Everything about Richard Rodgers totally explained
Richard Charles Rodgers (
June 28,
1902,
Arverne, Queens,
New York City –
December 30,
1979,
New York City) was an
American composer of the music for more than 900 songs and 40
Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the
lyricists
Lorenz Hart and
Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on
popular music down to the present day, and have an enduring broad appeal.
Rodgers and
Marvin Hamlisch are the only persons to have won an
Oscar,
Grammy,
Emmy,
Tony Award, and
Pulitzer Prize.
Life and career
Born into a prosperous Jewish family, Richard Rodgers was the son of Will Rodgers, a prominent physician who had changed the family name from Rojazinsky, and Mamie Levy. Richard began playing the piano at age six. He attended P.S. 10, Townsend Harris Hall and
DeWitt Clinton High School. Rodgers,
Lorenz Hart, and Rodgers's later collaborator
Oscar Hammerstein II all attended
Columbia University. In 1921, Rodgers shifted his studies to the Institute of Musical Art (now
Juilliard). Rodgers was influenced by composers like
Victor Herbert and
Jerome Kern, as well as by the
operettas his parents took him to see on
Broadway when he was a child.
Work with Hart
In 1919, Richard met
Lorenz Hart, thanks to Phillip Leavitt, a friend of Richard's older brother.
Rodgers and Hart struggled for years in the field of musical comedy, writing a number of amateur shows. They made their professional debut with the song "Any Old Place With You", featured in the 1919 Broadway musical comedy
A Lonely Romeo. Their first professional production was the 1920
Poor Little Ritz Girl. Their next professional show,
The Melody Man, didn't premier until 1924.
Rodgers was considering quitting show business altogether to sell children's underwear, when he and Hart finally broke through in 1925. They wrote the songs for a benefit show presented by the prestigious
Theatre Guild, called
The Garrick Gaieties, and the critics found the show fresh and delightful. Only meant to run one day, the Guild knew they'd a success and allowed it to re-open later. The show's biggest hit, the song that Rodgers believed "made" Rodgers and Hart, was "
Manhattan." The two were now a Broadway songwriting force.
Throughout the rest of the decade, the duo wrote several hit shows for both Broadway and London, including
Dearest Enemy (1925),
The Girl Friend (1926),
Peggy-Ann (1926),
A Connecticut Yankee (1927), and
Present Arms (1928). Their 1920s shows produced standards such as "
Here In My Arms", "
Mountain Greenery", "
Blue Room", "
My Heart Stood Still" and "
You Took Advantage of Me."
With the
Depression in full swing during the first half of the 1930s, the team sought greener pastures in Hollywood. The hardworking Rodgers later regretted these relatively fallow years, but he and Hart did write a number of classic songs and film scores while out west, including
Love Me Tonight (1932) (directed by
Rouben Mamoulian, who would later direct Rodgers'
Oklahoma! on Broadway) which introduced three standards: "
Lover", "
Mimi", and "
Isn't It Romantic?." Rodgers also wrote a melody for which Hart wrote three consecutive lyrics that didn't fly. The fourth lyric resulted in one of their most famous songs, "
Blue Moon." Other film work includes the scores to
The Phantom President (1932), starring
George M. Cohan,
Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933), starring
Al Jolson, and, in a quick return after having left Hollywood,
Mississippi (1935), starring
Bing Crosby and
W.C. Fields.
In 1935, they returned to Broadway and began writing with a vengeance, resulting in an almost unbroken string of hit shows that ended only with Hart's death in 1943. Among the most notable are
Jumbo (1935),
On Your Toes (1936, which included the ballet "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue", choreographed by George Balanchine),
Babes In Arms (1937),
I Married an Angel (1938),
The Boys From Syracuse (1938),
Pal Joey (1940), and their last original work,
By Jupiter (1942). Rodgers also contributed to the book on several of these shows.
Many of the songs from these shows are still sung and remembered, including "
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", "
My Romance", "
Little Girl Blue", "
There's a Small Hotel", "
Where or When", "
My Funny Valentine", "
The Lady Is a Tramp", "
Falling In Love With Love", "
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", and "
Wait Till You See Her."
Work with Hammerstein
His partnership with Hart coming to an end because of the latter's declining health, Rodgers began working with
Oscar Hammerstein II, with whom he'd previously written a number of songs (before ever working with Lorenz Hart). Their first musical, the groundbreaking hit,
Oklahoma! (1943), marked the beginning of the most successful partnership in musical theatre history. Their work revolutionized the form. What was once a collection of songs, dances and comic turns held together by a tenuous plot became an integrated work of art.
The team went on to create four more hits that are among the most popular of all musicals and were each made into successful films,
Carousel (1945),
South Pacific (1949, a Pulitzer Prize winner),
The King And I (1951), and
The Sound Of Music (1959). Other shows include the minor hit,
Flower Drum Song (1958), as well as relative failures
Allegro (1947),
Me And Juliet (1953) and
Pipe Dream (1955). They also wrote the score to the movie
State Fair (1945) and a special TV production of
Cinderella (1957).
Their collaboration produced many well-known songs, including "
Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'", "
People Will Say We're In Love", "
If I Loved You", "
You'll Never Walk Alone", "
It Might As Well Be Spring", "
Some Enchanted Evening", "
Getting To Know You", "
My Favorite Things", "
The Sound of Music", "
Sixteen Going on Seventeen", "
Climb Ev'ry Mountain", "
Do-Re-Mi", and "
Edelweiss", Hammerstein's last song.
Much of Rodgers's work with both Hart and Hammerstein was orchestrated by
Robert Russell Bennett.
Rodgers composed twelve themes which Bennett scored for the 26-episode
World War II television documentary "
Victory at Sea" (1952-53). This NBC production pioneered the "compilation documentary"--programming based on pre-existing footage--and was eventually broadcast in dozens of countries. Rodgers won an
Emmy for the theme music for the ABC documentary
Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years, scored by Eddie Sauter and Robert Emmett Dolan.
In 1950,
Rodgers and Hammerstein received
The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York."
In 1954, Rodgers conducted the
New York Philharmonic Orchestra in excerpts from
Victory at Sea,
Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and the
Carousel Waltz for a special LP released by
Columbia Records.
Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals earned a total of 35
Tony Awards, 15
Academy Awards, two
Pulitzer Prizes, two
Grammy Awards, and two
Emmy Awards.
After Hammerstein
After Hammerstein's death in 1960, Rodgers wrote both words and music for his first new Broadway project
No Strings (1962, which earned two Tony Awards). The show was a minor hit and featured perhaps his last great song, "
The Sweetest Sounds." He went on to work with lyricists
Stephen Sondheim (protege of Hammerstein),
Sheldon Harnick, and
Martin Charnin, with uneven results.
At its 1978 commencement ceremonies,
Barnard College awarded Rodgers its highest honor, the
Barnard Medal of Distinction.
Richard Rodgers died in 1979 at age 77 after surviving cancer of the jaw, a heart attack, and a laryngectomy. In 1990, the 46th Street Theatre was renamed "The Richard Rodgers Theatre" in his memory. In 1999, Rodgers and Hart were each commemorated on United States postage stamps. 2002 was the centennial year of Rodgers's birth, celebrated worldwide with books, retrospectives, performances, new recordings of his music, and a Broadway revival of
Oklahoma!.
Several American schools are
named after Richard Rodgers.
Critical reputation
Alec Wilder wrote the following about Rodgers:
Of all the writers whose songs are considered and examined in this book, those of Rodgers show the highest degree of consistent excellence, inventiveness, and sophistication...[A]fter spending weeks playing his songs, I'm more than impressed and respectful: I'm astonished. |
Family
In 1930, Rodgers married Dorothy Belle Feiner. Their daughter,
Mary, is the composer of
Once Upon a Mattress and an author of children's books.
Rodgers' grandson,
Adam Guettel, also a musical theatre composer, won Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations for
The Light in the Piazza in 2005.
Peter Melnick, another grandson, is the composer of
Adrift In Macao, which debuted at the Philadelphia Theatre Company in 2005 and was produced
Off Broadway in 2007.
Shows with music by Rodgers
Hart as lyricist
Hammerstein as lyricist
Oklahoma! (1943)
Carousel (1945)
State Fair (1945) (film)
Allegro (1947)
South Pacific (1949)
The King and I (1951)
Me and Juliet (1953)
Pipe Dream (1955)
Cinderella (1957)
Flower Drum Song (1958)
The Sound of Music (1959)
A Grand Night for Singing (1993), Rodgers and Hammerstein revue musical
State Fair (1996) (musical)
Other lyricists and solo works
No Strings (1962) (lyrics by Rodgers)
Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965) (Stephen Sondheim)
Two by Two (1970) (Martin Charnin)
Rex (1976) (Sheldon Harnick)
I Remember Mama (1979) (Martin Charnin/Raymond Jessel)
Wider influence
The Internet Movie Database lists 276 film and TV soundtracks using songs by Rodgers, as well as 46 films and TV events that credit him as the composer.
In 1960, the saxophonist John Coltrane recorded a jazz version of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music whose rich modal improvisations proved seminal. The tune became a regular part of his repertoire.
The entry "Blue Moon" discusses in detail the extraordinary origins, subsequent history, and enduring popularity of the song. It is the only hit song by Rodgers not taken from a show or movie. The 1961 doo-wop arrangement by The Marcels so incensed Rodgers that he wanted to litigate. Hammerstein talked him out of it, arguing that the recording would ultimately increase royalties, which turned out to be the case.
The entry "You'll Never Walk Alone" (from Carousel) discusses in detail the many cover versions of this song, and its extraordinary popularity with professional soccer teams and their fans.
Jerry Lewis ends his Labor Day telethon by singing "You'll Never Walk Alone."
"Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'" from Oklahoma! is sometimes mistaken for a traditional folk song.
"Edelweiss", "Ländler" (Rodgers' s adaption of a traditional Austrian folk dance tune), and "Do-Re-Mi", all from The Sound of Music, frequently go unrecognized as Rodgers tunes.
"Happy Talk" is covered by Daniel Johnston and Jad Fair. Captain Sensible did a jaunty rendition in the 1980s, complete with burlesque organ. The British rapper Dizzee Rascal uses the chorus of this song.
Footnotes
Further Information
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