Karl Hoschna

Who was Karl Hoschna?

Karl Hoschna was a Tin Pan Alley-era composer most noted for his songs "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine", "Every Little Movement" and "Yama Yama Man", and for a string of successful Broadway musicals.

Hoschna was born on 16 August 1876 in Kuschwarda, Bohemia, and educated in Austria at the Vienna Conservatory of Music, specializing in the oboe. He graduated with honors and became an oboist in the Austrian army band. He emigrated to the United States in 1896 and joined the Victor Herbert orchestra as an oboe soloist.

Hoschna married Hettie Hug; they had three daughters.

Hoschna abandoned the oboe because he believed the vibration of the oboe's double-reed was affecting his mind, and became a copyist for the Witmark Music Publishing Co., where he selected songs for publication and was an arranger.

With Otto Harbach, Harry B. Smith, Charles Noel Douglas, Mark Swan, Benjamin Hapgood Burt, William C. Duncan, and others, he collaborated on a series of Broadway musical comedies, which included:

1905: Belle of the West

1905: The Daughter of the Desert

1907: The Girl from Broadway

1908: Three Twins, which provided Bessie McCoy with her signature song "The Yama Yama Man", and introduced Cuddle Up A Little Closer.