Rudolph Schirmer

Rudolph Edward Schirmer Jr. (June 18, 1919 – Nov 19, 2000) was a composer, lyricist, poet, and the former chairman of the Board of G. Schirmer Music Inc., an American classical music publishing company.^[1] In World War II, he worked in the U.S. Military Intelligence Service during the war in a unit called the Ritchie Boys, which was a unit that consisted of German-speaking personnel for roles in counterintelligence in Europe, translating key information from German prisoners of war (POW), and related services.^[2]

Starting in 1949, Schirmer was a prolific song writer for over 20 years. He occasionally used poetry by notable poets or books by notable authors as the lyrics for songs.

In 1968, he wrote Hymn to the Americas (Himno a las Americas in Spanish) which was performed by the Washington National Symphony at the Fourth Inter-American Music Festival in 1968.

Rudolph Schirmer was the son of Rudolph Edward Schirmer Sr., the previous publisher and president of G. Schirmer.^[3] His grandfather was Gustaf Schirmer, the founder of the G. Schirmer corporation.^[4]

Rudolph E. Schirmer Jr. originally attended Princeton University. He later left Princeton during his sophomore year to attend the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied composition under Rosario Scalero. Although he left Princeton to transfer to another school, he is considered a 1941 alumnus by the university.^[5]

Schirmer's works in music and literature span close to 50 years:

In 1949, he was one of the co-writers for the German book 3 Briefe an Kurt Leimer (3 Letters to Kurt Leimer).^[6] Kurt Leimer was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher who had been drafted in World War II into the Wehrmacht (collective of armed forces of Nazi Germany) and became a POW in Livorno, Italy in 1944, as the war was coming to a close.^[7] Schirmer worked in the Ritchie Boys unit in WW II, which consisted of German-speaking interrogators for interviewing German POWs. However, it is unclear if Schirmer and Leimer had met during the war.

In terms of musical works, Schirmer had copyrighted the song he had written "Remember thee!" for voice and piano, with words by the English Romantic poet Lord Byron (1788- 1824).^[8] The same year, he also wrote the song "Love's Secret" with words by English poet and artist William Blake (1757- 1827)^[9] as well as "So we''ll go no more a-roving" with words also by Lord Byron.^[10]

In 1955, he did the music arrangement of "A Child's Prayer", which was a song for three-part chorus of women's voices accompanied by piano. The lyrics were from the 1944 book Prayer for a Child by American novelist, poet, and children's fiction writer Rachel Field (1894–1942), which was a classic bedtime prayer.^[11][12]

In 1960, Schirmer copyrighted his musical compositions for the musical Forty Ways to Sunday. Some of the compositions can be below in the section named Music for musical 40 ways to Sunday.

Between 1961 and 1963, he wrote the music and lyrics for the following songs:

• "Bluebird"
• "Seven Songs"
• "Don't Mention Love Again"
• "The Gift of Christmas"
• "Nobody Wants My Heart"
• "You"

In 1964, he wrote the collection of poems titled A Friend in Fantasy: Poems.^[13]

In 1968, he wrote Hymn to the Americas (Himno a las Americas in Spanish), which was for a four-part chorus of mixed voices with a soprano solo and piano accompaniment. The Spanish text was written by Fernando Flores. It was performed by the Washington National Symphony at the Fourth Inter-American Music Festival in 1968.^[14][15]

In 1998, he was reader/performer for the published audiobook The Doors of Perception, which is reading of the 1954 book of English philosopher and writer Aldous Huxley.^[16] The work ties into the earlier works of Schirmer based, in that as the song "Love's Secret" (1949) incorporates the words from the poem of the same name by William Blake, so is the title of "The Door of Perception" from Blake's 1793 book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:^[17]

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.

Schirmer's first marriage was in 1949 to Countess Marnegu Eugenia Wenckheim (Countess Ena Wenkheim), a descendant of the leadership of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. The wedding was at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. In the same year of Shirmer's first marriage to Countess Ena Wenkheim, he was one of the co-writers for the German book 3 Briefe an Kurt Leimer (3 Letters to Kurt Leimer). However, they were divorced in 1953.^[30][31]

On February 8, 1958, Schirmer married film actress Iris Flores in New York City. Flores was the granddaughter of the former president of Costa Rica, the late Rafael Yglesias Castro.^[32] While they were married, Schirmer wrote Hymn to the Americas (Himno a las Americas in Spanish), which was for a four-part chorus of mixed voices with a soprano solo and piano accompaniment. The Spanish text was written by his brother-in-law and the former Vice Consul to the Government of Costa Rica, Fernando Flores.^[33] It was performed by the Washington National Symphony at the Fourth Inter-American Music Festival in 1968. After 12 years of marriage, they were divorced in November of 1970.^[34]

On January 9, 1972, Schirmer married Maria Raffaela Mormino.^[35] They were married until Schirmer passed away in 2000.^[1]

The William Blake poem Love's Secret were the lyrics for the Schirmer song of the same name. The poem is presently in the public domain:^[36]

Never seek to tell thy love,

 Love that never told can be;

For the gentle wind doth move

 Silently, invisibly.

I told my love, I told my love,

 I told her all my heart,

Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears.

 Ah! she did depart!

Soon after she was gone from me,

 A traveller came by,

Silently, invisibly:

 He took her with a sigh.

In 1960, Schirmer copyrighted his musical compositions for the musical Forty Ways to Sunday. The following are the majority of the songs:

• 
  An example of a G. Schirmer publication. Schirmer was the former chairman of the board of the music publishing company G. Schirmer.
• 
  Rudolph Schirmer Jr's father, Rudolph Schirmer, who was the earlier president of G. Schirmer.

Sheet music of "Bluebird" by Schirmer