1945 - Music

Music

Hollywood musicals: Walter Lang's State Fair with Barstow, Calif.-born actress Jeanne Crain, 19, Dana Andrews, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, songs that include "It Might as Well Be Spring," "It's a Grand Night for Singing."

Stage musicals: Up in Central Park 1/27 at New York's Century Theater, with music by Sigmund Romberg, book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert, lyrics by Dorothy, choreography by New York-born dancer Helen Tamiris (née Becker), 39, 504 perfs.; Carousel 4/19 at New York's Majestic Theater, with John Raitt as Billy Bigelow (Liliom), Jan Clayton as Julie Jordan, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book based on the 1909 Ferenc Molnár play Liliom, songs that include "If I Loved You," "June Is Bustin' Out All Over," "Soliloquy," "You'll Never Walk Alone," 890 perfs.; Perchance to Dream 4/21 at the London Hippodrome, with Ivor Novello, Muriel Barron, Margaret Rutherford, book, music, and lyrics by Novello, 1,022 perfs.; Sigh No More (revue) 8/22 at London's Piccadilly Theatre, with Joyce Grenfell, Madge Elliott, Cyril Ritchard, music and lyrics by Noël Coward, 213 perfs.; Under the Counter 11/22 at London's Phoenix Theatre, with Cicely Courtneidge, songs by Manning Sherwin and Harold Purcell; Billion Dollar Baby 12/21 at New York's Alvin Theater, with Joan McCracken, Mitzi Green, Bill Tabbert, music by Morton Gould, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, 219 perfs.

Opera: Brooklyn-born tenor Richard Tucker (originally Reuben Ticker), 31, makes his Metropolitan Opera debut 1/25 as Enzo in the 1876 Ponchielli opera La Giocanda (he is a brother-in-law of Jan Peerce); Peter Grimes 6/7 at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, with English tenor Peter (Neville Luard) Pears, 34, singing the title role, Joan Cross, now 44, as Ellen Orford, Edith Coates as Auntie, music by Benjamin Britten, libretto from the 1810 poem "The Borough" by George Crabbe; New York-born soprano Maria Callas (originally Cecilia Sophia Anna Maria Kalogeropoulos), 21, makes her debut at the Athens Royal Opera singing the role of Martha in the 1903 d'Albert opera Tiefland; Montclair, N.J.-born soprano Dorothy Kirsten, 28, makes her Metropolitan Opera debut singing the role of Mimi in the 1896 Puccini opera La Bohème; Brooklyn, N.Y.-born baritone Robert Merrill, 28, makes his Metropolitan Opera debut 12/15 singing the role of Germont in the 1853 Verdi opera La Traviata.

Composer Pietro Mascagni dies at Rome August 2 at age 81.

Ballet: Undertow 4/10 at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, with Hugh Laing, Cuban ballerina Alicia Alonso (Alicia Ernestina de la Caridad del Cobre Martinez Hoya), 23, music by New York-born composer William Schuman, 34, choreography by Antony Tudor.

First performances: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major by Sergei Prokofiev 1/13 at Moscow while an artillery salute outside the concert hall celebrates news of a great Soviet victory on the Vistula; Symphony No. 9 by Dmitri Shostakovich 11/3 at Leningrad; Prelude for Orchestra and Mixed Choir by Arnold Schoenberg 11/18 at Los Angeles; String Quartet No. 2 in C by Benjamin Britten 11/21 at London.

The Philharmonia Orchestra of London founded by EMI executive Walter Legge, 39, makes recordings for the company. An autodidact in music, Legge joined the staff of the Gramophone Co. (His Master's Voice) in 1927, 4 years later founded a subscription society, and has been music director of the Entertainments National Service Association.

Composer Anton von Webern dies at Mittersill, near Salzburg, September 15 at age 61 after being shot by a trigger-happy U.S. military policeman outside his son-in-law's villa; Béla Bartók dies at New York September 26 at age 64.

Popular songs: "La Mer" by singer-songwriter Charles Trenet, now 32, who wrote the song with Leo Chauliac in 20 minutes 3 years ago while on a train from Narbonne to Carcassonne in occupied France (Jack Lawrence translates the lyrics and the song becomes a hit as "Beyond the Sea"); "It's Been a Long, Long Time" by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn; "Till the End of Time" by Buddy Kay and Ted Mossman, who have adapted Chopin's Polonaise in A flat; "For Sentimental Reasons" by William Best, lyrics by Deke Watson; "I'm Beginning to See the Light" by Don George, Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington, and Harry James; "Laura" by David Raksin, lyrics by Johnny Mercer (title song for last year's film); "Dream (When You're Feeling Blue") by Johnny Mercer (for the film Her Highness and the Bellboy); Louisville-born jazz and blues singer Helen Humes, 32, records "Be-Ba-Ba-Le-Ba;" "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" by Allan Roberts and Doris Fisher; "Les Trois Cloches" ("While the Angelus Was Ringing") by French songwriter Jean Villard; "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn.

New Orleans-born gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, 31, records "Move on Up a Little Higher" and scores a huge success. Seven other hymns recorded by Jackson will have sales of more than a million copies each, including "I Believe," "I Can Put My Trust in Jesus," and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."

North Carolina-born five-string banjo player Earl Scruggs, 21, joins Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys and makes his debut on Grand Ole Opry. Using a banjo made by the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Co., he has developed a three-finger form of string picking that older players will soon adopt in place of claw-hammer playing.

Steel bands playing calypso songs spring up on Trinidad and spread to other Caribbean islands. Colonial authorities have banned African drums for nearly half a century because their strong rhythms often led to riots. Steel-band performers use acoustical drums (called "pans") fashioned from 55-gallon oil drums abandoned by the thousands on beaches by naval vessels. The first pans are percussive instruments, but they will be refined to have as many as 32 melodic notes and used not just for calypso but also for everything from pop and classical to jazz and reggae.

Songwriter Al Dubin dies of a drug overdose at New York February 11 at age 54; tenor John McCormack of bronchial pneumonia at Glena, Booterstown, Ireland, September 16 at age 61; songwriter Gus Edwards of a heart attack after 8 years' illness at Los Angeles November 7 at age 64; Jerome Kern of a cerebral hemorrhage at New York November 11 at age 60.