1940 - Music

Music

Hollywood musicals: Walt Disney's Pinocchio opens February 7 at New York with music by Leigh Harline, lyrics by Ned Washington, songs that include "When You Wish Upon a Star." (see Fantasia, 1941; Disneyland, 1955).

Stage musicals: Two for the Show 2/8 at New York's Booth Theater, with Eve Arden, Battle Creek, Mich.-born comedienne Betty Hutton (Betty Jane Thornburg), 18, Keenan Wynn, Alfred Drake, songs that include "How High the Moon" by Morgan Lewis, lyrics by Nancy Hamilton, 124 perfs.; Higher and Higher 4/4 at the Shubert Theater, with Jack Haley, Marta Eggert, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, songs that include "It Never Entered My Mind," 84 perfs.; Swinging the Gate (revue) 5/22 at London's Ambassadors Theatre, with Madge Elliott, Hermione Gingold, Peter Ustinov, music and lyrics by various people, 449 perfs. (German bombing raids force an early closing); Louisiana Purchase 5/28 at New York's Imperial Theater, with William Gaxton, Victor Moore, Vera Zorina, Irene Bordoni, music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, songs that include "It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow," 444 perfs.; Cabin in the Sky 10/25 at the Martin Beck Theater, with Ethel Waters, Todd Duncan, Dooley Wilson, Rex Ingram, J. Rosamond Johnson, music by Vernon Duke, book and lyrics by John Latouche and Ted Felter, songs that include "Taking a Chance on Love," 256 perfs.; Panama Hattie 10/30 at the 46th Street Theater, with Ethel Merman, Arthur Treacher, Betty Hutton, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, songs that include "Let's Be Buddies," 501 perfs.; Pal Joey 12/25 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, with Gene Kelly, Vivienne Segal, Canadian-born actress June Havoc (June Hovick), 30, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, book based on the new collection of stories by John O'Hara, songs that include "Bewitched," "I Could Write a Book," "Zip," 344 perfs.

First performances: Les Illuminations song cycle by Benjamin Britten 1/30 at London, based on the 1886 poems by Arthur Rimbaud; Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Paul Hindemith early in the year at Amsterdam (Hindemith moves to the United States); Concerto in D minor for Violin and Orchestra by Britten 3/30 at New York's Carnegie Hall; Divertimento for String Orchestra by Béla Bartók 6/11 at Basel; Fantasia de Movementos Mixtos for Violin and Orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos 11/1 at the Colon Theater, Buenos Aires; Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Arnold Schoenberg 12/6 at Philadelphia; Kammersimphonie No. 2 by Schoenberg 12/15 at New York.

Opera: Licia Albanese makes her Metropolitan Opera debut 2/9 in the title role of the 1904 Puccini opera Madama Butterfly (now 26, she will have her greatest triumph in 1942 as Violetta in La Traviata and will continue at Met until early 1966); Izaht 4/16 at Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Theater with music by Heitor Villa-Lobos; Wheeling, W. Va.-born soprano Eleanor Steber, 24, makes her Metropolitan Opera debut 12/7 singing the role of Sophie in the 1911 Strauss opera Der Rosenkavalier (she will continue with the Met until 1963).

Coloratura soprano Luisa Tetrazzini dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at Milan April 28 at age 68; impresario Giulio Gatti-Casazza at Udine, Italy, September 2 at age 71.

Eileen Farrell Presents debuts on CBS Radio with Willimantic, Conn.-born soprano Farrell, 20, in a weekly program of operatic arias, light classical works, Irish ballads, and Broadway standards that will continue for 7 years and make Farrell's voice familiar to millions of Americans.

The Metropolitan Opera of the Air begins Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts December 7 with Ezio Pinza, Licia Albanese, and others singing Mozart's Nozze di Figaro (see 1931). The program is sponsored by the Texas Company (later Texaco Inc.), which has saved the broadcasts from being canceled after a succession of other sponsors have given up supporting them.

Popular songs: "You Are My Sunshine" by Louisiana singer James Houston "Jimmie" Davis, 40, and Charles Mitchell. Davis records the song February 4 and will use it to win the Louisiana governorship in 1944 and 1960; "The Last Time I Saw Paris" by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; "Bless 'em All" by English songwriters Jimmie Hughes and Frank Lake; "Strange Fruit" by U.S. songwriter Lewis Allan (the subject is lynching); "Tuxedo Junction" by Birmingham, Ala.-born trumpet player and bandleader Erskine Hawkins, 26, William Johnson, and Julian Dash, lyrics by Buddy Feyne; "Do I Worry?" by Stanley Cowan and Bobby North (for the film Pardon My Sarong); "Frenesi" by Albert Dominguez, English lyrics by Ray Charles and S. K. Russell; "Imagination" by Jimmy Van Heusen, lyrics by Johnny Burke; "You're the One (For Me)," by Jimmy McHugh, lyrics by Johnny Mercer; "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano" by Leon René; "Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar" by Don Raye, Hughie Prince, and Eleanore Sheehy; "How Did He (She) Look" by Tin Pan Alley composer Abner Silver, 22, lyrics by Gladys Shelley, 29; "I Hear a Rhapsody" by George Frogos and Jack Baker; "Blueberry Hill" by Al Leurs, Larry Stock, and Vincent Rose; "San Antonio Rose" by Bob Wills; "Back in the Saddle Again" by Ray Whitley and cowboy singer Gene Autry; Billie Holiday records "Loveless Love;" the Andrews Sisters record the 1920 Albert von Tilzer-Neville Fleeson song "I'll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time"; Galveston-born Little Esther (Esther Phillips [originally Esther Mae Jones]), 14, records "Double Crossing Blues" with the Johnny Otis band.

Country singer Minnie Pearl (Sarah Ophelia Colley), 28, joins the cast of Grand Ole Opry at Nashville, Tenn., where she will be a fixture for decades.

Muzak Corp. is acquired by former New York advertising man William Benton, who pays $135,000 to take over a small company that pipes "background music" into restaurants and bars on leased telephone wires under a system originated in 1922 by Brig. Gen. George O. Squier, U.S. Army (ret.) and put into operation in 1925 by a public utility holding company. Squier started at 151 West 46th Street, changed the name of his company from Wired Radio to Muzak (music plus Kodak) shortly before his death in 1934. Now 40, Benton will expand by piping music into factories, retail stores, offices, waiting rooms, hotel lobbies, even elevators, and will sell the company at a $4.2 million profit (it will stop its elevator music in about 1980, leave New York in 1986, relocate to Fort Mill, S.C., and concentrate on individually programmed music for more than 350,000 clients).

Terre Haute, Ind.-born arranger and pianist Claude Thornhill, 31, forms his own dance band, having worked with big bands such as Hal Kemp, Benny Goodman, Ray Noble, Artie Shaw, and Freddie Martin.

Russian-born musician Charlie Spivak, 36, forms his own dance orchestra, having been lead trumpeter with the Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey bands, the Ray Noble U.S. Band, and other Big Band groups.

Bandleader Hal Kemp dies at Madera, Calif., December 21 at age 35 of injuries suffered 2 days earlier when his car was struck head-on by another car in a heavy fog while he was en route to play a gig at San Francisco's Mark Hopkins Hotel.