Born: 24 September 1908, Germany
Died: 22 February 2005
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Trudy, Gertrude
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Trude (Trudy, Gertrude) Rittmann (September 24, 1908 – February 22, 2005) was a prominent German-born American composer, music arranger, teacher, and pianist. Her career spanned from the 1930s to the 1970s, highlighted by her vital roles in many notable musicals, particularly those by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Lerner and Loewe.
Born in Mannheim, Germany, Rittmann began studying piano at age six. At fourteen, she began her formal studies in composition with Ernst Toch and pianist Hans Bruch. Three years later, she commenced studies with composer Philipp Jarnach and pianist Eduard Erdmann at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. In 1932, Rittmann graduated with an artist’s and teacher’s diploma (Staats und Konzertdiplom).
By 1931, Rittmann had begun to build a successful performing career, giving concerts in Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, and England. After fleeing increasing Nazi persecution in 1933 (Rittmann’s Jewish heritage made it difficult to for her to perform under growing German anti-Semitism; her mother escaped from Mannheim, but her father died in a German prison), she joined a group of soloists performing under the direction of conductor Hermann Scherchen at the Strasbourg Festival of Contemporary Music.
Following the premiere performance of a work by British composer Alan Bush, she briefly settled in England. There she started teaching piano, theory, harmony, counterpoint, and other courses at the distinguished Dartington Hall School in Totnes, Devon. She also worked as musical collaborator and pianist at the Kurt Jooss School of Dance at Dartington Hall, which introduced her to the relationship between music and dance. In 1935, Rittmann performed at the music festival in Brussels, and in the spring of 1936, she worked with the ballet of the Théâtre de la Monnaie. Works performed included Les Noces by Igor Stravinsky and Aeneas by Albert Roussel.
Rittmann immigrated to the United States in the summer of 1937 (she filed a petition for naturalization on October 5, 1937). A recommendation from a Dutch acquaintance and a meeting with Lew Christensen and Eugene Loring led to Rittman being hired by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine as concert accompanist and pianist for the short-lived American Ballet Caravan (a precursor to the New York City Ballet), her first job in America. Rittman composed the ballet music for Charade and The Debutante and made several two-piano arrangements of other ballets in the repertory of the American Ballet Caravan. In 1938, following the resignation of Elliott Carter, she became musical director of the company.
After the dissolution of the company in 1941, Rittmann worked as an accompanist for choreographer Agnes de Mille, commencing a close creative relationship. During this period, Rittman was hired as dance arranger in 1943 for the Kurt Weill musical One Touch of Venus which led to her arranging the ballet music in Harold Arlen’s Bloomer Girl (1944). Her role behind the scenes became integral to the musical continuity in many theatrical productions, integrating a composer’s theme or melody into the ballet or interlacing incidental music for a theatrical/dramatic effect. In short, Rittman’s special calling was transforming music into myriad arrangements, whether it was dance, choral, theatrical, or incidental.
In 1945, Rittmann began her association with Rodgers and Hammerstein. For the musical Carousel, she was responsible for arranging the music to de Mille’s dances. Rodgers and Hammerstein hired Rittmann again for Allegro (1947) and in 1949 as composer for incidental music and musical continuity in South Pacific. Several accounts also describe her as being “billed as the assistant to Mr. Rodgers.” For The King and I (1951) she composed interludes and the dance sequence, “The Small House of Uncle Thomas,” choreographed by Jerome Robbins. She also worked on the film version of The King and I (1956). The Sound of Music (1959) summoned Rittman’s formal training, demonstrated by her use of Gregorian chants and contrapuntal techniques to elevate the choral singing of the nuns and children.
In addition to working with Rodgers and Hammerstein, Rittman collaborated on most of the musicals of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, beginning with Brigadoon (1947, choreography by de Mille). Other Lerner and Loewe collaborations included Paint Your Wagon (1952, choreography by de Mille), My Fair Lady (1956, choreography by Hanya Holm, and its 1976 revival), Camelot (1961, choreography by Hanya Holm) and its film in 1967, and the Broadway production of Gigi (1973, choreography by Onna White). Rittman also worked with Lerner and Burton Lane, composing music continuity and creating vocal arrangements for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965).
One year after Moss Hart commissioned Rittmann to compose the music for his play The Climate of Eden (1952), she became the musical supervisor and composed and arranged ballet scores for “Agnes de Mille Dance Theater” prior to the company’s U. S. tour in 1953-1954. Repertory included The Cherry Tree Legend (an original ballet by Rittmann), and two Lerner and Loewe works, Paint Your Wagon and Brigadoon. Paint Your Wagon, with additional original music by Rittman, became the subject of Goldrush (mentioned below). Music from dances in Brigadoon was used for another television special titled Bitter Weird (1964).
Having worked with her on South Pacific, Joshua Logan called on Rittmann to write incidental music and music continuity arrangements for the musical Wish You Were Here (1952) and the dance and incidental music arrangements for Fanny (1954). Rittman provided the incidental music for two productions of Peter Pan; she was the musical coordinator for the play with songs staged in 1950 starring Jean Arthur (music and lyrics by Leonard Bernstein) and for the 1954 musical starring Mary Martin (music by Moose Charlap and Jule Styne, directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins). Rittmann also composed original ballet scores for Hugh Martin’s musical Look Ma’, I’m Dancing! (1948, directed and choreographed by Robbins), and incidental music arrangements for Cole Porter’s Out of This World (1950).
Rittmann continued to work with de Mille on the musical The Girl in Pink Tights (1954, music by Sigmund Romberg) and composed the score for her ballet The Four Marys (1965). Rittman also composed music for television, composing and arranging for CBS, NBC, CBC, NET, and movies, including music for Loewe and de Mille’s film, Goldrush (CBS, 1958). In the summer of 1967, Rittmann taught a course titled “The Structural Relationship of Music and Dance” at the University of Washington for a short period. She continued to write numerous dance arrangements, including those for the musical Gigi (1973), A Musical Jubilee (1975), and Rip Van Winkle (1976), a production of the University of Tennessee’s Clarence Brown Theatre. The production was directed by Joshua Logan and eventually played at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. Following her dance arrangements in the 1978 production of The American Dance Machine (directed by David Baker and David Krane), Rittmann formally retired and moved to Waltham, Massachusetts. Although retired, she worked on dance arrangements for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway (1989). Trude Rittman passed away at age 96 in 2005 in Lexington, Massachusetts. Following her death, her music was featured on an episode of Great Performances in 2006.