29 November—First things first. In his daily (much appreciated) goad, El Liberalissimo, taking exception to yesterday’s disquisition, emailed, “Clearly you’re getting desperate. And if licensing of all guns was required, what ill consequences does your paranoia imagine?” El’s sarcasm and solecism aside, my disquisition didn’t even touch on licensing of firearms. But since he brought it up, I’ll simply ask him, does he trust his government? Well, I certainly don’t trust mine—with good cause.

Now to today’s disquisition:

Richard Strauss, the German late Romantic composer who lived from 1864 to 1949, wrote and orchestrated some of the sweetest, most lyrical instrumental and vocal music you can ever hope to hear. Listen to the beautiful aria from “Die tote Stadt” (“The Dead City”), from 1923, to hear what I mean.

Problem is, “Die tote Stadt” and the aria known as “Mariettalied” (“Marietta’s Song”)—actually “Glück, das mir verblieb” (roughly, “Lucky that I Left”)—are the work of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Could have fooled me, too. (In fact, I’m listening to a magnificent Elisabeth Schwarzkopf recital of Richard Strauss Lieder as I type this.)

Korngold, who lived from 1897 to 1957, although he produced lots of brilliant so-called classical works, is much better known as an Oscar-winning film-music composer. His Oscars were for “Anthony Adverse” in 1936 and “The Adventures of Robin Hood” in 1938. He also scored many other flicks for Warner Brothers.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was born in Brünn (now Brno in the Czech Republic), which was at the time part of Austria-Hungary. He was a child prodigy, of course, and, (also) like Mozart, a very successful young performer and composer in Europe. “Die tote Stadt,” for instance, was a really, really big hit, as Ed Sullivan would have said, and had several performances at the Met in New York in addition to many in the top houses on the continent.

Then Hitler metastasized and the Korngolds, being Jews, found it to their advantage to get out while they still were breathing. Good move. In Los Angeles, Erich was the trend-setting “serious” (i.e., classical, symphonic) composer to score movies. He also wrote non-cinematic works that deserve to be resurrected.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold suffered a severe stroke in October 1946 and died on 29 November 1957—exactly 65 years ago today . . .