Engelbert Humperdinck was born in Sieburg, Germany, on September 1,
1854. He attended the Cologne Conservatory where his teachers included
Hiller (who was the first to recognize his talent), Jensen and
Gernsheim. After winning the Mozart Scholarship of Frankfort in 1876,
Humperdinck continued his music study in Munich with Franz Lachner and
Rheinberger. In Munich he published his first important composition, a
_Humoreske_ for orchestra (1880). In 1881, he received the Meyerbeer
Prize and in 1897, the Mendelssohn Prize, both for composition. Between
1885 and 1887 he was professor of the Barcelona Conservatory in Spain
and in 1890 he became professor at Hoch’s Conservatory in Frankfort, and
music critic of the _Frankfurter Zeitung_. He achieved his greatest
success as a composer with the fairy opera, _Hansel and Gretel_,
produced in Weimar in 1893. After 1896, Humperdinck devoted himself
exclusively to composition, and though he wrote several fine operas none
was able to equal the popularity of his fairy-opera. He died in
Neustrelitz, Germany, on September 27, 1921.
_Hansel and Gretel_ scored a sensational success in its own day; and, in
ours, it is the only opera by which Humperdinck is remembered. Following
its première in Weimar, Germany, on December 23, 1893, it was performed
within a year in virtually every major German opera house. In 1894 it
came to London, and in 1895 to New York. The text by Adelheid Wette
(Humperdinck’s sister) is based on the Ludwig Grimm fairy tale familiar
to young and old throughout the world.
The overture, and two orchestral episodes, are often performed outside
the opera house. The Overture is made up of several melodies from the
opera beginning with the so-called “prayer melody,” a gentle song for
horns and bassoons. A rhythmic passage then describes the spell effected
by the witch on the children. After this comes the lovable third-act
melody in which the children are awakened by the dewman. The happy dance
of the children from the close of the opera leads back to the opening
prayer with which the overture comes to a gentle conclusion.
The _Dream Pantomime_ comes in the second act and is an orchestral
episode in which is described the descent of the fairies who provide a
protective ring around the children, alone and asleep in the deep
forest. The _Gingerbread Waltz_ (_Knusperwalzer_) from Act 3 is the
joyous music expressing the children’s delight after they have succeeded
in pushing the witch inside the oven and burning her to a crisp.
Among Humperdinck’s many works for symphony orchestra one is
occasionally performed by semi-classical or pop orchestras. It is the
_Moorish Rhapsody_ (1898) written for the Leeds Festival in England. The
first movement, “Tarifa—Elegy at Sunrise” reflects the sorrow of a
shepherd over the decay of the Moorish people. “Tangiers—A Night in a
Moorish Café” is a coffee-house scene highlighted by the sensual chant
of a café singer. The suite concludes with “Tetuan—A Rider in the
Desert,” depicting a desert ride with a view of Paradise in the
distance. To carry into his music an Oriental atmosphere, Humperdinck
modeled some of his principal themes after actual Moorish melodies, such
as the second theme of the first movement for English horn, and the main
melody for woodwind in the second movement.