Background
Theodore Moses Tobani was born on May 2, 1855 in Hamburg, Germany. He was the son of Josef Tobani and Marianne (Wède) Tobani.
(Antique Sheet Music in french and English by Theodore M. ...)
Antique Sheet Music in french and English by Theodore M. Tobani (which sounds more like an Italian name.
https://www.amazon.com/Hearts-Flowers-Coeurs-Fleurs-Flower/dp/B0015B97S4?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0015B97S4
Theodore Moses Tobani was born on May 2, 1855 in Hamburg, Germany. He was the son of Josef Tobani and Marianne (Wède) Tobani.
He began the study of the violin at three years of age.
In his boyhood he was taken to New York by his family and for a time attended the Rivington Street School in that city. The boy's musical talent was so remarkable that after a few years in America the family returned to Germany so that Theodore could have the best instruction in music. He is said to have studied composition in Germany under V. Bermuth.
In 1870 the Tobanis came once more to America, and the fifteen-year-old Theodore became a violinist at Simpson's Theatre in Philadelphia. Two years later, in 1872, he was engaged as first violinist at the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, but he soon left for New York and for six years played at Wallack's Theatre. After that he held positions at the Grand Opera House, the Bijou Opera House, Daly's Theatre, and the Thalia Theatre, all in New York.
It was as a composer and an arranger that Tobani was best known. He composed altogether 5, 480 original pieces, some under his own name and others under the pen-names "Theodore Moses, " "Florence Reed, " and "Andrew Herman, " and his orchestrations of the works of other composers were widely distributed and performed. His own compositions were of a semiclassic variety that were never too difficult for the abilities or the comprehension of average performers. They were generally marked by a wistful sentimentalism and pathos which found a ready response when they were written and for several decades later.
His first composition (1877) was entitled "The Telephone Galop" because of the interest in the new invention then coming into use. For a piano gavotte called "The Little Nestling" (1883), which was performed 1, 100 times during the run of a single play, he received only thirty-five dollars, but in the case of his most popular work, "Hearts and Flowers, " he was more fortunate. He received a royalty on every copy sold, and the sale ran into the millions, though the figure 23, 000, 000 which is sometimes given is a great exaggeration.
"Hearts and Flowers" was first published in 1893 as a piano piece, simple enough to be played by those of the most modest attainments. Soon it was transcribed in arrangements for solo instruments and combinations of all sorts, and its popularity became international. It was particularly useful as incidental music to pathetic moments in the theatre, and today whenever those producing a revival of a late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century melodrama seek to be authentic, they select "Hearts and Flowers" for the orchestra to play during sad scenes.
Others of Tobani's popular works were "Echoes from the Metropolitan Opera House, " "The Spanish Patrol, " "Moonlight on the Hudson, " "Land of My Dreams, " "The White Squadron, " "Crack Regiment Patrol, " and two Hungarian fantasias. He was the composer of several marches, "The Patriot, " "The United States, " "Manhattan, " and others. His last published composition, "Just a Gem, " was issued in 1917, just before the beginning of the "jazz era. "
At the time of his death at Jackson Heights, L. I, he was still busy composing, at work on an "Old World Symphony" and a suite, "The Battle of the Marne. "
Theodore Moses Tobani's best known composition was "Hearts and Flowers", which he composed in half an hour in 1893, and which continued to sell more than 100, 000 copies annually until the end of his life. He was so prolific that his publisher, Carl Fischer, insisted that he use multiple pseudonyms; Fischer was concerned that nobody would believe how much Tobani was composing. Another popular work was "Our Little Nestling", written in 1883 for Mrs. Lester Wallack, for which he was paid $35.
(Antique Sheet Music in french and English by Theodore M. ...)
book
book
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Tobani was a genial sort of person with a kindly humor. A distinctive feature of his appearance was a spreading moustache that remained black when his hair became grey.
His wife, Helena Tobani, died some years before him. He was survived by five daughters and three sons.
