Comedian Harmonists


The Comedian Harmonists were an internationally famous, all-male German close harmony ensemble that performed between 1928 and 1934 as one of the most successful musical groups in Europe before World War II. The group consisted of,, Erich A. Collin, Roman Cycowski, , and .
The hallmark of the Comedian Harmonists was its members' ability to blend their voices together so that the individual singers could appear and disappear back into the vocal texture. Its repertoire was wide, ranging from the folk and classical songs arranged by Frommermann to appealing and witty popular songs of the day by writers such as Peter Igelhoff, Werner R. Heymann and Paul Abraham.

History

In 1927, unemployed actor Harry Frommermann was inspired by The Revelers, a jazz-influenced popular vocal group from the United States, to create a German group of the same format. According to Douglas Friedman's 2010 book The Comedian Harmonists, in August 1929 both groups appeared on the same bill at the and became good friends. Frommermann held auditions in his flat on Stubenrauchstraße 47 in Berlin-Friedenau, and, once the group was assembled, it quickly began rehearsals. After some initial failures, the Harmonists soon found success, becoming popular throughout Europe, visiting the United States, and appearing in 21 films.
The members of the group were:
The group's success continued into the early 1930s, but eventually ran into trouble with the Nazi regime: three of the group members – Frommermann, Collin, and Cycowski – were either Jewish or of Jewish descent, and Bootz had married a Jewish woman. The Nazis progressively made the group's professional life more difficult, initially banning pieces by Jewish composers, and finally prohibiting them from performing in public. The group's last concert in Germany was in Hanover on March 25, 1934, after which they sailed to the United States on and gave several concerts. Fearing internment if they stayed abroad, however, they eventually returned home amid bitter internal disputes.
Frommermann, Cycowski, and Collin subsequently fled Germany and formed a new group in Vienna, which performed under the names "Comedian Harmonists" and "Comedy Harmonists" with a new pianist, bass, and high tenor. The remaining members in Germany likewise replaced their counterparts in a successor group named "Das Meistersextett". Neither group was able to achieve the original success of the Comedian Harmonists, with the German group stifled by political in-fighting and heavy censorship, as well as the war draft. The emigrant group toured extensively all across Europe, but also in the Soviet Union, South Africa, South America, and Australia where they were particularly successful and considered settling down since the Australian government had offered them citizenship. However, after a North American concert tour in 1940, they were unable to return to Australia. Their last concert was in Richmond, Indiana, on May 1, 1940. After that, they were unable to find work in America due to hostility toward German entertainers, and the group split up.
The Bulgarian Asparuh Leschnikoff returned to his fatherland in 1938 and started a successful career. By 1941, both groups had broken up. Although all members survived the war, they never re-formed after the war.
Erich Collin created a new group in the late 1940s, consisting of himself, Jack Cathcart, Fred Bixler, Murray Pollack, Nicolai Shutorev and Arthur Atkins. When Shutorev died unexpectedly while the group was on tour in Norway in September 1948, Erich Collin asked Harry Frommermann to jump in as a replacement, and so two of the original Comedian Harmonists were reunited on stage. They continued the tour and recorded six songs for the label "Le Chant du Monde" in Basel in 1949. Shortly afterwards the group disbanded, allegedly due to a lack of discipline among the American members.
The group remained largely forgotten until filmmaker created a four-hour black-and-white television documentary, in which he interviewed the surviving members in 1975, who were scattered throughout the world. The documentary aired over two nights in German in 1977 and caused a resurgence of interest in the music of the Comedian Harmonists, with their records being released on vinyl. In 1979 Erwin Bootz and Robert Biberti received the certificate and the trophy of the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis in the category Historic Recordings/Entertainment for the double-LP, Die Comedian Harmonists Story, Odeon 1 C 148-32 974 M.
They won recognition from the musical entertainment industry in 1998 when they won an honorary award of the Echo Music Prize from the.

Selected filmography

Bombs on Monte Carlo

Discography

  • Ah Maria, Mari
  • Ali Baba
  • An der schönen blauen Donau
  • Auf dem Heuboden
  • Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear
  • Baby
  • Barcarole
  • Bin kein Hauptmann, bin kein großes Tier
  • Blume von Hawaii
  • Creole Love Call by Duke Ellington
  • Das ist die Liebe der Matrosen
  • Der Onkel Bumba aus Kalumba tanzt nur Rumba
  • Die Dorfmusik
  • Die Liebe kommt, die Liebe geht
  • Du bist nicht die erste
  • Ein bißchen Leichtsinn kann nicht schaden
  • Ein Freund, ein guter Freund
  • Ein Lied geht um die Welt
  • Ein neuer Frühling wird in die Heimat kommen
  • Eine kleine Frühlingsweise
  • Einmal schafft's jeder
  • Eins, zwei, drei und vier, glücklich bin ich nur mit dir
  • Es führt kein and'rer Weg zur Seligkeit
  • Florestan 1., Prince De Monaco
  • Fünf-Uhr-Tee Bei Familie Kraus
  • Gitarren, spielt auf
  • Guten Tag, gnädige Frau
  • Hallo, was machst Du heut', Daisy?
  • Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madam
  • In einem kühlen Grunde
  • Irgendwo auf der Welt
  • Jetzt trinken wir noch eins
  • Kannst Du pfeifen, Johanna?
  • Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus
  • Ohne Dich
  • Puppenhochzeit
  • Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf ein
  • Schöne Isabella von Kastilien
  • Schöne Lisa, süße Lisa
  • Tag und Nacht
  • Ungarischer Tanz Nr. 5
  • Veronika, der Lenz ist da
  • Wenn die Sonja russisch tanzt
  • Wenn der Wind weht über das Meer
  • Wenn ich vergnügt bin, muß ich singen
  • Whispering
  • Wir sind von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt
  • Wochenend und Sonnenschein / Happy Days Are Here Again