Werrenrath "The Heart Bowed Down" Count Arnheim's aria from The Bohemian Girl, The Heart Bow'd Down

Reinald Werrenrath

Victor 55079

1916

"The Heart Bowed Down"

Count Arnheim's aria from The Bohemian Girl

Michael William Balfe is the composer

Whate'er the scenes the present hour
calls forth before the sight,
They lose their splendor when compared
with scenes of past delight!

The heart bowed down by weight of woe,
To weakest hope will cling,
To thought and impulse while they flow,
That can no comfort bring,
With those exciting scenes will blend,
O'er pleasure's pathway thrown;
But mem'ry is the only friend
That grief can call its own.

The mind will, in its worst despair,
Still ponder o'er the past,
On moments of delight that were
Too beautiful to last.
To long departed years extend
Its visions with them flown;
For mem'ry is the only friend
That grief can call its own.

Reinald Werrenrath was born on August 7, 1883.

Around the World War I years, he was America's most prominent homegrown baritone.

This was despite his having only a little operatic experience. He was primarily a concert artist though his Victor records made his name well-known to phonograph owners.

In addition to the many records credited to the baritone, he contributed to hundreds of Victor records that give him no label credit.

He enjoyed great success with parlor room ballads, especially songs with music set to verses by Rudyard Kipling, namely "Danny Deever," "Gunga Din," "Boots," "Fuzzy-Wuzzy," "The Gypsy Trail," and "On the Road to Mandalay."

Had this type of music remained popular, he might be better remembered today.

He was born in Brooklyn. His father, Georg (the "e" is dropped from the Danish version of "George"), was an operatic tenor once based in Copenhagen. He had traveled to Brooklyn to sing at Plymouth Church. He subsequently married one of the choirmaster's daughters, Aretta Camp. This choirmaster was also a bass soloist, so Reinald's grandfather and father were singers.

Reinald attended public schools in Brooklyn, graduated from Boys High School in 1901, and graduated from New York University in 1905. He sang in and conducted the Men's Glee Club at N. Y. U. for several years. The composer Deems Taylor was his roommate at college, and later Reinald included Taylor's "The Highwayman" in concerts.

He began singing in Brooklyn churches and male quartets in 1899.

He made his recording debut in 1904 with Edison's National Phonograph Company as the baritone of the Criterion Quartette, which recorded Macy's "Little Tommy Went a-Fishing" (8866), issued in January 1905. This Criterion group also made Zon-o-phone and Columbia records.

In August 1907, Edison released Werrenrath's first solo record, Ernest R. Ball's "My Dear" (9604). New Werrenrath records were issued in subsequent months, totaling five Standard cylinders.

A duet with new Edison artist Reed Miller, "Honey Boy" (9679), was issued in November, as was a record of the baritone, as a solo artist, performing Charles K. Harris's "Yesterday" (9694).

The final two-minute cylinder, "Two Blue Eyes" (9716), which was issued in October 1907, was followed in February 1908 by a second (and final) duet with Miller, "Don't Worry" (9751).

His career arguably peaked around 1919-1920, when this new member of the Metropolitan Opera Company was elevated on Victor record labels to Red Seal status. On February 19, 1919, he made his Metropolitan Opera Company debut as Silvio in Pagliacci alongside Enrico Caruso and Florence Easton.

On March 26 he appeared as Valentin in Faust (another baritone who made many records in this period, Thomas Chalmers, had made his Metropolitan debut as Valentin on November 17, 1917), and the April 5, 1919, edition of Musical America notes that the baritone earned "overwhelming applause."

Around 1940 he became a charter member of the New York chapter of SPEBSQSA (Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, formed in 1938). In the 1940s he maintained a Carnegie Hall studio (Musical America advertisements identify him as "Singer and Teacher of Singers"), taught at a musical institute in Washington, DC, and was director of the Albany Mendelssohn Club in Albany, New York. His last public appearance was in a joint recital with Tom Donahue at Carnegie Hall, October 1952.

He later suffered a stroke but recovered enough to record, in the spring of 1953, a 10-inch long-playing record titled Reinald Werrenrath Favorites (Gavotte LPG 104), issued by Gavotte Records, Gordon V. Thompson Limited, 902 Yonge St., Toronto, Canada. Ruth Coe provided piano accompaniment. Gene Lockhart and Ed Manning wrote brief notes for the LP's jacket.

Few other artists had a recording career extending from the two-minute cylinder era to the LP era.

Manning writes, "Dr. Reinald Werrenrath...died while vacationing at his summer home on Chazy Lake, N. Y., on Saturday, September 12th, 1953--less than four months after he recorded this collection of some of his most popular songs."

He died on September 12, 1953.