Sandor Harmati
Encyclopedia
Sandor Harmati was a Hungarian-American violinist, conductor and composer, best known for his song "Bluebird of Happiness
" written in 1934 for Jan Peerce
.
on 9 July 1892.
He studied at the Budapest Music Academy in 1909, becoming a professor at the age of only 17. From 1910 to 1912 he was Concertmaster of the Hungarian State Orchestra. He emigrated to the United States
in 1914. From 1917 to 1921 he played with the Letz String Quartet, becoming leader in 1922; and the Elki Piano Trio (Ernö Rapée
, piano; Paul Gruppe, cello; Sandor Harmati, violin). From 1922 to 1925 he played first violin with the Lenox String Quartet, which he co-founded.
In 1921 Sandor Harmati was a founding member of the American Music Guild, created by a group of young American composers "to learn each other's music and to present worthy works by other American composers to the New York public". The other charter members were Frederick Jacobi
, Marion Bauer
, Emerson Whithorne
, Louis Gruenberg
, Charles Haubiel
, A. Walter Kramer, Harold Morris, Albert Stoessel
and Deems Taylor
.
On 11 November 1923, at the Klaw Theater
in New York, Harold Bauer
and the Lenox Quartet gave the first performance of Ernest Bloch
's Piano Quintet No. 1, which was dedicated to the performers (Harold Bauer, piano; Sandor Harmati and Wolfe Wolfinsohn, violins; Nicolas Moldavan, viola; and Emmeran Stoeber, cello).
On 19 September 1924, at the 7th Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music
, the Lenox Quartet took part in the first performance of La Belle Dame sans Merci, Wallingford Riegger
's setting of John Keats
' poem, for two sopranos, contralto, tenor, violin, viola, cello, double bass, oboe (English horn), clarinet and French horn.
From October 1925 until 1929, when he retired due to illness, Sandor Harmati was music director of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra
. In 1927 he was invited to conduct several concerts at the International Festival in Frankfurt, Germany. He also had various guest conducting engagements in Paris
and Berlin
.
In 1933 he succeeded Albert Stoessel as conductor of the Westchester County Music Festival
, and appeared with the Westchester Festival Orchestra in 1934 and 1935.
In February 1935, Sandor Harmati conducted the first United States performance of Gustav Holst
's opera At the Boar's Head
, at the MacDowell Club in New York.
On 1 March 1935, at New York's Adelphi Theatre, he conducted for the American Ballet
's New York
premiere of George Balanchine
's ballet Serenade
(music from Tchaikovsky's
Serenade for Strings
arr. George Antheil
).
On 5 March 1935, in New York, he again conducted the American Ballet at the world premiere of Balanchine's ballet Dreams (music by George Antheil).
Sandor Harmati died in Flemington, New Jersey
on 4 April 1936, aged only 43.
", written in 1934 for his friend, the tenor Jan Peerce
. The words were by Edward Heyman
, with additional lyrics by Harry Parr-Davies. Peerce made two recordings of the song: in 1936, under the pseudonym Paul Robinson; and in 1945, under his own name, with an orchestra conducted by Sylvan Levin
. The latter recording became a worldwide hit for Peerce, outselling all his many operatic recordings, and becoming second only to Enrico Caruso's recording of George M. Cohan
's "Over There
" among the best-selling records made by opera and concert singers.
Bluebird of Happiness (song)
"Bluebird of Happiness" is a song composed in 1934 by Sandor Harmati, with words by Edward Heyman and additional lyrics by Harry Parr-Davies.Harmati wrote the song for his friend, the tenor Jan Peerce, the leading singer at Radio City Music Hall...
" written in 1934 for Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recording artist. He is the father of film director Larry Peerce....
.
Biography
Sandor Harmati (Harmati Sándor in Hungarian orthography) was born in BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
on 9 July 1892.
He studied at the Budapest Music Academy in 1909, becoming a professor at the age of only 17. From 1910 to 1912 he was Concertmaster of the Hungarian State Orchestra. He emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1914. From 1917 to 1921 he played with the Letz String Quartet, becoming leader in 1922; and the Elki Piano Trio (Ernö Rapée
Erno Rapee
Ernö Rapée was one of the most prolific American symphonic conductors in the first half of the 20th Century...
, piano; Paul Gruppe, cello; Sandor Harmati, violin). From 1922 to 1925 he played first violin with the Lenox String Quartet, which he co-founded.
In 1921 Sandor Harmati was a founding member of the American Music Guild, created by a group of young American composers "to learn each other's music and to present worthy works by other American composers to the New York public". The other charter members were Frederick Jacobi
Frederick Jacobi
Frederick Jacobi was a prolific American composer and teacher.His works include symphonies, concerti, chamber music, works for solo piano and for solo organ, lieder, and one opera....
, Marion Bauer
Marion Bauer
Marion Eugénie Bauer was an American composer, teacher, writer, and music critic. A contemporary of Aaron Copland, Bauer played an active role in shaping American musical identity in the early half of the twentieth century....
, Emerson Whithorne
Emerson Whithorne
Emerson Whithorne was a notable American composer and researcher into the history of music. He had a reputation as an authority on the music of China.-External links:...
, Louis Gruenberg
Louis Gruenberg
-Life and career:He was born near Brest-Litovsk , to Abe Gruenberg and Klara Kantarovitch. His family emigrated to the United States when he was a few months old. His father worked as a violinist in New York City...
, Charles Haubiel
Charles Haubiel
Charles Trowbridge Haubiel was an American composer. He studied in New York City, and spent eight years teaching piano at the Institute of Musical Art in that city before moving on to New York University. His music has been described as a combination of Johannes Brahms and Claude Debussy...
, A. Walter Kramer, Harold Morris, Albert Stoessel
Albert Stoessel
Albert Frederic Stoessel was an American composer, violinist and conductor.He was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1894. He studied music at the Berlin Hochschule as a pupil of Emanuel Wirth and Willy Hess...
and Deems Taylor
Deems Taylor
Joseph Deems Taylor was a U.S. composer, music critic, and promoter of classical music.-Career:Taylor initially planned to become an architect; however, despite minimal musical training he soon took to music composition. The result was a series of works for orchestra and/or voices...
.
On 11 November 1923, at the Klaw Theater
Marcus Klaw
Marc Alonzo Klaw was an American lawyer, theatrical producer, theatre owner, and a leading figure of the Theatrical Syndicate....
in New York, Harold Bauer
Harold Bauer
Harold Bauer was a noted pianist who began his musical career as a violinist.Harold Bauer was born in London; his father was a German violinist and his mother was English. He took up the study of the violin under the direction of his father and Adolf Pollitzer. He made his debut as a violinist in...
and the Lenox Quartet gave the first performance of Ernest Bloch
Ernest Bloch
Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer.-Life:Bloch was born in Geneva and began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon afterwards. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe...
's Piano Quintet No. 1, which was dedicated to the performers (Harold Bauer, piano; Sandor Harmati and Wolfe Wolfinsohn, violins; Nicolas Moldavan, viola; and Emmeran Stoeber, cello).
On 19 September 1924, at the 7th Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music
Tanglewood Music Festival
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
, the Lenox Quartet took part in the first performance of La Belle Dame sans Merci, Wallingford Riegger
Wallingford Riegger
Wallingford Constantine Riegger was a prolific American music composer, well known for orchestral and modern dance music, and film scores...
's setting of John Keats
John Keats
John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
' poem, for two sopranos, contralto, tenor, violin, viola, cello, double bass, oboe (English horn), clarinet and French horn.
From October 1925 until 1929, when he retired due to illness, Sandor Harmati was music director of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra
Omaha Symphony Orchestra
The Omaha Symphony Orchestra is a community-based orchestra performing numerous concerts annually in Omaha, Nebraska and throughout the region. Originally established in 1921, the orchestra has continued yearly.-About:...
. In 1927 he was invited to conduct several concerts at the International Festival in Frankfurt, Germany. He also had various guest conducting engagements in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and 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...
.
In 1933 he succeeded Albert Stoessel as conductor of the Westchester County Music Festival
Westchester County Center
Westchester County Center is a 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena in White Plains, New York. It hosts various local concerts and sporting events for the area....
, and appeared with the Westchester Festival Orchestra in 1934 and 1935.
In February 1935, Sandor Harmati conducted the first United States performance of Gustav Holst
Gustav Holst
Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....
's opera At the Boar's Head
At the Boar's Head
At the Boar's Head is an opera in one act by the English composer Gustav Holst, his op. 42. Holst himself described the work as "A Musical Interlude in One Act". The libretto, by the composer himself, is based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2.Holst devised the idea for this...
, at the MacDowell Club in New York.
On 1 March 1935, at New York's Adelphi Theatre, he conducted for the American Ballet
American Ballet
The American Ballet was the first professional ballet company George Balanchine created in the United States. The company was founded with the help of Lincoln Kirstein and Edward Mortimer Morris Warburg, managed by Alexander Merovitch and populated by students of Kirstein and Balanchine's School of...
's New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
premiere of George Balanchine
George Balanchine
George Balanchine , born Giorgi Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Georgian father and a Russian mother, was one of the 20th century's most famous choreographers, a developer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet...
's ballet Serenade
Serenade (ballet)
Serenade is a ballet by George Balanchine, subsequently co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet, to Tschaikovsky's 1880 Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48...
(music from Tchaikovsky's
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
Serenade for Strings
Serenade for Strings (Tchaikovsky)
Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48, premiered in 1880. It remains one of the late Romantic era's most definitive compositions.-Form:Serenade for Strings has 4 movements:...
arr. George Antheil
George Antheil
George Antheil was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor. A self-described "Bad Boy of Music", his modernist compositions amazed and appalled listeners in Europe and the US during the 1920s with their cacophonous celebration of mechanical devices.Returning permanently to...
).
On 5 March 1935, in New York, he again conducted the American Ballet at the world premiere of Balanchine's ballet Dreams (music by George Antheil).
Sandor Harmati died in Flemington, New Jersey
Flemington, New Jersey
Flemington is a borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the borough population was 4,581. It is the county seat of Hunterdon County....
on 4 April 1936, aged only 43.
Compositions
His compositions included:- an opera (Sweetmeat Game)
- two symphonic poems (Folio, Primavera; one of which won a Pulitzer ScholarshipPulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in 1922) - two Caprices (1914, 1932)
- Phantasy Variations
- Suite for String Orchestra
- Prelude to a Melodrama (this was first performed in 1928 by the Philadelphia OrchestraPhiladelphia OrchestraThe Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
under Leopold StokowskiLeopold StokowskiLeopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
, and won a Juilliard Foundation Award) - incidental musicIncidental musicIncidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
to The Jeweled Tree - Elysian Idyll for flute and small orchestra
- three string quartets
- works for violin and orchestra, and violin and piano
- Indian Serenade (a cappella)
- Psalm 103 (mixed voices and orchestra)
- songs such as "God's World" (Edna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent MillayEdna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work...
), "Nod" (Walter de la MareWalter de la MareWalter John de la Mare , OM CH was an English poet, short story writer and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and the poem "The Listeners"....
), and "The Owl and the Pussycat" (Edward LearEdward LearEdward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...
). - Illusion for Theremin and piano (written for Lucie Bigelow Rosen)
Bluebird of Happiness
But Sandor Harmati is solely remembered now for his song "Bluebird of HappinessBluebird of Happiness (song)
"Bluebird of Happiness" is a song composed in 1934 by Sandor Harmati, with words by Edward Heyman and additional lyrics by Harry Parr-Davies.Harmati wrote the song for his friend, the tenor Jan Peerce, the leading singer at Radio City Music Hall...
", written in 1934 for his friend, the tenor Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce was an American operatic tenor. Peerce was an accomplished performer on the operatic and Broadway concert stages, in solo recitals, and as a recording artist. He is the father of film director Larry Peerce....
. The words were by Edward Heyman
Edward Heyman
Edward Heyman was an American musician and lyricist, best known for his compositions "Body and Soul", "When I Fall in Love", and "For Sentimental Reasons". He also contributed many songs for films.-Biography:...
, with additional lyrics by Harry Parr-Davies. Peerce made two recordings of the song: in 1936, under the pseudonym Paul Robinson; and in 1945, under his own name, with an orchestra conducted by Sylvan Levin
Sylvan Levin
Sylvan Levin was an American concert pianist and conductor. He notably served as the assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York City Symphony under Leopold Stokowski for many years...
. The latter recording became a worldwide hit for Peerce, outselling all his many operatic recordings, and becoming second only to Enrico Caruso's recording of George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
's "Over There
Over There
"Over There" is a 1917 song popular with United States soldiers in both world wars.It was written by George M. Cohan during World War I. Notable early recordings include versions by Nora Bayes, Enrico Caruso, Billy Murray, and Charles King....
" among the best-selling records made by opera and concert singers.