Rolf Alexander Wilhelm

Rolf Alexander Wilhelm (23 June 1927 – 17 January 2013 ) was a German composer, film composer, arranger and conductor.

Life Born in Munich, at the age of seven Wilhelm received piano lessons. Afterwards he attended the grammar school in Berlin and Vienna. From 1942 he studied piano with a special permission with Grete Hinterhofer and musical composition with Joseph Marx at the Wiener Musikhochschule.

His war deployment as Luftwaffenhelfer and the subsequent imprisonment interrupted the musical career of Wilhelm, who returned to destroyed Munich in 1945 with a Notabitur. There he was able to continue his studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München from 1946 and passed the school-leaving examination in 1948. Among his teachers were Heinrich Knappe (conducting), Joseph Haas (musical composition) and Hans Rosbaud (master class)

Even before that, in 1946, Radio München, the forerunner of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, produced The Canterville Ghost, one of its first radio plays after the Second World War. Through the mediation of his brother Kurt Wilhelm who acted as assistant director for the play, the nineteen-year-old composer received his first commission. The work was convincing and Wilhelm advanced to become a busy freelancer for the radio station. He also composed music for the still young medium television for various by , for example for Jonas der Angler (1954) and Der Kran (1956).

Wilhelm wrote his first major film music in 1954 for the first film of the 08/15 trilogy, which is one of the most successful post-war films in Germany. Up to the 1990s, the music for about 60 feature films followed, including classics such as The Forests Sing Forever (1959), It Can't Always Be Caviar (1961), (1962), Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse (1963), Tales of a Young Scamp (1964), six films of the (1967 to 1972), The Flying Classroom (1973), The Serpent's Egg (1977), Ödipussi (1988) and finally Pappa Ante Portas (1991).

Among his most complex film works is the music for the large-scale German production Die Nibelungen (1966/67). The rhythm and sound schemata of Mars from the cycle of symphonic poems The Planets by Gustav Holst are now part of the standard stylistic repertoire of the film composers in Hollywood.

Wilhelm has also composed the music for more than 250 radio plays, over 350 television productions and about 300 commercials. In addition, numerous stage musics, orchestra suites and literary chansons were created. For example, he set texts by Kurt Tucholsky to music.

In addition he composed as a young man pop songs under the pseudonym Alex Rolf Ander. His most famous work under this name was Der kleine Eisbär, published in 1951. The use of this pseudonym did not reach the public during his lifetime and was only made public after his death by his daughter Catharina Wilhelm.

He was married to the actress Helga Neuner, who became known to a wide audience through numerous theater appearances and the television series Die Firma Hesselbach.

Wilhelm died at the age of 85 years on 17 January 2013 with his family. The artistic estate is kept in the German Composers' Archive in the .

Filmography

Feature films 1954: 08/15 1954: The Phantom of the Big Tent 1955: 1955: 1956: Weil du arm bist, mußt du früher sterben 1956: Where the Ancient Forests Rustle 1957: Streifzug durch eine Stadt 1958: The Green Devils of Monte Cassino 1959: The Scarlet Baroness 1959: The Forests Sing Forever 1959: Heimat – Deine Lieder 1960: Don Carlos 1960: 1960: Do Not Send Your Wife to Italy 1960: Die zornigen jungen Männer 1960: The Inheritance of Bjorndal 1961: Via Mala 1961: The Cry of the Wild Geese 1961: It Can't Always Be Caviar 1961: This Time It Must Be Caviar 1962: Adorable Julia 1962: 1962: 1963: Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse 1963: Ferien vom Ich 1963: Venusberg 1964: The River Line 1964: Tonio Kröger 1964: Tales of a Young Scamp 1964: The Blood of the Walsungs 1965: The Swedish Girl 1965: When the Grapevines Bloom on the Danube 1965: Aunt Frieda 1966: Once a Greek 1966: Onkel Filser – Allerneueste Lausbubengeschichten 1966: Die Nibelungen 1. Teil: Siegfried 1967: Die Nibelungen 2. Teil: Kriemhilds Rache 1967: Der Paukenspieler 1967: When Ludwig Goes on Manoeuvres 1967: The Heathens of Kummerow 1968: Zur Hölle mit den Paukern 1969: Pepe, der Paukerschreck 1969: Ludwig auf Freiersfüßen 1969: Hurra, die Schule brennt! 1970: We'll Take Care of the Teachers 1970: Das Glöcklein unterm Himmelbett 1971: 1971: Morgen fällt die Schule aus 1972: Betragen ungenügend! 1973: The Flying Classroom 1974: When Mother Went on Strike 1977: 1977: 1977: The Serpent's Egg 1977: 1979: The Wonderful Years 1980: From the Life of the Marionettes 1982: Doctor Faustus 1988: Ödipussi 1989: 1990: 1991: Pappa Ante Portas

Television 1954: Jonas der Angler 1956: Der Kran 1961: Zu viele Köche 1965: 1967/68: Sherlock Holmes 1969–1970: 1970: 1974: Telerop 2009 – Es ist noch was zu retten 1975: Tatort: Als gestohlen gemeldet 1978: (TV miniseries) 1986: Tatort: 1987: Tatort: 1992: Die Ringe des Saturn also episodes to the series , Der Kommissar and Derrick

Awards Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (1993) Bayerischer Poetentaler of the ITEA Lifetime Achievement Award (2012)

Discography Deutsche Filmkomponisten, Folge 4, Rolf Wilhelm, Bear Family Records, 2001, BCD 16484 AR Rolf Wilhelm 1: Tarabas / Hiob (director: Michael Kehlmann), 2006 Alhambra (A 8957) Rolf Wilhelm 2: Flucht ohne Ende / Radetzkymarsch (series: Michael Kehlmann), 2006 Alhambra (A8958) Die Nibelungen, 2001 Cobra (CR 006A/B) Loriot: Pappa ante Portas (soundtrack) Loriot: Ödipussi (soundtrack) Hugo Hartung – Ich denke oft an Piroschka. Direction Kurt Wilhelm Lausbubengeschichten von Ludwig Thoma. Narrated by Willy Rösner (spoken record) Kurt Wilhelm – Der Brandner Kaspar und das ewig' Leben. Komödie nach einer Erzählung, Motiven und Gedichten von Franz von Kobell. Music: Rolf Wilhelm (spoken record) Jonas der Angler/Lektro: Die verschwundene Melodie. Joachim Fuchsberger liest moderne Märchen von Reiner Zimnik. (spoken record) Gisela May singt Tucholsky Der Sängerkrieg der Heidehasen. Ein Hörspiel für Groß und Klein von James Krüss.