Wikipedia:
Carl Binder, also Karl Binder (* November 29, 1816 in Vienna; † November 5, 1860 ibid.) was an Austrian composer and Kapellmeister.
From 1839 to 1847 Binder worked as Kapellmeister at Viennese suburban theaters. As of 1840 especially for the ''Theater in der Josefstadt'' as successor of its Kapellmeister Conradin Kreutzer. In 1847, he relocated for a short time to Hamburg and Pressburg. In, 1848 he returned to his hometown, where the ''Theater an der Wien'' and the ''Carltheater'' were his preferred venues of for perormance. From 1851 to 1859 he wrote the incidental music for several plays by Johann Nepomuk Nestroy.
When Jacques Offenbach celebrated sensational success with his first operettas in Paris, the theaters in Vienna also longed to stage them in a German-language version. The operettas were not performed in the original, but were orchestrated by Binder according to Offenbach's piano reductions. Binder is also the composer of the overture to Offenbach's most frequently performed operetta ''Orpheus in der Unterwelt''. Because the master himself had not written a prelude to it, but one was obligatory in Vienna, Binder was commissioned to write an overture based on various motifs from the work.
Binder had two sons. One became a Kapellmeister like his father, but died at the age of 27. Carl's brother, Eduard Binder, was engaged for many years as a director and actor at the ''Friedrich Wilhelmstädtisches Theater'' in Berlin and at the ''Carltheater'' in Vienna.
Binder became especially famous for his setting of Nestroy's Wagner parody Tannhäuser (premiere October 31, 1857 Vienna, Carltheater). Binder also emerged as a composer of operas and songs (Wenn ich einmal der Herrgott wär, text Eduard Amthor) as well as a librettist.
He rests in the Lutheran cemetery in Vienna Matzleinsdorf (grave already abandoned). Binder was a member of the artists' society "Grüne Insel". This society financed his gravestone and had it inscribed with the following inscription:
In the cage, there trills on funny place
A bird trills a beautiful melody; -
The cage is smashed by a rough fellow,
The singer falls silent - but he is free.
Note: Translated from the German version of Wikipedia into English.
