Leon Jessel
Encyclopedia
Leon Jessel, or Léon Jessel (January 22, 1871 – January 4, 1942) was a German
composer
of operetta
s and light classical music pieces. Today he is best known internationally as the composer of the popular jaunty march "The Parade of the Tin Soldiers
," also known as "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers." Jessel was a prolific composer who wrote hundreds of light orchestral pieces, piano pieces, songs, waltzes, mazurkas, marches, choruses, and other salon music. He achieved considerable acclaim with a number of his operettas — in particular Schwarzwaldmädel
(Black Forest Girl), which remains popular to this day.
Because Jessel was a Jew by birth (he converted to Christianity at the age of 23), with the rise of Nazism in the late 1920s, Jessel's composing virtually came to an end, and his musical works, which had been very popular, were suppressed and nearly forgotten.
. In 1919, his first marriage ended in divorce. In 1921 he married his second wife, Anna Gerholdt, who was 19 years his junior.
in cities which included Mulheim an der Ruhr, Freiberg
, Kiel
, Stettin, Chemnitz
, and Neustrelitz
. He finally settled in Lübeck
, where he was Kapellmeister at the Wilhelm Theater from 1899 to 1905, whereupon he became director of the Lübeck Liedertafel (men's singing group) association. While in Lübeck Jessel composed numerous choral works, operettas, and character piece
s.
In 1911 Jessel moved to Berlin
, where he came into his own and made a name for himself — his 1913 operetta Die beiden Husaren (The Two Hussars) garnered quite a bit of attention. Jessel continued to compose many operettas and Singspiel
operas, most of which premiered in Berlin. In 1915 Jessel also founded and launched the early GEMA
, a German performance rights organization.
Jessel's biggest success was the operetta Schwarzwaldmädel
(Black Forest Girl), which premiered at the Komische Oper in Berlin in August 1917. The opera's touching libretto, appealing melodies, and elegant instrumentation proved immensely popular, and it ran in Berlin for 900 performances, and within the next 10 years was performed approximately 6,000 times in Germany and abroad. Schwarzwaldmädel has been recorded numerous times over many decades, and has been filmed and televised numerous times as well. Jessel also had a major success with his 1921 operetta Die Postmeisterin (The Postmistress), and in total he wrote nearly two dozen operettas.
In 1937 Jessel was forced out of the Reichsmusikkammer
(the State Music Institute), and recordings and distribution of his works were prohibited. In 1941 a house search turned up a 1939 letter to his librettist William Sterk in Vienna, in which Jessel had written: "I cannot work in a time when hatred of Jews threatens my people with destruction, where I do not know when that gruesome fate will likewise be knocking at my door." On December 15, 1941 Jessel was arrested and delivered to the Gestapo
in Berlin. He was tortured by the Gestapo in a basement of the Police Bureau at Alexanderplatz
, and subsequently died on January 4, 1942 in the Berlin Jewish Hospital.
" (Die Parade der Zinnsoldaten).
"The Parade of the Tin Soldiers" was popularized internationally in the early 1920s, under the title "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers", by Nikita Balieff
in his La Chauve-Souris vaudeville show. In 1923, Lee DeForest filmed "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers", performed by Balieff's company, in the DeForest Phonofilm
sound-on-film process. The film premiered that year in New York City, and is in the Maurice Zouary collection at the Library of Congress
.
By the mid-1920s, the piece was a hit single recorded by the orchestras of Carl Fenton
, Vincent Lopez
, and Paul Whiteman
. It has been widely performed and recorded ever since. For instance, a Betty Boop
film of the same name was created with the music in 1933, and The Rockettes
have been performing their own choreographed version of the piece since then in the annual Radio City Christmas Spectacular
.
In Great Britain
the piece was used for many years in BBC
radio's Children's Hour
to introduce the series Toytown
, based on stories by S. G. Hulme Beaman
. The recording used was by the New Light Symphony Orchestra.
(Black Forest Girl) remains one of the most popular operettas written in Germany, and it has continued to be performed, recorded, filmed, and televised. According to Andrew Lamb
in 150 Years of Popular Musical Theatre, "Schwarzwaldmädel represented all that was best in continental operetta."
Several of Jessel's instrumental character pieces, such as "The Wedding of the Rose" (Der Rose Hochzeitszug), are also still in international circulation.
In German:
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
of operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s and light classical music pieces. Today he is best known internationally as the composer of the popular jaunty march "The Parade of the Tin Soldiers
The Parade of the Tin Soldiers
"The Parade of the Tin Soldiers" , also known as "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers", is an instrumental musical character piece, in the form of a popular jaunty march, written by German composer Leon Jessel, in 1897....
," also known as "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers." Jessel was a prolific composer who wrote hundreds of light orchestral pieces, piano pieces, songs, waltzes, mazurkas, marches, choruses, and other salon music. He achieved considerable acclaim with a number of his operettas — in particular Schwarzwaldmädel
Schwarzwaldmädel
Schwarzwaldmädel is a 1917 operetta in three acts by German composer Leon Jessel. The libretto is by August Neidhart, and the operetta premiered on 25 August 1917 at the Alte Komische Oper Berlin in Berlin...
(Black Forest Girl), which remains popular to this day.
Because Jessel was a Jew by birth (he converted to Christianity at the age of 23), with the rise of Nazism in the late 1920s, Jessel's composing virtually came to an end, and his musical works, which had been very popular, were suppressed and nearly forgotten.
Early life and family
Leon Jessel was born in the eastern German city of Stettin (now Szczecin, Poland), in 1871, the son of Jewish merchant Samuel Jessel and his American wife Mary. Leon converted to Christianity in 1894 — the same year he premiered his first operetta Die Brautwerbung (The Courtship) — in order to marry Clara Louise Grunewald, and they were wed in 1896. In 1909 his daughter Maria Eva was born, and in 1911 the family moved to BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. In 1919, his first marriage ended in divorce. In 1921 he married his second wife, Anna Gerholdt, who was 19 years his junior.
Career
Although his quite musical parents wished him to become a merchant or businessman, Jessel was instead drawn to become a musician, and left school at the age of 17 to pursue music and musical theater. After studying with various teachers between 1888 and 1891, Jessel became a conductor, music director, chorus master, bandmaster, and theater conductor working in many German cities. Beginning in 1892, these jobs included the position of KapellmeisterKapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
in cities which included Mulheim an der Ruhr, Freiberg
Freiberg, Saxony
Freiberg is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, administrative center of the Mittelsachsen district.-History:The city was founded in 1186, and has been a center of the mining industry in the Ore Mountains for centuries...
, Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
, Stettin, Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
, and Neustrelitz
Neustrelitz
Neustrelitz is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Zierker See in the Mecklenburg Lake District. From 1738 until 1918 it was the capital of the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz...
. He finally settled in Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
, where he was Kapellmeister at the Wilhelm Theater from 1899 to 1905, whereupon he became director of the Lübeck Liedertafel (men's singing group) association. While in Lübeck Jessel composed numerous choral works, operettas, and character piece
Character piece
Character piece is a literal translation of the German Charakterstück, a term, not very precisely defined, used for a broad range of 19th century piano music based on a single idea or program...
s.
In 1911 Jessel moved to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where he came into his own and made a name for himself — his 1913 operetta Die beiden Husaren (The Two Hussars) garnered quite a bit of attention. Jessel continued to compose many operettas and Singspiel
Singspiel
A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
operas, most of which premiered in Berlin. In 1915 Jessel also founded and launched the early GEMA
Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte
Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte is a performance rights organization from Germany. It is the only such institution in Germany and a member of BIEM and CISAC...
, a German performance rights organization.
Jessel's biggest success was the operetta Schwarzwaldmädel
Schwarzwaldmädel
Schwarzwaldmädel is a 1917 operetta in three acts by German composer Leon Jessel. The libretto is by August Neidhart, and the operetta premiered on 25 August 1917 at the Alte Komische Oper Berlin in Berlin...
(Black Forest Girl), which premiered at the Komische Oper in Berlin in August 1917. The opera's touching libretto, appealing melodies, and elegant instrumentation proved immensely popular, and it ran in Berlin for 900 performances, and within the next 10 years was performed approximately 6,000 times in Germany and abroad. Schwarzwaldmädel has been recorded numerous times over many decades, and has been filmed and televised numerous times as well. Jessel also had a major success with his 1921 operetta Die Postmeisterin (The Postmistress), and in total he wrote nearly two dozen operettas.
Persecution and death in Nazi Germany
Jessel's operettas were popular, nationalistic, and very German — Schwarzwaldmädel was a favorite of Hitler and Himmler. Because of this, and because of his own conservative nationalistic ideology, and because his second wife Anna joined the Nazi party in 1932, Jessel expected acceptance in Germany even during and after the Nazi rise to power. Instead, he was rejected by Nazi leadership because of his Jewish descent, even though he had converted to Christianity in 1894, and performances of his works were banned in 1933. Jessel's last major work was his 1933 operetta Junger Wein (Young Wine), and his biographer Albrecht Dümling believes that he was a victim of targeted boycott measures as early as 1927.In 1937 Jessel was forced out of the Reichsmusikkammer
Reichsmusikkammer
The Reichsmusikkammer was a Nazi institution. It promoted "good German music" which was composed by Aryans and seen as consistent with Nazi ideals, while suppressing other, "degenerate" music, which included atonal music, jazz, and music by Jewish composers...
(the State Music Institute), and recordings and distribution of his works were prohibited. In 1941 a house search turned up a 1939 letter to his librettist William Sterk in Vienna, in which Jessel had written: "I cannot work in a time when hatred of Jews threatens my people with destruction, where I do not know when that gruesome fate will likewise be knocking at my door." On December 15, 1941 Jessel was arrested and delivered to the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
in Berlin. He was tortured by the Gestapo in a basement of the Police Bureau at Alexanderplatz
Alexanderplatz
Alexanderplatz is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin, near the Fernsehturm. Berliners often call it simply Alex, referring to a larger neighborhood stretching from Mollstraße in the northeast to Spandauer Straße and the City Hall in the southwest.-Early...
, and subsequently died on January 4, 1942 in the Berlin Jewish Hospital.
"The Parade of the Tin Soldiers"
One of Jessel's non-operatic pieces still extensively performed and recorded worldwide is the jaunty march (originally for piano) for orchestra or military band entitled "The Parade of the Tin SoldiersThe Parade of the Tin Soldiers
"The Parade of the Tin Soldiers" , also known as "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers", is an instrumental musical character piece, in the form of a popular jaunty march, written by German composer Leon Jessel, in 1897....
" (Die Parade der Zinnsoldaten).
"The Parade of the Tin Soldiers" was popularized internationally in the early 1920s, under the title "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers", by Nikita Balieff
Nikita Balieff
Nikita Balieff , was an Armenian vaudevillian, stage performer, writer, impresario, and director best known as the master of ceremonies and creator of La Chauve-Souris theater group.-Theatrical career begins in Moscow:...
in his La Chauve-Souris vaudeville show. In 1923, Lee DeForest filmed "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers", performed by Balieff's company, in the DeForest Phonofilm
Phonofilm
In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines. These parallel lines photographically recorded electrical waveforms from a microphone, which were translated back...
sound-on-film process. The film premiered that year in New York City, and is in the Maurice Zouary collection at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
.
By the mid-1920s, the piece was a hit single recorded by the orchestras of Carl Fenton
Carl Fenton
Carl Fenton born as Walter G. Haenschen, was an American bandleader, composer, and radio musician.- Name origin :The Carl Fenton Orchestra was a title given to Brunswick Records studio bands through the 1920s...
, Vincent Lopez
Vincent Lopez
Vincent Lopez was an American bandleader and pianist.Vincent Lopez was born of Portuguese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York and was leading his own dance band in New York City by 1917...
, and Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
. It has been widely performed and recorded ever since. For instance, a Betty Boop
Betty Boop
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She has also been featured in...
film of the same name was created with the music in 1933, and The Rockettes
The Rockettes
The Rockettes are a precision dance company performing out of the Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, New York City. During the Christmas season, the Rockettes have performed five shows a day, seven days a week, for 77 years...
have been performing their own choreographed version of the piece since then in the annual Radio City Christmas Spectacular
Radio City Christmas Spectacular
The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is an annual musical holiday stage show presented at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The show features over 140 performers, lavish sets and costumes and an original musical score. The 90 minute revue combines singing, dancing and humor with traditional...
.
In Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
the piece was used for many years in BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio's Children's Hour
Children's Hour
Children's Hour—at first: "The Children's Hour", from a verse by Longfellow—was the name of the BBC's principal recreational service for children during the period when radio dominated broadcasting....
to introduce the series Toytown
Toytown
Toytown was a British radio series for children, based around a set of puppets created by SG Hulme Beaman, broadcast by the BBC for Children's Hour, which ran from 17:00 to 18:00 on the Home Service. There were also some short films made during the 1970s which were broadcast on ITV...
, based on stories by S. G. Hulme Beaman
Sydney George Hulme Beaman
Sydney George Hulme Beaman, born in 1887 and who died 4 February 1932, was an author & illustrator best known as the creator of the Toytown stories and their characters including Larry the Lamb.-Life and work:...
. The recording used was by the New Light Symphony Orchestra.
Schwarzwaldmädel and other works
Jessel's charming operetta SchwarzwaldmädelSchwarzwaldmädel
Schwarzwaldmädel is a 1917 operetta in three acts by German composer Leon Jessel. The libretto is by August Neidhart, and the operetta premiered on 25 August 1917 at the Alte Komische Oper Berlin in Berlin...
(Black Forest Girl) remains one of the most popular operettas written in Germany, and it has continued to be performed, recorded, filmed, and televised. According to Andrew Lamb
Andrew Lamb (writer)
Andrew Martin Lamb is an English writer, musicologist and broadcaster, known for his expertise in light music and musical theatre.-Biography:Lamb was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England, on 23 September 1942, the son of Harry Lamb, a schoolmaster, and his wife Winifred, née Emmott...
in 150 Years of Popular Musical Theatre, "Schwarzwaldmädel represented all that was best in continental operetta."
Several of Jessel's instrumental character pieces, such as "The Wedding of the Rose" (Der Rose Hochzeitszug), are also still in international circulation.
Selected works
- Die Brautwerbung (The Courtship) (OperettaOperettaOperetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
in 1 Act; Text: Else Gehrke, premiere: 1894, CelleCelleCelle is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the River Aller, a tributary of the Weser and has a population of about 71,000...
) - Kruschke am Nordpol (Kruschke at the North Pole) (Operetta in 1 Act; Text: Max Reichardt, premiere: 1896, KielKielKiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
) - Die Parade der Zinnsoldaten ("The Parade of the Tin Soldiers" aka "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers") (Character pieceCharacter pieceCharacter piece is a literal translation of the German Charakterstück, a term, not very precisely defined, used for a broad range of 19th century piano music based on a single idea or program...
, solo piano. Sold in 1897; published for orchestra in 1905, Opus 123) - Der Rose Hochzeitszug ("The Wedding of the Rose") (Character piece / Two-Step for piano or orchestra. Written: 1905, Opus 216)
- Die beiden Husaren (The Two Hussars) (Operetta; Text: Wilhelm Jacoby and Rudolf Schanzer, premiere: 6 February 1913, Theater des Westens, Berlin)
- Wer zuletzt lacht (Who Laughs Last) (Musical comedy; Text: Arthur Lippschitz and Albert Bernstein-Sawersky, premiere: 31 December 1913, Theater an der Weidendammer Brücke, Berlin)
- SchwarzwaldmädelSchwarzwaldmädelSchwarzwaldmädel is a 1917 operetta in three acts by German composer Leon Jessel. The libretto is by August Neidhart, and the operetta premiered on 25 August 1917 at the Alte Komische Oper Berlin in Berlin...
(Black Forest Girl), (Operetta; Text: August Neidhart, premiere: 25 August 1917, Komische Oper, Berlin) - Ein modernes Mädel (A Modern Girl) (Operetta; Text: August Neidhart, premiere: 28 June 1918, Volkstheater, Munich)
- Ohne Männer kein Vergnügen (No Pleasure Without Men) (Dance Operetta; Text: August Neidhart, premiere: 1918, Berlin)
- Die närrische Liebe (The Foolish Love) (SingspielSingspielA Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
; Text: Jean Kren, premiere: 1919, Berlin) - Verliebte Frauen (Women in Love) (VaudevilleVaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
; Text: Alexander Pordes-Milo, premiere: 1920, Königsberg) - Schwalbenhochzeit (The Swallows' Wedding) (Operetta; Text: Alexander Pordes-Milo, premiere: 28 January 1921, Theater des Westens, Berlin)
- Die Postmeisterin (The Postmistress) (Operetta; Text: August Neidhart, premiere: 3 February 1921, Central-Theater, Berlin)
- Das Detektivmädel (The Girl Detective) (Operetta; Text: August Neidhart, premiere: 1921, Berlin)
- Des Königs Nachbarin (The King's Lovely Neighbor) (Singspiel; Text: Fritz GrünbaumFritz GrünbaumFritz Grünbaum was an Austrian Jewish cabaret artist, operetta and pop song writer, director, actor and master of ceremonies....
and Wilhelm Sterk, premiere: 15 April 1923, Wallner-Theater, Berlin) - Der keusche Benjamin (Chaste Benjamin) (Operetta; Text: Max Steiner-Kaiser and Hans Bodenstedt, premiere: 1923 Hamburg)
- Meine Tochter Otto (My Daughter Otto) (Operetta; Text: Fritz Grünbaum and Wilhelm Sterk, premiere: 1924, Berlin)
- Prinzessin Husch (Princess Husch) (Operetta; Text: August Neidhart, premiere: 1925, Hamburg)
- Die kleine Studentin (The College Girl) (Operetta; Text: Leo Kastner and Alfred Möller, premiere: 1926, Stettin)
- Mädels, die man liebt (Girls You Love) (Musical; Text: Leo Kastner and Alfred Möller, premiere: 1927, Hamburg)
- Die Luxuskabine (The Luxurious Cabin) (Operetta; Text: August Neidhart, premiere: 1929, Leipzig)
- Junger Wein (Young Wine) (Operetta; Text: August Neidhart, premiere: 1 September 1933, Theater des Westens, Berlin)
- Die goldene Mühle (The Golden Mill) (Singspiel; Text: Wilhelm Sterk, performed incomplete: 29 October 1936, OltenOltenOlten is a town in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland and capital of the district of the same name.Olten's railway station is within 30 minutes of Zurich, Bern, Basel, and Lucerne by train, and is a rail hub of Switzerland.-History:...
, SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
) - Treffpunkt Tegernsee (Operetta; Text: Aksel Lund and Erik Radolf, premiere: April 12, 2009, Stadttheater in Neuburg an der DonauNeuburg an der DonauNeuburg an der Donau, literally Neuburg on the Danube River, is a town which is the capital of the Neuburg-Schrobenhausen district in the state of Bavaria in Germany.-Divisions:The municipality has 16 divisions:-History:...
by Neuburger Volkstheater)
External links
- "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers"
- Schwarzwaldmädel (excerpts)
- Schwarzwaldmädel (Black Forest Girl) Brief synopsis and analysis
- Jessel's operettas, operas, and musicals
- Leon Jessel at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
In German:
- Léon Jessel Data, biography, and links from the University of Hamburg
- Recordings and publications at the German National Library