Norbert Glanzberg

Birth : 1910-10-12, Rohatyn, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Ukraine]

Death : 2001-02-25

History

Norbert Glanzberg (12 October 1910 in Rohatyn, Austria-Hungary – 25 February 2001 in Paris) was a Galician-born French composer. Mostly a composer of film music and songs, he was also notable for some famous songs of Édith Piaf. In his twenties he lived in Germany, where he began his career scoring films for directors including Billy Wilder and Max Ophüls. When the Nazi regime came to power there in 1933, he, as a Jew, fled to Paris, where he performed in nightclubs under bandleaders such as Django Reinhardt, which is where he first met Piaf. At different times from 1939 to 1945 he toured with Piaf, when he wrote many of her songs and accompanied her on piano when she sang. For many of those years they were lovers, and Piaf saved his life on more than one occasion by hiding him from both the French Vichy police, who were helping the Nazis round up Jews for deportation, and later from the Nazi occupiers themselves. After the war he continued writing film scores for French films along with composing classical music, which included works and songs from Berlin and romantic classics. At the end of his career he wrote a concerto for two pianos in 1985 which was inspired by the novels of Isaac Bashevis Singer. Norbert Glanzberg was born from Jewish parents in Rohatyn in Galicia in the dual Austro-Hungarian Royal and Imperial Monarchy. His original name was Nathan, changed to Norbert when he arrived in Germany. In 1911, his family moved to Würzburg in Bavaria, where Norbert received his first harmonica from his mother, which gave rise to the question: "Why does music laugh, why does music cry?" He entered the Conservatory of Würzburg in 1922, already a passionate, and he was appointed as assistant conductor of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1929, where he would meet Béla Bartók and Alban Berg. Hired by the UFA (Universum Film AG) as a composer in 1930, 21-year-old Glanzberg wrote a film scores for Billy Wilder's German comedy The Wrong Husband and for Max Ophüls' comedy Cod Liver Oil is Preferred. He also wrote scores for opera music and was musical director for concerts in 1930, including ones by dancer Ellen Von Frankenberg. When the Nazi regime came into power in Germany in 1933, Joseph Goebbels referred to Glanzberg in the NSDAP newspaper, Der Angriff, as a degenerate Jewish artist. Glanzberg then went into exile in Paris. In 1935 he met another exile in Paris, guitarist and bandleader Django Reinhardt, and became his pianist when his band played in Paris clubs. They played the evening that Edith Piaf first performed in front of an audience, after the club's manager heard her singing in the street and persuaded her to perform on stage. Piaf's powerful voice made an impression on Glanzberg, writes biographer Carolyn Burke.  He performed and composed songs in music-halls in Paris in the years before the war. In 1938, he met French singer Lily Gauty, and wrote Le bonheur est entré dans mon cœur (Happiness has entered my heart) for her. He also accompanied singers performing in fashion collections shows. ... Source: Article "Norbert Glanzberg" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Movies

Playmates
Music
Prisoner of the Volga
Original Music Composer
Prisoner of the Volga
Mon Oncle
Original Music Composer
Genial, bumbling Monsieur Hulot loves his top-floor apartment in a grimy corner of the city, and cannot fathom why his sister's family has moved to the suburbs. Their house is an ultra-modern nightmare, which Hulot only visits for the sake of stealing away his rambunctious young nephew. Hulot's sister, however, wants to win him over to her new way of life, and conspires to set him up with a wife and job.
Her Bridal Night
Original Music Composer
A country girl is discovered by a Paris magazine, and becomes a top model.
The Blonde Witch
Music
Brulard, a French civil engineer on assignment in a remote Swedish village, meets Ina, who has been raised in forested isolation by her haggish mother and believes herself to be a witch. He falls in love with her and tries to convert her to civilization; but in the meantime, his female boss, Kristina, has fallen in love with him, while the villagers turn against him for consorting with someone they believe is cursed by the Devil.
The Light Across the Street
Original Music Composer
Tensions mount as the lonely wife of a trucker becomes involved with a gas station attendant.
Les corsaires du bois de Boulogne
Music
Valse brillante
Music
A prima donna hires a man to pretend to be her lover so as to protect her from an unwelcome suitor. Unbeknownst to her, he is a tenor in disguise.
Nine Boys, One Heart
Music
During the Christmas season, Christine, a singer and her friends find themselves penniless. She falls asleep and dreams that she goes to heaven, followed by her friends...
La Goualeuse
Music
French stage favorite Lya Gauty made her screen debut in 1938's La Goualeuse (The Street Singer). The story concerns a poverty-stricken vagabond (Jean Martinelli) who supports himself by singing for pennies in a rough section of town. Only the local barkeeper knows that the vagabond is actually the illegitimate son of a prosperous and highly respected banker (Constant Remy). One would think that the film's dramatic climax would consist of a tearful reunion between father and son. Instead, this scene occurs in the middle of the picture; the rest of the film is a melodramatic melange of high emotionalism and low melodrama, culminating in the boy's suicide. Though billed first, Lya Gauty has an almost peripheral role as the hero's long-suffering sweetheart who sings at the drop of a hat and frequently brings her own hat.
I'd Rather Have Cod Liver Oil
Music
Each evening, before saying their prayers, some children swallow their cod liver oil. One evening, the youngest child makes a daring request in his prayer.
The Wrong Husband
Original Music Composer