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Franz von Suppé

Franz von Suppé could be the poster child for composers who were extremely prolific and very famous in their own time, but who, if they’re now remembered at all, are only remembered for two or three pieces. In Von Suppé’s case, one of those pieces goes like this:

Butta yump, butta bump, butta yump, butta bump (etc.).  Sound familiar? It’s from the overture to the operetta “Light Cavalry.”  Living in Vienna in the mid-1800s, Von Suppé wrote some thirty operettas, as well as countless other works for the theater. Most of the operettas haven’t survived, but several of the overtures to the operettas have – Light Cavalry, but also the Poet and Peasant Overture, and the overture to Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna. And if you haven’t heard them in the concert hall, you’ve almost certainly heard them in the soundtracks to dozens of movies and cartoons.

This has been A Minute with Miles – a production of South Carolina Public Radio, made possible by the J.M. Smith Corporation.

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Miles Hoffman is the founder and violist of the American Chamber Players, with whom he regularly tours the United States, and the Virginia I. Norman Distinguished Visiting Professor of Chamber Music at the Schwob School of Music, in Columbus, Georgia. He has appeared as viola soloist with orchestras across the country, and his solo performances on YouTube have received well over 700,000 views.