Jews & American Music |
American Jewish Songwriters & Musicians The
eighteenth century British poet, Alexander Pope, wrote “An Essay on
Criticism,” which is a poem, not an essay. Included is the famous phrase
“Fools Rush in Where Angels Fear to Tread.” This phrase applies to the
common belief that cultural, learned phenomena are inborn biological traits. Indeed,
the proportion of Jewish Americans among songwriters is far greater than the
1.7% of Jews in the American population. This phenomenon is a cultural, not a
biological outcome of Jewish experience. Almost all immigrants who have come to
America over the years were poor and ignorant of the American culture. This led
these poor slum inhabitants to find a way out of poverty by using their talents
in areas which established natives would not consider. Music is an area in which
more people fail than succeed. This is also true of acting on the stage or in
the movies. Therefore the poor who have little to lose will take risks which
“solid citizens” will avoid. The Jewish songwriters were the children of
immigrants or immigrants themselves. Therefore they became songwriters, not
because they were Jewish, but because they were immigrants. If songwriting were
an inherited condition, then all Jews would be songwriters. Likewise,
the opera is an Italian cultural phenomenon, except for the noisy Wagner’s
operas. The development of the opera in Italy was the consequence of the
Turkish, Muslim invasion of Constantinople in 1453 when the Greek Christians
fled to Italy to escape Muslim domination. This led to the Renaissance, or
rebirth, of Greek culture in Italy. The Greeks had already developed speaking
choruses in their plays. These were gradually set to music and became the great
operas of the nineteenth century. It is noteworthy that a German speaking
Austrian, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, wrote Italian opera with great success
because he learned it. All Italians are not opera composers or even musically
inclined. Therefore
it is learned culture, not biology, which determines behavior, ideology, and
material developments. This, then, explains that there were at least two hundred
American Jewish songwriters active in the years 1900 and beyond. In the early
days of Jewish settlement in America, these were very few but became an ever
increasing number as two and a half million Jews arrived in the United States
between 1884 and 1924. One of the first Jewish songwriters was Henry Russell,
who was a Jewish immigrant from England. He
was born in 1812 and traveled to the United States in 1836. He wrote the song
“A Life on an Ocean Wave,” and the music to “Woodman Spare that Tree.”
He remained in the USA until 1848, when he returned to London. Russell
was related to the Chief Rabbi of
England. Russell also wrote “The Fine Old English Gentleman.” Russell was
married twice. He divorced his Christian wife and married Jewish and raised his
two sons in the Jewish faith. Russell
was the first Jewish songwriter in America, although he was English. There were
a few other Jewish songwriters in the United States during the 19th century and
the early 20th century. In 1892,
Charles K. Harris wrote “After the Ball,” and in 1900 Albert von Tilzer
(Albert Gumm) wrote “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”. In 1908 Nora Bayes and
her husband Jack Norworth wrote “Shine on Harvest Moon.” In 1900, Gus
Edwards wrote “By the Light of the Silvery Moon,” and Harry von Tilzer,
Albert’s brother, wrote “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl that Married Dear
Old Dad.” However,
it was the mass immigration of eastern European Jews which fructified the
American musical scene immensely. The
earliest of the east European Jewish immigrant songwriters in America was Irving
Berlin, who was born in Russia in 1888. His name was Israel Beilin, which he
changed to Irving Berlin. When they
arrived in New York City in 1893. Irving was then five years old. He was one of
eight children. His father Moses Berlin gave Irving singing lessons until his
father died in 1896. The family became extremely poor without a father.
Therefore Irving left home at age fourteen and began singing in bars and in the
streets of New York in an effort to help his family. He was then fourteen.
Although he attended school for two years, he had no musical education and never
learned to read or write music. In
1906, at age eighteen, Berlin went to work as a singing waiter in a restaurant
in Chinatown. He waited on tables and entertained customers singing popular
songs with his own lyrics. His first song was “Marie from Sunny Italy.”
Then, in 1911, he wrote the words and music to “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”
When this song was sung by a number of singers around the country, Berlin
attained instant recognition. It was astonishing that an immigrant without much
education was able to write English lyrics in addition to music, without having
had a musical education. In
1914 Berlin wrote a complete musical called “Watch Your Step,” followed by
“Stop, Look, Listen.” In 1918, he wrote “Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the
Morning,” a year in which he formed his own musical publishing company. Berlin
then wrote numerous musical shows . These incuded “Ziegfield Follies”,
“Music Box Review”, “As Thousands Cheer,” “This Is The Army,”
“Annie get Your Gun,” “Call Me Madam,” “Top Hat,””Follow the
Fleet,” and “Holiday Inn.” He
also wrote two of America’s best known songs, “White Christmas” and “God
Bless America.” “God
bless America, Land
that I love, Stand
beside her, and guide her Through
the night with a light from above From
the mountains to the prairies To
the oceans white with foam, God bless America My
home sweet home, God bless America my home sweet home. (Lyrics
by Irving Berlin). Irving
Berlin’s hundredth birthday was celebrated by a special broadcast from
Carnegie Hall in New York. He died soon thereafter. At his funeral, it was
remembered that Jerome Kern had said, “Irving Berlin is American Music.” Irvfing
Berlin married Dorothy Goetz of Buffalo in 1912 when she was 20 years old.
During their honeymoon in Havana she contracted typhoid fever and died on their
return to New York. Irving was so distraught that for some months he could not
work. Eight
years later he married Ellin Mackay, the daughter of a wealthy Catholic. He was
the executive of a large company and became incensed because his daughter
married an immigrant Jew. He failed to come to their wedding, which was a simple
ceremony at the Municipal Building. Her father refused to speak to his daughter
thereafter. When her father lost his money during the 1929 stock market crash,
he reconciled with Irving and Ellin and borrowed money from his successful
son-in-law. Irving and Ellin had four children. Their son died in infancy. The
other three were girls whose married names forever hid the descent from their
famous grandfather. Sigmund
Romberg, a.k.a. Rosenberg, was born in Hungary in 1887. He composed sixty works
for the musical theater and additionally for musical revues and comedies. His
ability was visible when he was a small child, learning to play the piano and
the violin at age six. His parents sent him to a college to learn engineering,
but he emigrated and went to the USA in 1909 to become a musician. He was most
prominent as a composer of operettas and material for musicals, of which Oscar
Hammerstein participated as the lyricist. Romberg started his career in the
United States by playing music in cafes and bars in New York. In 1914, when he
became an American citizen he composed “The Whirl of the World.” There
followed “The Blue Paradise,” “The Night is Young,” and “When I Get
Too Old to Dream.” One
of Romberg’s most successful shows was “The Student Prince,” which ran for
608 performances. “Desert Song” ran for 465 performances. It was inspired by
the adventures of Lawrence of Arabia. “The New Moon” ran for 519
performances and was repeated in two film versions. In
1970, Romberg was inducted into The Songwriters Hall of Fame. Romberg
was first married to Eugenia Romberg. Divorced, he married Lillian Harris in
1925. He had no children. He died of a stroke in 1951. In 1954, Jose Ferrer
played Romberg in the film “Deep in my Heart.”
Jerome
Kern was born in 1885 of two Jewish parents of German birth. He wrote over 700
songs, and is best known for his musical Showboat, which was made into a movie
starring Howard Keel and Katherine Grayson. Kern
grew up in New York City and attended The New York College of Music. He began
his career providing songs to Broadway shows, as well as in London, England.
In
May 1915, Kern booked a voyage to England on the Lusitania, but missed the boat
by oversleeping. The Lusitania was sunk with all aboard after a torpedo hit it. During
the decade of the 1920’s, Kern was unusually productive, as he created at
least one show each year of the decade, including “The Night Boat,” which
ran for 300 performances in New York and for three seasons on tour. Kern’s
songs were sung on the radio and in nightclubs. He had an aversion to these
performances, because they were out of context with the shows for which they
were written. In
1925, Kern met Oscar Hammerstein II, with whom he collaborated for a lifetime.
In 1927, Kern wrote “Show Boat,” with Hammerstein writing the lyrics.
The show included Kern’s greatest songs, “Old Man River,”
“Can’t Help Loving That Man”, “You Are Love,” “Life Upon the Wicked
Stage,” “Why Do I Love You,” “Bill” (lyrics by P.G. Wodehouse), and
“Make Believe.” “We
could make believe I love you, Only
make believe that you love me, Others
find peace of mind in pretending, Coudn’t
you, couldn’t I, couldn’t we? Make
believe our lips are blending, In a phantom kiss or two or three, Might
as well make believe I love you, For
to tell the truth, I do.” (Lyrics
by Oscar Hammerstein II). In
1935, Kern went to Hollywood, where he composed the scores for a number of
films. He then settled permanently in Hollywood in 1937. In 1939, Kern suffered
a heart attack, and that year composed “Music in the Air” with Oscar
Hammerstein. Kern then wrote “I Dream Too Much,” which featured the opera
singer Lily Pons. He continued to write songs throughout the 1930’s, and wrote
the music for “Swing Time,” including “The Way You Look Tonight.” “Swing
Time” was performed by Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire.
Kern continued his collaboration
with Hammerstein until his death in 1945, accumulating numerous awards. MGM made
a fictionalized movie of his life called “Til the clouds Roll By.” Kern was
married once and had one daughter. No doubt his greatest achievement was “Show
Boat,” which has been made into a movie and contains his greatest songs. Sammy
Cahn, or Samuel Cohen, was born in New York in 1913 of two Jewish immigrants
from Poland. He had four sisters. Sammy learned to play the violin and joined a
Dixieland band after his bar mitzvah, touring the Catskills. Cahn
wrote both music and words or lyrics. He wrote “Love and Marriage,” which
became the theme song for the TV show “Married… with Children.” The song
had won an Emmy award in 1956. Cahn wrote so many sons for Frank Sinatra that he
was regarded as Sinatra’s personal songwriter. Cahn contributed songs and
lyrics to sequels to The Wizard of Oz and was elected to The Songwriters Hall of
Fame. He
was married two times. First to Gloria Delson, with whom he had two children,
and, after his divorce, he married Virginia Curtis. George
Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1898. He died in 1937 at age
thirty-eight. He composed both popular and classical music, including
“Rhapsody in Blue” and “An American in Paris.” “Summertime” and
“Porgy and Bess” were a few of his best known compositions. Gershwin
studied piano and composition with prominent musicians. He began his career
composing Broadway theater shows. His brother Ira wrote the lyrics. After
a few poorly paid jobs when he was seventeen, Gershwin produced nearly a hundred
songs under his or an assumed name. In
1919, Gershwin wrote “Swanee,” his biggest song hit that far. He wrote
numerous songs in the decade 1920-1929, including “Lady be Good”, “Funny
Face,” and “Strike Up the Band.” In
1924, Gershwin composed “Rhapsody in Blue,” a title suggested by his brother
Ira. The first time Gershwin played this composition, a number of prominent
composers were present., including Serge Rachmaninoff, Leopold Stokowski, Fritz
Kreisler, and John Phillip Sousa. The
recording of “Rhapsody” sold millions of copies. It established Gershwin as
a serious composer of classical music. Had he lived, he would have become a
major contributor to American classics far more important than any songwriters
had achieved in Gershwin’s short lifetime. The
number of movies made since the inception of Hollywood films in the beginning of
the 20th century is vast and mostly boring nonsense, not worth the time or the
expense of sleeping through them. There are, however, a few exceptions to this
ongoing disaster. One of these exceptions is “The Wizard of Oz.” Harold
Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York in 1905.
His father was a cantor in a synagogue. He dropped out of school and
formed a band and made a living as an arranger and performer. After he moved to
New York in the mid-1920’s, Arlen began his composing career. He wrote over
500 songs for Broadway musicals and Hollywood. He wrote for the Harlem Cotton
Club, “St. Louis Woman,” and “Free and Easy.” He wrote songs for
twenty-nine films, including “A Star Is Born” and “The Wizard of Oz.”
Arlen’s
music has been compared to Stephen Foster’s original American folk music.
Arlen’s
contribution to “The Wizard of Oz” was so popular that his songs from that
movie are widely known to the American public, even if their composer is seldom
recognized. “Over the Rainbow” is undoubtedly the best known of all his
songs. The words to the song were written by Isidore Hochberg, also knowns as
E.Y. Harburg. “Follow
the Yellow Brick Road, follow the Rainbow over the Stream, We’re off to see
the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz. We heard he is a Wiz of a Wiz, if ever a
Wiz there was. The Wizard of Oz is one because because of the wonderful things
he does.”. Other songs by Harold Arlen included in the Wizard of Oz are,
”Come Out, Come Out,” “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead,” “If I Only Had a
Brain,” “If I Only Had a Heart,” “If I Only Had the Nerve,” “If I
Were King of the Forest,” and
“Courage.” The words to “Over the Rainbow” were written by Isidore
Hochberg and sung in the movie by Judy Garland. Over
the Rainbow Somewhere
over the rainbow, way up high There's
a land that I heard of once in a lullaby Somewhere
over the rainbow skies are blue And
the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true Someday
I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me Where
troubles melt like lemon drops away above the chimney tops That's
where you'll find me Somewhere
over the rainbow bluebirds fly Birds
fly over the rainbow. Why then, oh
why can't I? If
happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow Why,
oh why can't I? Harold
Arlen was married to Anya Taranda. They adopted one child, his brother’s son.
Anya became emotionally so disturbed that she was incarcerated in a mental
institution an died in 1970. Arlen
never married again. Neil
Diamond was born in Brooklyn in 1941. He has been married three times, first to
Jayne Posner, whom he divorced after six years in 1969. His second wife was
Maria Murphy, from 1969 to 1990, and his third wife is Katie McNeil, whom he
married in 2012. He has four children. He was elected to the Songwriters Hall of
Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime
Achievement, the Kennedy Center Honors, and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement
Award. His
career began at age 16, when he was in high school. He started to write music
and poetry and wrote his own songs. Diamond attended New York University, but
dropped out with only a few units needed for graduation, because he was offered
a contract at $50 per week. That equals $143 in 2020. In
1962, Diamond signed a contract with Columbia Records.
He wrote a number of songs for Columbia, and then recorded on his own
with “Solitary Man” with Atlantic. In
1996, Diamond moved to Los Angeles and wrote “Sweet Caroline” for Caroline
Kennedy, but later changed his mind and claimed it was written for his wife. In
1980, Neil Diamond accepted the role of “The Jazz Singer,”
a movie in which Al Jolson had played the title role in 1927; Diamond had
no acting experience. Although the movie was not well received, the soundtrack
sold more than six million copies. Diamond
played opposite Laurence Olivier, whose character is an orthodox Jewish cantor
and father of the Jazz Singer. He had hoped that his son would become a cantor,
as had been true for five generations. But his son leaves the family. The father
and son become estranged and no longer see one another until “Jackie,” the
Jazz Singer, comes to New York to appear in an important show furthering his
career. The opening night of the show is vital for “The Jazz Singer” and he
is told that if he does not appear as scheduled he will never sing on Broadway
again. He visits his sick father who cannot perform as cantor. His mother
persuades him to go to the synagogue and sing the opening prayer at the Yom
Kippur service, the holiest day of the Jewish year. He sings “Kol Nidre,” a
song performed in every synagogue the world over at the beginning of the
service, and is reconciled with his
family. “Kol
Nidre” is Aramaic for “All the
Vows.” Aramaic is spoken in Lebanon by the Christian minority among the Arab
speaking majority. The language is related to Hebrew as American English is
related to British English. Since
both Al Jolson and Neil Diamond had learned some Hebrew as children, they were
able to perform this song-prayer. Diamond said later that he would not act in a
movie again and would stick to performing as a singer.
Until
2018, Neil Diamond continued touring across the country. He retired after he was
diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, but gave one more concert in Las Vegas in
2020. Leonard
Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1918. He was not only a
songwriter but also the composer of so called “classical” music. He is best
known for his composition West Side Story, modeled after the story of Romeo and
Juliet. The
song “America” has been described as “the real show stopper” of the
musical. It is followed by “Officer Krupke,” which ridicules the police, but
also tells how the gang life came about. The show includes the “Spanish
Quartet” and the “Jet Song.” “I Feel Pretty” is sung by a girl who is
happy to be loved by a boy in the gang. Then there is “The Dance at the
Gym,” which moves from jazz to ballet and includes a duet between two lovers.
The song “Maria” is an
expression of love song by a boy concerning his love for his girl. “A Boy Like
That” is sung by a girl defending her man, and “Somewhere” is a duet in
which the two protagonists sing about running away together . Finally,
“Cool” is sung by the gang leader telling the boys to keep “cool” before
a fight. Leonard
Bernstein was not only a composer but spent most of his time as a symphony
conductor. He graduated from Harvard University and then enrolled at the Curtis
Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He then continued his studies at the Boston
Symphony summer institute, where he studied conducting. This led to his
appointment to conducting assistant in Boston, and thereafter in 1943 he was
appointed assistant conductor of the
New York Philharmonic Orchestra. In
1945 he was appointed Music Director of the New York City Symphony. In 1944
Bernstein wrote his Jeremiah symphony and the musical “On the Town.” In
1946, Arturo Toscanini invited Bernstein to be guest conductor of the NBC
Symphony Orchestra. Beginning
in 1947, Bernstein conducted numerous times in Israel and in Boston. From 1951
to 1956, he was visiting professor of music at Brandeis University. Leonard
Bernstein remained active until 1990. The list of his activities is extremely
long. During his years he received many honors and was feted by the “elite”
New York society who attended his concerts. It
is unfortunate that attendance at major American symphony orchestras is limited
to the rich and the superrich, thereby making this form of music invisible to
the American public. Bernstein
was married to Felicia Cohn, a native of Chile. They had three children. Paul
Simon was born in 1941 in New York. His career resembles that of so many popular
American musicians and songwriters whose abilities were and are severely
limited. This is evident by comparing American songwriters to the great Italian
and other European music composers of the 19thcentury. They include Gaetano
Donizetti, Giuseppe Verdi, Gioachino Rossini, Giacomo Puccini, and numerous
others, including the German speaking Austrian Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who
composed Italian opera. Germany
had already been the native land of Bach, Handel, Hayden, Beethoven,
Mendelssohn, and Weber, and Austria had the privilege of enjoying the music of
Johann Strauss Sr. and Johann
Strauss, Jr. The
fact is that not one of the American composers of the twentieth century,
including Paul Simon, ever reached the level of achievement attained by the
Europeans. Paul
Simon teamed with Art Garfunkel to produce such trash as “Wednesday Morning”
and “Sounds of Silence,” which initially failed to gain much of an audience.
Simon did win “The Album of the Year Award” for “Still Crazy after all
these Years,” which demonstrated that alost anything can gain an award in
American music. Thereafter Simon
composed numerous songs which have been mainly forgotten. In
1985 and 1986, Simon travelled to South Africa, where he recorded “Graceland,”
an album including Zulu singing. In the 21st Century, Simon composed “You’re
So Beautiful” and “Surprise.” For all this, Simon has won a Lifetime
Achievement Award and a number of Grammys. Simon
has had a long time association with the TV shows “Saturday Night Live.” The
contributions of Garfinkel to Simon’s enterprises was minimal. Simon
contributed a good amount of money to charity, including the Children’s Health
Fund and Autism Speaks. Simon has
been married three times and has four children.
Stephen
Sondheim was born in New York City in 1930. He composed mainly for the musical
theater. He is best known for his shows “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to
the Forum,” “A Little Night Music,” “Merrily We Roll Along,” and “In
the Woods.” Sondheim has received numerous awards and one theater on Broadway
was named after him. He
received an Academy Award and eight Tony Awards and a Lifetime Achievement
Award, eight Grammy Awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. Sondheim wrote a musical
called “Beggar on Horseback.” In
1959, Sondheim wrote the lyrics for “Gypsy,” a show concerning Gypsy Rose
Lee. Sondheim wanted to write the music but was persuaded to write the lyrics
instead. Sondheim
then composed the music for five musicals and also wrote the lyrics. These were
“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” which opened in 1964 and
ran for 964 performances. He then wrote “Anyone Can Wait,” which failed with
only nine performances, as did several other efforts. Sondheim
was homosexual. He had no children. Marvin
Hamlisch was one of only fifteen people who ever won all four awards available
to members of the entertainment industry. He won the ‘Emmy’ Award for
excellence in the television industry, the Grammy Award for excellence in the
music industry, an Oscar for excellence in the film industry, and a Tony for
excellence in the theater. Marvin
Hamlisch was born New York of two Jewish parents who immigrated to the USA from
Vienna, Austria. He was a child prodigy. At age seven he was accepted into the
Juilliard School of Music. His
first job was to play piano for the rehearsals of “Funny Girl” with Barbra
Streisand. He graduated from Queens
College in 1967. Still in his teens, Hamlisch wrote his first song, “Traveling
Man.” At age 21 he wrote “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows.” He then wrote
the film score for “The Swimmer.” He then wrote film scores for several
Woody Allen movies, and the popular song “California Nights.” In
1973, Hamlisch arranged the score for the music of “The Sting.” The album
hit number one on “Billboard” the following year, selling nearly two million
copies in the U.S. alone. In 1973, Hamlisch won two Academy prizes for scoring
“The Way We Were,” He then wrote the theme music for “Good morning
America,” and in 1980 he wrote The Goodbye Girl.” He was music director for
Barbara Streisand’s 1994 concert tour. He
became conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony, as well as
symphony orchestras in Dallas, Buffalo, Pasadena, and Baltimore.
On August 6, 2012, Hamlisch suddenly collapsed and died. He had married
Terry Blair in 1989. She was a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio and a
television news anchor. They had no children. William
“Billy” Joel was born in New York City in 1949. He is a singer, songwriter,
composer, and pianist. He has been called “The Piano Man,” after one of his
songs, having released twelve studio albums. Joel
has been nominated for 23 Grammy Awards, winning five of them. He
was inducted in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Long Island Music Hall of
Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2001 he received The Johnny Mercer
Award. In 2013, he received the Kennedy Center Honors. In 1987, he was invited
to hold a rock and roll tour in the Soviet Union. He performs regularly at
Madison Square Garden in New York. William
Joel was raised in Oyster Bay on Long Island. His father, Helmut Joel,
a German immigrant, was a classical pianist who came from Nurnberg. To
escape the Nazi government, the Joel family moved to Switzerland (Die Schweiz).
The family then moved to the United States, where his father became an engineer.
His mother had immigrated from England. After
the Second World War, Billy Joel’s father divorced his mother and returned to
Vienna, Austria, where he became a classical conductor. Billy’s mother
sent him to a piano teacher at age four. After his father left, he helped
support his mother and his sister by playing in a piano bar. After
graduating from high school, Billy began his career as a songwriter. He modeled
himself after The Beatles and The Four Seasons. He then joined “The Echoes.”
He played piano on several record releases, including playing with “The
Shangri-Las” which led to a solo performance.
Billy
Joel then signed a contract with Columbia Productions. His first album with
Columbia was called “Piano Man.” His second Columbia recording was called
“Street Life Serenade,”which contains “Root Beer Rag.” By 1977, Joel had
written numerous songs. He was introduced to Phil Ramone, who produced all of
Joel’s albums from 1977 to 1979. In that year he travelled to Havana, Cuba, to
participate in The Havana Jam Festival. He
then recorded “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and “She’s Got A Way,” which
sold over three million copies. Billy Joel was financially a great success. His
music does indeed appeal to many American salthough it falls far short of such
music greats as Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. Frank
Loesser wrote the music and the lyrics for “Guys and Dolls” and “How to
Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” He was awarded the Pulitzer prize
for drama and received an Academy Award for the song “Baby It’s Cold
Outside.” Loesser’s
parents were German Jews. Frank could play the piano at age four before he could
read. His first Broadway show was composed in 1936. That year he married Lynn
Garland. Loesser then wrote the lyrics for a number of popular songs until he
joined the army in World War II. “Guys
and Dolls” earned Loesser a Tony Award in 1950. It was made into a film in
1955 with Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, and Jean Simmons. In 1952 Loesser wrote
the music for “Hans Christian Andersen,” including “Wonderful
Copenhagen,” “Anywhere I Wander,” and “Thumbelina.” In
1957, Loesser divorced and began a relationship with Jo Sullivan. In 1965,
Loesser wrote his last musical “Pleasures and Palaces.” He died of lung
cancer in 1969 as a result of heavy smoking. Among
his many songs were “Once in Love with Amy,” “A Bushel and a Peck,”
“Luck be a Lady,” “Standing on the Corner,” “The Brotherhood of
Man,” and many others. One of his most popular songs is “A Bushel and a
Peck”. I
love you, a bushel and a peck; a
bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck; a
hug around the neck and a barrel and a heap and
I’m talking in my sleep, about you. When
Frank Loesser died in 1969, he was only 59 years old. Barry
Manilow: Barry Alan Pincus was born in 1943 in the Bronx, New York. He changed
his name to his mother’s name, Manilow, and married Susan Deixler in 1964.
They divorced in 1966. In 2014, Manilow married his boyfriend, Gary Kief. Over
the years, Manilow has written and performed for musicals, films, and concerts,
as well as advertising corporations such as McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and Band-Aid.
He was been nominated for a Grammy Award fifteen times between 1973 and
2015. In
1964, Manilow wrote the score for “The Drunkard,” which was shown for eight
years in New York’s 13th Street Theater. In the 1960’s, Manilow made a
living by writing commercial jingles for State Farm Insurance, “Like a good
neighbor, State farm is there”or Band-Aid, “I am stuck on Band-Aid, ‘cause
Band–Aid is stuck on me.” He also sang for “Kentucky Fried Chicken,”
Pepsi, “All across the nation it’s the Pepsi generation” , McDonalds and
Dr. Pepper. In
the 1970’s, Manilow recorded to songs, “Could it be Magic” and
“Morning.” Both songs were hardly noticed. From 1971 to 1975, Manilow was
pianist for the recording artist Bette Midler. In 1977, Manilow recorded an
album called “Barry Manilow Live,” which included some of the jingles he had
written. Manilow then appeared on American Bandstand. Later Manilow was featured
in a movie called “Copacabana,” produced by Dick Clark. In
1980, ABC presented four television specials starring Barry Manilow. Reaching an
audience of 37 million, the specials won an award for Outstanding Comedy and
Variety. In 1988, Manilow appeared on a television special called “Big Fun on
Swing Street.” From then on, into the 21st century, Manilow recorded and
appeared on television regularly. In 2020 Manilow was extremely popular among
millions of fans in the United States and England. This demonstrates that there
are many listeners who know nothing of the Italian opera or the music of Johann
Strauss I and II or Beethoven but believe that Manilow can sing and that his
recitations are songs. In 2020, prior to the shutdown, Manilow was expected in
58 events. He was to appear numerous times in Las Vegas, and in England . This
leads to the conclusion so well summarized in that Latin proverb: De Gustibus
non est disputandem,” or “With taste there is no Argument.” André
Previn was born in Berlin, Germany in 1929. To escape the Nazi horrors, André
and family left Germany in 1938 and moved to Los Angeles. Previn studied
conducting in San Francisco and then worked for MGM for sixteen years. He was
involved in over 50 films before leaving his film career. His career began as an
arranger and composer of Hollywood film scores for Metro Goldwyn Mayer. He later
became the music director and conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the
Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Oslo Philharmonic.
Then he conducted the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Previn was also a jazz pianist who accompanied jazz singers.
Previn was also a composer. He wrote two concert overtures, several tone
poems, fourteen concerti, a symphony for strings, incidental music for a British
play, a great deal of chamber music, numerous pieces for various instruments, a
waltz, a string quartet, and, in addition, two successful operas Previn
was also well received by television audiences. In England he was featured in a
program “Meet André Previn” on London “Weekend Television.” He appeared
in several comedies with other pianists and succeeded in them as well. Previn
was the subject of a two hour film called “The Kindness of Strangers.” This
film followed Previn for a year for engagements around the world. This film was
issued in 2009. Previn
was married five times. He first married jazz singer Betty Bennett in 1952. With
her he had two daughters, Claudia and Alice. He divorced Bennett in 1957 before
his younger daughter was born. In 1959 he married Dory Langan. She was a singer,
songwriter, and lyricist. During their marriage, Previn conducted several of her
film scores. In 1970, Previn married Mia Farrow. With her he had three children
and adopted two Vietnamese boys. In 1979, Previn divorced Mia Farrow. Previn
then married Heather Sneddon, his fourth marriage. With her he had one son. The
marriage lasted seventeen years. In 2002 Previn married for a fifth time, to Ann
Sophie Mutter, a famous German violinist. In 2006 he divorced Mutter but
continued to work with her. Previn
won four Academy Awards. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Music in England
and was nominated for three Emmy Awards. He died in New York City in 2019 at age
eighty-nine. The
Destructive Impact of the Acting and Singing Professions It
is evident that Irving Berlin was a happy and satisfied celebrity during a
one-hundred-one year life span. Unfortunately, the acting and musician
profession includes a great deal of unhappy people who, despite their fame and
celebrity status, are subjects of the psychiatric expression “Man Against
Himself.” The
number and proportion of American actors and musicians who become alcoholics,
drug addicts, and suicides exceeds the average American statistic for similar
conduct. For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the American
suicide rate is about 155.3 per hundred thousand, with men constituting 78% of
those who kill themselves in the course of a year. The suicide rate for women is
therefore only 22% of all suicides. Among
actors and singers, suicide is far more common, and includes some of the most
famous, wealthiest and successful entertainers such as Marilyn Monroe.
One
frequent condition of suicides is drug and/or alcohol addiction. That is by no
means unknown in the general American population, but it is far more common
among actors and singers. This is in part the consequence of the environment in
which performers live. Alcohol and drugs are part of the nightlife which is the
habit of entertainers. There
are psychiatrists who claim that there is a connection between creativity and
mental illness. The American
Foundation for Suicide Prevention psychiatrists
contend that many suicides share characteristics such as perfectionism. Suicides
are less likely to tolerate such common events as unexpected events, losses,
whether financial or personal, and stress. It is of course obvious that the
entertainment industry is very stressful and that unexpected events occur all
the time. Artists are far more likely than others to lose their jobs or to never
achieve a paying career in movies or on the stage. There are innumerable
singers, dancers, actors, and others whose talents go to waste waiting on tables
or working at some menial job. This lifestyle can lead to severe depression, if
not suicide. Divorce
is so common in the United States that one half of all marriages have ended
through divorce after age 52. Yet, divorce is even more common among Amercan
entertaainers than all others. In fact, numerous singers and actors are divorced
more than once. Despite the perceived need to end a dissatisfying relationship,
divorce can lead to great psychological distress. Resentment, fear, confusion
and anxiety accompany divorce. However, actors and so-called “celebrities”
are expected to keep smiling. Numerous divorces are of course an admission of
defeat, which actors must cover up in order to keep a following. The Holmes and
Rahe Stress Scale considers divorce nearly as stressful as the death of a
spouse. Since many entertainers are divorced several times even as they must
earn a living in very insecure positions, their anxiety level is indeed very
high. The
Influence of Culture on American Music It
is of interest to discover the source of the many musicals produced in America
and elsewhere. The numerous members of the audiences watching Broadway musicals
on the stage or in a movie can hardly imagine how the lyricists and composers
attain the inspiration to write their songs. Since
almost all the great musicals written in the 1930’s and 1940’s were written
by Jews, it appears reasonable to view these achievements as products of Jewish
culture. Cole
Porter was one of the minority of successful composers of Broadway musicals in
his lifetime who was not Jewish. He asked Richard Rodgers, a Jewish composer,
how to best succeed on Broadway, and Rodgers told him to write “Jewish.” The
Jewish songwriters did indeed gain some inspiration from synagogue music, but
they also derived some music in part
from jazz and Afro-American music. Irving
Berlin found inspiration in ragtime music. He even called his first hit
“Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” The success of that song indicated that Berlin
had addressed all of America and not only the Yiddish speakers of his day. Scott
Joplin and other Afro-American song writers complained that Berlin was using
“their” music for his productions. The
Jewish Al Jolson was the first to sing jazz in a movie, called “The Jazz
Singer.” He even played in “blackface,” imitating Afro-Amercan physical
characteristics, although the story is Jewish. The Jewish Harold Arlen also
borrowed from the black musical experience. He included the Harlem Cotton Club
and Cab Calloway in his repertory. The Jewish bandleaders Artie Shaw and Benny
Goodman include black musicians in their bands. George Gershwin combined jazz
and the European symphonic music In his “Rhapsody in Blue.” Gershwin grew up
in Harlem, which no doubt influenced his music. There
are of course some musicals like “Fiddler on the Roof” which are the very
soul of Jewish music. The argument here is that culture influences what
songwriters write, even if the culture influencing them is not their own. Culture
has three dimensions. There is material culture, such as the instruments
available to make music. Second, culture includes the ideational or belief
culture, which translates into behavioral culture. We act on that which we
believe using the material objects available to us. Novelists
reflect the culture in which they write. Some of these novels are quite old,
such as “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo, originally written in French. The
musical was produced in 1980. The
story deals with the life of a poor man who stole a loaf of bread, for which he
was imprisoned nineteen years. The
show has been translated from the French into numerous languages and has had a
worldwide audience. A
most popular show has been The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber. This
too is based on a French novel. It
was produced in the United States in 1988 and has been translated into 115
languages. This musical is definitely not Jewish but reflects the French
culture. Miss
Saigon is related to the Vietnam war but based on the opera “Madame
Butterfly” by Giacomo Puccini concerning an American naval officer and a
Japanese woman. The show reflects American culture and history. The
numerous Broadway musicals written by Jewish composers likewise rely on books,
such as the stories by Sholem Aleichem which gave rise
to “Fiddler on the Roof.” Furthermore, much of the music written by
Jewish composers is based on synagogue music. Those familiar with cantorial
singing are acquainted with the wailing and even weeping sounds some cantors use
to address God and ask Him for help to alleviate the 1,600 years of persecution
and suffering of the European Jewish community. It is uncommon and most rare for
Americasn cantors to sing in that European manner since American Jews have no
reason to do so. The culture determines very much how the music sounds. There
are Jewish plays and movies which reflect the Yiddish culture. Yiddish, a
Germanic language, is far from Hebrew. It is hardly known in America and Israel.
Yet, in the early 20th century, when there were literally 2.5 million eastern
European Jews living in New York City and other American cities, Yiddish plays
were shown in Yiddish theaters reflecting the Yiddish culture. In the 21st
century, the Yiddish culture is no more, as the European Jews who once spoke
that language were either murdered or fled to Israel, The United States, or
South America, Australia, and other faraway places. The Yiddish culture died
with them. In Israel, Hebrew, the language of the Bible, is spoken. The Israeli
music differs radically from European Jewish music. It is joyous, celebrating an
independent people and has none of the European wailing and crying. Another
excellent example of culture influencing music is the music of the great Ludwig
van Beethoven. Although of Flemish descent, Beethoven wrote German music,
including powerful symphonies with loud drum parts and a cadence resembling
German march music. This is even more visible in the operas of Richard Wagner,
who used German mythology as his inspiration. America
has changed greatly since the 1930’s and 1940’s. Therefore American music
has also changed. There were no “rappers” in the era of Gershwin and Kern.
Even the great bands led by such men as Benny Goodman, Paul Whiteman, and
Glenn Miller are no longer popular because Americans of the 21st century
have experience not compatible with 40’s and 50’s music. Culture,
the man made environment, determines our lives. What is legitimate or wrong is
determined by the state of technology, beliefs, and behavior. We are not as free
as we like to think, for who would drive in an English car with the steering
wheel on the “wrong” side, who would advocate a Nazi state in America, and
who would behave like a native of the Kalahari desert and walk about an American
community with only a loincloth with a spear and arrows? Shalom u'vracha. |