George Kleinsinger was born in San Bernardino, California, on February
13, 1914, and came to New York City in his sixth year. He was trained
for dentistry, and only after he had left dental school did he
concentrate on music. His first intensive period of music study took
place with Philip James and Marion Bauer at New York University where he
wrote an excellent cantata, _I Hear America Singing_, performed publicly
and on records by John Charles Thomas. Kleinsinger then attended the
Juilliard Graduate School on a composition fellowship. In 1946 he scored
a major success with _Tubby the Tuba_. He later wrote several other
works with humorous or satiric content, often filled with unusual
instrumental effects. Among these are his _Brooklyn Baseball Cantata_; a
concerto for harmonica and orchestra; and the musical, _Archy and
Mehitabel_ (_Shinbone Alley_), which was produced for records, on
Broadway and over television. In a more serious vein are a symphony and
several concertos.
_Tubby the Tuba_, for narrator and orchestra (1942) belongs in the class
of Prokofiev’s _Peter and the Wolf_. It serves to familiarize children
with the instruments of the orchestra, but because of its wit and simple
melodies it also makes for wonderful entertainment. It tells the story
of a frustrated tuba who complains that he must always play
uninteresting “oompahs oompahs” while the violins are always assigned
the most beautiful tunes. In the end Tubby happily gets a wonderful
melody of his own to enjoy and play. All the characters in this tale are
instruments of the orchestra. In 1946 a recording of _Tubby the Tuba_
sold over a quarter of a million albums. Paramount made a movie of it,
and major orchestras throughout the country presented it both at
children’s concerts and in its regularly symphonic repertory.