Joseph Geschwandtner - who was he?

Started by ErlingI, Sunday 05 September 2021, 16:27

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ErlingI

Dear forum!
I have a score, "Midsummer serenade", from 1909 composer by the Norwegian female composer Erika Bodom. It is based on a song by Joseph Geschwandtner. I plan to publish the score on www.musescore.com, but would like to know if anyone knows who Joseph Geschwandtner was?My google-searches did not bring me any clear conclusion, but perhaps someone in the forum knows more about this. How his score reached a "Norwegian ear" early 1900s is also a puzzle, I find no trace of him in Norway. But perhaps his song was very popular at the time?

eschiss1

I see the score can already be found here: IMSLP. Musicsack does not list Geschwandtner, and viaf's only entry is for Bodom's derived work; this might not mean anything, though. However, if his song was popular, I would have expected some references to it in contemporary documents- perhaps of course his name is simply misspelled on her score and not, as I am conjecturing, made up out of whole cloth ;)

ErlingI

Thanks for feedback. I have now published the score on MuseScore ( https://musescore.com/user/26911315/scores/7001010 ).
There are several candidates with the name Joseph Geschwandtner, but who the musician is is hard to tell.
But it is strange that the «base» for Erika Bodom's well received composition  should be so completely «in the dark».