Friday, December 3, 2010
The chicken or the egg...or the lyricist or composer !!!!!
It's always bothered me about music. I love to hear songs sung...with poetic lyrics. Now country music tells a complete story in so much detail that I don't enjoy listening.
But...let's take "Over the Rainbow"...the lyrics we all know were written by Yip Harburg. His name will not go down in musical history...but the melody and words certainly will.....and the music of course was composed by Harold Arlen, a familiar name for many compositions.
When Jeff was in third grade, he was in a piano musical recital...and that was his song. Of course, his father and I thought he was sensational.
It all started a year before. We had placed an ad in our local Valley Daily News in the classifieds...wanted cheap piano for beginner.
Somebody 3 streets away read our need because she phoned within an hour after the paper was delivered.
She had in her basement an old upright player piano with bench..asking price $10.00. How fantastic for us. We hired a mover and he had a problem getting this through our front door.
The guy said to us...how about us sliding it into your garage, then into your basement.
No way was our son going to practice in a cold damp cellar. So our front doorway was goughed getting it in.
Allen painted it the same color as our living room...and padded the bench with foam rubber so that little Jeff's tush would be comfortable.
Then we hired a blind piano tuner and he removed the player guts which were all rotted...another $25.00.
The piano teacher came to the house weekly to give Jeff , Schaum lessons....simplified but to this mother's ears sounded like Carnegie Music Hall. I even took the phone off the hook so that he wouldn't be interrupted.
But back to lyricists Tim Rile wrote the words for Evita. We all know about Andrew Lloyd Webber....but not a thing about Tim.
Charles Hart wrote the lyrics for Phantom of the Opera.....another unknown .
So....I'm trying to figure out if the lyrics are as important as the music.!!!!!!!!! I kinda believe that the words are more important.
But anyway...Jeff's recital was a complete success...his family made up the audience!
But...let's take "Over the Rainbow"...the lyrics we all know were written by Yip Harburg. His name will not go down in musical history...but the melody and words certainly will.....and the music of course was composed by Harold Arlen, a familiar name for many compositions.
When Jeff was in third grade, he was in a piano musical recital...and that was his song. Of course, his father and I thought he was sensational.
It all started a year before. We had placed an ad in our local Valley Daily News in the classifieds...wanted cheap piano for beginner.
Somebody 3 streets away read our need because she phoned within an hour after the paper was delivered.
She had in her basement an old upright player piano with bench..asking price $10.00. How fantastic for us. We hired a mover and he had a problem getting this through our front door.
The guy said to us...how about us sliding it into your garage, then into your basement.
No way was our son going to practice in a cold damp cellar. So our front doorway was goughed getting it in.
Allen painted it the same color as our living room...and padded the bench with foam rubber so that little Jeff's tush would be comfortable.
Then we hired a blind piano tuner and he removed the player guts which were all rotted...another $25.00.
The piano teacher came to the house weekly to give Jeff , Schaum lessons....simplified but to this mother's ears sounded like Carnegie Music Hall. I even took the phone off the hook so that he wouldn't be interrupted.
But back to lyricists Tim Rile wrote the words for Evita. We all know about Andrew Lloyd Webber....but not a thing about Tim.
Charles Hart wrote the lyrics for Phantom of the Opera.....another unknown .
So....I'm trying to figure out if the lyrics are as important as the music.!!!!!!!!! I kinda believe that the words are more important.
But anyway...Jeff's recital was a complete success...his family made up the audience!
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