Werner R. Heymann


Werner Richard Heymann, also known as Werner R. Heymann, was a German-Jewish composer active in Germany and in Hollywood.

Early life and education

He was the younger of 4 boys born to a corn merchant. His older brother Walther Heymann who died young wrote expressionistic poems for the magazine Der Sturm published by Herwalth Walden. Werner was a child prodigy, starting to sit at the piano at age 3, receiving violin lessons at age 5, and writing his own compositions at age 8.
He became a member of the Philharmonic at age 12 and presented his first work for orchestra at age 16. His Spring Nocturne for Orchestra was based on one of his brother's texts. Although he had served in the Prussian Army during World War I, he later became involved with the post-war radical politics and pacifism of the Berlin scene. Moving to composing for the stage, he wrote the music for the Ernst Toller play Transformation.

Popular music and film

When the theater impresario Max Reinhardt opened the satirical cabaret Sound and Smoke he became, with Friedrich Hollaender, one of its two main pianists. Later the film producer Erich Pommer introduced him to the UFA studio, where he wrote music that accompanied over a dozen silents, including Faust by F. W. Murnau and Spies by Fritz Lang.
When sound came in, the songs he wrote for the then popular musicals became hits and are the work for which he is most well known today. Among these films is The Congress Dances, directed by Erik Charell, with whom he would work again soon on Caravan in Hollywood, after he left his country early, along with other artists, when the National Socialists took power in 1933.
The émigré German director Ernst Lubitsch got him to work on 5 of his classic American comedies. He also scored 2 films by another great comedy director, Preston Sturges. Heymann was an Academy Award nominee four times in the early 1940s.

Later years

After World War II, he returned to Germany, where he wrote the music for a stage version of the classic film The [Blue Angel (1930 film)|The Blue Angel] in 1952, and was a member of the jury at the 10th Berlin International Film Festival.
His memoirs, recorded on tape during his last years, were published as an autobiography in Germany in 2001. He had once summed up his thoughts thus: "I love my wife, my child, the world, eating, drinking, smoking, driving. I love freedom. I hate dictatorship, godlessness, writing scores, wool next to my skin, and stones in my shoes. I hope for a United States of Europe." A documentary film about his career, So Wie Ein Wunder, featuring his daughter Elisabeth Trautwein, and directed by New German Cinema auteur Helma Sanders-Brahms, was shown on German television in 2012.

Partial filmography

Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage The Wooing of Eve Vienna – Berlin The Man in the Fire His Toughest Case Maytime A Sister of Six The [White Horse Inn (1926 film)|The White Horse Inn] The Brothers Schellenberg The [Girl on a Swing (1926 film)|The Girl on a Swing] The Son of Hannibal Napoléon Valencia A Modern Dubarry My Aunt, Your Aunt Aftermath Eva and the Grasshopper The Last Waltz Regine The Great Leap Spione Melody of the Heart Waltz of Love The Road to Paradise The Three from the Filling Station Der Kongreß tanzt Captain Craddock Her Grace Commands Princess, At Your Orders! Bombs on Monte Carlo Quick Congress Dances I by Day, You by Night A Blonde Dream Happy [Ever After (1932 film)|Happy Ever After] The Victor Adorable Season in Cairo Early to Bed Caravan The Great Refrain Angel Bluebeard's Eighth Wife Ninotchka The Shop Around the Corner One Million B.C. He Stayed for Breakfast This [Thing Called Love (1940 film)|This Thing Called Love] She Knew All the Answers Bedtime Story That [Uncertain Feeling (film)|That Uncertain Feeling] The Wife Takes a Flyer Flight Lieutenant To Be or Not to Be Appointment in Berlin Hail the Conquering Hero Knickerbocker Holiday Mademoiselle Fifi It's in the Bag! The Sin of Harold Diddlebock A Heidelberg Romance Alraune The Three from the Filling Station The [Congress Dances (1955 film)|The Congress Dances]

Musical works

Symphonic Works (selection)

Frühlings-Notturno, Op. 4Rapsodische Sinfonie, Op. 5 Der Tanz der Götter, Op. 6/1Cortège exotiqueSérénade passionnée Die WandlungDie Sendung SamuelsArtistenProfessor Unrat'Fausts Geheimnis, Op. 96

Operettas

Florestan I. Prince de Monaco
  • ''Trente et Quarante''