What with the fuss about Messiaen and Carter's centenaries, one wonderful man has been slightly overlooked in this sceptered isle, probably because he was just too successful. This is Leroy Anderson, American composer of light music, best known for his Sleigh-Ride (the one we can't get away from at Christmas, anywhere, ever). Born in 1908 to Swedish parents in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he studied at Harvard with, among others, Walter Piston and George Enescu and spoke six languages besides English and Swedish. Read his full biography here, part of an excellent website devoted to him and his work, with a superb selection of sound clips.
Meanwhile, you have to hear this...
4 comments:
Naxos is doing an Anderson project, with five (!) volumes of orchestral music released this year. And although Sleigh Ride is undoubtedly the most familiar Anderson work in the UK, The Typewriter is used as the theme for The News Quiz on R4 so it's probably a distant second in terms of 'oh yes I've heard that somewhere'.
That's exactly the point - how many people who listen to The News Quiz know what the music is? (Let alone that it is by a pupil of JDCMB's house-godlike Enescu?!) Thanks for the plug about the Naxos releases.
Jessica, thanks for the blog tribute to Leroy Anderson. What wonderful memories you have brought back. As a trumpet (cornet) player in my youth Mr. Anderson's music was a staple of the concert band in the 1950s and 60s. I hope it still is.
On this side of the pond, my childhood idol was the trumpet player Rafael Méndez. Somewhere I probably still have a 33rpm LP of his with Leroy Anderson's "Bugler's Holiday" and "Trumpeter's Lullaby" where the groves are rounded into scratchy hissing.
I very much enjoyed the "Typewriter" video. I remember seeing that performed on TV when I was a kid. I wonder if today's children would even understand what they were listening to.
I've only recently begun reading your blog regularly. I found you via a WGBN-Boston email newsletter earlier this month and look forward to following along.
Have a wonderful holiday season. Feliz Navidad from Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Sorry to hijack your post, but I couldn't resist posting these Rafael Méndez links I found after listening to the Leroy Anderson clips via your links:
Mendez Library at ASU - includes some wonderful music clips
Wikipedia Article
100th Anniversary Tribute
Marvellous, thank you. From one who DID know the source of the signature tune for The News Quiz, but didn't know he was a pupil of Enescu: fascinating.
Now. What other works have typewriters in them? I'm sure I have a distant memory of that famous percussionist Simon Rattle playing the typewriter in something on the South Bank in the early 1980s - what could it have been? My pre-Christmas deadline-diverted brain is at a loss...
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