Biography
Family and education
Arthur Kautzenbach came from a Catholic family in Silesia in which there had already been musicians in earlier generations. He was the first of eight children of the cartwright and musician Ferdinand Kautzenbach (1856–1942) and his wife Bertha Kautzenbach, née Großmann (1861–1923). Kautzenbach's main instrument was the cello, but he learned other instruments during his training in his father's apprentice orchestras in Grottkau, Frankenstein, and Reichenbach im Eulengebirge. His sisters learned piano, his brothers string instruments. His sister Maria Kautzenbach, married Folgmann (1884–1915), and his brothers Wilhelm Kautzenbach, later William Kautzenbach or Temas Kay (1887–1964), and Georg (George) Kautzenbach (1895–1990) also became professional musicians.
From 1900 to 1907, Arthur Kautzenbach studied cello at the Königliche akademische Hochschule für Musik in Berlin with Robert Hausmann, interrupted in 1905–1906 by one year of voluntary service (Einjährigen-Freiwilligendienst). Financial support for his studies and shortened military service came from a scholarship from the Carl Haase Foundation and from the musician and patron Martin Lesser (c. 1857–1919). During this time Kautzenbach already gave his first public concerts and probably also played in orchestras in Berlin and Hamburg.
Boston
Through a contact with conductor Karl Muck, Kautzenbach was hired as a cellist by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1907. There he played in the cello section for three seasons and is also said to have served as Karl Muck's assistant. In 1908 and 1909 he also took on conducting duties with the Boston Pops Orchestra, where Boston orchestra members found paid employment in the early summer.
Kautzenbach presented several compositions during this period (Pops, Skidoo Galop, Bunker Hill, Impressions), which were also performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra. Subsequently, some of his compositions were also published by G. Schirmer in New York.
New York and US Province
In 1910 Kautzenbach moved to New York City following operetta composer Victor Herbert, whose music had already impressed him during a stay in Hamburg. It initially proved difficult that, as a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he had not become a member of the American Federation of Musicians, which otherwise required union membership for any work as a musician. He subsequently conducted various opera and operetta projects (e.g., The Paradise of Mahomet by Robert Planquette and The Pink Lady by Ivan Caryll) in New York and the provinces, worked as a cellist in Victor Herbert's orchestra, and then conducted his operettas, including the 1917 New York premiere of Hearts of Erin.
In 1911 he married Marian Hallett of Somerville, near Boston. He had three children with her. The family continued to live in Somerville while Kautzenbach was in New York and on tour.
Work in silent film in Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago.
In 1918, Kautzenbach, who from then on called himself Kay, moved to Los Angeles. As a result of the anti-German sentiment surrounding the U.S. entry into World War I, the conductor's position had become vacant at Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre, run by Sid Grauman. The previous director, Rudolph G. Kopp, was fired and interned for alleged anti-Amerikan statements. Kay conducted in Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre from then on both the incidental music to the silent films and the elaborate prologues designed by Sid Grauman with music and various vaudeville numbers. The repertoire he had learned during his time in his father's apprentice orchestras played a significant role, i.e. opera and operetta melodies as well as lighter classical works by Franz Liszt or Edvard Grieg, for example. After a while, Kay also took over the direction of the Sunday morning concerts initiated by Sid Grauman, with which Kay claimed to educate the audience musically.
After a disagreement arose between Kay and Grauman over musical quality issues, Kay resigned. He went on to conduct the orchestras of the silent movie theaters Coliseum Theatre in Seattle (WA) (1920–1922) and Tivoli Theatre in Chicago (IL) (1922–1923). In 1923 he returned to Los Angeles and now took up conducting positions at Loew’s State Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
During his time as a silent film conductor, Kay not only compiled numerous cue sheets for silent films, but also began composing his own silent film scores. The silent film compositions, as well as other works and arrangements by him, were published by Forster Music Publishers, Chicago, and McKinley Music, Chicago. The best-known sequence of music Kay put together for a silent film is that for Charlie Chaplin's film The Circus (1928), in which he used music from opera and operetta, popular classical instrumentals, topical songs, and jazz pieces, as well as many silent film compositions of the time, including his own (A Funny Story, Mysterious Stranger, Gossip, The Accuser).[1]
Kay was repeatedly questioned by the press about his conception of silent film music. In doing so, he found that silent film music should not obviously mimic the actions of the silent film, but rather draw longer, connecting arcs of tension. He considered the classical repertoire particularly suitable in this context.[2]
Activity in the sound film
From 1927 Kay worked in sound film, first for Vitaphone Varieties/Warner Brothers and after working for radio station KHJ from 1929–1931 for Fox Corporation. After that followed until about 1951 engagements with various studios: Academy Pictures Corporation, Educational, Grand National Pictures, Library Films, Mascot Pictures, Mercury Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, Republic Pictures, RKO, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Initially he took over the musical direction and partly also works as a composer and arranger mainly of music films, later for many dramas, westerns, adventure and gangster films. Among others, he participated in well-known productions such as Citizen Kane (1941) (here you can see him conducting in a scene) and Gone with the Wind. Among others, the film The Big Trail with John Wayne achieved fame during his time. In an interview in 1931, Kay stated that he wanted to write less concrete and more impressionistic film music,[3] which probably did not apply to most of his productions.
Theatrical work
In the mid-1920s, in addition to his film work and appearances as a conductor in concerts, shows and revues, Kay returned to the theater. After initially conducting various productions of George Gershwin (Lady Be Good, Tip-Toes, Girl Crazy) at different theaters in Los Angeles, for example, which called for a more contemporary, jazz-oriented orchestra, he concentrated more and more on European and U.S. operetta, contrary to the developments of the time. The works of Victor Herbert, and beyond that of Rudolf Friml and Siegmund Romberg, formed the core of his interest. In the mid-1930s, he first participated as a conductor in the Annual Light Opera Festival, produced by Lynden E. Behymer and Merle Armitage, which was very much in line with Kay's musical preferences. Independently, in 1936 he composed the music for Raymond Cannon's Her Majesty the Prince based on Chinese melodies.
Finally, in 1938 the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera and in 1941 the San Francisco Civic Light Opera were founded with the help of private donations, continuing the efforts of the Annual Light Opera Festival in the exchange between the two cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Kay regularly conducted works of European and U.S. operetta here, and in time also productions by George Forrest and Robert Wright, who liked to draw on existing music, such as that of Edvard Grieg (Song of Norway, 1944) and Alexander Borodin (Kismet, 1953), in their compositions. These productions led Kay, in part, back to New York's Broadway once again.
Until 1962 Kay was regularly active as part of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, after which he largely withdrew into private life and was only occasionally engaged, for example for arrangements, most recently in 1966.
Death
Arthur Kay, who did not become a U.S. citizen until 1943, died on December 19, 1969, in Los Angeles, CA.
Note
The musician Arthur Kay, né Kautzenbach, is not identical with the Arthur Kay who worked as a voice actor for the Terrytoons cartoons and lent his voice to, for example, “Gandy Goose”.
