1819-1880
German born composer Jacques Offenbach was born Jakob (or Jacob depending on the source) Offenbach on this day in Cologne. His Jewish father was a well known cantor who earned a living by singing in synagogues and by playing violins in cafe's (his original surname was Eberst, but owing to his well known musical presence in the area, he adopted the surname Offenbach after his place of birth--he was known to town-folk basically as "the musician from Offenbach"). It stands to reason that young Jakob would be exposed to music from his earliest age. He took up the violin under his father's instruction at the age of six. By the time Jakob was old enough to attend lessons, his father--Isaac--had a permanent situation with a local synagogue, and therefore could afford to pay for music lesson for his young son (who was by this time growing more and more interested in composition). Jakob had lessons with the cellist Bernhard Breuer, this would eventually lead to Jakob's gaining a professional position playing the cello. In the meantime, he was composing his own works for the instrument, and by the time he was in his teens had penned several works of immense complexity. In addition, in a family of 10 children and musician father, it is to be expected that several of them are bound to wind up with talents for musical performance. Jakob and at least two of his siblings, a brother and a sister, performed locally at the direction of their father. Eventually all of this would lead Offenbach to the very prestigious Paris Conservatory, the admissions standards being so strict for someone of Offenbach's background, it is a near miracle that not only did he gain acceptance, but so to did his brother Julius. This is when his first name was changed to it's French form. He quickly became known as a cello virtuous, and keep in mind that he was barely 16 years of age by this time (having gone to Paris at the very young age of 14). Offenbach's life from this point is highly varied and quite interesting (follow links below). As his career moved along, he fell into a number of different modes of composition; one of the most popular was comic opera, the modern of which he is given credit for it's invention. It is from these works, that early talkies of the late 1920's drew musical inspiration. Offenbach's work however dates back much further in film history to 1908, to that most bizarre of movie "inventions"--the silent musical. These are not merely silent films that have been reproduced for video tape or disc release that use works of famous composers in the public domain--these are works that specified works be played along with the film from the get-go. Many drew scenarios straight from operatic works as well. The short Brazilian film Barcarola is the first film to use any of Offenbach's works (drawn from The Tales of Hoffman)--it both draws inspiration from and stipulates music for a piece written into an opera by the composer. Something similar is apparently going on with the 1915 German film Ein Frauenherz. It was most certainly the case with Die Harmonie-Films dating from 1917, another German film produced exclusively for music showcase. As for those early talkies, the first of those was produced by Warner Brothers as an sound exhibition film by the studio; Bernado De Pace featured the vaudevillian musician of the same name playing tunes on the mandolin (his nickname was "The Wizard of the Mandolin")--the film features a number of the other composers, including Franz von Suppé). The same general concept was applied to Banjoland in 1928; another Warner's film. In 1929, two films featured his work. One was the short Warner's production Little Miss Everybody, the other was the huge production that was MGM's The Hollywood Revue of 1929. Rolling right along into a new decade and the dawning of the full adoption of the new technology of sound, his work was featured in three films in 1930 (the first of these was an Ub Iwerks animated short [I LOVE Iwerks' stuff!!] Fiddlesticks featuring Flip the Frog). It took nearly twenty years for his music to make it to the small screen of television; in 1948 the BBC produced an 1 & 1/2 hour television feature length adaptation of his La vie parisienne. In 1954 his music first made it's way into a television series, when it was featured in a 4th season episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour. It has since been featured almost countless films, some of which are quite famous and many episodes of well known television shows (Happy Days, Month Python's Flying Circus, The Ren & Stimpy Show and The Simpsons just to name a few). The most recent film to feature his work is 2018's Turner Risk. Offenbach died at the age of 61 in Paris on the 5th of October. By this time he was a beloved French citizen and was given a state funeral. He was subsequently buried in Montmatre Cemetery in what became a family plot.
