Herbert, Victor (EN)

Herbert Victor, *1 February 1859 Dublin, †26 May 1924 New York, American composer, conductor and cellist of Irish descent. In 1866, he moved to Stuttgart with his mother. Between 1874 and 1876, he studied the cello with B. Cossmann in Baden-Baden, and subsequently studied at the Stuttgart Conservatoire under M. Seifritz. After completing his studies, he played the cello in orchestras in Austria and Germany, including the court orchestra in Stuttgart, where he met his wife Therese Förster, the prima donna of the court opera. In 1886, he and his wife were engaged by the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. He soon gave up playing the cello and devoted himself to conducting and composition. From 1893 to 1898, he led a military band in New York. Between 1898 and 1904, he conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and from 1904 onwards, his own orchestra in New York (the Victor Herbert Orchestra). In 1913, he was one of the founders of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

Herbert transplanted the European operetta genre into American musical theatre, a tradition that—carried on by R. Friml and S. Romberg—developed in parallel with the realistic American musical comedy, which later evolved into the musical. In terms of musical style, Herbert drew on the works of J. Offenbach, R. Heuberger, J. Strauss; in terms of lyrics, he attempted to Americanise European models, without, however, abandoning the conventional elements typical of European librettos, such as exotic or imaginary settings, Hungarian-Gypsy romantic themes, and a plot full of fortuitous coincidences. Herbert compensated for the shortcomings of his stereotypical and naive librettos with melodic inventiveness and skilful orchestration. His simple, charming, and often sentimental music gained great popularity in the United States. In the 1920s, the influence of Herbert’s music was limited by the rise of swing-style musical theatre, yet his operettas are still revived to this day, and many of his songs have become classics of American popular music. Herbert’s instrumental music and his operas, influenced by R. Wagner and R. Strauss, did not gain recognition.

Literature: E.N. Waters Victor Herbert. A Life in Music, New York 1955.