1944 - Music

Music

Hollywood musicals: Vincente Minnelli's Meet Me in St. Louis with Judy Garland, songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane that include "The Trolley Song," "The Boy Next Door," the title song, and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"; Leo McCarey's Going My Way with Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, songs that include "Would You Like to Swing on a Star?" and "Too-ra-Loo-ra-Loo-ra"; Mark Sandrich's Here Come the Waves with Bing Crosby, music and lyrics by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, songs that include "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive"; Charles Vidor's Cover Girl with Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, songs that include "Long Ago (and Far Away)"; Robert Siodmak's Christmas Holiday with Gene Kelly, Deanna Durbin, songs by Frank Loesser that include "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year." Also: Delmer Daves's Hollywood Canteen with Bette Davis, John Garfield, Cincinnati-born singing cowboy Roy Rogers (originally Leonard Franklin Slye), 32, singing "Don't Fence Me In" by Cole Porter. Texas-born Dale Evans (originally Frances Octavia Smith), 32, teams up with Roy Rogers in the film The Cowboy and the Senorita. She will marry him in 1948 and become known as the queen of the westerns.

Stage musicals: Mexican Hayride 1/28 at New York's Winter Garden Theater, with Bobby Clark, June Havoc, book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, songs that include "Count Your Blessings," 481 perfs.; Sweeter and Lower (revue) 2/17 at London's Ambassador's Theatre, with Hermione Gingold, Henry Kendall, 870 perfs.; Follow the Girls 4/8 at New York's New Century Theatre (to the 44th Street Theater 6/14, to the Broadhurst 6/5/1945), with comedian Jackie Gleason, Gertrude Niesen, Chicago-born baritone Bill Tabbert, 22, music and lyrics by Dan Shapiro, Milton Pascal, and Phil Chang, book by Guy Bolton, Eddie Davis, and Fred Thompson, 882 perfs.; Hats Off to Ice 6/22 at the Center Theater, with ice skaters performing to music and lyrics by John Fortis and James Littlefield, 889 perfs.; The Song of Norway 8/21 at the Imperial Theater, with music based on works by Edvard Grieg, book and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, songs that include "Strange Music," 860 perfs.; Bloomer Girl 10/5 at the Shubert Theater, with Celeste Holm as Evalina, Mabel Taliaferro, now 57, music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E. Y. Harburg, songs that include "Evalina," "It Was Good Enough for Grandma," 653 perfs.; On the Town 12/28 at New York's Adelphi Theater, with Sono Osato, Betty Comden, 25, Adolph Green, Nancy Walker, music by Lawrence, Mass.-born New York Philharmonic assistant conductor Leonard Bernstein, 25, arrangements by his Curtis Institute of Music classmate Hershy Kay, also 25, dances derived from the ballet Fancy Free, 563 perfs.

London musical composer Harold Fraser-Simson has an accident on the circular stone staircase at Dalcross Castle and dies at an Inverness nursing home January 19 at age 71; composer-performer Will Cook dies at New York July 19 at age 75.

Opera: Swedish soprano (Märta) Birgit Nilsson (Svensson), 26, makes her debut at Stockholm's Royal Opera, singing the role of Agathe in the 1821 von Weber opera Der Freischutz as did Jenny Lind in 1838; Pennsylvania-born mezzo-soprano Blanche Thebom, 26, makes her Metropolitan Opera debut 12/14 as Wotan's wife, Fricka, in the 1870 Wagner opera Die Walküre.

Soprano Lina Cavalieri dies during an air raid at Florence February 8 at age 69; composer Dame Ethel Smyth at Woking, England, May 8 at age 86, having written six operas.

Ballet: Fancy Free 4/18 at New York's Metropolitan Opera House with Jerome Robbins, John Kriza, and Hugh Laing as the Three Sailors, music by Leonard Bernstein, choreography by Robbins; Appalachian Spring 10/30 at the Library of Congress in Washington, with Martha Graham, music by Aaron Copland, who has received a $500 commission from Graham to write the work that he has scored for a 12-member orchestra, incorporating the folk song "It's a Gift to Be Simple"; Herodiade 10/30 at the Library of Congress, with Graham, music by Paul Hindemith, text from a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé.

First performances: Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber by Paul Hindemith 1/20 at New York's Carnegie Hall; Ode to Napoleon by Arnold Schoenberg 1/23 at Carnegie Hall (the ode is based on a poem by Lord Byron); Jeremiah by New York Philharmonic assistant conductor Leonard Bernstein 1/28 in a concert by the new Pittsburgh Symphony; Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Schoenberg 2/6 in an NBC Symphony radio concert from New York; Symphony No. 2 (dedicated to the Army Air Forces) by Cpl. Samuel Barber 3/3 at Boston's Symphony Hall; Symphony No. 2 by Walter Piston 3/5 at Washington, D.C.; Theme with Variations According to the Four Temperaments by Hindemith 9/3 at Boston's New England Mutual Hall; Capricorn Concerto by Barber 10/8 at New York's Town Hall; Theme and Variations in G minor for Orchestra by Schoenberg 10/20 at Boston's Symphony Hall; Fugue for a Victory Tune by Piston 10/21 at New York's Carnegie Hall; Concerto for Orchestra by Béla Bartók 12/1 at Boston's Symphony Hall.

Indian singer Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi, 27, gains international fame with her appearance at the All-India Music and Dance Conference at Bombay (Mumbai).

Popular songs: "Sentimental Journey" by Ben Homer and bandleader Les Brown, now 33, lyrics by Bud Green (Brown persuades Doris Day to record the vocal and makes it the theme song for his "Band of Renown"); "I'll Walk Alone" by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn (for the film Three Cheers for the Boys); "I'm Making Believe" by James V. Monaco, lyrics by Mack Gordon (for the film Sweet and Low Down); "Jealous Heart" by Decatur, Ill.-born Nashville country music singer-songwriter Jenny Lou Carson (originally Virginia Lucille Overstock), 29; "That's What I Like about the South" by Andy Razaf; "Moonlight in Vermont" by Karl Senssdorf, lyrics by John Blackburn (Detroit-born vocalist Margaret Whiting, 20, records the song; her late father was songwriter Richard Whiting, and when he died in February 1938 his last regular collaborator Johnny Mercer encouraged her to pursue her singing career); "Straighten Up and Fly Right" by Irving Mills, lyrics by Montgomery, Ala.-born singer Nat "King" Cole (originally Nathaniel Adams Coles), 25; "Linda" by Ann Ronell; "Candy" by Mack Davis, Joan Whitney, and Alex Kramer; "Twilight Time" by Buck Ram, Morty Nevins, and Artie Dunn; "It Could Happen to You" by James Van Heusen, lyrics by Johnny Mercer (for the film And the Angels Sing); "Holiday for Strings" by London-born Hollywood composer David Rose, 34, lyrics by Sammy Gallop; "Nancy (with the Laughing Face)" by James Van Heusen and comedian Phil Silvers; "Rum and Coca-Cola" by Jeri Sullivan and Paul Baron, who have adapted a 1906 Trinidadian calypso melody, lyrics by Chicago-born comedian Morey Amsterdam, 35 (the Andrews Sisters record the number); "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" by Russ Morgan, Larry Stock, and James Cavanaugh; "You Always Hurt the One You Love" by Allan Roberts and New York-born songwriter Doris Fisher, 29, a daughter of songwriter Fred Fisher; "I Should Care" by Springfield, Mass.-born songwriter Paul Weston (originally Wetstein), 37, Sammy Cahn, and Alex Stordahl (for the film Thrill of a Romance); "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts" by English songwriter Fred Heatherton; "Green Fig" by calypso king Aldwyn Roberts, now 20, who is renamed Lord Kitchener by the older calypsomanian known as Growling Tiger; "Put Your Dreams Away for Another Day" by Stephen Weiss and Paul Mann, lyrics by Ruth Lowe (Frank Sinatra records it and will use it as his closing theme).

Pittsburgh-born jazz singer William Clarence "Billy" Eckstine, 30, forms his own band and will soon be proselytizing the new, progressive "bebop" jazz pioneered by instrumentalist Benny Carter, now 36 (who excels on alto sax, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, and piano), North Carolina-born tenor saxophonist John (William) Coltrane, 18, Alton, Ill.-born trumpeter Miles (Dewey) Davis (III), 18, South Carolina-born trumpeter John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, 26, St. Joseph, Mo.-born tenor saxophonist Coleman (Randolph) Hawkins, 39, and alto saxophonist Charles Christopher "Charlie" Parker (Jr)., 24, who moved to Harlem from his native Kansas City in 1939 and has become known as "Yardbird" or simply "Bird" (see Birdland, 1950).

Horace Heidt's pianist Frankie Carle quits with Heidt's blessing to form his own band. Heidt made him a partner last year when Carle rejected a chance to take over Eddie Duchin's orchestra, Duchin having joined the army and wired Carle an offer to fill in during his absence for 25 percent of the gross.

A new 30 percent federal excise tax on nightclubs that feature dancing puts a crimp on attendance at such places, whose patrons find the new "bebop" jazz almost impossible to dance to. Performers are happy to do without the dancers, and nightclub owners are quick to ban dancing in order to avoid the new tax.

Billie Holiday records "Lover Man"; Anita O'Day records "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine" with the Stan Kenton band, has an immediate hit, briefly rejoins the Gene Krupa band, and then goes on her own; former Newark Baptist Church choir singer Sarah (Lois) Vaughan, 20, who won an amateur contest at Harlem's Apollo Theater 2 years ago, records "I'll Wait and Pray" 12/31 with Billy Eckstine's big band to begin a notable career.

A plane carrying bandleader-trombonist Glenn Miller disappears December 16 on a flight from England to Paris, where his orchestra has been scheduled to play a USO engagement. Dead at age 40, Miller broke up his band 2 years ago to join the military, his widow will ask his Fort Worth-born singer and saxophone player Gordon "Tex" Beneke, now 30, to take the Glenn Miller orchestra back on the road in 1946, it will flourish under Beneke's direction, but Beneke will break with the Miller estate in 1947 and perform under the name Tex Beneke and His Orchestra: Playing the Music Made Famous by Glenn Miller.