Rudolf Sieczyński

Rudolf Sieczyński (Vienna, 1879 – Vienna, 1952) was an Austrian composer whose fame rests chiefly on a single song: Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume, composed in 1913. Born and died in his native city, he belonged to the tradition of the Wienerlied, the popular Viennese song, and his work is situated in Vienna at the start of the twentieth century and in the first half of that century.

His training was varied. He learnt the piano from his mother, who was a musician, studied at the abbey of Kremsmünster and at the Theresianum in Vienna, and later earned a doctorate in law from the University of Vienna. While composing, he worked as a civil servant: in 1913 he was a junior officer in the offices of the Meidling district government; during the First World War he ran the internment station at the Wöllersdorf prisoner-of-war camp, south-east of St. Pölten, and later moved to the Lower Austrian regional government, where he became chief officer of the Regional Agricultural Authority.

Alongside his creative activity he wrote melodramas to poems by Detlev von Liliencron, Franz Karl Ginzkey and Alfred Wurmb, and he was librettist of the children's musical Die selige Kinderzeit (1918). His music is melodic, sentimental and nostalgic, with a particular fondness for his native city. He presided over the Österreichischer Komponistenbund and for twenty-five years served as vice-president of the AKM, the Austrian society of authors, composers and music publishers. In 1948 he received the City of Vienna's Ring of Honour.

His legacy endures above all through the Viennese song that brought him fame, although his output also included salon songs, dance pieces and texts on the history and customs of the city.