Erich Zeisl, sometimes given as Eric Zeisel, (May 18, 1905 – February 18, 1959) was an Austrian-born American composer.

Life and music

Born to a middle class

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish family in Vienna, then capital of the

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

empire, Zeisl was the son of Kamilla (Feitler) and Siegmund Zeisl. His musical precocity enabled him to gain a place at the Vienna State Academy (against the wishes of his family) when he was 14, at which age his first song was published. While there, he studied with Richard Stöhr,

Joseph Marx Joseph Rupert Rudolf Marx (11 May 1882 – 3 September 1964) was an Austrian composer, teacher and critic. Life and career Marx was born in Graz and pursued studies in philosophy, art history, German studies, and music at Graz University, earnin ...

and Hugo Kauder. He won a state prize for a setting of the

Requiem A Requiem (Latin: ''rest'') or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead () or Mass of the dead (), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is ...

mass in 1934, but his Jewish background made it difficult to obtain work and publication. After the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

in 1938, he fled first to Paris, where he began work on an opera based on Joseph Roth's ''

Job Work, labor (labour in Commonwealth English), occupation or job is the intentional activity people perform to support the needs and desires of themselves, other people, or organizations. In the context of economics, work can be seen as the huma ...

'', and then to New York City. Eventually he went to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

, where he worked on film music but increasingly felt isolated and ill at ease with the production-line demands of his employers. Among the films for which he wrote music were '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' (1946), and '' Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man'' (1951). Zeisl's style was essentially tonal, and conservative compared to contemporaries such as

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

, and thus not totally unsuited to film music composition. But his heart lay elsewhere. At one stage he was employed to arrange the music for a highly inaccurate stage show about the life of

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...

, ''Song without Words''. His anguish about his reduction to such work (together with the straits to which other émigré composers in America were reduced at the time) is evident in a letter written to a friend in 1945:

Even Milhaud,
Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...
, Tansman are struggling.
Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...
died in New York of hunger! ... Last year I orchestrated a Tchaikowsky operetta which provided living for 8 months, but why does Tchaikowsky have to be put into an operetta? ... No composer is important here.

Nonetheless, Zeisl was able eventually to find academic appointments and time to compose in his own style. These works included a variety of

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

, a

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The ...

, a

cello concerto A cello concerto (sometimes called a violoncello concerto) is a concerto for solo cello with orchestra or, very occasionally, smaller groups of instruments. These pieces have been written since the Baroque era if not earlier. However, unlike instru ...

(written for

Gregor Piatigorsky Gregor Piatigorsky (, ''Grigoriy Pavlovich Pyatigorskiy''; August 6, 1976) was a Russian-born American cello, cellist. Biography Early life Gregor Piatigorsky was born in Dnipro, Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. As a c ...

), and a setting for choir, soloists, and orchestra of

Psalm The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of H ...

92 in Hebrew, which he titled ''Requiem Ebraico'' (Hebrew Requiem), written in 1944–45 in memory of his father. A work of variations for orchestra was based on the Christmas carol " It Came Upon the Midnight Clear." His opera ''Hiob'' (Job) was never completed. Zeisl was married to Gertrud Susanne (Jellinek). His daughter Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg married Ronald Schoenberg, the son of the composer

. His grandson is lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg. Zeisl died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

while teaching in Los Angeles. Zeisl's music was banned as

degenerate music Degenerate music (, ) was a label applied in the 1930s by the government of Nazi Germany to certain forms of music that it considered harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concerns about degenerate music were a part of its larger and better- ...

under the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

regime, which has been one element in a revival of interest in his music, some of which is now available on CD. The premiere performance of the ''Requiem Ebraico'' was held in Los Angeles in the Hollywood First Methodist Church on April 8, 1945, by Hugo Strelitzer conducting the Fairfax Temple Choir.

Selected works

;Ballets *''Pierrot in der Flasche'' (1929; after

Gustav Meyrink Gustav Meyrink (19 January 1868 – 4 December 1932) was the pseudonym of Gustav Meyer, an Austrian author, novelist, dramatist, translator, and banker, most famous for his novel ''The Golem (Meyrink novel), The Golem''. He has been described as ...

's ''Der Mann auf der Flasche''; only a five-movement orchestral suite was performed in 1935) *''Uranium 235'' *''Naboth's Vinyard'' *''Jacob und Rachel'' ;Choral *''Afrika singt'' *''Requiem Concertante'' *''Requiem Ebraico'' ;Operas *''Leonce und Lena'' *'' Hiob'' (unfinished) ;Chamber *Sonata for cello and piano (1950) * Piano trio suite Op. 8 (1923–24) * Second string quartet (1953) * "Arrowhead" trio for flute, viola and harp (1956) ;Songs *"Liebeslied" *"Mondbilder" (text by

Christian Morgenstern Christian Otto Josef Wolfgang Morgenstern (6 May 1871 – 31 March 1914) was a German writer and poet from Munich. Morgenstern married Margareta Gosebruch von Liechtenstern on 7 March 1910. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin ...

) *"Harlemer Nachtlied" for soprano, tenor and choir ;Orchestral *''Scherzo und Fuge für Streichorchester'' *''Passacaglia-Fantasie für Orchester'' *''Kleine Symphonie'' *Piano Concerto (1951/1952, first performed 2005 with Daniel Glover, piano and Jason Klein conducting the Saratoga Symphony) *Variations based on "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" for orchestra

Sources

External links

Eric Zeisl web site
contains articles, photographs and MP3s of some of his music.
Website of Zeisl's daughter Dr. Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg
with additional photographs of, and information about, Zeisl.
The OREL Foundation- Eric Zeisl's biography and links to bibliography, discography and media.Interview of Gertrude S. Zeisl, including many details about Erich Zeisl's life and work
Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library Special Collections, University of California, Los Angeles.
Essay on Erich Zeisl on his 50th Death Anniversary
on the website of WETA 90.9 FM.
"Ernest Bloch and Eric Zeisl: Fifty Years Later honors L.A.'s Jewish artists"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zeisl, Erich 1905 births 1959 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American Jews 20th-century classical composers American film score composers American male film score composers American opera composers Austrian classical composers Austrian opera composers Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Jewish American classical composers Jewish classical musicians Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United States American male opera composers Musicians from Vienna