Humphrey Potter

Hanus (Hanns) Aldo Schimmerling (1900-1967) was a pianist, composer, educator, musicologist, and writer. Born in Brno, the capital of Moravia in the Czech Republic, Schimmerling studied music at the University of Vienna and conducted the German Opera at Prague before travelling about the United States and other parts of Europe to serve as an accompanist and continue his education. While his parents were not so lucky, he escaped the Holocaust and settled in the United States more officially in 1944 after becoming a citizen. He wrote the cantata Humphrey Potter shortly before gaining his new citizenship. In it, the baritone sings as the titular character, long dead. He remembers how in his youth as an orphan, he worked in a factory managing valves. Wanting to play with his friends, he took a piece of string from his pocket to tie about the valves. The invention worked so well that it was adopted and used in all engines. But Humphrey Potter was no longer needed and was dismissed from the factory, where the lyrics imagine he became a drunkard and eventually buried in a Potter's field, left destitute by his own ingenuity.