Over and Over Again Richard Rodger
The Split Personality of Richard Rodgers
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July 14, 1974
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THERE cannot he much dubiousness that Richard Rodgers is one of the great melodists of our time. The perpetual freshness of then many of his tunes is demonstrated over and over every day—on the radio, in elevators, in airplanes. And at present that the recording industry has joined in by reissuing nifty quantity of the composer'southward songs and complete shows, it seems good time to take a laok at his long and successful career—as well as the new recordings. T
To begin with, it is interesting to note that Rodgers'due south success as a melodist at the same time a testimony to the importance of his lyricists. It isn't easy to retrieve of some other composer of pop music who has been more than influenced by the style and sensibility of his song texts. With different collaborators Rodgers would have been a different composer. In actuality, he has been different composer with each of his two master lyricists.
A Rodgers and Hart vocal doesn't bear much resemblance to a Rodgers and Hammerstein song. The sometime is probable to be dominated by intelligence, the latter by sentiment; the onetime by surprise, the latter by reassurance. The numbers Rodgers has written since Hammerstein's expiry in 1960, either with his own‐lyrics ("No Strings," "Two By Two") or with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim ("Exercise I Hear a Waltz?") lack individuality. Denied a strong lyricist he has floundered. Rodgers'due south collaboration with Lorenz Hart, which began just after Globe State of war I and ended only with Hart's expiry in 1943, was conventional enough in character. So far as we know, Rodgers near always took the first pace. He devised a tune and Hart then fitted words to it. In those days the composer was a self‐avowed tunesmith, a craftsman who hadn't yet taken upon his shoulders the responsibility for creating "musical theater." He merely went nigh the business of dreaming upward melodies as attractive or every bit tricky as possible. The lyricist, though the less important of the two, was, withal, a necessary adjunct. By giving tunes a vox he antiseptic their nature and made them accessible to everyone.
Yet, even though Rodgers'southward work preceded Hart's, it's clear that stylistically spealcing Hart was the determinative force. If you compare the songs Rodgers wrote with Hammerstein, yous see not merely a difference in fashion but primal shift in the composer's musical aims, almost a mutation in his creative nature.
Hammerstein'due south influence on Rodgers is demonstrable. Unlike Hart he wrote nearly all the lyrics first. Past and so doing he inevitably helped to determine the nature of hiS partner's music. Y'all cannot write songs almost real nice mollusk bakes, or dream islands similar Bali Ha'i, Least of all can you advise the world to "climb ev'ry mount and ford ev'ry stream," without putting on arrogance, or, at least, a solemn mien. More solemn, certainly, than when noting that the lady is a tramp, that the heart is quicker than the eye, or that "it'southward got to be beloved—it couldn't be tonsilitis; information technology feels similar neuritis, merely nevertheless information technology'south beloved.
Eye;s influence on Rodgers is not so like shooting fish in a barrel to demonstrate since his efforts came afterward the writing of the music. Yet to judge by the many songs they wrote together, Hart'south wit and articulate‐headedness, his lack of pretension and moral smugness took complete hold of Rodgers' imagination. Perfect compatibility existed between them when it came to piece of work. Rodgers was there before Hart with verve, insouciance and daring.
The tunes he wrote in that period cover a wide It"due south hard to pinpoint the distinctive qualities shared by such varied, songs as "I Didn't Know What Time It Was." "Give It Back To the Indians," "Beloved Never Went To Higher," "I Like To Recognize the Melody" and "She Could Shake the Maracas," respectively a ballad, a satire, a witty annotate on honey, a comedy piece and a rhythm number—all of them from a single evidence, "Besides Many Girls" (1939). One thing they do have in common, nonetheless, is intelligence.
The South American number is not merely infectious, it is interesting, full of lively modulations and turns of phrase that stop the tune from slipping away ino zip more than than an insistent rhythmic beat. And so it is with the ballad, which is tender all the same unexpected, constantly engaging considering so surprising in its melodic strategies. Didn't Know What Fourth dimension Information technology Was" exemplifies Rodgers' power to create feeling without being mawkish, to balance emotion with selfawareness.
Both in their words and their music songs similar "My Funny Valentine," "Hither In My Arms" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" talk nigh dear, not and then much in terms of passion, equally of tenderness. They give expression to the adult needs of amore, sympathy and ‐regard; they are quirky—"Your looks are laughable, unphotographable, nevertheless you lot're my fav'rite piece of work of art"—they are witty; they never become caught upward in self‐importance. Cipher in them is overvalued and as a, result zero is cheapened.
Information technology's good to be reminded of Rodgers' genius and the part played in its development by Hart. The staggering success of the Hammerstein collaboration — culminating in the screen version of "The Sound of Music," i of the most profitable films ever made—has tended to obliterate the more than valid accomplishment the earlier Richard Rodgers.
For the world at large seems that the bad has driven out the skillful. The sanctimonious, hymn‐like banalities of "You'll Never Walk Alone," the empty assertiveness of "Younger Than Springtime," the glutinous, folk‐like cuteness of "Maria" have fabricated of Rodgers an establishment hero, the upholder of middleclass virtues, non so much a songwriter as a musical philosopher.
Luckily, correctives are at paw. Columbia, which nether the guidance of Goddard Prevarication berson produced several LP's of neglected shows during the 1950'southward, has recently begun reissuing them on its Special Products characterization. Available once more are On Your Toes ("At that place'southward a Small Hotel," "The Heart is Quicker Than the Eye"). COL 2590; Babes In Arms ("Where or When," "My Funny Valentine") AOS 2570; The Boys From Syracuse ("Falling in Love With Love," "This Can't Be Love") COL 2580; and Pal Joey ("Goose egg," "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered") COL 4364.
Of these, the terminal is by farthe all-time performed, Harold Lang in the championship office is very proficient and Vivienne Segal, that complete artist, provides an object lesson in how to put over a song. All the other LP'due south have drawbacks in casting: Jack Cassidy's unengaging manner; Portia Nelson'due south anemic cooing; and in the case of "Babes In Arms" Mary Martin alternately curvation and coy. Only the scores are treasure troves.
Earlier earth state of war II. When the major tape companies were more timid than they since learned to be, New York stores similar Liberty, Schirmer'south and Rabson's used to issue their own labels. 1940 Rabson's was responsible for a Lee Wiley album of Rodgers and Hart songs, including one written peculiarly for the occasion, "As Though Y'all Were There." This collection (together with Schirmer's Harold Arlen bum) can now be found on Monmouth‐Everest LP (MES 6807) and is indispensable. Lee Wiley's jazz rhythms tend to favor Rodgers at the expense of Hart, simply they give the music a wonderful impulsiveness. "Baby's Awake Now" ("Bound Is Here") and "I've Got Five Dollars" ("America'southward Sweetheart") peculiarly fine.
Simply all-time of all the Rodgers and Hart collections is two‐disk gear up covering years (Box Productions, available at Music Masters, 25 West 43d Street, Northward.Y.C.). This album concentrates on the less familiar shows similar "PeggyAnn," "Jumbo," "I'd Rather Exist Correct," "I Married an Angel," "College and Higher" and "As well Many Girls." There are also threr songs from the film "Love Me Tonight" with Jeanette Macdonald and Maurice Chevalier; a 1939 broadcast featuring Kay Thompson, Ray Heatherton and the voices of. Rodgers and Hart in a rather corny routine; and a gear up of demonstration disks for the film "Mississippi," sung and selfaccompanied past Rodgers. This latter includes iii numbers cut before the motion picture's release. Rodgers is no Bing Crosby (who starred in movie with West.C. Fields), but he knows how the songs ought to go. So do the original cast performers, to whom about of the other tracks are devoted.
At that place are many redisco‐for example, who is utterly beguiling in "Give It Back the Indians" and "I Didn't Know What Fourth dimension Information technology Was"; Dosia Costello in "She Could Milk shake the Maracas"; Audrey Christie in "At the Roxy Music Hall"; and, better than virtually anything else, Shirley Ross doing total justice to Never Entered My Listen," i of the team's most enchanting songs.
Box Office Productions has also collected the 78's of thecut Yankee," for which Rodgers and Hart wrote a new song, "To Keep My Beloved Alive." This was their last collaboration. As sung by Vivienne Segal information technology is a tour de strength, witty, elegant, civilized. The evidence also featured Vera‐Ellen and Dick Foran and the vocal "My Heart Stood Still.
The flip side, being Beatrice Lillie and Jack Haley in selections from the DietzU.S.A." (1948), has nothing to do with the bailiwick Rodgers and Hart, but everything to do with sheer please. These are wonderful and important records;
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