Ernö Rapée

Ernö Rapée (or Erno Rapee) (4 June 1891 in Budapest, Hungary – 26 June 1945 in New York City] , New York) was one of the most prolific American symphonic conductors in the first half of the 1900s. His most famous tenure was that of the head conductor of the Radio City Symphony Orchestra, the resident orchestra of the Radio City Music Hall, whose music was heard by millions over the air.

A virtuoso pianist, Rapée is also remembered for popular songs that he wrote in the late 1920s as Photoplay music that were premiered in New York at the various theaters he worked at. When not conducting live orchestras, he supervised film scores for sound pictures, compiling a substantial list of films on which he worked as composer, arranger or musical director.

Life

Rapée was born in Budapest, Hungary on June 4, 1891. He studied as a pianist and later conductor at the Budapest Conservatory. Later, he was assistant conductor to Ernst von Schuch in Dresden.

As a composer, his first piano concerto was played by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Vienna, and after a tour of America as a guest conductor, began performing at the Rialto Theater in New York as assistant to Hugo Riesenfeld, where he began composing and conducting for silent films.

Following positions at the Rialto and Rivoli theaters, he was hired by Samuel "Roxy" Rothafel as the musical director of the Capitol Theatre's seventy-seven member orchestra in New York. It was at the Capitol that Rapée made his most famous classical arrangement of Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody, No. 13". While at the Capitol, he pioneered orchestral radio broadcasts over station WEAF as part of the "Roxy's Gang" programs; he also engaged Eugene Ormandy as the Capitol's concertmaster and assistant conductor. The Capitol orchestra made a number of commercial recordings under Rapée's direction in 1923-24 for the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company.

Rapée's next move was to Philadelphia, where he conducted an orchestra of sixty-eight at the Fox Theatre. Percy Grainger was one of his guest artists during this engagement.

After his tenure at the Fox, Rapée went on to international success in Berlin with an orchestra of eighty-five at the UFA Theater. While there he was invited to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert. Later he appeared as conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic and other European orchestras.

In 1926, he returned to America after notable European successes. He began an engagement at the Roxy Theatre (New York City) in New York upon the theater's opening in March 1927, leading the 110-player Roxy Symphony Orchestra. (At the time this was world's largest permanent orchestra, outnumbering the New York Philharmonic by three musicians). Millions of listeners heard his symphonic concerts over the air on Sunday afternoon during "The Roxy Hour" radio broadcasts.

Finally, in 1932, Rapée reached the apex of his career as the musical director and head conductor of Roxy's Radio City Music Hall Symphony Orchestra. Rapée held this position until his death from a heart attack on June 26, 1945.

Compositions

During his years conducting for silent films on Broadway, Rapée arranged and composed a bulk of his library. In 1923, Robbins-Engel Music began publishing the music of Rapée and his associates under the banner of the "Capitol Photoplay Series". Under their "Gold Seal" series (carefully selected pieces chosen to be printed on high-quality paper), his song "When Love Comes Stealing" was published the same year. Five years later, this became the theme song of the Paul Leni film, "The Man Who Laughs".

Collaborating with Dr. William Axt, Rapée co-wrote an eminent collection of Photoplay music, which included such pieces as a series of three "Agitatos", "Appassionato No. 1", "Debutante", "Frozen North", "Screening Preludes 1 and 2", and "Tender Memories". Other pieces written solo included "The Clown's Carnival" and "Pollywog's Frolic".

In 1928, Rapée collaborated with composer Lew Pollack on "Charmaine" for the film, "What Price Glory?" and "Diane", for the Fox production, "Seventh Heaven". Rapée and Pollack's songs were covered by Mantovani, Frank Sinatra, Jim Reeves, and numerous other artists throughout the 20th Century and gave hits in the Sixties for Irish M-O-R group The Bachelors.

Publications

Rapée also wrote several music books that were first published in the 1920s. The following books of his are still in print:

"Encyclopedia of Music for Pictures, Belwin, NY, 1925. Reprinted in 1974 by the Arno Press. ISBN 0-405-01634-4"

"Motion Picture Moods for Pianists and Organists, G. Schirmer, NY, 1924. Reprinted in 1974 by the Arno Press. ISBN 0-405-01635-2"

External links

*imdb name|0006248|Erno Rapee