" WITH SO LITTLE TO BE SURE OF" SONDHEIM PROVES HE IS QUITE ACCESSIBLE AND TUNEFUL

" With So Little to be Sure Of"- Sondheim proves he is quite accessible and tuneful
Stephan Sondheim who has demonstrated his musical theatre versatility to be  even more varied and adventuresome than Rodger & Hammerstein . Some critics believe that Sondheim's songs are too complex and his lyrics cold and clinical. What these critics forget is that Sondheim's songs are designed to further the plot and characters in his musical productions. His keen insights into character and personality will expose the inevitable flaws in human nature as opposed to the " moon and june" lyrics of conventioall musical theatre pieces. For example in the show " Anyone Can Whistle"  the male and female leads realize that those " marvellous moments" they once had were now over. But instead of bitter recriminations, both characters acknowledge what they had gained from their love for each other . When they sing " We had a moment, a marvellous moment" Sondheim demonstrates an astute insight into personality and character. . The song has been accurately described as " A wonderfully made,touching, nonmaudlin ballad that should be considered by anyone who finds Sondheim obscure."
In the original cast ,Harry Guardino and Lee Remick play the departing lovers. Although both are essentially actors, they bring their dramatic talents to bear in a very affecting manner with their own marvellous singing moments.

I also provide a concert version by Bernadette Peters who has always been a singer associated with Sondheim ( Sunday In The Park"  Into the W oods.")
There is a wonderful piano accompaniment that highlights Sondheim's composition and  the string section  finally enters to create an emotionally charged conclusion.

LINK":  Guardino/Remick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe3vldX7iJc

LINK"  PETERS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF3QCI4C2wk







































































































"With So Little To Be Sure Of"   Sondheim proves he is quite accessible and tuneful.
Stephan Sondheim has often been accused of being to complex and clinical a writer, especially as related to his lyrics. What critics forget is that ll Sondheim music and lyrics are crafted with the intention to further the story and characters of the musical theatre productions for which he has written both music and words. He works very closely with his librettists lto ensure that any songs are tailored very closely to what the book writer has created in conjunction with Sondheim, the director, choreographer and arranger.
For example, in the musical " Anyone Can Whistle"  the well-known actress sings a touching ballad to express her longing for

























9

" FOOLS RUSH IN-WHERE ANGELS MEN FEAR TO TREAD"

" Fools Rush In --Where Angels Men Fear To Tread"  In 1940, Rube Bloom again teamed with Johnny Mercer to write Fools Rush In. This is quite a interesting phrase to start a song that warns about the perils of pleading to another to " Open up your heart and let this fool rush in." It was an instant hit for Glenn Miller and Ray Eberle as well as Frank Sintart singing with the  Tommy Dorsey orchestra and was always  a song Sinatra kept in his repertoire. Ironically, it might have had a poignant relevance during Sinatra's tempestuous romance with Ava Gardner  since his pleading to Ava was not successful.
There is a sadness in Sinatra's big band version that is quite touching.

Doris Day also teamed with Andre Previn in a fine performance that showcased Day's superior pop vocal capabilities and Previn's sensitive skills as an wonderfully supportive accompanist. He also provided solo accompanist duties for such female singers as Leontyne Price, Julie Andrews, Sylvia McNair and Eileen Farrell. Please listen to the lovely verse as sung by Doris. As always, Johnny Mercer can create such wonderful images with the imaginative use of ordinary, every day language. 

Sinatra Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKYKStouuBI

Day/Previn Link   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAfIu-2XGEA

" DON'T WORRY 'BOUT ME" A RE START FOR THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK BLOG:

Don't Worry 'Bout Me" A Re Start for the Great American Songbook Blog: I previously had announced a hiatus period for this blog since I wanted to start a new blog dealing specifically with the life and career of Harold Arlen and his numerous lyricist partners. That blog now has 30 posts in just over one month with another 50 or so in the plan.
That blog is : haroldarlentheamericannative.blogspot.com.

In reviewing the many songs Arlen created, I also kept discovering more great songs that  originally were not included in the initial blog project. I will try to rectify that situation by adding new songs drawn from the same deep well of compositions written in the classic popular music style.

" Don't Worry About Me"   Rube Bloom was a great piano player who wrote only a few songs but of a very high standard. An earlier post on this blog drew attention to 1939's  "Day In-Day Out" with an excellent lyric by Johnny Mercer. It was a song with an insistent melody, passion  and rhythmic drive.

 In the same year, Bloom , now with lyricist Ted Koehler, wrote " Don't Worry 'Bout Me " whose verse starts with a mournful almost depressngl soliloquy . However,  the chorus now adopts a completely different attitude than the title had suggested.. The line "Don't Worry 'Bout Me, I'll get Along "" suggest that things will work out regardless of the obstacles in life and in relationships. The first section is replete with repeated notes which do generate musical tension but in the second section, the melody adopts a more graceful arc that singers caress very gracefully.

The performance is by Joni Mitchell, a wonderful singer songwriter who has demonstrated  an ability to sing jazz standards in a very authoritative and soulful manner, especially since her voice has deepened and added sonic coloration as evidenced in this song.

LINK:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80F982r5dh4

The Last Post

The Last Post: No-the title is not about a last ditch frontier battle with John Wayne riding to the rescue of some settlers in the Arizona desert. It marks the end of one song related blog and the creation of a new, more highly focused venture which I will be describing. For the past ten months, it has been my constant joy to write about the composers and lyricists who created the substantial body of songs that are often referred to as The Great American Songbook tradition.  It is America's cultural gift to the world along with jazz, the blues and Hollywood films. Since 1950, I have been collecting sheet music of the songs created by a considerable number of song writers whose innovations fashioned a uniquely American  musical style that conquered the world. It involved  innovations in both  musical composition and lyric writing, a combination that shed itself of earlier song writing that was highly influenced by European traditions. A century earlier, Stephan Foster wrote in a new fashion that has been described as the false spring of American song but he died in the 1860's.
It was only in the 1920's that Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin began to create a more natural American style of song writing and soon were joined by Cole Porter, George Gershwin,Richard Rodgers and Harold Arlen whose collective body of works represented the major innovations in what has also been called Classic American Popular Song. Of course, there were also other fine composers and lyricists who contributed to the body of work which I have presented in the 80 plus posts ..I thought it was important to not only talk about the composers and lyricists ,  describe their most representative songs and listen to the finest performers and musicians adding their own unique talents to these songs . A song is just a bunch of notes on a page until someone actually performs it.

As I said, this is the " Last Post".  I hope the blog it has been both informative and rewarding for those who have chosen to participate. I am heartened by the fact that many of the viewers come from all around the globe and , at one time, there were more Latvian viewers than US, Canadian and British viewers combined.
I have now started a blog called  Harold Arlen-The American " Natural.'  I will be making the case for recognition of Arlen as the most purely American of all the great song writers. The blog will be a chronological sequence of Arlen's life and creative output featuring his significant output in variety shows, musical theatre and film.

The blog address:        haroldarlentheamericannatural@blogspot.com

I hope you will have a look at this highly partisan depiction of a great American song writer.

Max Weissengruber 

BLOG-- TIME OUT FOR NOW

BLOG --TIME OUT FOR NOW It has been immensely rewarding to create the 82 posts of some of the greatest songs from The Great American Songbook or Classic American Popular Song traditions. The pageview responses from Latvia have often been twice the total of all 3 English speaking countries Canada, the USA and Great Britain. Who would have predicted that ? However, I feel it is important for me to concentrate on completing some original research focused on what ordinary listeners believe what is great about the " The Great American Songbook." There have been several ground breaking studies providing detailed analyses of the defining characteristics of the Classic American Popular Song Tradition. I have extensively cited two essential studies on a number of my earlier posts. The most detailed and comprehensive survey of the songs written between 1900 and 1950 was conducted by " Alec Wilder in AMERICAN POPULAR SONG The Great Innovators 1900-1950.( Oxford University Press 1972." This period is often referred to as The Golden Age of American Popular Song when Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin,Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Harold Arlen were identified as having the most influence on the flowering of the " Songbook" tradition. Wilder examined over 17,000 individual songs deposited for copyright in the 1900-1950 time period. The breadth of his analysis cannot be questioned although he described his focus was on" the singing line" or melody and attributes such as intensity, unexpectedness, originality,, sinuosity of phrase, clarity, naturalness, control, unclutteredness, sophistication and honest sentiment. Those are a lot of terms that may have relevance but one person's view of " sinuosity of phrase" may be another persons "too simplistic a melodic line.." Since artistic terms are essentially arbitrary, any attempt to have a group of listeners use those rather ambiguous terms to rate a group of songs would soon result in disarray. Wilder was passionate about his subject, he was knowledgeable, he worked in the industry as a composer, lyricist and arranger and even had Frank Sinatra conduct a number of his smaller concert pieces, much to Wilder's acclaim. His book has been almost a daily reference for me for over forty years and he always made a distinction between " good" songs as opposed to " hit" songs, popular but without merit according to his criteria. , " David Jenness and Don Velsey's CLASSIC AMERICAN POPULAR SONG The Second Half- Century 1950-2000 (Routledge Press, 2006.) acknowledge a huge debt to Wilder. They also provide a broader set of criteria as to what makes a great song as opposed to an hit song that may not have any distinctive stylistic characteristics. Harmonic elements are given a more detailed examination as well as the combined effect of combining words with music. Jenness and Velsey examined over 4,000 songs written after 1950, gave some consideration of 1800 and finally selected1200 songs for analysis withmusical or text illustrations for 130 songs. Unlike Wilder, these authors have found that the classic popular song tradition had not died and continues to flourish. Since 1950, a number of excellent songs have been written by such composers like Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Johnny Mandel, Stephan Sondheim, Henry Mancini, Burton Lane, Harry Warren, Johnny Mercer, Jimmy Van Heusen, Jules Styne and Broadway composer Frank Loesser as well as Lerner and Loewe. The authors also believe that there is still public appreciation of the maturity and sophistication of American popular songs which stand in sharp contrast to the cacophony and illiteracy inherent in much of todays " pop music" offerings. Phillip Furia's "The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America's Great Lyricists" ( Oxford Press, 1992) covers the songbook tradition focusing on the lyrics, the oft forgotten component of what constitutes a song-words performed by a singer. These 3 sources indicate what expert musicologists and literary analysts have written about what they believe are the hallmarks of a great popular song. THey are eminently qualified to make their detailed assessments and provide their own rationale or criteria for song writing excellence. QUESTION: Has anyone asked the listening public why they feel that a certain song is great? They may not have the technical expertise like those we have just cited. However, they are consumers and they will have their own opinions and personal tastes. I have conducted some initial focus group survey work which I now want to summarize and share with interested " Songbook" devotees. Max Weissengruber

I'M GLAD THERE IS YOU- A STRONG BALLAD BY JIMMY DORSEY

I'm Glad There Is You- A Strong Ballad By Jimmy Dorsey:  Jimmy Dorsey was an instrumentalist and bandleader who was not as prominent as his brother, trombonist Tommy Dorsey. However, in 1941, Dorsey wrote a splendid ballad " I'm Glad There is You" with poignant lyrics by Paul Madeira.  Alec Wilder points out Dorsey's use of repeated notes ( a particular sore point Wilder continually points out in his book " American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950." Wilder even posthumously chastises George Gershwin for his tendency to use repeated notes as a hallmark of his compositional style. Wilder did acknowledge that repeated notes do create a rhythmic tension that can be quite effective in certain songs.
For the most part, Dorsey's melody moves continually forward while the lyrics positively conclude that " More Than Ever, I'm Glad There Is You."

Natalie Cole has a very fine live version of the song. It provides an excellent example of what is so distinctive and attractive about classic American popular song interpretations.. The singing is , first of all , natural, unforced with interpretation of the lyrics a major vocal priority. Then there is the ability to slightly alter a few notes which, in some cases, may even be an improvement on the original melody. .Sinatra, Fitzgerald and Bennett will often alter a note or melodic line to add their particular interpretation of a song. In a way, they become partners in the creative process that started with the creation of the song in question. Natalie Cole's interpretation of the lyrics artfully convey what Paul Madeira provided with his original lyrics. The arrangement combines strings, brass and woodwinds as well as a chorus of singers but they work in unison never impeding but only augmenting Natalie's own deeply felt interpretation.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                


LINK:  http://youtu.be/t1bWhkjx-Hg

DAY IN- DAY OUT- A RHYTHMIC GEM

Day In-  Day Out- A Rhythmic Gem:  In 1939, pianist Rube Bloom wrote a relentlessly swinging song called  " Day In- Day Out."  Alec Wilder had occasion to write an arrangement for a song like no other he had heard before. H went on to describe a " Melodic line that soared and moved across the page in a lovely brush stroke. It never knotted it self up in cleverness or pretentiousness. And it had, remarkable for any any pop song, passion."  The operative word was " passion"since the song does achieve what Wilder also said " great emotional intensity. The lyrics by Johnny Mercer support s the melody matching the emphatic placement of notes that never relent . Mercer's exotic images  " That same old voodoo follows me about" " When I awake I get up with a tingle, one possibility in view, that possibility of may be seeing you" and finally " Then I kiss your lips and the pounding becomes an ocean's roar, a  thousand drums." are all artfully fitted to the unrelenting intensity of the music which increases with each repetition of the main melody.

There is a particularly fine version performed by Frank Sinatra in a television program that opens with Sinatr surrounded by a bewildering array of drums and exotic percussion instruments. Nelson Riddle's arrangemnt maintains the passion inherent in the song itself and the drums are front and center throughout.
All the elements that make for a great song and performance are in place. The melody perfectly matched by Mercer's lyrics, the arrangement that never relents in its pulsating character, Sinatra's obvious enjoyment in belting out one of his characteristic " swingers" and Riddle's perfect setting for such a an intense songwriting collaboration.


LINK: http://youtu.be/ZdzMPQXK3D8