Bernard Grun
Bernard Grun was a Central European composer, conductor, and author. He is primarily remembered as the compiler of The Timetables of History.
Early life
Grün was born on 11 February 1901 in Startsch, Moravia, Austria-Hungary. He completed a degree in philosophy and a doctorate in law at Vienna and Prague, going on to study music theory at Vienna's national music academy under Alban Berg, Hans Gál, Felix von Weingartner, and Egon Wellesz.Career
Grün composed chamber music and songs and took work as a conductor in Karlsruhe and Mannheim before joining the Comedy House in Vienna. The 1920 film Die Erlebnisse der berühmten Tänzerin Fanny Elssler featured a screenplay by Grün. From 1924 to 1929 he worked as a conductor in Prague at the Neues deutsches Theater.His first major work was the 1929 Bohemian Musicians, performed in Vienna in 1930, and he composed music for the soundtrack of the 1932 film Ein Auto und kein Geld. Grün completed Marlene's Wedding and Gaby before being forced to leave Austria ahead of its unification with Nazi Germany. Balalaika was released in 1936, with a Nelson Eddy song that became an international hit. Grun moved to the United Kingdom in 1939, anglicising his name to "Bernard Grun". Following this, he co-composed music for the 1938 musical Magyar Melody. On 27 March 1939, it became the first musical to be broadcast directly from a theatre and shown on television.
In 1946, he published his compilation The Timetables of History, adapted from Werner Stein's Kulturfahrplan, presenting human history since 5000BC in tabular form. Each century, then decade, then year, is presented with its major events divided under the seven headings:
- Influential leaders and political events
- Literature & Theater
- Religion, Philosophy, Learning
- Visual Arts
- Music
- Scientific and technological inventions
- Daily Life, innovations, trends.
In the postwar period, Grun continued writing film music for titles such as White Cradle Inn, The Blind Goddess and Brass Monkey.
In 1952, "Broken Wings", a song which Grun co-wrote, was published. Grun was credited as a composer alongside John Jerome, which was a collaborative pseudonym for Harold Cornelius Fields, Howard Ellington Barnes and Joseph Dominic Roncoroni. The song entered the UK Singles Chart in a recording by The Stargazers, a British vocal group, in February 1953. The same month, two other recordings of the song also entered the UK chart: an American recording by Art and Dotty Todd, and one by British singer Dickie Valentine. The Stargazers' recording climbed to number 1 in April 1953. The song also made number 1 on the UK's sheet music sales chart in February 1953, where it stayed for six weeks.
Over the course of his life, Grun served as the musical director of theatres in Prague, Vienna, Berlin, and London, including His Majesty's Theatre. In addition to his own output, he was also responsible for adapting various musical works, including Bizet's Carmen, Lehár's Count of Luxembourg, Millöcker's Dubarry, and Benatzky's White Horse Inn.
Personal life and death
Grun married the British fashion designer Edith Hart. He died of a heart attack on 21 December 1972 in Berlin while on a speaking tour, aged 71.Works
- The Timetables of History
- Private Lives of the Great Composers, Conductors, and Musical Artistes of the World
- Prince of Vienna: The Life, the Times, and the Melodies of Oscar Straus
- The Golden Quill
- Fanny Beloved
- Die Leichte Muse: Kulturgeschichte der Operette
- Aller Spass dieser Welt
- , translated as Gold and Silver: The Life and Times of Franz Lehár
- Alban Berg: Letters to His Wife
- Bernard Grun's Beste Musiker Anekdoten
- ''Mit Takt und Taktstock: Musikeranekdoten''
Music
- Böhmische Musikanten
- Musik um Susi
- Marlenes Brautfahrt
- Die Tänzerin Fanny Elßler
- Gaby
- Balalaika
- Madame Sans-Gêne
- Old Chelsea
- ''Summer Song''
Filmography
- Die Erlebnisse der Berühmten Tänzerin Fanny Elßler
- An Auto and No Money
- Balalaika
- Magyar Melody
- White Cradle Inn
- Brass Monkey
- ''The Blind Goddess''