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Zusatztext [Sears] collects an abundance of documentary evidence ... articles, anecdotes, analyses and reminiscences that build a compelling, if necessarily imcomplete, portrait of Berlin. Informationen zum Autor Benjamin Sears is a singer who, along with pianist Bradford Conner, specializes in the Great American Songbook and the songs of Irving Berlin in particular. With Conner he has recorded four CDs of Berlin's music, featuring over fifty first-time recordings, with two more in process. Together they reconstructed Berlin's first two shows, the classic Dietz & Schwartz revue "The Band Wagon", and created a database of the complete lyrics of Yip Harburg. Sears has written on Berlin, Ann Ronell, the partnership of Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, and has contributed pieces on women songwriters to The American National Biography and the upcoming second edition of The Grove Dictionary of American Music. Sears & Conner lecture regularly on American songwriters and the great performers of their music. Klappentext The Irving Berlin Reader offers fascinating glimpses the life and work of this most famous of American songwriters. Berlin is presented here in full through writings from his earliest years to the present, including Berlin's own thoughts on songwriting. Many of the articles are otherwise difficult or impossible to find, and all are expertly contextualized by Ben Sears's introductions. Zusammenfassung The Irving Berlin Reader offers fascinating glimpses the life and work of this most famous of American songwriters. Berlin is presented here in full through writings from his earliest years to the present, including Berlin's own thoughts on songwriting. Many of the articles are otherwise difficult or impossible to find, and all are expertly contextualized by Ben Sears's introductions. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgements Introduction Part One: Musical Demon - Early Years 1.1 A Trip to Chinatown with Irving Berlin, Ward Morehouse 1.2 "Alexander" and Irving, Edward Jablonski 1.3 Excerpt from Alexander and His Band, Charles Hamm 1.4 The Boy Who Revived Ragtime, Rennard Wolf 1.5 Review of Watch Your Step by "Madam Critic" 1.6 Excerpt from First Nights and First Editions, Harry B. Smith 1.7 "Watch Your Step": Irving Berlin's 1914 Musical, Margaret Knapp 1.8 Ghost of Verdi Interviewed: Tells How He Suffers Nightly 1.9 Fond Memory: Those Old Music Box Revues, Robert Baral 1.10 Letter about The Music Box, Robert Benchley 1.11 "Yes, We Have No Bananas" in Grand Opera Setting, S.I. deKrafft Part Two: Blue Skies - Middle Years 2.1 Memoir, George S. Kaufman 2.2 Letter from Jerome Kern to Alexander Woollcott from The Story of Irving Berlin 2.3 Excerpt from Musical Stages, Richard Rodgers 2.4 Excerpt from chapter The March of Time in A Song in the Dark, Richard Barrios 2.5 Unity in Word and Tone in Two Ballads by Irving Berlin, Howard Pollack 2.6 The Origins of Easter Parade, Benjamin Sears 2.7 "Gawd Bless A-M-E-R-I-K-A", Cleve Sallendar 2.8 "No Right to a Personal Interest in 'God Bless America'," Berlin is Told, Variety 2.9 Excerpt from Stokowski, Here for Concert Tonight, Praises Martial, Folk Songs; Likes to Play for Soldiers, Nashville Tennessean 2.10 Irving Berlin Orders Song Word Change, Richmond Afro American 2.11 Excerpt from Musical Stages: An Autobiography, Richard Rodgers 2.12 Excerpt from Who Could Ask for Anything More, Ethel Merman, as told to Pete Martin 2.13 Annie Get Your Gun, Brooks Atkinson 2.14 Verse to Halloween, Harold Arlen and Ralph Blane 2.15 Excerpt from The Hollywood Musical, John Russell Taylor and Arthur Jackson 2.16 Excerpt from Steps in Time, Fred Astaire Part Three: The Melody Lingers On - Later Years 3.1 A Ninetieth-birthday Salute to the Master of American Song, Joshua Logan 3.2 First Encounters: Irving Berlin and George Gershwin,...
