Gustav Luders
{{Short description|Operatic composer}}
File:Gustav Luders, composer.jpg
Gustave Luders (December 13, 1865 – January 24, 1913) was a German-born American composer, music arranger, and conductor. He is best known as a composer of operettas and musical comedies; many of the which were first staged in Chicago prior to being staged on Broadway. His style of writing was heavily influenced by both Arthur Sullivan and Viennese operetta.{{Cite encyclopedia |author=Deane L. Root|date=2001|entry=Luders, Gustav (Carl)|encyclopedia=Grove Music Online|publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.17122}}
Life and career
Gustave Carl Luders was born on December 13, 1865 in Bremen, Germany. He trained as a musician in Germany. In 1888 he immigrated to the United States where he settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There he worked as an orchestra conductor and the director of a light opera company.
In 1889 Luders began working for M. Witmark & Sons as a music arranger. Soon after he relocated to Chicago where he worked in various theaters as a pit orchestra conductor. He began writing operettas and music comedies with the librettist Frank S. Pixley who was his most frequent collaborator. Their most successful work was The Prince of Pilsen. It was adapted into the film The Prince of Pilsen. It was staged many times both in the United States and abroad into the 1950s. His other successful works included The Burgomaster (1900), Woodland (1904) and The Sho-Gun (1904).
Luders also teamed with the writer George Ade.{{Cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MfYDAAAAMBAJ&q=gustav+carl+luders&pg=PA42|first=Jack |last=Burton |title=The Honor Roll of Popular Songwriters: No. 25—Gustav Luders |date=June 18, 1949 |magazine=The Billboard |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|volume=61|number=25|page=42|via=Google Books}} The Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection at Johns Hopkins has several of his works.{{Cite web|url=https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/people/gustave-luders|title=Gustave Luders | Levy Music Collection|website=levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu}}
Work
- The Burgomaster with Frank Pixley{{Cite web|url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/10/31/musical-month-prince-pilsen|title=Musical of the Month: "The Prince of Pilsen"|website=The New York Public Library}}
- By the Sad Sea Waves (musical)
- "King Dodo" (1901) with Frank Pixley
- Woodland (1904)
- The Sho-Gun (1904), with George Ade{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/gustav-luders-12082|title=Gustav Luders – Broadway Cast & Staff | IBDB|website=www.ibdb.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://gsarchive.net/AMT/shogun/index.html|title=The Sho-Gun|website=gsarchive.net}}{{Cite web|url=https://postcardhistory.net/2021/08/the-sho-gun-a-1904-broadway-comic-opera/|title=The Sho-Gun – A 1904 Broadway Comic Opera | Postcard History|date=August 12, 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-sho-gun-5017|title=The Sho-Gun – Broadway Musical – Original | IBDB|website=www.ibdb.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-minneapolis-journal-review-of-the-s/12136229/|title=Review of "The Sho-Gun", 1905, including mention of costumes|newspaper=The Minneapolis Journal |date=February 21, 1905|pages=4|via=newspapers.com}}
- "Korean Dance" (1904) {{Audio|"Korean Dance" (1904), by Gustav Luders.mid|listen}}
- "Hi-Ko, Hi-Ko" (1904) {{Audio|"Hi-Ko, Hi-Ko" (1904), by Gustav Luders.mid|listen}}
- The Grand Mogul (1906)
- Marcelle (1908)
- The Gypsy (1912)
- Somewhere Else (1913)
- Mam'selle Napoleon{{Cite web|url=https://snaccooperative.org/vocab_administrator/resources/6917818|title=Luders, Gustav, 1865-1913. Mam'selle Napoleon / by Herbert & Luders. - View Resource - Social Networks and Archival Context|website=snaccooperative.org}}
- The Prince of Pilsen
- The Fair Co-ed{{Cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QeAqAAAAYAAJ&q=gustav+carl+luders&pg=RA5-PA38|title=Gustav Carl Luders Dead|magazine=The Violinist|date=February 1913|volume=XIV|number=5|publisher=Violinist Company|page=38|via=Google Books}}
- The old town: A musical farce in two acts
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/155150590/gustav-carl-luders Findagrave entry]
- {{IMDb name|nm0524867}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:Musicians from Bremen (city)
Category:Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States
Category:American musical theatre composers