Ludwig Englander

Englander, Ludwig (1859–1914), composer. Born in Vienna, where he received his earliest musical training, he moved briefly to Paris and there worked for a time with Jacques Offenbach. On coming to America he took a post as conductor for the Thalia Theatre, a playhouse catering to German immigrants, where his first musical score, Der Prinz Gemahl (The Prince Consort), was heard. He later moved to the Casino Theatre, where he was musical director but in short order provided a score for The Passing Show (1894), the first American revue. Englander left the Casino to write independently and during the next fourteen years scored nearly thirty Broadway musicals, among them The Casino Girl (1900), The Strollers (1901), The Wild Rose (1902), Sally in Our Alley (1902), The Office Boy (1903), The Rich Mr. Hoggenheimer (1906), and Miss Innocence (1908). After a long hiatus he wrote one final show, Madam Moselle (1914), shortly before his death. Englander regularly did his own orchestrations and frequently conducted his own and scores by others. For all his prolificacy, he produced no songs of lasting fame. His lack of melodic inspiration was recognized even in his own day (critics described his work as “tinkly”), and many of his musicals had interpolations that proved far more popular and enduring than his contributions.