afford medical school, he returned to his first love, music, and entered the Stuttgart Conservatory. Soon, he was touring Europe as a cello soloist with several prominent orchestras, and eventually joined the court orchestra in Stuttgart.
In 1886, Herbert sailed to the U.S. with his wife, opera singer Therese Forster, and joined the Metropolitan Opera Company as a cellist in the orchestra. Later, he was soloist in his romantic Cello Concerto No. 2 when it was performed by the New York Philharmonic Society. In 1893, he became leader of the famed 22nd Regiment Band of the New York National Guard, which was founded by Patrick S. Gilmore, author of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.” From 1898 to 1904, Herbert conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony, finally organising his own popular touring orchestra in 1904. Although he continued to write serious music, he devoted much of his time to composing in the popular style of the day. His familiarity with Viennese operetta and his musical experience directed him toward composing for the musical form of the American stage.
Herbert composed his first operetta, Prince Anania?, in 1894, and in the next three decades wrote over 40 more. Among the best are The Fortune Telle? (1898), Babes in Toylan? (1903), The Red Mil? (1906), Naughty Mariett? (1910), Sweetheart? (1913), and his personal favourite Eilee? (1917), a paean to his Irish roots. Filled with unforgettable melodies, these beloved early musicals produced classic songs such as “Italian Street Song,” “Kiss Me Again,” “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,” and “A Kiss in the Dark.” In the late 1910s and early 1920s, however, with the rise of modern musical composers like KERN and GERSHWIN, Herbert’s more sentimental works began to seem outdated.
Herbert also composed two operas, Natoma (1911), in which the famous Irish tenor John McCormack took the lead, and Madeleine (1914). In 1916, he wrote the first complete score to accompany a feature film, the anti-pacifist The Fall of a Nation Screen sirens Jeannette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy co-starred in movie adaptations of Naughty Marietta (1935) and Sweethearts (1938), and Babes in Toyland was filmed three times, first in 1934 with comedians Laurel and Hardy, then in 1961 as a Disney fairytale, and again in 1986 as a TV movie. The composer’s life was also the subject of a 1939 Hollywood film biography, The Great Victor Herbert? Herbert’s reputation is mainly as a composer of pleasing operettas, but this achievement tends to overshadow his overall contribution to musical development in America, where he was also a cello virtuoso, a distinguished composer of concertos and operas, and a renowned conductor.
Herbert was also a notable public voice: as an eloquent defender of composers’ rights, he led the fight for copyright legislation in 1909, and in 1914, became one of the founding members of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). Herbert died in New York City on May 26, 1924.
Michael R. Ross
SEE ALSO:
FILM MUSIC; MUSICALS; OPERETTA.
FURTHER READING
Waters, Edward N. Victor Herbert: A Life in Music (New York: Da Capo Press, 1978).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Babes in Toyland; Naughty Marietta.