Oley Speaks was born in Canal Winchester, Ohio, on June 28, 1874. He
received his musical training, principally in voice, from various
teachers including Armour Galloway and Emma Thursby. He then filled the
post of baritone soloist at churches in Cleveland, Ohio, and New York
City, including the St. Thomas Church in New York from 1901 to 1906. He
also filled numerous engagements in song recitals and performances of
oratorios. He died in New York City on August 27, 1948.
Speaks was the composer of more than 250 published art songs which have
placed him in a front rank among American song composers. Three have
become outstandingly popular; there is hardly a male singer anywhere who
has not sung such all-time favorites as “Morning,” “On the Road to
Mandalay” and “Sylvia,” each of which is among the most widely
circulated and most frequently heard art songs by an American.
“Morning,” words by Frank L. Stanton, was published in 1910. Where
“Morning” is lyrical, “On the Road to Mandalay” (published in 1907) is
dramatic, a setting of the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling. The
persistent rhythmic background suggesting drum beats, and the effective
key change from verse to chorus, have an inescapable effect on
listeners. “Sylvia,” poem by Clinton Scollard, published in 1914, is in
a sentimental mood, and like “Morning” reveals the composer’s marked
gift for sensitive lyricism.