Joseph Carl Breil

Joseph Carl Breil ( born June 29, 1870 in Pittsburgh, † January 24, 1926 in Los Angeles ) was an American composer, tenor and director.

Breil was one of the first American composers of the music is written specifically for movies. Among the best known films for which he composed, including The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance by David Wark Griffith.

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Biography

Breil graduated in 1888 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Later he wrote the anthem of the University, which was first performed in October 1920. He studied, among others later also at St. Fidelis College in Butler, before he was sent by his family to Leipzig to study law at Leipzig University. In Leipzig he also began to deal with music and song. He has performed at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Leipzig, later he took singing lessons in Milan and Philadelphia.

Between 1891 and 1892 he sang as a tenor of Emma Juch Opera Company, he returned to Pittsburgh. There he gave singing lessons and directed the choir until 1897 in Pittsburgh St Paul's Cathedral. In the following years he worked as a music director in various theaters and as a music editor. Meanwhile, he continued to compose pieces.

The first film for which he composed, was first performed in 1912 Les amours de la reine Élisabeth starring Sarah Bernhardt. Two of the most famous films for which he composed, are The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance by David Wark Griffith. From now on, he composed music for several films and wrote several operas, including The Legend, which was premiered in 1919 at the Metropolitan Opera. Also for radio broadcasts, he wrote plays.

He died on January 24, 1926 of heart disease.

Works

Films with music by Breil

  • Les amours de la reine Élisabeth, 1912
  • The Lily and the Rose, 1915
  • The Penitentes, 1915
  • Martyrs of the Alabamo, 1915
  • The Sable lorcha, 1915
  • The Birth of a Nation ( The Birth of a Nation ), 1915
  • Double Trouble, 1915
  • Intolerance ( Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages ), 1916
  • The Wood Nymph, 1916
  • The Birth of a Race, 1918
  • The White Rose, 1923
  • The White Sister (The White Sister ), 1923
  • The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1924
  • America, 1924
  • The Climax, 1930
  • The Mine with the Iron Door, 1936
  • The Cowboy and the Kid, 1936
  • Undersea Kingdom 1936
  • The Boss Rider of Gun Creek, 1936
  • The Old Corral, 1936
  • Rawhide, 1938

Operas

  • Orlando of Milan, 1888
  • Prof. Tattle, 1913
  • The Seventh Chord, 1913
  • The Legend, 1919
  • The Asra, 1925

Other compositions

  • Title song of the radio show Amos 'n' Andy
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