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Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American composer of music, with over 900 songs and 43 Broadway musicals, leaving a legacy as one of the most significant composers of 20th century American music. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music.

Rodgers was the first person to win what are considered the top entertainment awards in television, recording, movies and Broadway — an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award — now known collectively as an EGOT. In addition, he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, making him only one of two people to receive each award (Marvin Hamlisch is the other).

Biography

Early life and education

Born into a prosperous German Jewish family in Arverne, Queens, New York City, Rodgers was the son of Mamie (Levy) and Dr. William Abrahams Rodgers, a prominent physician who had changed the family name from Abrahams. Richard began playing the piano at age six. He attended P.S. 10, Townsend Harris Hall and DeWitt Clinton High School. Rodgers spent his early teenage summers in Camp Wigwam (Waterford, Maine) where he composed some of his first songs.[1]

Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, and later collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II all attended Columbia University. At Columbia, Rodgers joined the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. In 1921, Rodgers shifted his studies to the Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard School).[2] Rodgers was influenced by composers such as Victor Herbert and Jerome Kern, as well as by the operettas his parents took him to see on Broadway when he was a child.

Career

Rodgers and Hart

Main article: Rodgers and Hart
Richard Rodgers (seated) with Lorenz Hart in 1936.

In 1919, Richard met Lorenz Hart, thanks to Phillip Leavitt, a friend of Richard's older brother. Rodgers and Hart struggled for years in the field of musical comedy, writing several amateur shows. They made their professional debut with the song "Any Old Place With You", featured in the 1919 Broadway musical comedy A Lonely Romeo. Their first professional production was the 1920 Poor Little Ritz Girl, which also had music by Sigmund Romberg. Their next professional show, The Melody Man, did not premiere until 1924.

When he was just out of college Rodgers worked as musical director for Lew Fields. Among the stars he accompanied were Nora Bayes and Fred Allen.[3] Rodgers was considering quitting show business altogether to sell children's underwear, when he and Hart finally broke through in 1925. They wrote the songs for a benefit show presented by the prestigious Theatre Guild, called The Garrick Gaieties, and the critics found the show fresh and delightful. Only meant to run one day, the Guild knew they had a success and allowed it to re-open later. The show's biggest hit — the song that Rodgers believed "made" Rodgers and Hart — was "Manhattan". The two were now a Broadway songwriting force.

Throughout the rest of the decade, the duo wrote several hit shows for both Broadway and London, including Dearest Enemy (1925), The Girl Friend (1926), Peggy-Ann (1926), A Connecticut Yankee (1927), and Present Arms (1928). Their 1920s shows produced standards such as "Here in My Arms", "Mountain Greenery", "Blue Room", "My Heart Stood Still" and "You Took Advantage of Me".

With the Depression in full swing during the first half of the 1930s, the team sought greener pastures in Hollywood. The hardworking Rodgers later regretted these relatively fallow years, but he and Hart did write some classic songs and film scores while out west, including Love Me Tonight (1932) (directed by Rouben Mamoulian, who would later direct Rodgers's Oklahoma! on Broadway), which introduced three standards: "Lover", "Mimi", and "Isn't It Romantic?". Rodgers also wrote a melody for which Hart wrote three consecutive lyrics which either were cut, not recorded or not a hit. The fourth lyric resulted in one of their most famous songs, "Blue Moon". Other film work includes the scores to The Phantom President (1932), starring George M. Cohan, Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933), starring Al Jolson, and, in a quick return after having left Hollywood, Mississippi (1935), starring Bing Crosby and W.C. Fields.

In 1935, they returned to Broadway and wrote an almost unbroken string of hit shows that ended only with Hart's death in 1943. Among the most notable are Jumbo (1935), On Your Toes (1936, which included the ballet "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue", choreographed by George Balanchine), Babes in Arms (1937), I Married an Angel (1938), The Boys from Syracuse (1938), Pal Joey (1940), and their last original work, By Jupiter (1942). Rodgers also contributed to the book on several of these shows.

Many of the songs from these shows are still sung and remembered, including "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", "My Romance", "Little Girl Blue", "I'll Tell the Man in the Street", "There's a Small Hotel", "Where or When", "My Funny Valentine", "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Falling in Love with Love", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", and "Wait till You See Her".

In 1939, he wrote the ballet Ghost Town for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, with choreography by Marc Platoff.[4]

Rodgers and Hammerstein

Main article: Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers (seated) with Hammerstein, 1945

His partnership with Hart began having problems because of the lyricist's unreliability and declining health, Rodgers began working with Oscar Hammerstein II, with whom he had previously written songs (before ever working with Lorenz Hart). Their first musical, the groundbreaking hit Oklahoma! (1943), marked the beginning of the most successful partnership in American musical theatre history. Their work revolutionized the form. What was once a collection of songs, dances and comic turns held together by a tenuous plot became an integrated masterpiece.

The team went on to create four more hits that are among the most popular of all musicals. Each was made into a successful film: Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), The King and I (1951), and The Sound of Music (1959). Other shows include the minor hit, Flower Drum Song (1958), as well as relative failures Allegro (1947), Me and Juliet (1953) and Pipe Dream (1955). They also wrote the score to the film State Fair (1945) (which was remade in 1962 with Pat Boone), and a special TV musical of Cinderella (1957).

Their collaboration produced many well-known songs, including "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'", "People Will Say We're in Love", "Oklahoma!" (which also became the state song of Oklahoma), "If I Loved You", "You'll Never Walk Alone", "It Might as Well Be Spring", "Some Enchanted Evening", "Getting to Know You", "My Favorite Things", "The Sound of Music", "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", "Do-Re-Mi", and "Edelweiss", Hammerstein's last song.

Rodgers was the subject of a two-part special on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town television show in 1952.

Much of Rodgers's work with both Hart and Hammerstein was orchestrated by Robert Russell Bennett. Rodgers composed twelve themes, which Bennett used in preparing the orchestra score for the 26-episode World War II television documentary Victory at Sea (1952–53). This NBC production pioneered the "compilation documentary"—programming based on pre-existing footage — and was eventually broadcast in dozens of countries. The melody of the popular song "No Other Love" was later taken from the Victory at Sea theme entitled "Beneath the Southern Cross". Rodgers won an Emmy for the music for the ABC documentary Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years, scored by Eddie Sauter, Hershy Kay, and Robert Emmett Dolan. Rodgers composed the theme music, "March of the Clowns", for the 1963–64 television series The Greatest Show on Earth, which ran for 30 episodes. He also contributed the main-title theme for the 1963–64 historical anthology television series The Great Adventure.

In 1950, Rodgers and Hammerstein received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." Rodgers, Hammerstein, and Joshua Logan won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for South Pacific.[5] Rodgers and Hammerstein had won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for Oklahoma!.[6]

In 1954, Rodgers conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in excerpts from Victory at Sea, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and the Carousel Waltz for a special LP released by Columbia Records.

Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals earned a total of 35 Tony Awards, 15 Academy Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes, two Grammy Awards, and two Emmy Awards.

After Hammerstein

After Hammerstein's death in 1960, Rodgers wrote both words and music for his first new Broadway project No Strings (1962, which earned two Tony Awards). The show was a minor hit and featured the song, "The Sweetest Sounds".

Rodgers also wrote both the words and music for two new songs used in the film version of The Sound of Music. (Other songs in that film were from Rodgers and Hammerstein.)

Rodgers went on to work with lyricists: Stephen Sondheim (Do I Hear a Waltz?) who was a protégé of Hammerstein, Martin Charnin (Two by Two, I Remember Mama) and Sheldon Harnick (Rex).

At its 1978 commencement ceremonies, Barnard College awarded Rodgers its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction.

Death and legacy

Rodgers died in 1979 at the age of 77, after surviving cancer of the jaw, a heart attack, and a laryngectomy. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.

In 1990, the 46th Street Theatre was renamed "The Richard Rodgers Theatre" in his memory. In 1999, Rodgers and Hart were each commemorated on United States postage stamps. In 2002, the centennial year of Rodgers's birth was celebrated worldwide with books, retrospectives, performances, new recordings of his music, and a Broadway revival of Oklahoma!. The BBC Proms that year devoted an entire evening to Rodgers's music, including a concert performance of Oklahoma!

Several American schools are named after Richard Rodgers.

Alec Wilder wrote the following about Rodgers:

"Of all the writers whose songs are considered and examined in this book, those of Rodgers show the highest degree of consistent excellence, inventiveness, and sophistication...[A]fter spending weeks playing his songs, I am more than impressed and respectful: I am astonished."[7]

Richard Rodgers is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.[8]

Along with the Academy of Arts and Letters, Rodgers also started and endowed an award for non-established musical theater composers to produce new productions either by way of full productions or staged readings. It is the only award for which the Academy of Arts and Letters accepts applications and is presented every year. Below are the previous winners of the award:[9]

Year Show Awardee
2018[10] Gun and Powder Ross Baum
Angelica Chéri
KPOP Jason Kim
Helen Park
Max Vernon
Woodshed Collective
2017 What I Learned from People Will Aronson
Hue Park
2016 Living in Cairo Patrick Lazour
Daniel Lazour
Costs of Living Timothy Huang
Hadestown Anaïs Mitchell
2015 String Adam Gwon
Sarah Hammond
2014 Witness Uganda Matthew Gould
Griffin Matthews
2013 Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 Dave Malloy
The Kid Who Would Be Pope Tom Megan
Jack Megan
2012 Witness Uganda Matthew Gould
Griffin Matthews
2011 Dogfight Peter Duchan
Benj Pasek
Justin Paul
Gloryana Andrew Gerle
2010 Buddy’s Tavern Raymond De Felitta
Alison Louise Hubbard
Kim Oler
Rocket Science Patricia Cotter
Jason Rhyne
Stephen Weiner
2009 Cheer Wars Karlan Judd
Gordon Leary
Rosa Parks Scott Ethier
Jeff Hughes
2008 Alive at Ten Kirsten A. Guenther
Ryan Scott Oliver
Kingdom Aaron Jafferis
Ian Williams
See Rock City and Other Destinations Brad Alexander
Adam Mathias
2007 Calvin Berger Barry Wyner
Main-Travelled Roads Dave Hudson
Paul Libman
2006 Grey Gardens Scott Frankel
Michael Korie
Doug Wright
True Fans Chris Miller
Bill Rosenfield
Nathan Tysen
Yellow Wood Michelle Elliott
Danny Larsen
2005 Broadcast Nathan Christensen
Scott Murphy
Dust & Dreams: Celebrating Sandburg David Hudson
Paul Libman
Red Brian Lowdermilk
Marcus Stevens
2004 To Paint the Earth Daniel Frederick Levin
Jonathan Portera
The Tutor Andrew Gerle
Maryrose Wood
Unlocked Sam Carner
Derek Gregor
2003 The Devil in the Flesh Jeffrey Lunden
Arthur Perlman
Once Upon a Time in New Jersey Susan DiLallo
Stephen A. Weiner
The Tutor Andrew Gerle
Maryrose Wood
2002 The Fabulist David Spencer
Stephen Witkin
The Tutor Andrew Gerle
Maryrose Wood
2001 Heading East Leon Ko
Robert Lee
The Spitfire Grill Fred Alley
James Valcq
2000 Bat Boy Kaythe Farley
Brian Flemming
Laurence O’Keefe
The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin Kirsten Childs
Suburb Robert S. Cohen
David Javerbaum
1999 Bat Boy Kaythe Farley
Brian Flemming
Laurence O’Keefe
Blood on the Dining Room Floor Jonathan Sheffer
The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin Kirsten Childs
Dream True: My Life with Vernon Dexter Ricky Ian Gordon
Tina Landau
The Singing Lenora Champagne
Daniel Levy
1998 Little Women Alison Hubbard
Allan Knee
Kim Oler
Summer Erik Haagensen
Paul Schwartz
1997 The Ballad of Little Jo Mike Reid
Sarah Schlesinger
Barrio Babies Fernand Rivas
Luis Santeiro
Violet Brian Crawley
Jeanine Tesori
1996 Bobos James McBride
Ed Shockley
The Hidden Sky Kate Chisholm
Peter Foley
The Princess & the Blac Andy Chuckerman
Karole Foreman
1995 Spendora Mark Campbell
Stephen Hoffman
Peter Webb
1994 Doll (not produced) Scott Frankel
Michael Korie
The Gig Douglas Cohen
Rent Jonathan Larson
The Sweet Revenge of… Mark Campbell
Burton Cohen
Stephen Hoffman
1993 Allos Makar Scott Frankel
Michael Korie
Valeria Vasilevsky
Avenue X John Jiler
Ray Leslee
Christina Alberta’s Polly Pen
They Shoot Horses… Nagle Jackson
Robert Sprayberry
1992 Avenue X John Jiler
Ray Leslee
The Molly Maquires Sid Cherry
William Strempek
1991 Opal Robert N. Lindsey
The Times Joe Keenan
Brad Ross
1990 Down the Stream Michael Goldenberg
Swamp Gas and Shallow Feelings Randy Buck
Shirlee Strother
Jack E. Williams
Whatnot Howard Crabtree
Dick Gallagher
Mark Waldrop
1989 Juan Darien Elliot Goldenthal
Julie Taymor
1988 Lucky Stiff Lynn Ahrens
Stephen Flaherty
Sheila Levine is Dead... Michael Devon
Todd Graff
Superbia Jonathan Larson
1987 Henry and Ellen Michael John LaChiusa
Lucky Stiff Lynn Ahrens
Stephen Flaherty
No Way to Treat A Lady Douglas J. Cohen
1986 Break/Agnes/Eulogy Michael John LaChiusa
Juba Wendy Lamb
Russell Walden
1984 Brownstone Andrew Cadiff
Peter Larson
Josh Rubens
Papushko Andrew Teirstein
1982 Portrait of Jennie Enid Futterman
Howard Marren
Dennis Rosa
1981 Child of the Sun Damien Leake
1980 Nine (not produced) Maro Fratti
Maury Yeston

Relationship with performers

Rodgers and Hammerstein and Berlin and Tamiris NYWTS

Rosemary Clooney recorded a version of "Falling in Love with Love" by Rodgers, using a swing style. After the recording session Richard Rodgers told her pointedly that it should be sung as a waltz.[11] The 1961 doo-wop arrangement of the Rodgers and Hart song "Blue Moon" by The Marcels so incensed Rodgers that he took out full page newspaper ads urging people not to buy it. His efforts were unsuccessful as it reached #1 on the charts.[12] After Doris Day recorded "I Have Dreamed" in 1961, he wrote to her and her arranger, James Harbert, that theirs was the most beautiful rendition of his song he had ever heard.

After Peggy Lee recorded her version of "Lover", a Rodgers song with a dramatically different arrangement from that originally conceived by him, Rodgers said, "I don't know why Peggy picked on me, she could have fucked up Silent Night".[13] Mary Martin said that Richard Rodgers composed songs for her for South Pacific, knowing she had a small vocal range, and the songs generally made her look her best. She also said that Rodgers and Hammerstein listened to all her suggestions and she worked extremely well with them.[14] Both Rodgers and Hammerstein wanted Doris Day for the lead in the film version of South Pacific and she reportedly wanted the part. They discussed it with her, but after her manager/husband Martin Melcher would not budge on his demand for a high salary for her, the role went to Mitzi Gaynor.

Personal life

In 1930, Rodgers married Dorothy Belle Feiner (1909–92).[15] Their daughter, Mary (1931–2014), was the composer of Once Upon a Mattress and an author of children's books.[16] The Rodgerses later lost a daughter at birth. Another daughter, Linda (1935–2015), also had a brief career as a songwriter. Mary's son and Richard Rodgers's grandson, Adam Guettel (b. 1964), also a musical theatre composer, won Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations for The Light in the Piazza in 2005. Peter Melnick (b. 1958), Linda Rodgers's son, is the composer of Adrift In Macao, which debuted at the Philadelphia Theatre Company in 2005 and was produced Off-Broadway in 2007.

Rodgers was an atheist.[17] He was prone to depression and alcohol abuse, and was at one time hospitalized. He was also well known as a serial womanizer.[18]

Shows with music by Rodgers

Lyrics by Lorenz Hart

Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Other lyricists and solo works

Wider influence

  • The Internet Movie Database lists 276 film and TV soundtracks using songs by Rodgers, as well as 46 films and TV events that credit him as the composer.
  • In 1960, the saxophonist John Coltrane recorded a jazz version of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music whose rich modal improvisations proved germane. The tune became a regular part of his repertoire.
  • The entry "You'll Never Walk Alone" (from Carousel) discusses in detail the many cover versions of this song, and its extraordinary popularity with professional soccer teams and their fans. It was the first song ever sung by soccer fans, first being adopted by the Liverpool fans in November 1963 and then widely copied by other fans since then as their anthem.
  • Jerry Lewis ended his Labor Day telethon by singing "You'll Never Walk Alone".
  • "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" from Oklahoma! is sometimes mistaken for a traditional folk song.
  • "Happy Talk" is covered by Daniel Johnston and Jad Fair. Captain Sensible did a jaunty rendition in the 1980s, complete with burlesque organ. The British rapper Dizzee Rascal uses the chorus of this song.
  • Several professional awards in musical theater are named for Rodgers.

References

  1. ^ Hyland, William G: Richard Rodgers. Chapter 1. Yale University Press, 1998
  2. ^ Richard Rodgers, Musical Stages: An Autobiography (2002 Reissue), pp. 12,20–21,44, DaCapo Press, ISBN 0-306-81134-0
  3. ^ Rodgers & Hammerstein as mystery guests on What's My Line?, Feb 19, 1956, video on YouTube
  4. ^ Anna Kisselgoff, "DANCE REVIEW; Rodgers As Ideal Dance Partner", The New York Times, October 23, 2002.
  5. ^ "Drama". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
  6. ^ "Special Awards and Citations". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
  7. ^ Wilder, Alec, 1973. American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900–1950, Oxford University Press: 163. ISBN 0-19-501445-6.
  8. ^ "Theater Hall of Fame members". Retrieved February 9, 2014. 
  9. ^ https://artsandletters.org/awards/#
  10. ^ Ashley Fedor, Two Musicals Win Richard Rodgers Awards, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2018.
  11. ^ Lehman, David (2009). A Fine Romance. New York: Random House. p. 140,249. ISBN 0-8052-4250-3. 
  12. ^ The Marcels By Marv Goldberg Marv Goldberg 2006. 2009.
  13. ^ Lehman, p. 140.
  14. ^ Lehman, p. 142–43.
  15. ^ "Dorothy Rodgers". Rodgers and Hammerstein. Retrieved 15 April 2017. 
  16. ^ "Mary Rodgers, Composer of Once Upon a Mattress and Daughter of Broadway Royalty, Dies at 83 Playbill". Playbill. Retrieved 2017-04-15. 
  17. ^ Rodgers' biographer William G Hyland states: "That Richard Rodgers would recall, at the very beginning of his memoirs, his great-grandmother's death and its religious significance for his family suggests his need to justify his own religious alienation. Richard became an atheist, and as a parent he resisted religious instruction for his children. According to his wife, Dorothy, he felt that religion was based on "fear" and contributed to "feelings of guilt." " Richard Rodgers, Yale University Press 1998, ISBN 0-300-07115-9. Chapter 1 at New York Times Books (accessed April 30, 2008).
  18. ^ New York Post, 17 August 2001, "Music Man's Demons". Retrieved 30 May 2016

Further reading

  • Secrest, Meryle (2001). Somewhere For Me. Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. ISBN 1-55783-581-0. 

External links

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