Madona/When day is done

Larssen

I've been listening to Matelo Ferrés album "Tziganskaïa" and wonder if anyone know the connection between the song "Madona" from this album and "When day is done". It seems they are the same song but the titles and composers are different. Madona is composed by Smith/Praeger and when day is done by Katscher/DeSylva. I've searched the forum for information about this but haven't found anything. Anyone have some info?
Thank you!

Christian

Barengero

Hi Larssen,
I have an original old sheet of "Madonna, du bist schöner als der Sonnenschein!" It was composed in 1924 as part of a revue with the title "Küsse um Mitternacht" The revue was written in Vienna by Karl Farkas and Dr. Robert Katscher [20. 4. 1894 Vienna - 23. 2. 1942 Hollywood], but Dr. Robert Katscher wrote both the music and the lyrics of "Madonna, du bist schöner als der Sonnenschein!" alone.

I don´t know for sure when this tune was first recorded under the title "When day is done". Buddy deSilva made new english lyrics (these are not an translation of the german lyrics). The first recording under the title "When day is done" I know about is by Ambrose. In 1931, "When Day Is Done" became his band's theme song. As far as I know "When Day Is Done" was first broadcast at the May Fair hotel on October 10th, 1931. But maybe you find some older ones.

Robert Katscher was a real allrounder. He studied philosophy (in this subject he made his doctorate), law (his major subject) and composition (student of Hans Gál). He worked as a attorney at law in his own lawyer´s office (so he was a colleague of mine ) in vienna. But he was also very successfull as a composer of popular viennese songs ("Wienerlieder") and revues. Together with Karl Farkas he wrote several revues, as for example "Wunder-Bar", which was in Hollywood picturized with Al Jolson in 1931.

In 1938 the Nazis occupied Austria and Robert Katscher was arrested by them for a short while. After they let him out again, he immediately emigrated to the USA. In Hollywood he found work as a film composer (esp. "Gambling Daughters", 1941; "Tales of Manhattan", 1942). In 1942 he passed away in Hollywood.

The reason for the renaming may be that- for any reason - not every english speaking person knows how to pronounce the original german title

Hope that helps a little bit,

Best,
Barengero

Barengero

Hi,
the english version with the lyrics of deSilva was obviously available since 1926, too! I found a picture of the same "Art-Noveau"-Cover than the austrian first edition (on the right in the picture below), but this one has the title "When day is done" and gives deSilva as author of the lyrics.

Best,
Barengero

Larssen

Thanks for all the information Barengero! That helps a lot.
Do you know why it is listed with Smith and Praeger as composers on the Matelo Ferre-album?

Christian

musicchik83

Does anyone have the German lyrics for "when Day is Done" (Madonna, du bist schöner als der Sonnenschein)?

Quadropenta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNxW410XvX4

musicchik83

Thank you for sharing that link. I'm familiar with that recording from another thread. I was hoping someone had access to the written lyrics. Between the quality of the recording (copy of a very old copy) and my limited German, I don't trust myself to transcribe it by ear.

billyshakes

Looks like Samy Daussat was visiting that Quadropenta video link ~8 yrs ago. ha ha!

Edit:

I did a little internet searching, as I'm sure you did. Even searching in German, I didn't have much luck. Depending on how badly you want the lyrics, there appear to be several copies of the score (which claims to have both the German and English text) for a few dollars + shipping.

https://www.amazon.com/Books-Dr-Robert-Katcher/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ADr+Robert+Katcher

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=katcher&sortby=17&pt=music&cm_sp=pan-_-srp-_-ptmusic

It also appears to be in the Smithsonian (National Museum of American History). Perhaps you could contact them and get a scan of the 4 pages? Or else search in your local university or public library collection?

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_670963

europhonic

Here are the German Lyrics of 'Madonna du bist schöner als der Sonnenschein' as sung by Engelbert Milde 1925, may be the earliest recording: https://youtu.be/z1jH1e-FOfw

Verse 1:

Über blaue Wellen streicht der Abendwind

und der pustet so leicht und gelind wie die Mutter ihr Kind

aus der keinen Gondel klingt vom Meer allein

eine Stimme so glockenrein in das Dunkle hinein

Ref:

Madonna du bist schöner als der Sonnenschein

dein Haar das ist ein goldener Madonnenschein

die Lippen sie gleichen den Kirschen auf dem Baum

die Wangen die weichen dem Blütenhauch den Frühlingsttraum

Madonna du bist schöner als der Sonnenschein

wann neigst du endlich gnädig dich mir zu

wenn ich ohne Glück und Sonne dann umsponnen schein

bist du mein Glück und meine Sonne du

Verse 2:

Signorina lauscht dem fernen seichten Spiel

und ihr Lächeln verspricht so viel und die Nacht wird so schwül

doch der Gondoliere der sein Glück nicht sieht

und nicht weiss wie ihr Herzchen glüht

singt von fern nur sein Lied

Repeat Refrain

-----

The 20's were surely the golden era of Jazz in German speaking Countries, many songs were composed, a few of them 'made' it internationally, like this one, 'just a gigolo' (schöner gigolo) or 'bei dir war es immer so schön'.

Greetings

BillDaCostaWilliams

The 20's were surely the golden era of Jazz in German speaking Countries, many songs were composed, a few of them 'made' it internationally, like this one, 'just a gigolo' (schöner gigolo) or 'bei dir war es immer so schön'.

Thanks for the info.

I was going to suggest Bei mir bist du schön also but after a little research I see it was apparently written in Yiddish in the US and only later popularized with the German title.

scot

A professional jazz musician from New York named Mike Danzi went on a European tour with Alex Hyde's band in 1925 and wound up staying and working as a professional musician in Berlin until 1939. After his return to the USA he worked on Broadway and in show business as an arranger, scorer and musician until he passed away in 1986. He wrote a book about his experiences and he had a lot of good stories to tell about life and times in that world. "Different Drummers" by Michael Kater is another excellent chronicle of this time and place.