Otto Harbach

Otto Abels Harbach ( born August 18, 1873 in Salt Lake City as Otto Abels Hauer Bach; † January 24, 1963 in New York City ) was an American lyricist and librettist of more than 50 operettas and musicals. He wrote numerous songs that are now part of the repertoire of the Great American Songbook.

Life and work

Harbach was the child of Danish immigrants Adolph Hauer Bach and Sena Olsen; He was trained at the Salt Lake Collegiate Institute and then sat until 1895 his studies on the Knox College in Galesburg ( Illinois), where he became friends with Carl Sandburg. Then he was a professor of English at Whitman College in Walla Walla, then to teach until 1901 at Columbia University. Due to an eye disease, he broke off this career and worked as a newspaper reporter and from 1903 to 1910 as a copywriter.

Harbach first worked with composer Karl Hoschna and after his death with Rudolf Friml, Jerome Kern, Emmerich Kalman, Herbert Stothart, Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin and Sigmund Romberg together. He also wrote the lyrics together with Oscar Hammerstein II, so 1924 Rose-Marie and Indian Love Call. Among other things, he wrote the lyrics of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Yesterdays, Cuddle Up a Little Closer, One Moment Alone, Try to Forget, The Night Was Made For Love, I Will not Dance ( with Dorothy Fields ) or She Didn ' t Say Yes.

In 1914 he was a founding member of the U.S. copyright society ASCAP in which he functions as a Director ( 1920-1963 ), Vice President ( 1936-1940 ) and President ( 1950-1953 ) perceived.

In 1970 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Works (selection)

  • 1907 Three Twins '' (music Karl Hoschna )
  • 1909 Bright Eyes (Music Karl Hoschna )
  • 1912 The Firefly (Music Rudolf Frim )
  • 1918 Going Up (Music Louis Hirsch)
  • 1924 No, No, Nanette ( with Irving Caesar, Vincent Youmans Music )
  • With Jerome Kern 1925 Who?, Number -one hit for George Olsen and his Orchestra
  • 1925 Sunny
  • 1931 The Cat and the Fiddle
  • 1933 Roberta
  • With Oscar Hammerstein II 1924 Rose-Marie (music Rudolf Friml )
  • 1926 The Desert Song (music Sigmund Romberg )
  • 1927 Golden Dawn (Music Emmerich Kalman and Herbert P. Stothart )
Galesburg (Illinois) Emmerich Kálmán Yesterdays (Yes album) Roberta (given name) Integrated Authority File
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