Carita von Horst (1864-1935)

[Wheesht]

For a fair number of years I have been interested in and intrigued by the life and career of the composer Carita von Horst, née Partello. Apart from a few songs from her 1926 operetta 'Kavalier Jack' which Bernard Etté and his Dance Orchestra recorded on 78s and which I have not been able to trace, except in discographies, nothing of her music appears ever to have been recorded. I have been able to obtain scans of the piano reduction of 'Kavalier Jack'(Gentleman Jack) and also that of her 1921 opera, 'Die beiden Narren' (The two Fools), and recently I have had scans made of six songs and a Sarabande, Barcarolle and poème d'amour for cello and piano from 1910. I'd be delighted to share these with anyone who might be interested.
For more information on the composer, see this article which I wrote for the Operetta Research Center.

[Simon]

I suppose this article might be a little romanticized, but that's quite a life she lived!

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26349973/american-woman-by-misreading-stars/

[eschiss1]

... I wonder if Kavalier Jack is based on GB Shaw's novel Love Among the Artists (or maybe then it would be Kavalier Owen)...

[Reverie]

Wheesht - I have sent you a PM

[Wheesht]

Reverie has been kind enough to make her Poème d'amour for cello and piano available to listen to, and I'm very grateful – and thrilled to hear something of her music for the very first time.

[OperaGregory]

Hello Wheest,
I am a university professor of music (voice and opera). I have been working on an initiative to create a database of under-represented composers of various categories (right now those include: female, Afro-, Latino, Asian, LGBT composers). Part of the purpose is to bring works by these composers to the concert stage. Therefore, I'd be very interested in your scans of Carita von Horst's Kavalier Jack, Die beiden Narren, and the her songs. If I can figure out how to do it (I'm new to this forum), I'll send you a PM.

[Alan Howe]

a database of under-represented composers of various categories (right now those include: female, Afro-, Latino, Asian, LGBT composers)

Welcome, OperaGregory.

In general I'm not in favour of certain of these categories being discussed here. The only criterion that matters at UC is whether the music is worth pursuing, irrespective of the category the composer supposedly fits into. Otherwise we may end up in the situation where we are looking to fill the category of, say, blind composers merely for the sake of it. So, please let's not go down this path. We've had enough of this recently with Florence Price and the unmerited inflation of her reputation in relation to other more deserving composers for reasons that are precisely to do with particular 'categories' that the (ever-changing) Zeitgeist thinks are important to promote.

Anyway, the subject of this thread is Carita von Horst.

[Revilod]

Well said, Alan.

[Wheesht]

While I agree that the only criterion should be whether the music is worth pursuing irrespective of any categories according to the current Zeitgeist, I'd hold that it is equally true that composers that we have discussed here are unsung or under-represented precisely because they were put in categories by whatever the Zeitgeist was at a specific point in the past. And it must be permissible to discuss possible reasons apart from the musical quality as to why a particular composer is unsung.

Back to Carita von Horst, though, by all means.

[Alan Howe]

Sorry, but we're definitely not going down this rabbit-hole again. If people mention in passing why a particular composer may have been neglected in their day, fair enough. But we will not be engaging with issues of identity on this forum. The sole criterion for discussion here is the music.

[Wheesht]

The fascinating story of the Partello collection of violins and Dwight J. Partello's daughter Carita and her music is featured, including a rendition of 'Mein Baby' from the operetta 'Kavalier Jack', in the latest edition of 'Sidedoor', the Smithsonian podcast series.

[Wheesht]

Carita von Horst's Poème d'amour for cello and piano has just been published on Youtube as part of the 2023 Advent Calendar by La Boîte à Pépites in a beautiful performance by cellist and artistic director Héloïse Luzzati and pianist David Kadouch.