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Vernon Duke
Vernon Duke ( 16 January 1969) was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter who also wrote under his birth name, Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for " Taking a Chance on Love," with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche (1940), "I Can't Get Started," with lyrics by Ira Gershwin (1936), " April in Paris," with lyrics by E. Y. ("Yip") Harburg (1932), and "What Is There To Say," for the '' Ziegfeld Follies'' of 1934, also with Harburg. He wrote the words and music for " Autumn in New York" (1934) for the revue '' Thumbs Up!'' In his book, ''American Popular Song, The Great Innovators 1900-1950'', composer Alec Wilder praises this song, writing, “The verse may be the most ambitious I’ve ever seen." Duke also collaborated with lyricists Johnny Mercer, Ogden Nash, and Sammy Cahn. Early life Vladimir Aleksandrovich Dukelsky ( Russian: Владимир Александрович Дукельский) was born in 1903 into a Belarusian noble family in the village ...
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Pskov Governorate
Pskov Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR, which existed in 1772–1777 and 1796–1927. Its seat was located in Opochka between 1772 and 1776, and in Pskov after 1776. The governorate was located in the west of the Russian Empire and bordered (after 1796) Saint Petersburg Governorate in the north, Novgorod Governorate in the northeast, Tver Governorate in the east, Smolensk Governorate in the southeast, Belarusian Governorate (since 1802, Vitebsk Governorate) in the south, and Governorate of Livonia in the west. In terms of modern administrative division of Russia, the area of the governorate is currently split between the Pskov Oblast, Pskov, Tver Oblast, Tver, and Novgorod Oblast, Novgorod oblasts. The former border between Pskov Governorate and Governorate of Livonia still largely corresponds to the state border between Russia in the east and Estonia and ...
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April In Paris (song)
"April in Paris" is a popular song composed by Vernon Duke with lyrics by Yip Harburg in 1932 for the Broadway musical '' Walk a Little Faster''. The original 1933 hit was performed by Freddy Martin, and the 1952 remake (inspired by the movie of the same name) was by the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, whose version made the Cashbox Top 50. Composer Alec Wilder writes: "There are no two ways about it: this is a perfect theater song. If that sounds too reverent, then I'll reduce the praise to 'perfectly wonderful', or else say that if it's not perfect, show me why it isn't." Recordings Count Basie version Count Basie's 1955 recording on the album of the same name is the most famous, and that particular performance was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The arrangement was by Wild Bill Davis. On this recording, trumpeter Thad Jones played his famous " Pop Goes the Weasel" solo, trombonist Benny Powell performed his much noted bridge, and Basie directs the band to p ...
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Minsk Governorate
Minsk Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Minsk. It was created from the land acquired in the partitions of Poland and existed from 1793 until 1921. Its territory covered the majority of modern-day Belarus. Administrative divisions *Bobruysky Uyezd *Borisovsky Uyezd *Igumensky Uyezd *Minsky Uyezd *Mozyrsky Uyezd *Novogrudsky Uyezd (part of Grodno Governorate before 1843) *Pinsky Uyezd *Rechitsky Uyezd *Slutsky Uyezd Vileysky and Disnensky Uyezds passed to the Vilna Governorate in 1843. In 1919, Baranovichsky Uyezd was created from Novogorodoksky Uyezd and Nesvizhsky Uyezd was created from Slutsky Uyezd. In 1920, Novogrudoksky, Pinsky, Baranovichsky, and Nesvizhsky Uyezds were controlled by Poland. Demographics According to the 1897 imperial census, Minsk Governorate had a population of 2,147,621. The ethnic makeup (based on native language) was as follows: Industry Minsk province has mostly swampy terra ...
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Mikhail Gasparov
Mikhail Leonovich Gasparov (, April 13, 1935 in Moscow – November 7, 2005 in Moscow) was a Russian philologist and translator, renowned for his studies in classical philology and the history of versification, and a member of the informal Tartu-Moscow Semiotic School. He graduated from Moscow State University in 1957 and worked at the Gorky Institute of World Literature, the Russian State University for the Humanities, and the Russian Language Institute in Moscow. In 1992 Gasparov was elected a full member of the Russian Academy of Science. In 1995, Mikhail Gasparov was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation. In 1997, he shared the Little Booker Prize with Aleksandr Goldstein for their publications analysing Russian literature from a historical-philosophical point of view. In 1999, Gasparov was awarded the Andrei Bely Prize for his essay collection ''Notes and excerpts'' (). Gasparov was also a poet. He published translations of classical and modern Europe ...
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Vyacheslav Ivanov (philologist)
Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov ( ; 21 August 1929 – 7 October 2017) was a prominent Soviet and Russian philologist, semiotician and Indo-Europeanist probably best known for his glottalic theory of Indo-European consonantism and for placing the Indo-European urheimat in the area of the Armenian Highlands and Lake Urmia. Early life Vyacheslav Ivanov's father was Vsevolod Ivanov, one of the most prominent Soviet writers. His mother was an actress who worked in the theatre of Vsevolod Meyerhold. His childhood was clouded by disease and war, especially in Tashkent. Ivanov was educated at Moscow University and worked there until 1958, when he was fired on account of his sympathy with Boris Pasternak and Roman Jakobson. By that time, he had made some important contributions to Indo-European studies and became one of the leading authorities on the Hittite language. Career * 1959–1961 — head of the Research Group for Machine Translation at the Institute of Computer Technol ...
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Belarusians
Belarusians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Belarus. They natively speak Belarusian language, Belarusian, an East Slavic language. More than 9 million people proclaim Belarusian ethnicity worldwide. Nearly 7.99 million Belarusians reside in Belarus, with the United States and Russia being home to more than 500,000 Belarusians each. The majority of Belarusians adhere to Eastern Orthodoxy. Name During the Soviet era, Belarusians were referred to as ''Byelorussians'' or ''Belorussians'' (from Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Byelorussia, derived from Russian "Белоруссия"). Before, they were typically known as ''White Russians'' or ''White Ruthenians'' (from White Russia or White Ruthenia, based on "Белая Русь"). Upon Belarusian independence in 1991, they became known as ''Belarusians'' (from Belarus, derived from "Беларусь"), sometimes spelled as ''Belarusans'', ''Belarussians'' or ''Belorusians''. The term ''W ...
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Russian Language
Russian is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is the native language of the Russians. It was the ''de facto'' and ''de jure'' De facto#National languages, official language of the former Soviet Union.1977 Soviet Constitution, Constitution and Fundamental Law of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1977: Section II, Chapter 6, Article 36 Russian has remained an official language of the Russia, Russian Federation, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine, Moldova, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Russian language in Israel, Israel. Russian has over 253 million total speakers worldwide. It is the List of languages by number of speakers in Europe, most spoken native language in Eur ...
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Sammy Cahn
Samuel Cohen (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993), known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area. He and his collaborators had a series of hit recordings with Frank Sinatra during the singer's tenure at Capitol Records, but also enjoyed hits with Dean Martin, Doris Day and many others. He played the piano and violin, and won an Oscar four times for his songs, including the popular hit " Three Coins in the Fountain". Among his most enduring songs is " Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", cowritten with Jule Styne in 1945. Life and career Cahn was born Samuel Cohen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, the only son (he had four sisters) of Abraham and Elka Reiss Cohen, who were Jewish immigrants from Galicia, then ruled by Austria-Hungary. His sisters, Sady ...
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Ogden Nash
Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his Light poetry, light verse, of which he wrote more than 500 pieces. With his unconventional rhyme, rhyming schemes, he was declared by ''The New York Times'' to be the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry. Early life Nash was born on August 19, 1902, in Rye, New York, Rye, New York (state), New York, on Milton Point, the son of Mattie (Chenault) and Edmund Strudwick Nash. Nash was baptized at Christ's Church. At two years old, his family had a house called "Ramaqua", on 50 acres near Port Chester. His father owned and operated a turpentine company. Because of business obligations, the family often relocated. Nash was descended from Abner Nash, an early governor of North Carolina. The city of Nashville, Tennessee, was named after Abner's brother, Francis Nash, Francis, a Revolutionary War general. Throughout his life, Nash loved to rhyme. "I think in terms of rhyme, and ha ...
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Johnny Mercer
John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Wallichs Music City, Glenn E. Wallichs. He is best known as a Tin Pan Alley lyricist, but he also composed music and was a popular singer who recorded his own as well as others' songs from the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s. Mercer's songs were among the most successful hits of the time, including "Moon River", "Days of Wine and Roses (song), Days of Wine and Roses", "Autumn Leaves (1945 song), Autumn Leaves", and "Hooray for Hollywood". He wrote the lyrics to more than 1,500 songs, including compositions for movies and Broadway theatre, Broadway shows. He received nineteen Academy Awards, Oscar nominations, and won four Academy Award for Best Original Song, Best Original Song Oscars. Early life Mercer was born in 1909, in Savannah, Georgia, where one o ...
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Alec Wilder
Alexander Lafayette Chew Wilder (February 16, 1907 – December 24, 1980) was an American composer and author. Biography Wilder was born in Rochester, New York, United States, to a prominent family; the Wilder Building downtown (at the "Four Corners") bears the family's name and his maternal grandfather, and namesake, was prominent banker Alexander Lafayette Chew. As a young boy, he traveled to New York City with his mother and stayed at the Algonquin Hotel. It would later be his home for the last 40 or so years of his life. He attended several prep schools, unhappily, as a teenager. Around this time, he hired a lawyer and essentially "divorced" himself from his family, gaining for himself some portion of the family fortune. He was largely self-taught as a composer; he studied privately with the composers Herman Inch and Edward Royce, who taught at the Eastman School of Music in the 1920s, but never registered for classes and never received his degree. While there, he edite ...
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Thumbs Up! (musical)
'' Thumbs Up! '' is a musical revue in two acts, with book by H. I. Phillips, Harold Atteridge, and Alan Baxter. The show had songs with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald and Earle Crooker and music by James F. Hanley and Henry Sullivan. Additional lyrics by Karl Stark, Ira Gershwin, John Murray Anderson, Irving Caesar, Jean Herbert, and Vernon Duke and additional music by Vernon Duke Vernon Duke ( 16 January 1969) was a Russian-born American composer and songwriter who also wrote under his birth name, Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for " Taking a Chance on Love," with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche (1940), "I ..., Gerald Marks, and Steve Child. The show was produced by Eddie Dowling at the St. James Theatre. The revue opened on December 27, 1934.Mantle, Burns, Editor, "The Best Plays of 1934–1935", Dodd, Mead & Company, p. 432. The production was staged by John Murray Anderson and directed by Edward Clarke Lilley. It was choreographed by Robert Alton, sc ...
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