After a week-long foray into the wacky world of modern pop and Eurovision, I thought today we’d journey back in time, musically speaking, to a different kind of pop German song …one  first popular in the 1930s. A friend of mine got married recently in a big room that was part of a church complex, complete with a choir loft. After the ceremony, Mother Nature decided not to cooperate, so the outdoor plan for the reception line was changed and moved back into the big room. The wait staff — i.e. some teen-aged relatives —carried trays of sparkling beverages in for the people who had already been through the line. It was a nice room, and we milled about, chatting and sipping for quite a while, losing track of time.

However, a choir had scheduled their practice to begin shortly after the ceremony was scheduled to end.  We were supposed to be out-of-the-way, out on the lawn by then, after all. However, we were still in the room – and so the choir was left to do their own milling about — but outside in the cold, damp conditions that we had abandoned.

Then the choir director was struck with an inspiration. He spoke to the father of the groom and offered to have the choir come in and sing a couple of numbers to the bridal couple and guests.  What a win-win suggestion: they got in out of the cold, and we got to hear a couple of nice songs performed by a very good choir.

As the choir started filing in,  a member of the choir actually sat down at the piano, saying he wanted play  special number on the piano as a gift to the wedding couple. He called it the “classic German song”.  I was expecting something like a slow ballad. However, it turns out it’s a jazz number written in 1928, and the way he played it, it sounded almost like ragtime. Very uptempo and fun, dating from a period that shortly thereafter led to the “Hot Club of Paris” style jazz.  Anyway, the piano performance added quite a serendipitous musical moment at the wedding!

Chris and I talked to the pianist afterwards to get the full name of the song: Wenn der weisse Flieder wieder blüht, “When the White Lilacs Bloom Again”. It was written in 1928 by the German composer Franz Doelle. While I couldn’t find a piano-only version on the web, click here to listen to an  orchestral one I found that approximates the uptempo spirit of version we heard performance of it that day on the piano.

BTW, I didn’t recognize the name Franz Doelle, but it turns out that in the 1930s he was a film composer in Germany; among other things, he wrote the music for a film called Viktor und Viktoria. If that name reminds you of the 1982 American movie Victor/Victoria, there’s a reason: Blake Edwards and his co-author, Hans Hoemburg,  actually based their movie on the 1933 German one.

The songs in the two movies are quite different — and yet, the spirit of them is the same. You can compare and contrast a couple of numbers here:

Clips from 1933 film Viktor und Viktoria (music by Franz Doelle)

• Clip that includes 2 songs:  one song in this clip is a short duet between Viktoria and her mentor; the other song is a performance Viktor/Viktoria singing on stage about a woman from Spain.
• Clip with another version of the duet
• Clip with the mentor doing the Spanish song as a comedic variation

Clips from 1982 film Victor/Victoria (music by Henry Mancini, with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse)

• Clip of a duet called, You And Me, sung by Julie Andrews (“Victor/Victoria”) and Robert Preston(“Victor/Victoria”‘s mentor, Toddy)
• Clip with the song The Shady Dame from Seville, sung by Julie Andrews (“Victor/Victoria”). It’s a different from the song in the 1933 movie, but clearly inspired by it.
• Clip with the mentor (Robert Preston) doing the Spanish song as a comedic variation.

Enjoy.