Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83



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Frijsh, Povla


(b Aerø, Denmark, 3 Aug 1881; d Blue Hill, ME, 10 July 1960). Danish soprano. After studying with Ove Christensen she went to Paris at the age of 17 to work with Jean Périer and made her recital début there three years later. She toured with the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals trio, from whom she acknowledged learning much about phrasing and timing. She appeared in Paris in recital with Raoul Pugno and was chosen by Mahler to sing in his Second Symphony in Cologne (1910). She made her American début in New York in 1915, and gave annual recitals there until 1947. Frijsh’s voice was distinctive in timbre and expressively used. Although she sang in opera only twice – in Paris (L’incoronazione di Poppea) and in Copenhagen (Peter Heise’s Drot og marsk) – her sense of drama was extraordinary: she made a hair-raising experience of Schubert’s Gruppe aus dem Tartarus, yet could sing Cui’s La fontaine de Csarskoë-Zelo in the purest bel canto. She was always interested in new songs, encouraging composers such as Virgil Thomson, Randall Thompson, Samuel Barber and Rebecca Clarke by including their works in her programmes. She was the first to sing many of Poulenc’s songs in New York, and she gave the New York premières of Bloch’s Poèmes d’automne and Loeffler’s Canticum fratris solis (1925). In her later years she was active as a teacher. Her complete recordings have been issued on CD.

BIBLIOGRAPHY


P.L. Miller: ‘Povla Frijsh’, American Record Guide, xiii (1946–7), 7–10

PHILIP L. MILLER


Frike, Philipp Joseph.


See Frick, Philipp Joseph.

Friml, (Charles) Rudolf


(b Prague, 7 Dec 1879; d Los Angeles, 12 Nov 1972). American composer and pianist of Czech birth. He won a scholarship to the Prague Conservatory and studied composition with Dvořák and piano with Josef Jiránek. He began composing light concert pieces as soon as he graduated, but also accepted a position as accompanist for the violinist Jan Kubelík in order to support himself. He toured Europe and made two visits with Kubelík to the USA, where he decided to settle in 1906. In that year he performed his First Piano Concerto with Walter Damrosch and the New York SO and gave recitals throughout the country, quickly achieving a reputation for his imaginative improvisation. He also continued to compose both concert pieces and lighter music, often under the pseudonym Roderick Freeman.

In 1912 Victor Herbert, who had quarreled with Emma Trentini, the leading lady of his Naughty Marietta, refused to honour his commitment to compose a second operetta for the singer; Friml was called upon to take Herbert’s place and wrote The Firefly (including the songs ‘Giannina mia’ and ‘Sympathy’), which became his first Broadway success. It was followed by High Jinks (1913, including ‘Something seems tingle-ingleing’) and Katinka (1915, with ‘Allah’s Holiday’). For a time thereafter Friml wrote scores that were closer in style to musical comedy than to operetta. Although several of these shows enjoyed long runs, it was not until 1924 that he had another major success. Rose-Marie, written in collaboration with Stothart, Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, was the most popular American musical of the 1920s, particularly in London and Paris, where the length of its run established a record. Friml wrote the music for seven of the show’s eighteen musical numbers, and collaborated with Stothart on three others; among Friml’s contributions were the title song and ‘Indian Love Call’. The collaborative ‘Totem Tom-Tom’, with its strong rhythmic drive and chromatic countermelody, is noteworthy for its attempt to create the sound world of native Canadians. Two more enormously successful operettas followed: The Vagabond King (1925, including ‘Only a Rose’, ‘Some Day’ and ‘Song of the Vagabonds’) and The Three Musketeers (1928), with ‘Ma Belle’ and ‘March of the Musketeers’.

After the onset of the Depression tastes in musical styles changed sharply, and Friml’s essentially middle-European mannerisms were perceived as outdated. Although he composed scores for several more Broadway shows and for three Hollywood films, he was apparently unable to accommodate the newer idioms, and met with no success. The one exception was his song ‘The Donkey Serenade’ from the film version of The Firefly (1937), though this was, in fact, an old melody, having originally appeared as ‘Chansonette’ in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1923. Friml remained active as a concert performer, however, until shortly before his death.

Compared with the music of Romberg, Friml’s scores are generally more chromatic, both melodically and harmonically. Whereas Romberg excelled at writing waltzes, Friml’s most enduring songs are his sentimental ballads in duple metre such as ‘Rose-Marie’ and ‘Only a Rose’; his melodies are characterized by chromatic neighbour tones and sustained notes over a more active accompaniment. Like Romberg, he was known for his marches, a result of his central European heritage and upbringing, one fine example being ‘Song of the Vagabonds’, somewhat unusual because of its minor mode. It was not only in individual songs but also in his unified concept of a show that Friml made significant contributions to the American musical, and the original programme for Rose-Marie included the remark that ‘the musical numbers of this play are such an integral part of the action that we do not think we should list them as separate episodes’.


WORKS


(selective list)

stage


mostly operettas; dates are those of first New York performance

The Firefly (O. Harbach), 2 Dec 1912; High Jinks (Harbach), 10 Dec 1913; The Peasant Girl (E. Smith, H. Reynolds, H. Atteridge), collab. O. Nedbal, 2 March 1915; Katinka (Harbach), 23 Dec 1915; You’re in Love (Harbach, E. Clark), 6 Feb 1917; Kitty Darlin’ (Harbach, P.G. Wodehouse, after D. Belasco), 7 Nov 1917; Sometime (R.J. Young), 4 Oct 1918; Glorianna (C.C. Cushing), 28 Oct 1918; Tumble In (Harbach, after M.R. Rinehart and A. Hopwood), 24 March 1919; The Little Whopper (Harbach, B. Dudley), 13 Oct 1919; June Love (Harbach, W.H. Post, B. Hooker), 25 April 1921; Ziegfeld Follies of 1921 (G. Buck, Hooker), collab. others, 21 June 1921; The Blue Kitten (Harbach, W.C. Duncan, after Y. Mirande and G. Quinson), 13 Jan 1922

Cinders (Clark), 3 April 1923; Ziegfeld Follies of 1923, collab. others, 20 Oct 1923; Rose-Marie (Harbach, O. Hammerstein II), collab. H. Stothart, 2 Sept 1924 [films, 1936, 1954]; The Vagabond King (Hooker, Post, R. Janney, after J.H. McCarthy), 21 Sept 1925; No Foolin’ (Ziegfeld’s American Revue of 1926) (Buck, I. Caesar), collab. J. Hanley, 24 June 1926; The Wild Rose (Harbach, Hammerstein), 20 Oct 1926; The White Eagle (Hooker, Post, after E.M. Royle), 26 Dec 1927; The Three Musketeers (W.A. McGuire, Wodehouse, C. Grey, after A. Dumas), 13 March 1928; Luana (H.E. Rogers, J.K. Brennan, after R.W. Tully), 17 Sept 1930; Music hath Charms, or Annina (R. Leigh, G. Rosener, J. Shubert), 29 Dec 1934

other works


Films: The Lottery Bride, 1930; Music for Madame, 1937; Northwest Outpost, 1947

Vocal: many songs, incl. Pisně Závišovy [Songs of Zavis], cycle, 1906; When I Hear an Old-Fashioned Waltz; Bring back my blushing rose (1921); Roses in the Garden (1921); Two Lovely Lying Eyes (1921); I’ve found a bud among the roses (1922); When I Waltz with You (1922); On a Blue Lagoon (1924); A Gypsy of Song (1933); I want the world to know (1937); My Sweet Bambina (1937); others for stage works, films

Orch: 2 pf concs.; Sym. ‘Round the World’; Escape to Hong Kong, sym. poem, c1961; Chinese Suite; Arabian Suite; A Day in May, suite, 1923; Rural Russian Scene; Chansonette, 1923 [arr. of Chanson, pf, 1920]

Pf (many arr. chamber): dances incl. Konzertwalzer, op.12, Tschechische Tänze, op.29; character pieces, incl. Réveil du printemps, op.32, Chant poétique, op.33, Romance sentimentale, op.34, Berceuse, op.50, Canzonetta, op.51, Lullaby, op.58, Mignonette, op.59, Dumka, op.63, O Vermeland, op.64, Legende, op.66, Drifting, op.67, Aquarellen, op.74, 5 Mood Pictures, op.79, Pastoral Scenes, op.80, Daisy Field, op.81; études incl. Staccato-étude, op.37, Etude, F, op.44, Etude fantastique, op.61; suites incl. Suite mignonne, op.35, California Suite, op.57, Bohemian Suite, op.60, Russian Suite, op.83

Principal publishers: Boston, Famous, Harms, Robbins, G. Schirmer

BIBLIOGRAPHY


S. Green: The World of Musical Comedy (New York, 1960, rev. and enlarged 4/1980)

D. Ewen: Composers for the American Musical Theater (New York, 1968)

Record of the Works of Rudolf Friml (New York, c1968) [list of works]

G. Bordman: American Operetta from H.M.S. Pinafore to Sweeney Todd (New York, 1981)

R. Traubner: Operetta: a Theatrical History (Garden City, NY, 1983)

GERALD BORDMAN WILLIAM A. EVERETT (text); DEANE L. ROOT (work-list)



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