"Hearts and Flowers" (subtitle: "A New Flower Song") is a song composed by
Theodore Moses-Tobani (with words by Mary D. Brine) and published in
1893
Events
January–March
* January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America.
* Mark Twain started writing Puddn'head Wilson.
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by
Carl Fischer Music
Carl Fischer Music (founded in 1872) is a sheet music publisher based in New York City's East Village. The company has since moved to the Wall Street area in 2013. After 140 years, the company remains a family-owned business, publishing both perf ...
.
The famous melody is taken from the introductory 2/4 section of ''"Wintermärchen" Waltzes Op. 366'' (1891) by the Hungarian composer
Alphons Czibulka. Tobani arranged the piece in a 4/4 song form as ''Hearts and Flowers, a New Flower Song, Op. 245.'' The song as a vocal number was soon forgotten but the instrumental version gained popularity in its own right and it is in this form that it remains well known to this day. Tobani also arranged the tune as a waltz, featured in a medley published in 1900 entitled ''Beauties Charms,'' although this arrangement is now seldom heard.
"Hearts and Flowers" has an association in popular culture as melodramatic
photoplay music
Photoplay music is incidental music, soundtrack music, and themes written specifically for the accompaniment of silent films.
Early years
Early films (c. 1890-1910) merely relied on classical and popular repertory, mixed usually with improvisati ...
. The practice of using the selection as a dramatic cue is documented as early as 1911, although complaints that the tune was becoming overplayed crop up as early as 1913 and 1914, and by 1915, the piece was being called "time worn".
Soon thereafter, "Hearts and Flowers" (along with
Gustav Lange's "Flower Song") became more commonly associated with underscoring an over-the-top parody of
melodrama
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...
in film. Around 1919, musical accompaniment cue sheets start suggesting the tune "a la burlesque" to mock-dramatic scenes. Even into the late 1920s, "Hearts and Flowers" continued to be suggested as a burlesque dramatic piece.
"Hearts and Flowers" was not only heard in theater as accompaniment to films, but played an integral part of on-set music for actors.
Viola Dana
Viola Dana (born Virginia Flugrath; June 26, 1897 – July 3, 1987) was an American film actress who was successful during the era of silent films. She appeared in over 100 films, but was unable to make the transition to sound films.
Early lif ...
famously requested the tune to be played in order for her to generate enough emotion for her to cry real tears. This was later parodied in the 1928 film ''
Show People
''Show People'' is a 1928 American silent comedy film directed by King Vidor. The film was a starring vehicle for actress Marion Davies and actor William Haines and included notable cameo appearances by many of the film personalities of the da ...
'' with
Marion Davies
Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl ...
.
The song eventually became a byword for maudlin love songs. It was used in the title of a
chart hit
A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include rec ...
for singer
Johnny Desmond
Johnny Desmond (born Giovanni Alfredo De Simone; November 14, 1919 – September 6, 1985) was an American singer who was popular in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Biography Early years
Desmond was born Giovanni de Simone in Detroit, Michigan, ...
in 1954, "Play Me Hearts and Flowers (I Want to Cry)".
The term 'hearts-and-flowers' has entered the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
with the sense "extreme sentimentality, cloying sweetness".
The 1958
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He gr ...
comic story "Hearts and Flowers" makes direct reference to the song as outdated but still moving, prompting the hip, street-wise narrator to use the song as shorthand for his own romantic nature: "The music that came out was square as a frame. But it washed against me like the waters of a dark ocean..."
There is a reference to "Hearts and Flowers" in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #45, published February, 1967.
[*]
It is also the song used during the scene 'Toast' in
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...
's play
'Family Album', where his character calls it "The loveliest song in the world", after his wife has sung Mary D. Brine's lyrics to it at the dinner table.
The song is also heard in the opening cutscene of the classic
Apple IIGS
The Apple IIGS (styled as II), the fifth and most powerful of the Apple II family, is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Computer. While featuring the Macintosh look and feel, and resolution and color similar to the Amiga and Atari ST ...
game ''
The Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...
'', where Ma sadly informs the Stooges that the orphanage is going to be foreclosed by the evil banker I. Fleecum if she does not pay rent with in 30 days. After the song ends, Moe says "We got to figure out a way to get some money, and get it quick" (a soundbite from their short ''
Three Sappy People
''Three Sappy People'' is a 1939 short subject directed by Jules White starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard). It is the 43rd entry in the series released by Columbia Pictures starring ...
'').
References
External links
Vocal scoreat digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu
Sheet musicfor violin and piano at imslp.org
* A
1899 Berliner Grammophon recordingperformed by Chris de Arth
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1899 songs