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Biography
During
WWI Huppertz worked as an opera singer and theater actor in Coburg,
Freiburg and Breslau, and also wrote some music for the theater. In 1920 Huppertz moved to Berlin and began acting at the
Nollendorfplatz Theater, and shortly afterwards met his future wife, Charlotte
Lindig. During that period, Huppertz was also
recorded singing two songs with other singers as promotion for the
operetta "Verliebte Leute," which was released in 1922 on a 78rpm
record. In Berlin he also met Rudolf Klein-Rogge's wife, Thea von
Harbou, and subsequently director Fritz Lang, who became close friends
to the point Huppertz, his wife, Von Harbou, and Lang were together
nearly every night in the wild cultural life of Berlin. The
professional collaboration between Lang and Huppertz started where Lang
hired Huppertz as an actor for two small roles in the films "Vier um
die Frau" and "Dr. Mabuse Der Spieler," and knowing Huppertz' musical
talent, once he turned to make his two-part epic film "Die Nibelungen,"
he had opted to use Huppertz as the composer. Huppertz, on the other
hand, initially refused the job and only after reviewing the script was Huppertz convinced that the film was independent of the Opera
and based on the Volksaga. He then wrote music for the film using
a copy of Von Harbou's script that she personally handed to him.
On February 14, 1924 came the premiere of the first part of the film.
While Huppertz finished the music on time for the premiere, Lang, on
the other hand, didn't finish editing the film and was working on it
during the grand premiere. The reels had to be delivered to the cinema
with police escort for each of them to reach on time, which created
long pauses between each reel. The conductor at the premiere, Ernö
Rapée, had hardest time of his life conducting the 60-piece orchestra,
as last minute changes didn't fit the synchronization cues written to
the score by Huppertz. Needless to say, the premiere was a catastrophe.
For the second part of the film, it was even worse, and the last reel
of the movie wasn't shown at all at its premiere as it took too much
time. Unlike in Germany, however, in France it was decided, much to
Lang's dissatisfaction, to use Wagner's music to accompany the film.
Lang in response published a declaration asserting his respect for
Wagner (Actually, Lang, who didn't like classical music very much, had
an especially passionate hatered towards Wagner, while Huppertz was
considered one of his favorite composers): "I voluntarily chose a
composer who knew cinema, interested in it and even performing it. I
asked him to write an original score for the film, this artist, this
specialist is called Gottfried Huppertz. He is young and his many
lieder have given him a much deserved reputation". Despite the
declaration, in the U.S it was also decided to use an adaptation of
Wagner's opera, the one which was subsequently released on 78rpm
records, and is considered the first soundtrack release in the world
(According to the "Guinness Film Facts and Feats", 1981).
After the success of "Die Nibelungen," Huppertz was hired to work on
the soundtrack of "Zur Chronik von Grieshuus," for which von Harbou had
written the script (A score which had an important contribution to the
atmosphere, Dr. K. M., Lichtbild-Bühne, Nr. 7, 14.2.1925). While
working on the soundtrack, Huppertz also took part in many meetings
with Lang and von Harbou in which they discussed the script of their
next film, "Metropolis," and already begun developing musical themes
for it.
This close collaboration continued during the filming of Metropolis
where Huppertz was constantly on the set, a thing very unusual for the
time. Huppertz used to play the piano during filming,
and the background music was used for tempo and mood. A little known fact, however,
Is that in addition to composing the music, Huppertz also had a small acting part
in the film as a Violin player in Yoshiwara. On September 1926
Huppertz finished to write the music for Metropolis, and by late
December, after the film was approved by the censors, the complete
synchronized score was ready. Premiere took place on January 10, 1927,
with music delivered by a 66 piece orchestra, and at its end: "Unending
applause brought the creators and the production staff to the apron
stage over and over again, including Gottfried Huppertz, who put up the
background music and conducted himself." (Der Film, Berlin, vol. 12,
no. 1, 15 Jan 1927, p. 5-6) .
"The music by Gottfried Huppertz gives a rough idea of the events while
storming forward with them…" said novelist Norbert Jacques, who was
present at the premiere, "it is big, clear and strong." In January
alone 7 published articles focused about Huppertz' music, 2 in March,
and 3 more during the rest of the year (one in April, August and
September). Criticisms were so good that it was then decided to release
Huppertz' music for Metropolis on a set of two 78rpm records under the
VOX label. The first record was 12" in size and contained on the first side a spoken
introduction by Fritz Lang (exact content unknown), and on the second
side several themes from the film: Metropolis, Moloch, Fredersen,
Freder, and the Yoshiwara Foxtrot. Second record was 10" and contained
on the first side the Waltz (Of the eternal garden), and on the second
side the Fantastic dance/Dance of death (Music heard when the Robot
dances in Yoshiwara). Metropolis the film, however, didn't get many
favorable reviews and
after the grand premiere was shown in only one theater until closing in
May. The film was then shortened by a quarter, and a re-release was set
for August the same year. Huppertz then readapted his musical score for
the new editing of the film, though at the end the music that
accompanied the film contained only few of his themes and the rest was
made of music by Chopin and few pieces by Giuseppe Becces. Metropolis
was the second and last Fritz Lang film for which Huppertz composed
music, as all of Lang's following films were made with a considerably
smaller budget and he simply couldn't afford Huppertz anymore. The Last
professional collaboration between the two would be in "Spione," where
Huppertz again had a small role in the film as a Violin player, echoing his
cameo in "Metropolis" which was cut in the shortened version, though afterwards they
still remained very close friends. Huppertz had a small pause taken
from film music and focused mainly on composing original music and also
creating adaptations for chamber orchestra and piano reductions of
musical pieces by other composers, especially Grieg. In 1932 Huppertz
was hired to record his 1924 music for Fritz Lang's "Die Nibelungen"
for a shortened sound adaptation of the film produced by Franz B.
Biermann under the name "Siegfrieds Tod." The film's length was reduced
to roughly 82 minutes and in addition to Huppertz' music actor Theodor
Loos was hired to narrate the film. Around the
release of "Siegfrieds Tod," Fritz Lang was invited by Joseph Goebbels
to become Germany's leading director, after which Lang decided to leave
Germany. Lang then tried to convince Huppertz to follow him out of
Germany, but Huppertz who was simply too nostalgic about Berlin felt he
couldn't leave and decided to stay.
In August 1933 "Der Judas von Tirol," which featured Rudolf Klein-Rogge, was released and was Huppertz' first sound film work.
The film, apparently, was a disaster in the making and ended with
haters between the cast, crew and the director to a level that none of
them wanted to work with each other ever again. None the less the film was released in
the U.S in 1935 under the title "The Judas of Tyrol," making
it the only time during Huppertz' lifetime his music was properly heard
in the U.S. The following project for Huppertz was composing for Then von Harbou's
first directorial effort, "Elisabeth und der Narr" (late 1933), which
also had its share of problems; this time with the censorship who
claimed it offends religious feelings. The film was forbidden and went
through several cuts by the censorship, eventually getting thoroughly
negative reviews in the press and failing in performance. Huppertz was
also on Von Harbou's next feature, "Hanneles Himmelfahrt" (early 1934), a
film for children that was sent at least 3 times for censorship and was
forbidden for children every time. Eventually it did even more poorly
than Harbou's first film, and was actually such a complete flop that
Harbou's next film project was cancelled.
Huppertz'
next project, a year an a half later, was the bilingual production of "Der grüne Domino"/"Le
Domino vert" (1935), which was made in both German and French versions.
Here lays another connection to Thea von Harbou, as her brother Horst
von Harbou was hired on the set as a still photographer. The movie
contained some known music (by Strauss) but mostly had Huppertz's original compositions (including a Foxtrot
set to a song by Hans Fritz Beckmann).
Even though it was a successful film, like Huppertz' other sound films this one is almost completely
forgotten, and is only remembered by it's French version for the
performance of actress Danielle Darrieux. The next film to which Huppertz composed was "Durch die Wüste"; the first sound film
based on a novel of famous German author Karl May. The film which was
filmed in Berlin and on location in Egypt and Libya, originally had
Thea von Harbou as the scenarist (she always admired May's stories),
but she was replaced in a very early stage of the pre-production by
Carl Junghans. The film, despite high potencial,
was a failure due to bad direction, acting, and a script that gave the story a fragmented feeling.
The film was released on February 20, 1936, and on February
7, 1937, less then a year after the premiere, Gottfried Huppertz died
of a heart attack, forgotten for almost 40 years until rediscovered due
to his early film work of Die Nibelungen and Metropolis. He left a wife
behind him.
This Biography was written by Aitam Bar-Sagi. First publication, May 6, 2005. Last revision, September 9, 2009.
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List of works
Original Film Music:
Stock film music:
Films using Huppertz' music (not especially written for them):
Theater music:
Music for songs:
Other works:
Arrangements by other artists:
Arrangements of other artists:
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Acting
Cinema:
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A new Photo Gallery over here!
More Huppertz Photos
Charlotte Huppertz:
Screen Credits
Die Nibelungen (1924)
Zur Chronik von Grieshuus (1925)
Metropolis (1927)
Siegfrieds Tod (1933)
Der Judas von Tirol (1933)
Elisabeth und der narr (1933)
Hanneles Himmelfahrt (1934)
Der Grüne Domino (1935)
Le Domino Vert (1935)
Durch die Wüste (1936)
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