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Irving Berlin: “Poem” (1938)

Robert Wyatt and John Andrew Johnson

in The George Gershwin Reader

This chapter presents the poem written by George Gershwin's mentor composer and lyricist Irving Berlin on the occasion of the memorial services after Gershwin's death.

Billy Strayhorn

Gwen Terry

in Clark: The Autobiography of Clark Terry

In this chapter, Clark Terry talks about Billy Strayhorn, who was an extremely important member of Duke Ellington's orchestra band and Duke Ellington's alter ego. Clark describes Stray as a breath of ... More

In this chapter, Clark Terry talks about Billy Strayhorn, who was an extremely important member of Duke Ellington's orchestra band and Duke Ellington's alter ego. Clark describes Stray as a breath of fresh air. He was really friendly, suave, debonair, and confident of himself and his music. He made sure that things were done in a timely manner, no matter what kind of pressure had built up. He knew how to handle the heaviest of situations without showing worry. Duke had originally hired Strays as a lyricist when he was very young and found out that he was a great arranger and composer and loaded with ideas. On recognizing his talent, Duke gave him complete freedom to explore his super intelligence and talent and both developed a relationship of cordial professionalism and deep friendship.Less

Of Stars, Soldiers, Mothers, and Mourning

William Brooks

in Over Here, Over There: Transatlantic Conversations on the Music of World War I

Symbols like the service flag furthered community morale in the United States during World War I and evolved to engender memorial organizations like Gold Star Mothers. Music supported both, with ... More

Symbols like the service flag furthered community morale in the United States during World War I and evolved to engender memorial organizations like Gold Star Mothers. Music supported both, with three components of the industry—Tin Pan Alley, Kitchen Table publishing, and Song Sharks—differing in key respects: the participation of women composers and lyricists, the focus on mothers and loss, and the mix of ballads, waltz songs, and marches. As the war evolved, so did the responses, with the closing months and aftermath focusing increasingly on soldiers’ fatalities and the expression of grief and mourning. Postwar changes in style and dissemination marked the end of such collective expressions.Less

Frank Loesser: Born: June 29, 1910, New York, New York Born: June 29, 1910, New York, New York Died: July 28, 1969, New York, New York

Steven Suskin

in Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway’s Major Composers

This chapter examines the work of Frank Loesser. It begins with an extended commentary of his career, followed by details on productions, with data and song information. Loesser came from a musical ... More

This chapter examines the work of Frank Loesser. It begins with an extended commentary of his career, followed by details on productions, with data and song information. Loesser came from a musical family. His father, Henry, was a Prussian-born piano teacher; his older brother Arthur was a renowned concert pianist. Frank, though, was a musical black sheep; refusing to study the classics, he taught himself piano and immersed himself in popular music. His first published song was In Love with the Memory of You (1931), with music by William Schuman (later a classical composer and the president of Juilliard). By the mid-1930s Loesser was singing and playing in nightclubs, as well as writing special material with composer Irving Actman.Less

Happily Ever After West Side Story with Sondheim

Geoffrey Block

in Enchanted Evenings: The Broadway Musical from Show Boat to Sondheim

This chapter looks at the career of the lyricist-composer who is generally recognized as a central artistic figure on Broadway after 1960. It argues that Sondheim's modernism and postmodernism can be ... More

This chapter looks at the career of the lyricist-composer who is generally recognized as a central artistic figure on Broadway after 1960. It argues that Sondheim's modernism and postmodernism can be viewed as an extension and reinterpretation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein model rather than a rebellion from it. It further argues that although Sondheim has vigorously denied autobiographical elements in his shows, the pressure to compromise faced by his characters are markedly similar to those faced by Sondheim himself as he creates their songs and faces the pressures of commercial theater.Less

The Lyricists

David H. Rosenthal

in Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music, 1955–1965

This chapter dwells on “lyricists, soul-jazz specialists and tormented poets of anguish:” Brown, Farmer, Golson, Gryce, Jones and Associates, and Detroit Pianists. All of them have an affinity with ... More

This chapter dwells on “lyricists, soul-jazz specialists and tormented poets of anguish:” Brown, Farmer, Golson, Gryce, Jones and Associates, and Detroit Pianists. All of them have an affinity with the great Swing musicians, and have helped add new layers to the art of jazz. These lyricists put a premium on playing “beautiful music”—a term that can mean different things to different people. In the case of lyricists like the Farmer-Gryce quintet, it meant music that wasn't restricted to traditional 32-bar choruses, music that held an affinity with Swing, and music that was refreshing, but not “aridly experimental.” Other lyricists would have different takes, but all agreed that music, for all the ambiguity of the term, is supposed to be beautiful, as opposed to jarringly discordant.Less

Irving Berlin: Born: May 11, 1888, Mohilev, Russia Born: May 11, 1888, Mohilev, Russia Died: September 22, 1989, New York, New York

Steven Suskin

in Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway’s Major Composers

This chapter examines the work of Irving Berlin. It begins with a commentary of his career, followed by details on productions, with data and song information. Berlin’s family came to America from ... More

This chapter examines the work of Irving Berlin. It begins with a commentary of his career, followed by details on productions, with data and song information. Berlin’s family came to America from Russia when he was five. The son of a part-time cantor, Izzy Baline took to the streets as a singing panhandler and went on to become a singing waiter at a Chinatown saloon. It was here, in 1907 at “Nigger Mik’s,” that he wrote his first published song: Marie from Sunny Italy (music by Nick Nicholson, lyrics by “I. Berlin”). In 1908 came his first composer/lyricist effort, Best of Friends Must Part. Berlin went to work as a staff lyricist and occasional composer for publisher/songwriter Ted Snyder, soon becoming a partner in Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co.Less

Boy Wanted: 1918–1924

Philip Fuma

in Ira Gershwin: The Art of the Lyricist

“Boy Wanted”, featuring in the musical A Dangerous Maid, was a catalogue song in the mold of Gilbert and Sullivan patter numbers, where four girls “list” the qualities they are looking for in a boy, ... More

“Boy Wanted”, featuring in the musical A Dangerous Maid, was a catalogue song in the mold of Gilbert and Sullivan patter numbers, where four girls “list” the qualities they are looking for in a boy, as if each were placing a newspaper ad. Ira's development as a lyricist is clear from the very opening of the verse, where he concocts a triple rhyme on “advertisement”: “no half-hearted Romeo or flirt is meant.” Although A Dangerous Maid closed out of town (in Pittsburgh) in the spring of 1921, Ira and George salvaged “Boy Wanted,” kept it in their “trunk” (songwriters' slang for their unused material), and in 1924 retailored it for a British musical, Primrose. By comparing the revised with the original lyric, one can trace Ira's development from apprentice to journeyman lyricist. Between 1921 and 1924, Ira worked primarily with composers other than his brother. George's music, during this period, was in volatile flux.Less

You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet

Philip Furia and Laurie Patterson

in The Songs of Hollywood

Songs written in Hollywood movies always play second fiddle to those from Broadway musicals. Most songwriters regarded writing for the stage more highly than writing for the screen. Hollywood ... More

Songs written in Hollywood movies always play second fiddle to those from Broadway musicals. Most songwriters regarded writing for the stage more highly than writing for the screen. Hollywood songwriters created great songs well before and long after the heyday of Ginger Rogers in the mid-1930s. Beginning in 1929, lyricists and composers such as Leo Robin and Richard Whiting wrote sophisticated songs for Paramount operettas that usually starred Maurice Chevalier. In 1940s, MGM created such films where songs were integral to character and dramatic narrative. And by the late 1950s, original film musicals were being displaced by screen adaptations of Broadway musicals. Hollywood lyricists and composers created great songs for dramatic films as well. Some of the greatest songs of Hollywood were not actually written for a film, but were presented in one so movingly that our impression of the song is indelibly associated with that movie.Less

Over the Rainbow

Philip Furia and Laurie Patterson

in The Songs of Hollywood

MGM had created and presented songs imaginatively and lavishly. Arthur Freed, a lyricist and producer, had brought a songwriter's understanding to how song should be presented in film. Freed imparted ... More

MGM had created and presented songs imaginatively and lavishly. Arthur Freed, a lyricist and producer, had brought a songwriter's understanding to how song should be presented in film. Freed imparted to MGM his experience, earned in traveling all over the world, to acquire a taste and knowledge for music and art. Freed found a position as an assistant director at Paramount, where he also played mood music on the sets. He and Brown wrote “Singin' in the Rain” for the 1927 edition of the annual Hollywood Music Box Revue, and after two years, Irving Thalberg hired the two songwriters to write the score for MGM's Broadway Melody. In 1934, while he was still a staff lyricist at MGM, Freed hired a young piano player and vocal arranger named Roger Edens. Freed and Edens shared the conviction that song must be integral, expressive, and dramatic.Less

“Tell them to let it swing”

Todd Decker

in Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz

The production of musical films brought together two normally separate studio departments: writers in the writing department conceived of the story and wrote the dialogue; composers, lyricists, dance ... More

The production of musical films brought together two normally separate studio departments: writers in the writing department conceived of the story and wrote the dialogue; composers, lyricists, dance directors, arrangers, and orchestrators loosely allied in an expanded music department created the musical numbers. Scripts were the blueprints for the studio system production process. Beyond the final shooting script, draft scripts, outlines, and treatments afford glimpses of the writing and filmmaking process. Archival evidence from the music departments comes in two types: a variety of lists (such as rundowns of musical numbers made for budgeting purposes, recording session schedules, and lists of musical cues and songs used) and musical scores (mostly arrangers' full scores and conductors' short scores). This chapter shows how the musical content of Fred Astaire's routines was understood by the creative figures charged with describing films in words before the cameras started rolling. Along the way, the word choices of several of Astaire's lyricists also come into play.Less

If You Believe

Stephen Citron

in Jerry Herman: Poet of the Showtune

This chapter focuses on the determination of American composer and lyricist Jerry Herman to succeed despite the failure of Parade, highlighting the success of his musical Milk and Honey, which opened ... More

This chapter focuses on the determination of American composer and lyricist Jerry Herman to succeed despite the failure of Parade, highlighting the success of his musical Milk and Honey, which opened in November 1961 and was his Broadway debut as a composer-lyricist. It also mentions that Milk and Honey was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Musical and discusses the success of the 1964 musical Hello Dolly!.Less

Cole Porter at Yale

Robert Kimball

in A Cole Porter Companion

This chapter focuses on Porter's years (1909–13) at Yale. Looking back at these years, the musical comedy scores Porter wrote for his fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and for the annual smokers of ... More

This chapter focuses on Porter's years (1909–13) at Yale. Looking back at these years, the musical comedy scores Porter wrote for his fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and for the annual smokers of the Yale Dramat were the most significant aspect of his college experience for his subsequent career in the musical theater. With his five show scores—Cora (1911), And the Villain Still Pursued Her (1912), The Pot of Gold (1912), The Kaleidoscope (1913), and Paranoia, which he wrote for his alma mater while a student at the Harvard School of Music in 1914—Porter transformed musical comedy at Yale from what had been an occasional divertissement into a tradition that for many years held an honored place in the university's cultural life. He developed a proficiency in writing for the stage that prepared him ably for what would turn out to be a forty-year career as a composer-lyricist for Broadway and Hollywood.Less

A Twelve-Hour Show Squeezed into Three: The Creative Forces Behind The Passing Shows

Jonas Westover

in The Shuberts and Their Passing Shows: The Untold Tale of Ziegfeld's Rivals

This chapter covers the genesis of the revue, from its beginnings in the nineteenth century until its revival with the first Passing Show in 1894. As the Shubert brothers, Florenz Ziegfeld, and Lew ... More

This chapter covers the genesis of the revue, from its beginnings in the nineteenth century until its revival with the first Passing Show in 1894. As the Shubert brothers, Florenz Ziegfeld, and Lew Fields became producers around the turn of the century, each of them learned from French, British, and American models, eventually creating their own formulas for their own shows. The Shuberts’ revues began when they opened the Winter Garden Theater, and they quickly developed a pattern of seasonal productions. The careers of Harold Atteridge, J. C. Huffman, and Sigmund Romberg are traced alongside a long list of regular contributors to the Shubert theatrical machine, exploring the wide range of people that were a part of the creative team that mounted the Passing Shows.Less

Götterdämmerung

Steven C. Smith

in Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer

The strands of Steiner’s life emphasized in earlier chapters—his yearning for commercial success, his growing debts, and his emotional neglect of his son—reach their fulcrum here in ways both ... More

The strands of Steiner’s life emphasized in earlier chapters—his yearning for commercial success, his growing debts, and his emotional neglect of his son—reach their fulcrum here in ways both triumphant and tragic. After an anxious year of unemployment, Steiner found a sympathetic partner in director Delmer Daves. Daves’s 1959 film of a racy bestseller, A Summer Place, inspired 71-year-old Max to write a pastiche of dreamy ’50s rock ballads. Steiner had no commercial expectations for the tune, but a recording of the theme rose to Number One on the charts, won a Grammy (beating Elvis and Sinatra), and became the best-selling instrumental of the rock ’n’ roll era. Almost simultaneously, Steiner won his decades-long battle with ASCAP, which agreed to collect royalties on film music. Max would soon receive millions. But in 1962, Steiner received shattering news from which he’d never fully recover: his 22-year-old son, Ronald, had committed suicide.Less

The First Hollywood Musicals

Ethan Mordden

in When Broadway Went to Hollywood

This chapter focuses on some of the earliest Hollywood musicals. It details the stories and people behind films such as The Jazz Singer (1927), The Singing Fool (1928), The Broadway Melody (1929), ... More

This chapter focuses on some of the earliest Hollywood musicals. It details the stories and people behind films such as The Jazz Singer (1927), The Singing Fool (1928), The Broadway Melody (1929), The Dance of Life (1929), King of Jazz (1930), and Viennese Nights (1930). It highlights two trends paramount in the movie musical's first few years. One trend favors “performance” numbers. The other trend held the Harms group of Broadway's style setters in suspicion. They were experimental to a fault—and experience had taught Hollywood that experiments tend to fail. Another group of songwriters, the composers and lyricists of Tin Pan Alley, were much more agreeable. Their works had mass appeal, from the jaded first audience in the cultural capitals to the third audience in small towns, suspicious of any attempt to change their lives by artistic means.Less

De Sylva, Brown, and Henderson

Ethan Mordden

in When Broadway Went to Hollywood

This chapter focuses on the songwriting team of Ray Henderson, B. G. De Sylva, and Lew Brown. In their prime, this trio (DBH) had an uncanny ability to bridge the gulf between Tin Pan Alley ... More

This chapter focuses on the songwriting team of Ray Henderson, B. G. De Sylva, and Lew Brown. In their prime, this trio (DBH) had an uncanny ability to bridge the gulf between Tin Pan Alley commercial savvy and the higher art of the Harms group. The odd thing about DBH, however, was their lack of a sound autograph. While DBH had a style, it was an all but invisible one, a “standard” style, anonymously all-American. This made them perfect for Hollywood's wish to corral its moviegoing audiences onto a profit platform. After some work in shorts, the trio broke into the movie songwriting elite with the super-hit “Sonny Boy” in The Singing Fool.Less

Irving Berlin

Ethan Mordden

in When Broadway Went to Hollywood

This chapter focuses on the Hollywood musicals of composer and lyricist Irving Berlin. When Berlin began his association with Hollywood, he was not just a writer of (countless) song hits but a maker ... More

This chapter focuses on the Hollywood musicals of composer and lyricist Irving Berlin. When Berlin began his association with Hollywood, he was not just a writer of (countless) song hits but a maker of musicals. And he took an active interest in every aspect of production, from the concept to the casting. The chapter considers films such as Warner Brothers' Mammy (1930) and United Artists' Puttin' On the Ritz (1930). In Mammy Berlin created a generic Al Jolson number, “Let Me Sing and I'm Happy.” Puttin' On the Ritz gave Berlin more of a showcase, though he contributed only three numbers and had to contend with egocentric star, Harry Richman. Berlin also wrote three Astaire-Rogers films: Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), and Carefree (1938).Less