Umlauf [Umlauff], Michael
(b Vienna, 9 Aug 1781; d Baden, nr Vienna, 20 June 1842). Austrian composer, conductor and violinist, son of Ignaz Umlauf. At an early age he became a violinist in the Vienna court orchestra; the first of a series of ballet scores for the court theatres dates from 1804. He is listed in the theatre almanac of 1809 as Kapellmeister Gyrowetz’s deputy, and by the 1815 almanac he had advanced to fourth of the six Kapellmeister at the court theatres. Umlauf retired in 1825 during Barbaia’s direction of the court opera, and applied without success for the post of second Kapellmeister at the Stephansdom. It was 1840 before he again came to the fore, this time as music director at the two court theatres, but his lengthy absence had left him quite out of touch and he soon retired again, dying not long after.
Umlauf’s name is most familiar from his connections with Beethoven, whose works he several times conducted. In 1814 it was he who, at the revival of Fidelio, directed the performance; on other occasions, too, it was Umlauf whom the orchestra and singers followed, rather than the deaf and impetuously conducting composer. As a composer Michael Umlauf enjoyed less esteem than his father, but his ballet scores (especially Paul und Rosette, which was played 65 times in the court theatres and was also given in the Leopoldstadt Theatre) were popular in their day. He wrote three Singspiele.
WORKS stage
first performed at Vienna, Kärntnertortheater, unless otherwise stated
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Das Fest der Liebe und der Freude (Spl, 2, J. Perinet), Eisenstadt, 12 April 1806
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Der deutsche Grenadier, oder Die Medaille (Spl, 1, ? F.J.M. Babo), 8 July 1812, A-Wn
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Das Wirtshaus von Granada (Spl), c1812, ?unperf., vs (Vienna, n.d.)
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Ballets: Amors Rache (S. Gallet), Vienna, Burg, 18 Oct 1804; Gleiches mit Gleichem (Gallet), 11 June 1805, Wn; Paul und Rosette oder Die Winzer (J. Corally), 5 March 1806, Wn; Die Spiele des Paris auf dem Berge Ida (P. Taglioni, after [?P.] Gardel), 11 July 1806; Les Abencerrages et les Zegris ou Les tribus ennemies (Corally), 24 Nov 1806; Die Hochzeit des Gamacho oder Don Quixote (Taglioni, after Milon), 7 March 1807; Der Quacksalber und die Zwerge (Il ciarlatano) (P. Angiolini), 25 Feb 1810, arr. pf (Vienna, 1810); Das eigensinnige Landmädchen (Angiolini), 9 April 1810, Wn (arr. wind insts); Der Fassbinder (Vigano), 1 Jan 1811, arr. pf (Vienna, 1811); Aeneas in Carthago (Gioja), 5 Oct 1811, Wn (arr. wind insts); Die Weinlese (P. Rainoldi), Vienna, Leopoldstadt, 10 July 1813; Lodoiska (Taglioni), 18 July 1821 (acts I & II, M. Umlauf, act III, Gyrowetz); Der Tyroler Jahrmarkt, ?unperf.
| other works
all MSS in A-Wn
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Sacred vocal: Missa, D, 4vv, insts, org; 3 grads, 1–4vv, insts; 3 offs, 4–5vv, insts (1 autograph)
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Pf: numerous dances, mostly arrs. of ballet music, pubd Vienna
| BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Haas: ‘Zur Wiener Ballettpantomime um den Prometheus’, NBeJb 1925, 84–103
For further bibliography see Umlauf, Ignaz.
PETER BRANSCOMBE
Umm Kulthum [Ibrāhīm Um Kalthum]
(b Tammay al-Zuhayra, El Mansura, Egypt, ?1904; d Cairo, 3 Feb 1975). Egyptian singer. She was born to a poor family. Her father, al-Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Baltājī, was an official of the local mosque; he sang religious songs (al-inshād al-dīnī) and recited the story of the Prophet Muhammad's life (al-qissa al-nabawiyya) for weddings and other festive occasions in nearby villages. Umm Kulthum learned to sing as a child by listening to him teaching her older brother Khālid. When he discovered the unusual strength of his daughter's voice, her father asked her to join the family ensemble. She sang religious songs normally performed by males and appeared dressed as a boy to avoid the disapprobation that her father might face as a result of putting his daughter on stage. Other singers began to encourage al-Shaykh Ibrāhīm to move the family to Cairo, which was a centre of musical performance and commercial recording.
After more than five years of performing in the north-eastern cities of Egypt and in Cairo, the family moved to the capital in 1923. The requirements of performance in a cosmopolitan city prompted Umm Kulthum to alter her musical style and her appearance. She added new popular songs and historic Arabic poems to her repertory and replaced the vocal accompaniment provided by her father and brother with a prestigious takht, a small ensemble consisting of violin, qānūn, riqq and ‘ūd. She adopted the modest yet rich and Europeanized dress of the wealthy Muslim ladies of the city.
Her first success came with commercial recording. In 1924 and 1925 she recorded 14 songs for Odeon. These sold remarkably well, probably because of her large audience in the countryside and the fact that record players and recordings were appearing in public places such as coffee houses. Subsequent contracts with Gramophone and Odeon provided Umm Kulthum with a growing audience beyond the concert halls of Cairo and a substantial income that allowed her to choose her performing venues. By 1928 she was one of the most successful performers in Cairo.
In 1934 Umm Kulthum performed for the inaugural broadcast of the Egyptian state radio station, and radio became her principal means of reaching her audience. In the late 1930s she arranged for live broadcasts of her Thursday night concerts, which carried these events into homes and coffee houses during ‘prime time’. These concerts developed into a series held on the first Thursday of every month from October or November until June; they became Umm Kulthum's most famous activity and lasted until the onset of her final illness in 1973. She also appeared in six musical films, beginning with Widād in 1935 and ending with Fatma in 1948, but film never became a primary medium for her.
She worked with the major composers of her day, presenting them with poetry of her choice and supervising the composition of her repertory. Riyād al-Sunbātī, Muhammad al-Qasabjī, Zakariyyāh Ahmad and Muhammad ‘Abd al-Wahāb, among others, wrote songs for her. She recorded almost 300 songs, among the most famous of which are al-Atlāl (written by al-Sunbātī), Inta ‘Umrī (‘Abd al-Wahhāb), Raqq al-Habīb (al-Qasabjī) and Huwa Sahīh (Ahmad).
Umm Kulthum had a powerful voice and wide range with uniform strength throughout. She developed control that allowed her to extend phrases and to alter resonance and placement in delicate and artistic ways, and she applied these skills to the affective delivery of lines of poetry, inventing multiple renditions of important lines. In so doing, she advanced the historic Arab art of sung poetry.
During the 1950s and 60s she became a major cultural figure. She supported the initiatives of President Jamāl ‘Abd al-Nāsir and, following Egypt's defeat in the 1967 war, launched a series of concerts to replenish the Egyptian treasury, beginning in Paris and continuing throughout the Arab world. When she died, she was called ‘the voice and face of Egypt’.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
N.A. Fu'ād: Umm Kulthūm wa-‘asr min al-fann [Umm Kulthūm and an era of art] (Cairo, 1976)
M. Shūsha: Umm Kulthūm: hayāt naghm [Umm Kulthūm: the life of a melody] (Cairo, 1976)
G. Braune: Die Qasīda im Gesang von Umm Kultūm: die arabische Poesie im Repertoire der grössten ägyptischen Sängerin unserer Zeit (Hamburg,1987)
G. Braune: Umm Kultūm: ein Zeitalter der Musik in Ägypten: die moderne ägyptische Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt, 1994)
V. Danielson: ‘The Voice of Egypt’: Umm Kulthūm, Arabic Song and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century (Chicago, 1997)
VIRGINIA DANIELSON
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