Talk:Franz Lehár

Austrian, not Hungarian?

In Austria, Lehar is considered to be Austrian, not Hungarian. I believe it is fair to say he was an Austrian composer, as his father was from Moravia and his mother was German-speaking as well. Just being born in the Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian empire doesn't make him a Hungarian. Like Sigmund Freud, who is also an Austrian neurologist, despite of being born in what is nowadays the Czech Republic. - 84.114.147.101 22:45, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

What exactly is Viennese about Lehár? <KF> 20:36, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I believe he spent much of his life working in Vienna, and he wrote in what might be called the "Viennese style" (in the manner of the Strauss family). --Camembert

I moved here the following text that carries little information without some context, if "Golden Age"/"Silver Age" designations carry any heft: "The era in which his music thrived came to be known as the Silver Age".

Having been born in Komorn, epicentre of Slovakia's Hungarian minority to the present, Franz Lehár is Hungarian by birth and Ancestry (Lehár being a Hungarian Surname). Furthermore, I once read, [and I'm sure I could find and cite, if needed for this chat page] that he considered himself Hungarian, and attempted unsuccessfully to get Hungarian citizenship in 1947, as he was considered an undesireable by the ruling communist regime. Therefore, he was much more Hungarian than Austrian, even if it is wholly and absolutely unrepresented in his musical style, which is classic Vienna.

The Gold/Silver Age comment, in regards to the viennese waltz, is technically correct - however, since dates regarding the rise and fall of the viennese operetta can fluctuate greatly depending on the source you ask, I think it either needs to remain left out, or be redone with an explanation as to the terms, and their usage. - Giamberardino

Why not call him a Viennese composer of Hungarian descent? --Wetman 07:51, 12 August 2006 (UTC)Austrian.

Grove (Andrew Lamb) calls him Austro-Hungarian. His mother was Hungarian. His father may have been a German-speaker - Grove is not clear about this, but it seems Lehár spoke Hungarian rather than German when he was growing up. Almost all of his operettas were in German and for most of his life he lived and worked in Vienna. Austro-Hungarian seems like the best possible description. - Kleinzach 12:25, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

It was not uncommon for ethnic Hungarians of the 19th century Austrian Empire to speak German primarily at home, particularly in the middle and upper classes. Therefore, the fact that he was a German speaker neither proves (nor disproves) his Hungarianess. - Giamberardino 9:57, 12 August 2006

No. What I wrote was that he apparently wasn't a native German speaker. - Kleinzach 15:41, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

My Apologies. All the same, I feel that calling him "Austro-Hungarian" is analagous to calling Shostakovich or Prokofiev "Soviet" composers. It carries litte actual meaning, given that A.H. comprised over 11 different nationalities. Granted, this is not made any easier by the fact that unlike say, Liszt, Bartok or Kodály, Lehár's music contains very few and far apart references to any Hungarian national style ("Zigeunerliebe" being perhaps treated as derived from a hungarian gypsy tradition, Merry Widow considered by some to have a "slavic feel" in the Pontevedrian motifs, etc.) - Giamberardino August 12, 2006

I think we have to distinguish between Austro-Hungarian (nationality) and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (which I believe had 15 kingdoms and lands). In this case, I still think Austro-Hungarian is the easiest way to resolve this problem - a problem that repeatedly comes up in composers' biographies. - Kleinzach 22:07, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

I have no view on how to describe his nationality – but it would be better if his brother Anton Lehár's were the same. Maproom (talk) 16:35, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

Well, I carefully read the above discussion, himself and also his borther were Hungarians by nationality, by birth as well as they were born as Hungarian citizens. It is true they had a long time-carrer in Austria, but it is not known they would aquire Austrian citizenship.(KIENGIR (talk) 02:00, 10 June 2018 (UTC))

Recordings

Some of Lehar's historic 1947 recordings for Decca Records with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra are currently available on a Naxos Records CD. The disc is available through www.amazon.com.Sallyrob 16:34, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Lehár and Hitler

The text of the article says: "Despite his work being in contrast with the erudition of Wagner, associated with the Nazis, Lehár's work was enjoyed by Hitler...". I am not sure what this means, in particular "associated with the Nazis" — what is associated with the Nazis? Is it Wagner, Wagner's erudition, or what? I am neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the sentiment being expressed, because I don't know what it is. Can any clarify what the the article is trying to say here? Ondewelle (talk) 08:58, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

My thoughts exactly. If this is not clarified soon, it should be removed. It is apparently a rather stilted translation from the German article.

Also: the same section claims that Lehár received the Goethe Medal from Hitler; according to that article, that award was established in 1955, long after both were dead. I'm going to raise that point at the German Wikipedia for clarification. Michael Bednarek (talk) 13:14, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

PS: After actually following the link for the Goethe Medal in the German Lehár article, it turns out that that was a different medal, called Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft (which doesn't have an EN article). Thus the link in the English article is wrong; I changed the text accordingly. While at it, I also tried to provide a clearer translation of the sentence from the German Wikipedia. Michael Bednarek (talk) 13:41, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

January 2016

Why don't you compare the German version with this ? What is "a diacritic" ?

In general, why do articles in different languages differ so much about the same subject / topic ? 02462 20 54 72 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.233.152.88 (talk) 11:12, 26 January 2016‎

@79.233.152.88: You could look it up, but here: A diacritic is the term for what's often called an "accent mark". But anyway I've changed the text to read, more precisely, "Later he put an acute accent..."

And in general they are often written in the different languages, by people who (surprise!) can't read the other languages. And why not? This is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. If you've got something from the German article that's worth adding here — or for that matter from the العربية, Башҡортса, Беларуская, Български, Català, Čeština, Cymraeg, Dansk, (Deutsch,) Eesti, Ελληνικά, Español, Esperanto, Euskara, فارسی, Français, Frysk, 한국어, Հայերեն, Bahasa Indonesia, Italiano, עברית, Latina, Lëtzebuergesch, Magyar, Nederlands, 日本語, Norsk bokmål, Polski, Português, Română, Русский, Simple English, Slovenčina, Slovenščina, Српски / srpski, Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски, Suomi, Svenska, Türkçe, Українська, Tiếng Việt, or 中文* article — be bold! Translate and add it!

* Arabic, Bashkir, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Welsh, Danish, (Deutsch = German,) Estonian, Greek, Spanish, Esperanto, Basque, Farsi (Persian), French, Frisian, Korean, Armenian, Indonesian, Italian, Hebrew, Latin, Luxembourgish, Hungarian, Dutch, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simple English, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Serbo-Croatian, Finnish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, or Chinese

--Thnidu (talk) 18:55, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

File:Bain News Service - Franz Lehár.jpg to appear as POTD soon

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Bain News Service - Franz Lehár.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on April 30, 2017. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2017-04-30. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. — Chris Woodrich (talk) 04:14, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

Picture of the day

Franz Lehár (1870–1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer mainly known for his operettas, the most successful and best known being The Merry Widow. He also wrote sonatas, symphonic poems and marches.Photograph: Bain News Service; restoration: Adam Cuerden

Non-stage works required

AFAICT the article makes no mention of Lehár's non-stage works. de:Franz Lehár#Vokalwerke lists several songs and de:Franz Lehár#Instrumentalwerke lists several instrumental pieces. —Aɴɢʀ (talk) 12:50, 11 May 2017 (UTC)