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Romberg, Sigmund
Romberg, Sigmund (1887–1951), composer. The Hungarian was slated to become an engineer, but when he was sent to Vienna, he took work at the Theatre‐an‐der‐Wien and studied with Richard Heuberger. Coming to America in 1909, Romberg accepted odd jobs until he could establish his own small dance band and publish some songs, which came to the attention of the Messrs. Shubert, who signed him as their house composer in 1914. His first song hit was “Auf Wiedersehn,” which was one of his additions to Eysler's score for The Blue Paradise (1915). In 1916 alone he wrote music (mostly tinny ragtime melodies) for at least six Shubert shows, but he did not begin to gain real recognition until he was allowed to compose a score entirely in his own middle‐European idiom for Maytime (1917), followed by his redactions of Schubert melodies for Blossom Time (1921). Romberg enjoyed four huge successes in the 1920s: The Student Prince (1924), The Desert Song (1926), My Maryland (1927), and The New Moon (1928). With the coming of the Great Depression and the rise of Nazism, the vogue for German‐style operettas waned, and Romberg had little success in the 1930s. However, he scored a final success in 1945 with a bit of nostalgic Americana, Up in Central Park. After Romberg's death his underrated score for The Girl in Pink Tights (1954) was offered to Broadway. In all he composed songs for nearly sixty Broadway musicals. Romberg was often accused of borrowing themes from classic compositions, and his music often seems less original and less passionate than that of his principal rival, Rudolf Friml. Nevertheless, the pair was almost solely responsible for the great outpouring of gorgeous, memorable melodies in the final American heyday of traditional operetta. Biography: Deep in My Heart, Elliott Arnold, 1949.
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Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Romberg, Sigmund." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Romberg, Sigmund." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-RombergSigmund.html Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Romberg, Sigmund." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-RombergSigmund.html |
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Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg , 1887–1951, Hungarian-American composer, educated in Vienna. He came to the United States in 1909, played in restaurant and café orchestras, and soon had his own orchestra. He wrote the score for the musical The Whirl of the World (1914), and followed it with more than 70 operettas. Among the most successful were Blossom Time (1921; based on the life and music of Franz Schubert), The Student Prince (1924), The Desert Song (1926), and The New Moon (1928). These recalled the romantic, lyrical style of Viennese operettas. He later wrote scores for several films, some of them adaptations of his own stage works.
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Cite this article
"Sigmund Romberg." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Sigmund Romberg." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Romberg.html "Sigmund Romberg." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Romberg.html |
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Romberg, Sigmund
Romberg, Sigmund (b Nagykanizsa, Hung., 1887; d NY, 1951). Hung.-born composer (Amer. cit.). Went to USA 1909, settling eventually in NY. Wrote succession of popular operettas, incl. Maytime (1917), The Student Prince (1924), The Desert Song (1926), New Moon (1928), and Up in Central Park (1945). Among songs he comp. are ‘Deep in my heart, dear’, ‘One alone’, ‘Riff Song’, ‘Lover, come back to me’, ‘Softly, as in a morning sunrise’, and the Serenade and Drinking Song from The Student Prince.
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Cite this article
MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "Romberg, Sigmund." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "Romberg, Sigmund." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-RombergSigmund.html MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "Romberg, Sigmund." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-RombergSigmund.html |
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