Leroy Anderson is one of America’s most successful and best known
composers of light orchestral classics. He was born in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, on June 29, 1908. His early musical training took place
at the New England Conservatory, after which he studied the bass and
organ with private teachers. In 1929 he was graduated from Harvard
_magna cum laude_, and one year after that he received there his
Master’s degree in music on a Naumberg Fellowship. For the next few
years he served as organist and choirmaster in Milton, Massachusetts; as
a member of the music faculty at Radcliffe College; and as director of
the Harvard University Band. In 1935 he became a free-lance conductor,
composer and arranger in Boston and New York. As orchestrator for the
Boston Pops Orchestra, for which he made many orchestral arrangements
over a period of several years, Anderson completed his first original
semi-classical composition, _Jazz Pizzicato_, successfully introduced by
the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1939. Since then the Boston Pops Orchestra
has introduced most of Anderson’s compositions, many of which proved
exceptionally popular in concerts throughout the country and on records.
Anderson has also appeared frequently as guest conductor of important
American symphony orchestras and has conducted his own compositions with
his orchestra for records. In 1958, his first musical comedy,
_Goldilocks_, was produced on Broadway.
Beyond possessing a most ingratiating lyric invention and a consummate
command of orchestration, Anderson boasts an irresistible sense of humor
and a fine flair for burlesque. He is probably at his best in
programmatic pieces in which extra-musical sounds are neatly adapted to
and often serve as a background for his sprightly tunes—ranging from the
clicking of a typewriter to the meowing of a cat.
_Blue Tango_ is the first strictly instrumental composition ever to
achieve first place on the Hit Parade. For almost a year it was the
leading favorite on juke boxes, and its sale of over two million records
represents Anderson’s healthiest commercial success. Scored for violins,
this music neatly combines an insistent tango rhythm with a sensual
melody in a purple mood. _Bugler’s Holiday_ is a musical frolic for
three trumpets. _A Christmas Festival_ provides a colorful orchestral
setting to some of the best loved Christmas hymns, including “Joy to the
World,” “Deck the Halls,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Silent Night,”
“Jingle Bells,” and “Come All Ye Faithful.”
_Fiddle-Faddle_ is a merry burlesque-escapade for the violins, inspired
from a hearing of Paganini’s _Perpetual Motion_; this, then, is a modern
style “Perpetual Motion.” In _Horse and Buggy_, the music nostalgically
evokes a bygone day with a sprightly, wholesome tune presented against
the rhythms of a jogging horse. The _Irish Suite_ was commissioned by
the Eire Society of Boston, and is a six-movement adaptation of six of
Thomas Moore’s _Irish Melodies_. They are: “The Irish Washerwoman,” “The
Minstrel Boy,” “The Rakes of Mallow,” “The Wearing of the Green,” “The
Last Rose of Summer,” and “The Girl I Left Behind Me.” _Jazz Legato_ and
_Jazz Pizzicato_ are studies in contrasting moods and dynamics. The
_Jazz Pizzicato_ consists of a jazz melody presented entirely by plucked
strings; its companion piece is a broader jazz melody for bowed strings.
_Plink, Plank, Plunk_ also makes effective use of pizzicato strings,
this time attempting to simulate the sounds suggested by the descriptive
title. _Saraband_ brings about the marriage between the very old and
very new in musical styles. The old classical dance in slow triple time
and accented second beat is exploited with a quickening of tempo and
with modern rhythmic and melodic embellishments.
In _Sleigh Bells_, jangling sleighbells and the sound of a cracking
whip, provide a delightful background to a jaunty tune that has the bite
and sting of outdoor winterland. This piece has become something of a
perennial favorite of the Christmas season. In _The Syncopated Clock_,
the rhythm of a clicking grandfather’s clock, presented by percussion
instruments in a modern rhythm, is placed against a bouncy, syncopated
melody. This number has become popular as theme music for the CBS-TV
“Early Show.” _The Trumpeter’s Lullaby_ is a sensitive melody with the
soothing accompaniment of a lullaby.
_The Typewriter_ permits members of the percussion section to imitate
the incisive, rigid rhythm of a functioning typewriter, punctuated by
the regular tinkle of the bell to provide the warning signal that the
carriage has come to the end of a line. Against this rhythm moves a
vivacious message in strings. _The Typewriter_ was played in the motion
picture _But Not for Me_, starring Clark Gable, released in 1959. In
_The Waltzing Cat_, an imaginary cat dances gracefully to a waltz melody
made up mainly of meows.