Gustav Hinrichs
Gustav Hinrichs was born on 10 December 1850 in Grabow (Germany). He grew up in a musical family; his father, August Hinrichs, was a musician and became his first teacher, giving him instruction in violin, piano, and clarinet. He began conducting at about the age of fifteen and soon gained practical orchestral experience by performing with the orchestra of the Hamburg State Opera. His formal musical education continued in Hamburg, where he studied composition with Angelo Reisland and the respected pedagogue Eduard Marxsen, a teacher also known for instructing Johannes Brahms.
In 1870 Gustav Hinrichs emigrated to the United States, partly to avoid compulsory military service in Germany. He first settled in San Francisco, where acquaintances of his family lived. There he quickly established himself as a professional musician. He earned his living as a piano teacher and church organist while conducting several choral societies, and soon entered the world of opera. In San Francisco he worked as conductor for companies such as the Fabbri Italian and German Opera Company, the Emily Melville Opera Company, and later the Tivoli Opera House. In 1885 he moved to New York, where he served as assistant conductor to Theodore Thomas with the American Opera Company. Three years later he settled in Philadelphia, where he founded his own opera ensemble, known under several names including the National Opera Company and the Gustav Hinrichs Opera Company. As conductor and impresario he played a significant role in introducing major European operatic repertoire to American audiences, leading important United States premieres such as Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana (1891) and Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (1894), as well as conducting performances with the Metropolitan Opera toward the end of the century. Alongside his conducting career, he also taught at institutions including the National Conservatory of Music and Columbia University between 1895 and 1906, influencing a generation of American musicians.
As a composer, Hinrichs created four operas along with numerous songs, choral compositions, orchestral works, and arrangements. Two of his operas were performed during his lifetime: Der Vierjährige Posten, premiered in San Francisco in 1877, and Onti-Ora, first staged in Philadelphia in 1890, which was noted for its attempt to create a distinctly American operatic subject. He also became active in orchestral arranging and later contributed music to the emerging film industry; in the 1920s he composed and arranged orchestral accompaniments for silent films produced by Universal Studios, including the score for the 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera starring Lon Chaney.
In the 1920s Hinrichs gradually withdrew from active conducting and retired to Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, where he continued teaching and composing privately. There he died on 26 March 1942.
Gustav Hinrichs Archive
In my possession are several manuscripts of compositions by Gustav Hinrichs as well as a few other items from his estate. To give a proper overview about the contens of the archive I have created a finding aid:
Little of the music by Gustav Hinrichs was published commercially and so his works fell into oblivion after his passing in 1942. For that reason I would like to present his main compositions from my archive here in a modern form:
1) Prologue to "The Phantom of the Opera"
The film "The Phantom of the Opera" was first presented in 1925, and Gustav Hinrichs was commissioned to write the music for the film together with Max Winkler. In contrast to modern film composers, such a commission did not mean composing entirely new music for the complete film. Instead, it involved selecting and compiling existing compositions to create an appropriate musical accompaniment, and composing original music only when necessary.
Silent film music sets typically included excerpts from non-film compositions (in this case, much material was taken from Gounod’s "Faust"), specially composed “mood pieces” that were used in various silent films (such as "Dramatic Reproach" by Irenee Berge or "Creepy Creeps" by Gaston Borch), and—if required—a small number of original compositions.
For "The Phantom of the Opera", it appears that ultimately no original compositions by Gustav Hinrichs were used in the final film. Nevertheless, Hinrichs composed at least one work for the production, the Prologue. The full score and a piano reduction of this Prologue are part of my archive, and since "The Phantom of the Opera" is considered a milestone in film history—it was added to the U.S. National Film Registry in 1988—I would like to present the full score here:
2) Romanze for cello and piano
The "Romanze" for cello and piano op.18 was completed on 12 September 1882 during Gustav Hinrichs time in San Francisco.
3) Cavatine for violin and piano
The "Cavatine" for violin and piano was completed on 31 December 1883 in San Francisco.
4) Wedding-March
The "Wedding-March" for orchestra op.19 was composed on 6 May 1883 for the wedding of William Mayo Newhall and his future wife on 15 May 1883. William Mayo Newhall was at that time vice-president of the San Francisco Philharmonic Society.
5) Weihnachts-Cantate
The "Christmas cantata" is the earliest composition of Gustav Hinrichs in my archive. It was composed on 19 December 1873 and the work is his opus 3. The German text was taken from the bible. According to the manuscript the work was composed for two different instrumental settings: The accompaniment of the SATB choir and the organ can be done by a) 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horn, 2 trumpets and timpani or b) by the piano. I just own the manuscript for the piano version which can be downloaded here:
6) Columbiana
The work "Columbiana" for orchestra op.38 was completed on 25 March 1905 in New York. According to the subtitle it is a transcription on 2 Columbia student songs and - consequently - dedicated to the alumni and students of the Columbia University of New York.
