{{Short description|German-Australian composer (1810–1862)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Carl Linger | honorific_suffix = | image = Carl Linger.jpeg | birth_name = Carl Linger | birth_date = 15 March 1810 | birth_place = Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia | death_date = {{death date and age|1862|2|16|1810|3|15|df=y}} | death_place = Adelaide, South Australia | spouse = Mathilde Hogrefe | children = | profession = Poet, composer }}
'''Carl Linger''' (15 March 1810 – 16 February 1862) was a German Australian composer in South Australia who in 1859 wrote the melody for the patriotic "Song of Australia".
German-born intellectual Carl Linger, who had studied at the Institute of Music in Berlin, came to South Australia in August 1849 aboard ''Princess Louise''.{{efn|Also on that ship were Otto Alfred Carl Schomburgk (c. 1809 – 16 August 1857) with wife Maria Charlotte Schomburgk (née Von Selchow), his brother Moritz Richard Schomburgk and his wife Pauline Henriette Schomburgk (née Kneib), who were married at sea, and Carl Wilhelm Ludwig Muecke (16 July 1815 – 4 January 1898) who later married Caroline Schomburgk (died 15 November 1874).}} He settled in Gawler, grew potatoes, went broke and settled in Adelaide, where he was far more successful as a musician. He was the founder and conductor of the Adelaide Liedertafel in 1858 and composer of church music, including the "Ninety-third Psalm", "Gloria", "O Lord who is as Thee" and "Vater unser". For several years he played the harmonium at St Frances Xavier Cathedral. Performances were given at his funeral by the Adelaide Liedertafel and Brunswick Band, of which he was also a founder and conductor.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53647580 |title=The "Song of Australia" |newspaper=South Australian Register |volume=LIX |issue=15,015 |location=South Australia |date=28 December 1894 |accessdate=21 October 2017 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> His remains were buried at the West Terrace Cemetery. Later, as part of the State's Centenary, a monument was built on his grave.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47915713 |title=Carl Linger Memorial Unveiled at Grave |newspaper=The Barrier Miner |location=Broken Hill, NSW |date=18 June 1936 |accessdate=20 February 2012 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Much of Carl Linger's music has not survived, including orchestral works that were extant in Adelaide in the 1930s. However some sacred works, the orchestral motet "O Lord who is as Thee", The Lords Prayer for choir and organ (Vater Unser), and Four Motets in German have been edited by Richard Divall and are to be found on the Music Archive Monash University site, together with his Sechs Zwischenspiele for Orchestra. His surviving eleven songs in both German and English will also be included on the Monash site in the near future.{{When|date=February 2020}}{{Citation needed|date=February 2020}}
==Song of Australia== Caroline Carleton's "Song of Australia" poem won the contest conducted by the Gawler Institute with a prize of ten guineas, and was published in the ''South Australian Register''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49830923 |title=The Gawler Prize Poem. |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=21 October 1859 |accessdate=20 February 2012 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The second phase was a contest to compose the melody for the song, and lodge it with the judges within little more than a week. It was stipulated that entrants were not to identify themselves. Of the twenty-three entries, Herr Linger's tune (submitted under the pseudonym "One of the Quantity") was announced as the winner on 4 November 1859,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49825647 |title= Gawler Prize Music |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=5 November 1859 |accessdate=21 February 2012 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> the prize again being ten guineas (thousands of dollars in today's values). The song was used in South Australian schools and elsewhere, and a popular gramophone recording was made by Peter Dawson in 1933. Sir Bernard Heinze is reported as much preferring Linger's composition to "Advance Australia Fair", which has been criticised as derivative of the German folk song "The Polish Inn"<!-- perhaps "In an Old Polish Inn (Chopin's Scherzo, Op. 31)? No. Not even close. -->.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article45685611 |title=Out Among the People. |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=9 October 1950 |accessdate=20 February 2012 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> In 1887 W. B. Chinner (son of one of the judges) wrote a choral arrangement of the Song with piano accompaniment, which became popular.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46089927 |title=The Song of Australia |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=Adelaide |date=1 January 1887 |accessdate=21 February 2012 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The "Song of Australia" was one of four candidates for a National Song put to a plebiscite in 1977 and was the least favourite in every State except South Australia.{{Citation needed|date=February 2020}}
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == *[http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/song.htm Song of Australia] *[http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/westterrace.htm West Terrace Cemetery] *[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/linger-carl-ferdinand-august-4024 Australian Dictionary of Biography] *[http://www.alt1858.org The Adelaider Liedertafel 1858 – Founded by Carl Linger] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170917123138/http://alt1858.org/ |date=17 September 2017 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Linger, Carl}} Category:1810 births Category:1862 deaths Category:19th-century German composers Category:19th-century German male composers Category:Composers from the Kingdom of Prussia Category:Immigrants to the Colony of South Australia Category:Australian male composers Category:Australian composers Category:German-Australian Forty-Eighters Category:Burials at West Terrace Cemetery Category:Composers from Berlin