Alois Melichar


Alois Melichar was an Austrian composer, conductor, arranger, and music critic. He was a student of Joseph Marx at the Vienna Academy of Music, then of Franz Schreker at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, but later became increasingly culturally conservative.
From 1923 to 1926 Melichar was in the Caucasus, where he collected materials on Caucasian folk songs. He then lived in Berlin and Vienna. As a composer, he followed the safe footpath of Max Reger, Hans Pfitzner, and Paul Graener; he wrote a symphonic poem, Der Dom ; Rhapsodie über ein schwedisches Volkslied ; Lustspiel-Ouvertüre ; lieder; and film music.
Under contract to UFA he composed music for many films during the National Socialist period.
After World War II Melichar became increasingly polemic in his attacks on modernist music. His pamphlets include Die unteilbare Musik, Musik in der Zwangsjacke, and Schönberg und die Folgen.

Selected filmography

Court Waltzes Night in May Song of Farewell Farewell Waltz The Young Baron Neuhaus Forget Me Not The Private Life of Louis XIV Stradivarius The Gypsy Baron If It Were Not for Music Stradivari The Girl Irene Love's Awakening The Beggar Student Land of Love Mother Song Nanon Capriccio Maria Ilona Immortal Waltz Falstaff in Vienna The Girl from Barnhelm My Life for Ireland The Girl from Fano Riding for Germany Attack on Baku Rembrandt Music in Salzburg Die Fledermaus The Immortal Face Anni Ulli and Marei The Heavenly Waltz The Blue Straw Hat Kissing Is No Sin Two Times Lotte The Secret of a Marriage Maria Theresa Don't Forget Love Dreaming Lips Diary of a Married Woman Love is Forever Dunja