Hans May (11 July 1886 – 1 January 1959) was an Austrian-born composer who went into exile in Britain in 1936 after the Nazis came to power in his homeland, being of Jewish descent.[1]

May first gained attention as a composer during the 1920s and 1930s, writing German language songs such as Ein Lied geht um die Welt ( 1933 ) and Es wird im Leben dir mehr genommen als gegeben (1936), gaining considerable popularity in Europe through recordings by Joseph Schmidt and Richard Tauber. He also wrote scores for silent movies in Berlin and Paris.

Initially most of his work was for short films and musicals, but once in the UK he began scoring full length feature films for the organisations such as Boulting Brothers and Rank/Gainsborough Pictures, most notably Thunder Rock (1942), Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), The Wicked Lady (1945) and Brighton Rock (1948).[2] May composed over a hundred film scores.[3]

His musicals include Carissima (book by Eric Maschwitz), which ran for 488 performances at the Palace Theatre from March 1948,[4] and Wedding in Paris (lyrics by Sonny Miller, book by Vera Caspary) which ran for 411 performances at the London Hippodrome from April 1954.[5][6]

May returned to the European continent in 1957 and continued writing scores for film and stage productions, including Der Kaiser und das Wäschermädel (1957). His musical language and style looked back to the golden age of Viennese operetta and composers such as Franz Lehár and Emmerich Kalman.[2] He died in the South of France at the beginning of 1959.

Selected filmography

References

External links

• Hans May at IMDb
• Joseph Schmidt singing Ein Lied geht um die Welt (1933)
• Icons of German Cinema: Hans May – The Forgotten Composer, Jube Pops, 2016
• Music from Brighton Rock (1947)

На других языках

[de] Hans May (Komponist)