Will Vodery (October 8, 1885 – November 18, 1951) was an American
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
,
conductor,
orchestrator
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...
, and
arranger
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...
, and one of the few black Americans of his time to make a name for himself as a composer on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, working largely for
Florenz Ziegfeld
Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (; March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), inspired by the ''Folies Bergère'' of Paris. He also p ...
.
He had offices at the
Gaiety Theatre office building in
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
.
[Bloom, Ken]
''Broadway: An Encyclopedia''
Routledge; 2nd edition (November 11, 2003), .
Early life
Vodery was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, on October 8, 1885; his mother Sarah J. Vodery
was a pianist and his father was a teacher at
Lincoln University. From an early age Vodery's family rented rooms to theatrical performers, exposing Will to many talented black performers at the turn of the 20th century, including members of the Williams & Walker Co. He attended the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
on scholarship, where he studied with Hugh A. Clark.
[Peterson, Bernard L. "Will Vodery." ''The American Mosaic: The African American Experience''. ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. September 23, 2015.] His mother made her home
Frederick Douglass's Baltimore headquarters when he was visiting the city.
Career
Beginning in 1910 Vodery served as the musical director for performances at the
Howard Theater
The Howard Theatre is a historic theater, located at 620 T Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C. Opened in 1910, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
In its heyday, the theater was known for catering to an African- ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, until 1911. During this time, he co-wrote music and lyrics for J. Leubrie Hill's ''My Friend from Dixie''. This show was subsequently revised and expanded into the ''
Darktown Follies''. ''Darktown Follies'' became one of the landmark shows at the
Lafayette Theater in Harlem.
While Vodery did compose the music for the show ''From Dixie to Broadway'' (1924), he is most famous for the
vocal
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production i ...
and
choral arrangements that he created for the original Broadway stage production of the classic musical ''
Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...
'' (1927). His arrangements for the show were used again in the
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
production of the show (1928), and the first revival on Broadway (1932), as well as in both the
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
version (1936), and the
prologue
A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...
to the
part-talkie
A part-talkie is a partly, and most often primarily, silent film which includes one or more synchronous sound sequences with audible dialog or singing. During the silent portions, lines of dialog are presented as "titles"—printed text briefly ...
1929 film version (also by Universal) of
Edna Ferber
Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), ''Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' Ci ...
's novel, on which the show is based. Vodery's original arrangements were combined with new ones by
Pembroke Davenport
Pembroke may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Electoral division of Pembroke, an electoral division in Tasmania
* Pembroke Land District, formerly Pembroke County, Tasmania
Bermuda
* Pembroke Parish
Canada
* Pembroke, West Hants, Nova Scotia
* P ...
for the 1946 Broadway revival of ''Show Boat''.
Vodery also created the vocal arrangements for several editions of the ''
Ziegfeld Follies
The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air ...
''. He also orchestrated
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
's one-act opera ''
Blue Monday''. With
Will Marion Cook
William Mercer Cook (January 27, 1869 – July 19, 1944), better known as Will Marion Cook, was an American composer, violinist, and choral director.Riis, Thomas (2007–2011)Cook, Will Marion ''Grove Music Online.'' Oxford Music Online. Retrieved ...
, he wrote the show ''Swing Along'' (1929).
Vodery was an important influence on
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
. Also in 1929, Vodery, in his capacity as Ziegfeld's musical supervisor, recommended Ellington for ''
Show Girl''. According to author John Hasse, "Perhaps during the run of ''Show Girl'', Ellington received what he later termed 'valuable lessons in orchestration from Will Vodery.'" Author
Barry Ulanov wrote of this relationship:
"From Vodery, as he (Ellington) says himself, he drew his chromatic convictions, his uses of the tones ordinarily extraneous to the diatonic scale, with the consequent alteration of the harmonic character of his music, its broadening, The deepening of his resources. It has become customary to ascribe the classical influences upon Duke –
Delius
Delius, photographed in 1907
Frederick Theodore Albert Delius ( 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934), originally Fritz Delius, was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted atte ...
,
Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
and
Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
– to direct contact with their music. Actually his serious appreciation of those and other modern composers, came after his meeting with Vodery."
From 1929 to 1932 Vodery was arranger and musical director for Fox Films in Hollywood. Following his time at Fox, Vodery moved back to New York City, where he continued to arrange music for such shows as ''
Shuffle Along
''Shuffle Along'' is a musical composed by Eubie Blake, with lyrics by Noble Sissle, and a book written by the comedy duo Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles. One of the most notable all-Black hit Broadway shows, it was a landmark in African-Americ ...
'' of 1933 and several editions of Leonard Harper's revues at the
Cotton Club
The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923–1936), then briefly in the midtown Theater District (1936–1940).Elizabeth Winter"Cotton Club of Harlem (1923- )" Blac ...
, a cultural landmark located in Harlem. In 1942 he was musical director for
Ed Sullivan
Edward Vincent Sullivan (September 28, 1901 – October 13, 1974) was an American television personality, impresario, sports and entertainment reporter, and syndicated columnist for the ''New York Daily News'' and the Chicago Tribune New Yor ...
's Harlem Cavalcade.
Despite his success and popularity at the time, Vodery is largely unknown today, partly because he received no screen credit in the 1936 film version of ''
Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...
'', and partly because some modern productions of the show do not use his arrangements. He died on November 18, 1951, only four months after
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
's 1951
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
film version of ''Show Boat'', on which he did not work, had been released.
Compositions and arrangements
*''Carolina Fox Trot'' (1914), for solo piano
*''
Blue Monday'' (1922),
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
by
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
, orchestrations by Will Vodery in consultation with the composer
*''From Dixie to Broadway'' (1924), musical, all music and orchestrations by the composer
*''Waikiki Is Calling Me'' (1924), waltz for piano
*''
Ziegfeld Follies
The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air ...
'' (1924-1937), arranger and orchestrator for
Fox Film Corporation
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film ...
*''Blackbirds'' (1924–1938), musical revues, arranger and orchestrator
*''
Show Boat
''Show Boat'' is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling 1926 novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers, stagehands and dock worke ...
'' (1927), arranger and orchestrator
*''
Keep Shufflin'
A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in ...
'' (1928), arranger and orchestrator
*''
Swing Along
''Swing Along'' is an LP album by The Four Lads, released by Columbia Records as catalog number CS 8106 in 1959.
Track listing
The album was reissued, combined with the 1960 in music, 1960 Four Lads album ''Everything Goes!!!,'' in compac ...
'' (1929), co-composer with
Will Marion Cook
William Mercer Cook (January 27, 1869 – July 19, 1944), better known as Will Marion Cook, was an American composer, violinist, and choral director.Riis, Thomas (2007–2011)Cook, Will Marion ''Grove Music Online.'' Oxford Music Online. Retrieved ...
, also arranger and orchestrator
*''Such Men Are Dangerous'' (1930), orchestrator
"Will Vodery (1884–1951)"
IMDb.
*''Hills of Old New Hampshire'' (1933), song
*''The Darktown Poker Club'' (1946), musical interlude, all music and orchestrations
Sources
*
*
*Miles Kreuger, ''Show Boat: The History of a Classic American Musical''.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vodery, Will
American male composers
American composers
American male conductors (music)
1885 births
1951 deaths
20th-century American conductors (music)
20th-century American male musicians