Names Behind the Song: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Some music lovers may or may not be familiar with songs such as Stormy Weather, I’ve Got the World on a String, April in Paris or a musical called Finian’s Rainbow. But these titles are like unknowns compared to the most famous work to come from the collaboration of Harold Arlen and lyricist E. Y. “Yip” Harburg: Somewhere Over the Rainbow. The correct title is actually Over the Rainbow.

The duo had already individually achieved success in popular music, Broadway and Hollywood when they signed a contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer to score The Wizard of Oz. Although the film, starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, was released in 1939 (75 years ago in 2014), it remains an ongoing family favorite.

It’s hard to believe that there was a fight to keep the song in the picture. In fact, while the original novel from 1899 is in public domain, Warner Brothers currently owns the rights to the film and battles over copyright infringement still happen in court today.

Arlen Wanted to Be a Singer

A surviving brother of twins born in Buffalo in 1905, Chaim Arlook chose Harold Arlen as his showbiz name when he worked as a piano player in Vaudeville. He performed as a vocalist as well as keyboard player with various bands in the 1920s to the mid 1930. His first popular song, Get Happy, led to a 1929 contract for Arlen and his then partner Ted Koehler. From there, the two began an association with the Cotton Club. They wrote Stormy Weather in 1933, the year that brought an end to prohibition and the same year that Arlen moved on to the movies, writing Let’s Fall in Love with Yip Harburg. It’s interesting that his friend and former roommate was Ray Bolger who played Scarecrow in the Oz film.

In the 1950s, Arlen teamed with Ira Gershwin to write music for A Star is Born and the song The Man That Got Away for Judy Garland. He continued to work in Hollywood and New York until his wife died in 1970. After that event, he apparently withdrew from social contact until he died of cancer in 1986 at the age of 81. A member of the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, his catalog is listed on seven pages.

Harburg Was Among the Blacklisted

Yip Harburg, born in 1896 to a poor Jewish family on the lower east side of Manhattan, was a writer of lyrics, poems and books. As a champion of “democratic socialism,” his work often centered on related themes. Yip was a nickname, a shortened version of Yipsel, the Yiddish word for squirrel.

After college, Harburg worked briefly as a journalist and then ran an electrical appliance company until the stock market crash of 1929. That year, his long time friend from student days, Ira Gershwin, introduced him to his first collaborator, Jay Gorney. They wrote for Broadway and Hollywood, penning one of the Depression’s big songs, Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? The partnership ended when Gorney became involved with and eventually married Harburg’s wife.

 In 1932, Harburg cowrote April in Paris with composer Vernon Duke. In 1933, he and Arlen teamed up for their first hit song: It’s Only A Paper Moon. Although Arlen became a major music partner, Harburg also collaborated with other composers including Burton Lane (Old Devil Moon and Finian’s Rainbow). As for the Oz film, his contribution extended beyond lyrics to all the songs; as script editor, he also worked on some dialogue.

In 1951 came McCarthyism. The Un-American Activities Committee blacklisted Harburg for his political views. He even lost his passport. Unable to work in Hollywood, he focused on Broadway stage productions and worked with a variety of composers before the blacklisting ended and he was able to return to the film industry.

Along with Arlen, he is also a member of the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame and his list of songs takes up six pages. Yip died in 1981 of a heart attack at the wheel of his car, in Los Angeles, a month short of his 85th birthday.

Composer Richard Strauss: The Last of the Romantics

A black and white photograph of Richard Strauss in 1918 shows a somewhat handsome man with a direct gaze and an authoritative air in his expression. A band of white hair frames the back of his head, a thick mustache sits above his lip, and a bowtie puts a neat finish on the white collared shirt and vested suit. He would have been 54 that year, his life spanning both the 19th and 20th centuries from 1864 to 1949, the year of his 85th birthday.  He must have had a sense of humor for he is quoted as a conductor saying, "Never look at the trombones. You'll only encourage them." His father Franz was a French horn player in his birth city of Munich.

Strauss’ career took him from the heights of fame and fortune to bankruptcy at the end of the Second World War. Known for his tone poems and operas, Richard Georg Strauss is referred to as the last of the great Romantics in German music. He wrote his first work at age six and had his Symphony in D Minor performed in 1880, the year he turned 16. His tone poem “Don Juan” first brought him into the spotlight in 1889. He would have been 23. It’s reported that the audience both cheered and booed at the premiere when they first heard the dramatic work. The melodic motif played by soaring violins can still make you catch your breath today. The work happened to coincide with his courtship of a soprano, Pauline Maria de Ahna, who would become his wife.

Symphonic tone poems, first created by Franz Liszt, are defined as “an orchestral composition based on literature or folk tales” and often programmatic, that is, instruments imitating the sound of something real. You may not even realize you know Strauss’ music because the opening of his tone poem “Also Sprach Zarathustra” became familiar as the theme from the Stanley Kubrick film, “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

After a succession of tone poems including “Death and Transfiguration,” “Till Eulensiegel’s Merry Pranks” and “Don Quixote,”Strauss moved on to opera. His “Salome” shocked Dresden audiences of 1905. Because the soprano at the premiere found the work “distasteful and obscene,” a ballerina performed the first “Dance of the Seven Veils.” The opera required a huge orchestra and presented a major challenge to the leading role that Strauss envisioned for “a 16-year-old princess with the voice of an Isolde.” The public outcry when “Salome” opened at the Metropolitan Opera in New York led to a close after only one performance. Other operas followed including “Elektra” and “Der Rosenkavalier.” He next took over the conductor’s role with the Berlin Philharmonic, remaining in that post for twelve years.

It’s reported that his wife ruled Strauss’ household and allotted him only an allowance from his considerable income. But there was some controversy in his personal life because he worked in Germany under the Nazis. His daughter-in-law and grandchildren (he had one son in Franz born in 1897) were Jewish and he used his influence to protect them. But, when he wrote the opera “The Silent Woman” with Jewish librettist Stefan Zweig, the Reich removed him from conducting, although he did remain in Germany to the end of the war. You can read details on his personal life at the Richard Strauss website.

References: 

http://www.classicalcdreview.com/salome.html

http://people.famouswhy.com/richard_strauss/

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Richard_Strauss