Jerome David Kern was born in New York City on January 27, 1885. He
first studied the piano with his mother. After being graduated from
Barringer High School in Newark, New Jersey, he attended the New York
College of Music where he was a pupil of Alexander Lambert, Albert von
Doenhoff, Paolo Gallico and Austen Pearce. He received his
apprenticeship as composer for the popular theater in 1903 in London,
where with P. G. Wodehouse as his lyricist he wrote a topical song, “Mr.
Chamberlain” that became a hit. After returning to the United States he
worked in Tin Pan Alley and immediately became a prolific contributor of
songs to the musical stage. In 1905 his song “How’d You Like to Spoon
With Me?” was interpolated into _The Earl and the Girl_ and became an
outstanding success. From that time on, and up to the end of his life,
he wrote over a thousand songs for more than a hundred stage and screen
productions, thereby occupying an imperial position among American
popular composers of his generation. His most famous Broadway musicals
were: _The Girl from Utah_ (1914), _Very Good, Eddie_ (1915), _Oh, Boy!_
(1917), _Leave it to Jane_ (1917), _Sally_ (1920), _Sunny_ (1925), _Show
Boat_ (1927), _The Cat and the Fiddle_ (1931), _Music in the Air_
(1932), and _Roberta_ (1933). His most significant motion pictures were
_Swingtime_ with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, _You Were Never
Lovelier_ and _Cover Girl_ both with Rita Hayworth, and _Centennial
Summer_. Over a dozen of his songs sold more than two million copies of
sheet music including “All the Things You Are,” “They Didn’t Believe
Me,” “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” and “Look for the Silver Lining.” Two of
his songs received the Academy Award: “The Way You Look Tonight” from
_Swingtime_ and “The Last Time I Saw Paris” interpolated into _Lady Be
Good_. Kern died in New York City on November 11, 1945.
Kern wrote two compositions for symphony orchestra which have entered
the semi-classical repertory even though they are also performed by
major symphony orchestras. These were his only ventures into the world
of music outside the popular theater. One was _Mark Twain: A_ _Portrait
for Orchestra_ which he wrote on a commission from André Kostelanetz,
who introduced it with the Cincinnati Symphony in 1942. This is a four
movement suite inspired by the personality and life of Kern’s favorite
author, Mark Twain. The first movement, “Hannibal Days,” describes a
sleepy small town on a summer morning a century ago. The cry “Steamboat
comin’!” pierces the silence. The town suddenly awakens. In the second
movement, “Gorgeous Pilot House” Mark Twain leaves home to become a
pilot’s assistant on the Mississippi steamboat; this period in Mark
Twain’s life, which spans about nine years, ends with the outbreak of
the Civil War. In “Wandering Westward,” Twain meets failure as a Nevada
prospector, after which he finally turns to journalism. The suite ends
with “Mark in Eruption,” tracing Twain’s triumphant career as a writer.
Kern’s second and only other symphonic work is _Scenario_ in which he
drew his basic melodic materials from his greatest and best loved
musical production, _Show Boat_. Kern prepared _Scenario_ at the behest
of Artur Rodzinski, conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, who felt that
the music of _Show Boat_ had sufficient artistic validity to justify its
use in a major symphonic work. Rodzinski introduced _Scenario_ in
Cleveland with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1941, and since that time it
has been performed by most of the major American orchestras.
A discussion of _Show Boat_ is essential before _Scenario_ can be
commented upon. The libretto and lyrics are by Oscar Hammerstein II,
based on the famous novel by Edna Ferber. _Show Boat_, in a lavish
Florenz Ziegfeld production, was introduced in New York in 1927 and was
an instantaneous box-office and artistic triumph. It has, to be sure,
become a classic of the American stage, continually revived in all parts
of the country, three times adapted for motion pictures, and has been
given by an American opera company in its regular repertory. It proved a
revolution in the American musical theater by avoiding the usual stilted
routines and patterns of musical comedy—chorus girls, production
numbers, synthetic humor, set dances and so forth—and arriving at an
integrated musical play filled with authentic characterizations,
backgrounds, atmosphere and dramatic truth. The story opens and closes
on _Cotton Blossom_, a show boat traveling along the Mississippi to give
performances at stops along the river. The principal love action
involves Magnolia, daughter of Cap’n Andy (owner of the boat) and the
gambler, Gaylord Ravenal. They run off and get married, but their
happiness is short-lived. Magnolia, though pregnant, leaves her
irresponsible husband. After the birth of Magnolia’s daughter, Kim, the
mother earns her living singing show boat songs in Chicago where she is
found by her father and brought back to _Cotton Blossom_. Eventually,
Magnolia and Ravenal are reconciled, and their daughter Kim becomes the
new star of the show boat.
The most famous songs from this incomparable Kern score are: “Only Make
Believe” and “Why Do I Love You?”, both of them love duets of Magnolia
and Ravenal; two poignant laments sung by the half-caste Julie, a role
in which Helen Morgan first attained stardom as a torch-song performer,
“Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” and “Bill” (the latter with lyrics by P. G.
Wodehouse); and a hymn to the Mississippi which has acquired virtually
the status of an American folk song, “Ol’ Man River.”
_Scenario_ makes extended use of these songs in an integrated piece of
music. It opens with a sensitive passage for muted strings and continues
with a theme for horn; both subjects are intended to portray the
Mississippi River and are the motto subjects of the entire work. The
main melody of this tone poem is “Ol’ Man River,” first given softly by
violas and bass clarinet. Other major songs of the musical play follow,
among them being “Only Make Believe” and “Why Do I Love You?”, after
which “Ol’ Man River” is heard for the last time.
Many of Kern’s more than a thousand popular songs are now classics in
the popular repertory. They are so fresh and spontaneous in their
lyricism, so inventive in the harmonic background, so filled with charm
and grace that their survival seems assured. Two symphonic compositions
by Robert Russell Bennett are constructed from one or more of Kern’s
best known songs. One is _Symphonic Study_, a tone poem introduced in
1946 by the NBC Symphony under Frank Black. This work presents several
Kern songs in correct chronological sequence beginning with “They Didn’t
Believe Me.” After that come “Babes in the Wood,” “The Siren’s Song,”
“Left All Alone Again Blues,” “Who?”, “Ol’ Man River,” “Smoke Gets In
Your Eyes,” and “All the Things You Are.” The second of Bennett’s
symphonic compositions is the _Variations on a Theme by Jerome Kern_,
written in 1934 and soon after that introduced in New York by a chamber
orchestra conducted by Bernard Herrmann. The theme here used for an
effective series of variations is “Once in a Blue Moon” from the
Broadway musical _Stepping Stones_.