Karl Michael Ziehrer, also spelled Carl Michael Ziehrer (May 2, 1843 – November 14, 1922) was an Austrian composer, bandmaster, and conductor who in his lifetime was one of the fiercest and most successful rivals of the Johann Strauss family. Born into a moderately wealthy Viennese family at Vienna, Austria, on May 2, 1843, the son of a top hat maker,.Ziehrer showed early musical talent and studied music at the Vienna Conservatory where he was taught by Simon Sechter, a famous Viennese music theorist and pedagogue, and Johann Emanuel Hasel. A gifted pianist, who at first earned a living playing in a dancing school, he was soon discovered by music publisher Carl Haslinger, one of Johann Strauss II’s publishers, who had fallen out with Strauss regarding the receipts from the latter’s lucrative Russian venture. Ziehrer was, in the words of Strauss’ first wife, Henrietta Treffz, “one of Haslinger’s machinations,” and “what Haslinger writes as his own would be passed on the ward to be published as his own.”
Haslinger sought to promote his promising young ward, who was persuaded to try his hand at conducting and, with finance from his father, on November 21, 1863, the young conductor appeared as the head of a newly formed orchestra aimed at toppling the Strauss dynasty at the Dianabad-Saal in Vienna. Not long after that, his big break came at the age of 27 when he secured an appointment as bandmaster with the army military band of the 55th Austrian Infantry Regiment. As was the current trend, he also became Kapellmeister of the large Vienna Weltausstellung civilian orchestra in 1873, taking from the Strauss family many of their finest musicians and causing a major rift with that powerful clan. In addition, h published the journal “Deutsche Musikzeitung” around the same time, and was credited as being one of the important sources of music study in the late 1870s. Not long after founding the music journal, he changed his publisher to Döblinger, and toured Eastern Europe and Germany for many years, earning a good reputation as a strict yet efficient conductor. It was in 1881 that he met his future wife, Marianne Edelmann, a famous operetta singer, in Berlin.
Throughout the period between 1885 and 1893, Ziehrer toured extensively and continued as a military bandmaster, having achieved the distinction of “Übernahme der Militärmusik der Hoch,” as well as the “Deutschmeister” decoration. His fame was such that his infantry regiment band was invited to perform at the World Exhibition held at Chicago in 1893. Ziehrer was dismissed from his post, however, because he extended his leave without authorization in order to tour throughout the U.S. After that, taking his players with him under the title of the Chicagoer Konzert-Kapelle, he toured 41 German cities and finally returned to Vienna, where he formed an even larger and successful orchestra, the Wiener-Tonkunstler Orchestra, later the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, that specialized in playing dance music. At this point, his works began to gain a wider circulation among the music-loving Viennese, and works such as Weaner Mad’ln op. 388, as well as the more famous Wiener Bürger op. 419, were received with greater appreciation, the latter even temporarily triumphing over Strauss compositions when first published in 1890.
By the turn of the century, Ziehrer felt that he needed to devote his time and attention towards composing, and his military band participation waned until he relinquished his last position in 1899, the year Johann Strauss II died. Ziehrer enjoyed success in the operetta writing business, with stage works such as Die Landstreicher in 1899, but it was with the operetta Fremdenführer (Tourist Guide) that he achieved stage success. He was one of the composers who bridged the ‘Golden Age’ of operetta with the new influence of the emerging ‘Silver Age’ of composers such as Franz Lehár, who would dominate the operetta scene for many years later on. In 1909, by decree of the Emperor Franz Josef, Ziehrer was awarded the honorary post of the ‘KK Hofballmusikdirektor’ which had been created for Johann Strauss I more than half a century earlier. He was the last person to hold this post, with the destruction of the Habsburg dynasty in World War I resulting in its dissolution.
During the time before the war, Ziehrer worked well with composers Franz Lehár, Oscar Straus, and Leo Fall, and was guest conductor at their concerts on many occasions. Ziehrer directed the last-ever Vienna Court Ball in 1914. The outbreak of the war sealed his career as a composer, and most of his property was destroyed. He died a poor and forgotten man on November 14, 1922, in Vienna and was buried in the Zentralfriedhof in the graves of honor with his wife buried beside him. His rich musical heritage may not be comparable to the Strausses, who dominated for well over a century, but he was more prolific, having composed over 600 waltzes, polkas, and marches, which are still performed today, and 24 operettas. His best known works are the waltzes Weaner Mad’ln, Wiener Bürger and the Schönfeld March. Some of his pieces are even more Viennese in nature than that of the Strausses. His music is vigorous and forceful, with cheerful melodies written even near the end of the Habsburg dynasty. It was not until 1960 that the city of Vienna erected a monument to commemorate his achievements.
My collection includes the following works by Carl Michael Ziehrer:
Ball at the Court (Bell bei Hof, 1911): Overture.
The Charming Rigo (Der schone Rigo): Overture.
Children of the General (Manoverkinder, 1912): Overture.
Crazy Girl l(Ein tolles Madel, 1907): Overture.
A Deutschmeister (Ein Deutschmeister, 1888): Overture.
King Jerome (Konig Jerome, 1878): Overture.
The Pawn Broker, or The Appraiser (Der Schatzmeisteer, 1899): Overture.
The Stupid Heart (Das dumme Herz, c. 1914): Overture.
The Three Wishes (Die drei Wunsche, 1901): Overture.
The Tourist Guide (Der Fremdenfuhrer): Overture.
The White Magician (Der bleiche Zauberer, 1890): Overture.
—material selected, adapted, and edited from several different sources
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