F.X. and H.K. Gruber

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1787, in Unterweizburg, Austria, a baby boy was born who would eventually write one little tune that would make him famous worldwide.

His name was Franz Xaver Gruber.

When Gruber was 31 years old and serving as the organist and music director of St. Nikolaus Church in Oberndorf, he hastily set to music a Christmas poem written by an assistant priest. Their collaboration was first performed during Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in 1818. Gruber composed a lot of other music, but nothing else he wrote made much of an impact beyond his old stomping grounds in rural Austria. “Silent Night,” on the other hand, went on to international fame, and is now considered the quintessential Christmas melody.

By a bizarre coincidence, today’s date is also memorable for a distant relative of Franz Xaver Gruber. On November 25th, 1978, at Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, Simon Rattle conducted the premiere performance of what was billed as a “pan-demonium” for baritone and orchestra, a work entitled “Frankenstein.” Its composer was Heinz Karl Gruber, who is related, albeit distantly, to the famous “Silent Night” Gruber.

H.K. Gruber was born in Vienna in 1943, and since the “Frankenstein” premiere has emerged as one of Austria’s best-known contemporary composers. His style is eclectic and witty, with a wicked sense of parody and a fondness for poking fun at dour avant-garde composers, who, says Gruber, take themselves much too seriously.

Music Played in Today's Program

F.X. Gruber (1787 -1863) Silent Night Ware-Patterson Duo Sugo 9106

H.K. Gruber (b. 1943) Frankenstein H.K. Gruber, vocal; Salzburg Camerata Academica; Franz Welser-Most, cond. EMI Classics 56441

On This Day

Births

• 1785 - Austrian composer Franz Gruber, in Unterwweizberg; In 1818 he wrote the famous Christmas carol "Silent Night";

• 1856 - Russian composer Sergei Taneyev, in Dyud'kovo , near Moscow (see Julian date: Nov. 13);

• 1896 - American composer and music critic Virgil Thomson, in Kansas City, Mo.;

• 1924 - American jazz saxophonist Paul Desmond, in San Francisco; Desmond and composer Dave Brubeck co-wrote the popular piece entitled “Take Five” for Brubeck’s famous 1959 Columbia LP entitled “Time Out”;

Deaths

• 1640 - Burial date of English Renaissance composer Giles Farnaby, age c. 77, in London;

• 1755 - German violinist and composer Johann Georg Pisendel, age 67, in Dresden;

• 1901 - German composer and organist Josef Rheinberger, age 62, in Munich;

Premieres

• 1731 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 140 ("Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme") performed in Leipzig on the 27th Sunday after Trinity;

• 1847 - Flowtow: opera "Martha," in Vienna;

• 1865 - Brahms: "Variations on a Theme of Paganini," Op. 35, for piano, in Zürich, Switzerland;

• 1882 - Gilbert and Sullivan: operetta "Iolanthe" at the Savoy Theater in London;

• 1898 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera “Mozart and Salieri,” in Moscow (Gregorian date: Dec. 7);

• 1901 - Mahler: Symphony No. 4, by the Kaim Orchestra of Munich, with soprano soloist Margarete Michalek and the composer conducting;

• 1951 - Lou Harrison: "Seven Pastorales, in New York City, by the Collegium Musicum, Fritz Rikko conducting;

• 1954 - Prokofiev: opera "The Fiery Angel" (sung in French), in a concert performance in Paris;

• 1955 - Piston: Symphony No. 6, by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting;

• 1958 - John La Montaine: Piano Concerto No. 1, in Washington, D.C.; This work won the Pulizter Prize in 1959;

• 1960 - Mussorgsky: opera "Khovanscchina" (in the arrangement by Shostakovich), in Leningrad at the Kirov Theater;

• 1978 - H.K. Gruber: "Frankenstein!" a "pan-demonium" for baritone and orchestra, by the Liverpool Philharmonic, with Simon Rattle conducting and the composer as the vocal soloist; A revised chamber version of this work premiered on Sept. 30, 1979, in Berlin, with the composer conducting;

• 1992 - Peter Maxwell Davies: "Strathclyde Concerto" No. 7 for double bass and orchestra, at Glasgow's City Hall, by the Scottish Chamber Orcherstra conducted by the composer, with soloist Duncan McTier;

Others

• 1720 - Handel’s Keyboard Suites, First Collection), is published in London (see Julian date: Nov. 14);

• 1835 - Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, is born in a small weaver’s cottage in Dumfemline, Fife (Scotland); He funded the creation of a concert hall in New York that opened on May 5, 1891, and now bears his name; The building was originally called the “Music Hall,” but the earlier title was deemed to have too many associations tied to the “lower class” vaudeville acts typical of the British “music hall,” and was eventually changed to “Carnegie Hall,” in honor of its funder;

• 1934 - Conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler's article "The Hindemith Case" defending Hindemith's music appears in several German newspapers; A response attacking both Hindemith and Furtwängler appears in the Nazi newspaper "Der Angriff" on November 28; Furtwängler resigns all his official German posts on December 4 and leaves Berlin for several months; On December 6 Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels denounces Hindemith as an "atonal noisemaker" during a speech at the Berlin Sport Palace.